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Helmet crusader turns eye to snowboard bindings

Company calls stuck ratchets a nuisance, not a safety risk For more than a year North Vancouver’s Richard Kinar has been leading the charge to create a national standard for ski and snowboard helmets.

Company calls stuck ratchets a nuisance, not a safety risk

For more than a year North Vancouver’s Richard Kinar has been leading the charge to create a national standard for ski and snowboard helmets. He has made huge strides, enlisting the support of municipal and provincial governments while raising public awareness of the issue through the media.

In response, the Canadian Standards Association is currently looking into creating a helmet standard that would apply the same as standards for bike helmets that have been in place for 20 years.

Kinar stumbled on the helmet issue by pure chance – he witnessed a collision while working speed control at Cypress Bowl where one of the children involved was knocked unconscious while wearing a helmet.

Now chance has led Kinar to investigate what he sees as another safety issue – a set of snowboard bindings that would not open. Kinar’s son was taking a snowboard lesson at Cypress Bowl when the ratchet wouldn’t release the strap. According to Kinar it took the instructor 10 minutes to release the ratchet with a knife.

Kinar took the bindings back to the store he purchased them from and was surprised to learn that the company was already providing replacement ratchets for the same model of bindings – but had stopped short of issuing a recall or informing customers that there might be a problem.

"What happened was that the binding has a ratchet clip on it that doesn’t release in all circumstances," said Kinar. "What they did is they jobbed out these little ratchet devices to another company, and they’re faulty. So they’ve come up with a replacement ratchet made out of metal – it’s quite a substantial little piece – but they’re not making the public aware of the fact that those bindings can seize."

The V7 Plasma bindings are at the low end of K2’s line, and are marketed to beginner-level riders.

Kinar called the company to ask them to issue a recall. When he was told that the company didn’t see the ratchets as a safety he issue, he then notified the media contacts he made during his crusade for helmet standards. Vancouver’s CTV News affiliate made the bindings their lead story on the evening news. A representative from K2’s head office in Seattle told CTV the company stood by its claim that it was a nuisance and not a safety issue.

Kinar sees it differently.

"Obviously it was my position that in certain circumstances (stuck bindings) could be a life and death situation, depending on how you’ve fallen – if you’re in a tree well, if you’re by yourself. My son was unable to get out of these bindings."

Kinar was recently in discussions with a lawyer from K2 who asked what the company could do to resolve the issue. Kinar suggested that the company should offer a formal recall, informing dealerships and posting the information on their Web site.

There’s no way to know how widespread the problem is with the bindings, but Kinar says he was told by the snowboard school instructors that the bindings have a reputation for seizing up. None of the Vancouver shops called by CTV would go on record, but said they were aware of a problem with the bindings.

Kinar is determined to see this issue through.

"I just want people to be aware that those bindings are dangerous, and you’d better replace them because you could get stuck somewhere and not be able to get out," said Kinar.

Brad Milner, the manager of Summit Ski and Snowboard in Whistler says he was not aware of any problems with the ratchets on the K2 V7 Plasma bindings.

They also haven’t had any reports of the ratchets seizing on any of their rental boards which use the bindings.

"Nothing this year in terms of the rental bindings," said Milner. "We had a little problem last year with straps breaking, but that’s not unusual for rentals that get a lot of use."

A source at Mountain Riders, another local K2 dealer, said they were given the replacement parts before they even received the bindings this year, but the problem of locking bindings hasn’t surfaced yet. He also said that bindings of all makes have problems from time to time, and that K2 may be unfairly targeted.

Kinar says the issue was obviously serious enough for K2 to issue replacement parts. The issue isn’t the safety of the binding, but the fact that the company hasn’t taken steps to make the public aware that replacement parts are available.

Louis Boudreault, the vice-president of sales and marketing for K2 Canada, says the company is sticking by its opinion that the bindings can be a nuisance for owners, not a safety issue.

"The bindings are doing exactly what they’re supposed to do. And if a percentage of the users of our bindings are finding that they are tough to open, we have buckles at our retailers as well as our office and warehouse to service those who feel they would like a new buckle," said Boudreault.

"We are sorry that there is a nuisance – this shouldn’t exist. When you buy something you want it to work from the first minute to the last without any problems, but there’s always issues, and that’s why we support the product with as much after-sales service as we can."

Sending replacement buckles to stores is nothing unusual, says Boudreault. The company makes sure that all of its dealers are equipped with a full array of replacement parts for bindings which are guaranteed.

He doesn’t have any statistics on problems with the V7 Plasma bindings, but acknowledges that ratchets are being replaced at dealerships. The only complaint the company has received, however, has come from Kinar.

"You want a number, but I couldn’t even tell you because we have not run numbers to find out how many we’ve replaced because it’s a small number," said Boudreault.

"It’s one or two per cent maybe.

"We sell so many thousands of bindings, and it’s a really small problem."

The faulty ratchets that the company has found are easy to detect.

"If you’re are going to be affected, you will be affected by the first day of riding. It’s not going to creep up on you at some point," said Boudreault.

"When you get to the chairlift after your first run, if the buckle is sticky you’ll feel it right away."