[Surgeon]

I'm a huge fan of the Holograms. It's my third season on them and I won't be going back to regular bindings any time soon (if they remain available).
I have a review here but here are some thoughts:
Important points (IMO):

• I'm a freestyle rider through and through.
• I'm on a small mountain and ride park a LOT and see the rest of the mountain as a skatepark.
• I ride twin or directional twin boards
• No powder here ever
• I now use Salomon Launch exclusively (a bit under mid-flex rigidity-wise) but have also used Burton Imperials.

What I love:

• Easier lateral movements means better/easier pokes even with stiffer boots (I don't use stiffer boots anymore though but I did for a couple of seasons). This is the main thing for me, I absolutely love that freedom of movement.
• Lightweight (impressively so)
• Super comfortable ankle strap
• Good highback
• Very good toe-heel power transfer with the kevlar wire, they react very well.
• Adjustability is fine for me.

I don't hate anything about them but points I'd improve if I could (or did in one case):

• Toecap strap is ok but I prefer the Burton capstrap2.0 and modded mine with them (thread here on how to do it). However, it's worth noting that they seem to have a new version coming for next year (it appears so from EVO's 2024 preview pics).
• Forward lean adjustment isn't very good and is finicky. If you don't use it then it's a non-issue but I enjoy some forward lean and it's been a bit of a challenge to adjust it how I like. It's a tradeoff from the shadowfit technology and I'll gladly deal with it.
• DEFINITELY try your boots in them if you don't use Salomon boots. My Imperials were fine but a pair of Burton Swats were really painful in them. The flexible heelcup meant that bulkier heels were crammed in there, causing pressure that made them really painful after 4-5 laps (see my review thread for more details). It's definitely worth testing first.

Effing great bindings for my type of riding. Wouldn't change them for anything else. Doesn't mean it'd work for everybody but shadowfit is amazing for me.

hope this helps.

 

[Etienne]

Sooooo… I've been on them for like 15 years maybe? It wasn't even shadowfit back then, but Relay. It was awful thinking back, but there was something I really loved after a few turn. Had two rounds of hologram and a pair of highlanders since. Funnily enough, I've ridden them mainly with fairly stiff boots… but it's not that illogical at all.

The main point with those bindings is that what you rotate your legs around WITHOUT applying force/torque against the binding and thus against the board, which allows lot of small rotations of the legs. Of course it makes it easier to tweak grabs, but also eliminate a lot of parasites forces when charging more. On bumpy snow, when there a lot vibration, the movement will be very small, but the important part is that the binding won't try to twist your legs in ways you wouldn't want to. When you have to rotate your upper body a lot (deep wet pow, steep technical parts etc.), you can twist your leg a bit, without engaging your board yet. And yet when you push into them on the medial axis, they are really there. It's like they only push in the right direction.

I absolutely love that. Once get past the slightly "loose" feeling and realize the binding is really there, it allows for a lot of small movements that make balance way more comfortable. It allows you to move front/back foot much more without flexing your board if you don't want to.

The counter part being, tucking your back knee inward won't twist the board (I know some carvers do that). And overall I guess, you have to be a bit more precise in your weight distribution on your leg, since you can't "lay on the binding" to compensate for bad positionning.

One overlooked aspect is that they make a great combo with stiffer boots too. The added torsional "flex" can remove the clunginess of stiffer boots at lower speed, feeling less "stuck" when you have to move around, but still getting all the stiffness when pushing on the medial axis.

I've used holograms for pretty much everything from park to freeride, from pipe to carving, they just delivered, always. I love my Highlanders on my Café Racer and Dancehaul for all kind fun resort riding. Hell, I started proper "big mountain" with my Relays… it worked pretty well actually. They are really much more than for "tweaks". What more could I wish? Maybe mini discs 🤷 I don't mind that much tons of adjustability options.

Back to your snow-surf carving: yes 100%, as long as your not the "clang your knees together" type. The binding will let you do that easily, but with zero effect on the board and zero support. If you come from duck stance, you should really good.

Hope that make sense, I have a hard time explaining it in simple words, but the movement vs. torque part should speak to anybody who has done a bit of mechanics in school I guess…

 

[Surgeon]

Sooooo… I've been on them for like 15 years maybe? It wasn't even shadowfit back then, but Relay. It was awful thinking back, but there was something I really loved after a few turn. Had two rounds of hologram and a pair of highlanders since. Funnily enough, I've ridden them mainly with fairly stiff boots… but it's not that illogical at all.

The main point with those bindings is that what you rotate your legs around WITHOUT applying force/torque against the binding and thus against the board, which allows lot of small rotations of the legs. Of course it makes it easier to tweak grabs, but also eliminate a lot of parasites forces when charging more. On bumpy snow, when there a lot vibration, the movement will be very small, but the important part is that the binding won't try to twist your legs in ways you wouldn't want to. When you have to rotate your upper body a lot (deep wet pow, steep technical parts etc.), you can twist your leg a bit, without engaging your board yet. And yet when you push into them on the medial axis, they are really there. It's like they only push in the right direction.

I absolutely love that. Once get past the slightly "loose" feeling and realize the binding is really there, it allows for a lot of small movements that make balance way more comfortable. It allows you to move front/back foot much more without flexing your board if you don't want to.

The counter part being, tucking your back knee inward won't twist the board (I know some carvers do that). And overall I guess, you have to be a bit more precise in your weight distribution on your leg, since you can't "lay on the binding" to compensate for bad positionning.

One overlooked aspect is that they make a great combo with stiffer boots too. The added torsional "flex" can remove the clunginess of stiffer boots at lower speed, feeling less "stuck" when you have to move around, but still getting all the stiffness when pushing on the medial axis.

