How This Telemark Skier Made His Own Bindings

While manufacturers have undoubtedly been instrumental to free-heel innovation, the telemark DIY scene plays an outsized role in the progression of the sport’s gear, often influencing the direction of those makers. Many a telemark skier of the 80s created homemade plastic cuffs to add power to their leather boots on descent. And only after many a five-gallon bucket met its demise at the hands of these free-heel tinkerers did telemark producers see the opportunity to make their own plastic-cuffed boot like the classic Merrell SuperComp–presaging the invention of fully plastic telemark boots.

The modern telemark movement is no different. A corps of tinkerers remains busy in their garage laboratories, Frankensteining together parts from different boots and bindings to make new contraptions that better suit their needs.

There’s even a small group on the cutting-edge of DIY telemark development–CAD software and 3D printers in hand–who are creating experimental gear that could one day revolutionize telemark skiing all over again. All in a time where manufacturers have done much to bring several innovations to market that first saw light as homespun creations. A new world of availability in telemark gear has thus arrived, in large part thanks to the tinkerers. Their work continues on. One of the important figures in that movement is John Brody, a California resident and passionate backcountry telemark skier.

Brody’s attachment to telemark and its equipment came in part from the technique’s nature as a constant work in progress. “I loved it and I think it was a combination of just working on the skill and the technique,” Brody says. “It was something that really challenged me and I never really perfected it, I still haven’t 20 years later.”

Slowly, Brody got into backcountry telemark skiing after noticing that people were using the gear to tackle off-piste slopes near his home in Lake Tahoe. Undergoing a slow progression, Brody moved from resort alpine to resort telemark, then Nordic meadow skipping before finally arriving at light-weight, big objective backcountry free-heel skiing. And with that progression came an evolution in his gear choice–from classic duckbilled 75mm gear, to the new telemark norm, and finally to the modern vanguard of free-heel tech toe bindings.

Brody joins the ranks of fellow telemark tinkerers with an engineering background, though his comes from the field of computer science. “My background in DIY is I’m a software engineer by training and profession, so I guess I have a sort of technical mindset,” says Brody.

But his maker bent is not isolated to the abstract world of computer engineering. “I like to work on cars and motorcycles and do metalworking and just things where you’re building something tangible because in my job everything is very theoretical and very virtual. So I’ve always been into building stuff and fixing things and working with my hands.”

A self-described “optimizer,” Brody found not so much gaping issues with existing telemark gear, but more so an opening for tweaks that could make the gear work better for himself, saying “when I started getting into telemark touring, and especially NTN, I found the gear a little bit lacking for what I wanted to use it for.”

Seeing what other DIYers were creating and sharing on forums like BackcountryTalk.com, Brody found inspiration to join their ranks. “Rather than just make do with what was available, it sort of motivated me to learn 3D modeling software," he says. "I got a 3D printer, and I started prototyping. And at first I was building things that were pretty similar to what other people were building and then kind of started having a couple ideas for things that I thought would be useful that weren't out there.”

Brody thus arrived at the setup that he has trusted for the last four years, including a releasable Trab TR2 two-pin tech toe complete with custom 3D printed pivot blocks, nylon risers, and crampon brackets. He also designed and printed his own custom heel throw, one that engaged better to a telemark boot without a heel slot, such as the legacy bellowed Scarpa F3s–Brody’s boot of choice to accompany his custom binding. Interestingly, Voile eventually followed suit, redesigning the heel throw on their Transit TTS binding in the same vein.