Share

Bindings

Flow Mayon Plus 2021-2022 Women’s Snowboard Bindings Review

Tested and selected for our top 100 snowboard products of the year: the Flow Mayon Plus

  • Price: £230 / €240 / £240
  • Sizes: S, M, L
  • Flex: 5-6/10
  • Entry System: Rear Entry

Why we chose the Flow Mayon Plus Snowboard Bindings: They’re a brand new upgrade on the popular Mayon that adds an even comfier strap to what was already a great all-round package.

Literally the biggest pain in the ass when you’re snowboarding is sitting down to mess with your binding straps. OK, experienced riders might have mastered the art of staying on their feet when clipping in but even that is awkward and time-consuming. Flow’s solution – rear-entry bindings – has been refined over decades now and continues to attract a loyal following. The Mayon Plus is their latest women’s model. It takes the same baseplate and highback as the Mayon and adds a plush new ‘ExoKush’ strap to ensure it’s as comfortable as it is convenient.

“Flow’s solution – rear-entry bindings – has been refined over decades now and continues to attract a loyal following”

MORE INFO:
flow-bindings.com

Who Is The Flow Mayon Plus For?

Girls who want to maximise their time on the hill; less faffing at the top of the lift, more shredding. The Mayon’s medium flex level is versatile enough for any terrain and will suit all but the most aggressive riders.

Baseplate

The chassis, with its angled sides and integrated heel hoop, looks a lot like the guys’ Fenix model – and sure enough it’s made from the same glass-filled nylon. It’s a super tough piece of plastic that’s lightweight and responsive, yet tuned to be a little more forgiving than the top-of-the-line Omni. This makes it ideal for riders who are still dialling their turns or who want to express themselves in the park.

The baseplate is mounted using a multidisk that’s compatible with any brand of board out there, including the channel inserts found on Burton. It also features rockered corners with extra cushioning, which helps the board to flex more naturally when you’re loading ollies and presses. And when it’s time to put the hammer down, Flow’s trademark ‘Off-Axis Powerbeams’ channel power more efficiently into the edges.

A padded footbed provides some useful cushioning to help iron out the bumps and is canted to 2-degrees to reduce stress on your joints, a feature that comes into its own if you like a wide stance. Oh and looks-wise, our testers dug the marbled effect on the new ‘Snowdye’ colourway.

“The Mayon’s medium flex level is versatile enough for any terrain and will suit all but the most aggressive riders”

Straps and Highbacks

The big selling point on the Mayon Plus is the aforementioned ‘ExoKush’ strap. It’s a dual layer affair made from expanded EVA with an exo-skeleton (hence ExoKush, duh!). The chunky EVA foam gives you a ton of cushioning and is pretty much bombproof.

Like most of the Flow range, you’ve got two strap flavours to choose from before hitting the buy button. The Fusion version has a more substantial connection between the heel and toe sections; it’s essentially one big strap. It spreads the pressure over more of your foot and it’s a little easier to slip into via the reclining highback. When tightened, the Fusion design gives more of a ‘top down’ pressure that’s awesome for locked-in turns.

By contrast, the Hybrid version has a distinct toe and heel strap, with a thinner connecting piece. It’s designed to feel more like a regular two-strap binding, with a little more freestyle tweakability. The expanding ‘AuxTech’ toe cap covers the end of your boot, helping to pull you back into the binding rather than the top-down pressure you get from the Fusion. Choose your poison.

Both strap styles come with chunky ratchets that are easy to operate and can be locked in place so you don’t need to crank them every time – just step in and out from the rear. ‘Active Strap Tech’ lifts the strap automatically when you recline the highback to give you more space to shove your foot in, then moves it down again when you flick the highback up. Genius.

Speaking of the highback, it’s a single piece of glass-filled nylon with a strong central spine (providing instant toe-to-heel response) and holes on each side to reduce weight and give you more lateral flex. This is definitely an all-mountain binding that can carve with the best of them but also lets you bone out tricks and bring a more relaxed style to your turns.

“The chunky EVA foam gives you a ton of cushioning and is pretty much bombproof”

Roundup

If you’re in the market for a premium all-terrain binding that’s not frighteningly stiff, the Mayon Plus is a great shout. Of course, you’ll need to get on board with the whole reclining highback system, but with two strap styles on offer they’ve made choosing Flow as appealing as possible to every kind of rider. What are you waiting for?

Trade Secrets

Lucien Vink – Industrial Designer & Product Manager, Flow

“The art on the new Mayon-Plus bindings was inspired by moody water-color painting effect for the Midnight version, while the Snowdye was inspired by snow-dye (a specific version of tie-dying) effects on popular yoga & work-out pants from popular athleisure brands.”

Share

Newsletter Terms & Conditions

Please enter your email so we can keep you updated with news, features and the latest offers. If you are not interested you can unsubscribe at any time. We will never sell your data and you'll only get messages from us and our partners whose products and services we think you'll enjoy.

Read our full Privacy Policy as well as Terms & Conditions.

production