[jbang72]

Hey... I've used to own both cartel and malavita (2012), but sold the cartel on ebay and kept the malavita. Cartel is great bindings but i feel it's more for freeride / all mountain bindings. It was too stiff for me, but it was soooo responsive I was very impressed with them... HOWEVER, I love malavita it is not as stiff as cartel, but it has ton of support and very comfortable. malavita is more freestyle / all-mountain. If you are planning to do tricks and hit the park, then i would suggest going with malavita, like yourself i started learning tricks and hitting the park this year and malavita worked better than cartel for me.