From the Unofficial Arcives –
Before I came down to Las Lenas, one of my priorities was making a split board so that I could get into some of the amazing terrain around the resort. – We haven’t had enough blue days in a row to shred all the terrain near the resort, so trekking further out hasn’t been necessary. – Now, back to the frustrating, yet fun, process I went through to make my split board. – I used a 167 Rossignol “The Jones,” a Voile Split Kit, some Spark- R&D binding plates with Bent Metal Bindings, Jim Zellers and his jig saw, some 5 minute epoxy, sand paper, a drill, countersink bits, regular drill bits, a little bit of elbow grease, and lots of patience! – After finding and marking the true center line of the board, from tip to tail, Zellers took us to the point of no return and cut the thing in half. – After all, it’s likely a perfectly good, brand new board that you could shred in-bounds pow on, and now it’s in two pieces! – Once the board is in two perfectly symmetrical halves, like mine was after Jim’s free-hand cut (Thanks Jim!), the next step I did was mark, punch, drill, countersink and mount the clasps that hold the board together. – This was where my first frustrating experience happened. – Voile gives you clear sticker templates where “X” marks the spot that you need to punch and drill. – I thought I had some pretty accurate punches, but it turned out that after I’d punched, drilled, countersunk on the base where a screw head needs to be flush with the p-tex, and finally mounted the clasps, I had a little bit of play between the two halves; not much, maybe a 2-3 32nds of an inch gap, but you want it to be as tight of an interface as possible.

“The split with all of the hardware mounted”

The next step I did was mounting the binding “pucks.” – It didn’t go perfect for me, but my board still works fine. – I put the board together using the clasps, then put a template sticker down where I wanted my front foot to be. – A very important step, as you can’t adjust your stance once you have the pucks screwed in, so make sure you have all the measurements and angles perfect! – I punched and drilled my holes, using one of the factory screw inserts on each puck to save a little bit of drilling. – Once I got both pucks mounted for the front binding, I slid the binding over the pucks to hold the board(s) in place while I did the back foot pucks. – What I didn’t notice right then was that when I slid the front binding on, the two halves shifted, allowing the binding to slide on, while shifting one half forward and the other half back. – Again, just a small mistake that doesn’t make too much of a difference (just 1/16th of an inch or so). – The back binding went just fine. “The binding pucks and the recessed binding plate that fits over the pucks. The metal pin locks the binding in place .”

The last pieces of hardware I had to mount were the tip and tail clasps. – Two more stickers, punching, drilling, and then bashing the back side of the rivet, once you have the clasps in place, to secure them in their places. – Smashing something with a hammer is always pretty fun, right? – No problems here! “A close up of the touring interface; pin goes through holes in bindings and touring brackets.”

A close up of the touring interface; pin goes through holes in bindings and touring brackets.

Lastly, I mixed up some epoxy to fill all the counter-sunk holes on the base, as well as seal the core of the board where it had been cut in half so that it won’t immediately break down or rot. – Trying to keep this step neat and not spread epoxy every where will save you a good bit of sanding. – I was able to fill the aforementioned “play” between the two halves with some extra epoxy. – Once the epoxy had dried, I spent a few hours sanding the base flush and smoothing out the inside edges. – It was finally ready to ride. “Epoxy filled holes that were sanded flush”
Epoxy filled holes that were sanded flush

How’s it ride? – You can definitely feel some torsional softness, especially in the nose during a turn, and can even see the up-hill half of the board flexing more than the down hill half. – Also, it’s not as snappy in and out of turns on firm snow. – All in all, I’d say the mentioned performance issues for the down-hill ride are worth sacrificing for the up-hill benefits; once you’re in the pow you’ve worked for, the performance issues aren’t nearly as noticeable. – Have you made a split board? – Let me know if you have any helpful tricks or similar experiences! “Ready to Climb, just add skins.”

Ready to Climb, just add skins.

Unofficial Networks Newsletter

Get the latest snow and mountain lifestyle news and entertainment delivered to your inbox.

Hidden
Newsletters
This field is for validation purposes and should be left unchanged.