Switching boots

[DCinBC]

Hi,

Near the end of last season I purchased a used Board for my teen. It's an Obrien 138 "Valhalla" but the boots are too small. How hard is it to switch boots? He is 6ft and a novice and looking for your recommendations.
Thanks!

[BigBadWolfe]

Bindings (boots) are very easy to switch out, there's a screw on each side of the binding attaching it to the board, just take out the screws. As far as recommendations for new bindings, first you will want to decide between open and closed toed. Closed toe tends to give more control but this is debatable, plenty of guys rip in open toe, Bob Soven for example. The down side to closed toe is it has a narrower range of shoe sizes it will fit, meaning if he wears a size 10 sneaker you buy a size 10 binding and theres really only a half size wiggle room in each direction. Since he's a teen and still growing, he will out grow those bindings by next season and bindings aren't cheap. The other option which I would recommend is buying open toed bindings. Just like the name implies, there is no part covering your toes. This allows the binding to cover a range of shoe sizes (usually a range of 3 shoe sizes) allowing him to get a few seasons out of them as well as let his friends ride his board. I'm not sure what your price range is so I can't make specific recommendations but look at sites like evo.com, they have specials on last seasons gear and allot of times the only difference from last year to this year is the color. Stick to the big brands like Ronix, Hyperlite, Liquid Force, Obrien. Personally I am a huge fan of Ronix bindings, they are very well made and super comfortable.