Jones Mercury FASE Snowboard Bindings Review: The Best Fast Entry System
The biggest change concerns the binding’s spoiler, called AutoBack in the FASE system. While it can still fold all the way forward for travel and low suspension chairlifts, when open it reclines much further back than your standard high back. At the bottom of the spoiler, inside, there is a sturdy plastic lever.
When you enter the binding, your shoe presses on this lever. This returns the high back to its full, upright position, pressing it against the back of your calf as usual. Then you just tighten the ankle strap and off you go. When you want to go out, simply bend down and open the ratchet on the ankle strap. It releases and you can exit immediately.
The Jones Mercury FASE bond that I tested shares a lot of DNA with Jones’ standard Mercury bonds. It’s a fairly stiff binding, designed primarily for freeride (i.e. off-piste) and powder rather than the snowpark, but it works well as an all-mountain binding. It features a layer of foam padding above and below the footplate, which helps dampen vibrations and give you a little cushioning during hard landings.
Jones spoilers aren’t known for their customization, and that trend continues here. You have two settings for forward tilt, but that’s it. If you’re used to Union bindings, which allow you to change the rotation of the spoiler, you might find this disappointing, but for me, these spoilers fit my calves like a glove. They are stiff, which provides great responsiveness, but they are lightly padded at the top and I found them to be very comfortable.
The biggest departure from the standard Mercury model is that most of Jones’ traditional bindings use something the company calls SkateTech. There is a support point on the sides of the binding that allows you to put a little more weight on your edges for more control. I’ve become a big SkateTech convert over the years, so I was disappointed that this wasn’t included here, although I quickly adapted, and they still felt very responsive when using them. However!
Used
Photography: Brent Rose
I tested these bindings on a snowy road trip through British Columbia and put them in a wide range of conditions, from steep, deep powder to icy death runs. I was also able to try them out cat-skiing and heli-skiing in the backcountry, where I found that the quick release bindings generally failed me. I tested them using the Jones Hovercraft 2.0 (which I spent two seasons on and reviewed for WIRED), as well as the rather hardcore 2025 Jones Flagship Pro, which is my new go-to for sketchy, scary, or mixed terrain.
