Front safety binding for a ski

Claim 1

In a front ski safety binding of the type comprising: two arms extending substantially longitudinally of the ski means swingably mounting each arm adjacent one end thereof to the ski for movement in a plane substantially parallel to the upper surface of the ski; two jaws one each at the free end of each arm extending outwardly with respect to the plane of symmetry of the ski, said jaws constituting the only normal forward support for an associated ski boot; a fixed stop on the ski intermediate the means swingably mounting the arms to the ski and the jaws for coaction with the arms spring means interconnecting the arms for normally maintaining the jaws in engagement with the toe of the ski boot, said arms being swingable laterally from the stop when exceeding a predetermined swinging force against the action of the spring means about a center of rotation located forwardly of the toe of the ski boot until the boot is freed from the outwardly swung jaws, the improvement being in that said fixed stop includes a rearwardly projected stationary support of a material having a lesser coefficient of friction with respect to the toe of the ski boot than the fixed stop per se, so that when a forward thrust in excess of a predetermined limit is exerted by the boot on the front safety binding, the front of the boot sole would rubbingly engage said fixed support of low-friction material so that the release of the boot from the ski is facilitated.