I've used holograms for pretty much everything from park to freeride, from pipe to carving, they just delivered, always. I love my Highlanders on my Café Racer and Dancehaul for all kind fun resort riding. Hell, I started proper "big mountain" with my Relays… it worked pretty well actually. They are really much more than for "tweaks". What more could I wish? Maybe mini discs 🤷 I don't mind that much tons of adjustability options.

Back to your snow-surf carving: yes 100%, as long as your not the "clang your knees together" type. The binding will let you do that easily, but with zero effect on the board and zero support. If you come from duck stance, you should really good.

Hope that make sense, I have a hard time explaining it in simple words, but the movement vs. torque part should speak to anybody who has done a bit of mechanics in school I guess…

Hey, don't blame me for mentioning only tweaks... I'm a freestyle guy through and through like I said and there's no such thing as "big mountain riding" around here...

Personnaly, I can still quite easily flex the board with my back knee. I'll admit it's easier with rigid-base bindings but I don't feel like it's much of a problem. However, I'm not riding stiff freeride boards though...

Quick question: how much difference is there really between the Hologram and the Highlander? I'm assuming it's simply a slightly stiffer highback, am I right?

 

[juhyou]

Well , ive been on the shadow fit bases for years swiched from flows and never went back.

i chaged from holograms to quantum( carbon hight back) about 4 yrs ago, for more precision on groomers.
basically once i satrted to ride holograms ive not really given serious thought about changing from them bec i just cant find any reason to .

ALL day comfort, perfect fit for my boots, softish torquish ride , almost no moving parts to worry about coming undone or breaking, never had a screw fall off, a strap disintergrate.
light weight enough
i ride powder and powder groomers most of the time on stiffer free ride decks.
yes optimistic, nidecker ultralight, jones ultra mind ex, k2 alchemist, libtech climax over the last cpl of yrs and MOST DEFINITELY the quantums help with those decks , when im on my softer swallowtails , ogasaka eagle, hawk, falcon or some of the rocker decks volkl selecta, jones mind ex, ogasaka ibis the holograms are perfect. even on dry groom.
have ZErO issue with them, they ride smoother they arnt floppy but also not steel rodlike even the quantums , they dont hurt what s oever and they are unnoticeable with any other boots ive had them with. ( nidedcker talons of late)

in powder the holograms are 100% adequate, i cant say with any degree of certianty if i can notice a difference.
since i switched to salomon boots./bindings ive had no reason to try anything esle.
im not a feather weight either, and they ha ve not let me down.

id like to try other stuff , but no need to that i see to.

they also seem to last a long time. one of myearliest sets iis STILL in play. 2009 XLT .

i wud say on hard pan dry days if u want to really lay it down there are much better options im sure, but for an all round set of uneventfull, non noticeing bindings that perfom and are comfortable , i cant find anythign at all not to enjoy about them.

 

[Etienne]

Hey, don't blame me for mentioning only tweaks... I'm a freestyle guy through and through like I said and there's no such thing as "big mountain riding" around here...

Personnaly, I can still quite easily flex the board with my back knee. I'll admit it's easier with rigid-base bindings but I don't feel like it's much of a problem. However, I'm not riding stiff freeride boards though...

Quick question: how much difference is there really between the Hologram and the Highlander? I'm assuming it's simply a slightly stiffer highback, am I right?

I was blaming the marketing, haha 😅 Hard to tell between the highlanders and the holograms, when I switched the Holograms were beaten up and the Highlanders brand new… but I would say they feel slightly stiffer in all aspects. They are basically Quantums with a non carbon high back.

@juhyou has a point too: they don't hurt. It really feel easier on the knees/hips.

 

[Surgeon]

I was blaming the marketing, haha 😅 Hard to tell between the highlanders and the holograms, when I switched the Holograms were beaten up and the Highlanders brand new… but I would say they feel slightly stiffer in all aspects. They are basically Quantums with a non carbon high back.

So even the heel loop is stiffer on the Highlanders, meaning they're a bit harder to flex side to side? That's interesting...

 

[MrDavey2Shoes]

Thanks for all the feedback in here! Going to try to get my boots in a pair of holograms in the next day or two to see how they center up. My ADHD demands the boots be centered or I can’t deal with it 🤣

 

[Surgeon]

Thanks for all the feedback in here! Going to try to get my boots in a pair of holograms in the next day or two to see how they center up. My ADHD demands the boots be centered or I can’t deal with it 🤣

Shouldn'T be too much of a problem. The "non-mini" disc has a lot of options for centering the bindings (granted that you leave the adjustement "width-wise" instead of 90 degrees to fine-tune your stance).

 

[blamuk]

I just asked this on an old thread maybe I'll have better luck here - how are the holograms for tight technical trees in deep powder and hardpacked? Would a more locked in binding be better?

 

[Etienne]

I really like them for any kind of slow technical stuff, where you can have to twist your body quite a lot to get things moving. Stuck in between trees, stuck in pow, jump turn etc.

 

[juhyou]

nope. not in pow these are great.

 

[smellysell]

I need to put my holograms on a different board and give them some run. Sadly, the day I put them on my Darwin the repair on it failed. 😥

 

[scecho]

Ive got districts on my Slush Slasher, and I could not have picked a better combo for a powder surf board. The shadowfit feels pretty loose when you're hard charging, which takes a little bit to get used to. I feel like you have to really focus on how you move your legs/feet to really drive into turns. It takes a bit to get used to, you won't feel the same power transfer as you do when you ride something that has a stiff heelcup, it's a softer, more gradual transfer that gives you a lot of control. I find myself wanting stiffer bindings without lateral play for ripping open faces and charging. For surfing around on thicc pow, doing jumps, sidehits, and generally having a good time, the districts are fantastic. I havent had any complaints about them.