Voile Split Decision Kit

By Steve Ranked #1134 - Backcountry Snowboarding January 13, 2003

I installed the Split Kit on my 'retired' Santa Cruz board and Switch step-in bindings without any problems. It took about 4 hours (but would probably have gone a lot faster if I'd located all the tools I needed before starting ... it took me a while to find the correct size drill bit for some of the holes, and my center punch--an essential item for getting all the holes exactly positioned for the hardware to line up properly.

I tested the board the next day on an outing with some friends who were just out for a short snow-shoeing trail. Although I have never snow-shoed before, nor ever had a pair of skis of any type on my feet before, I found the split board (with skins) so efficient on the ascent (about 900 ft vertical in 1.6 miles) that I was leading the way, breaking the trail through the fresh, virgin snow well ahead of my snow-shoe-experienced friends. About half of the trail was rideable on the descent and with the skins removed and the board assembled for snowboarding it behaved exactly as it had before I cut it in two. On the flatter parts of the descent I decided to try the "skis" without skins and my lack of skiing experience gave me a few tumbles and my friends a few laughs. (some learning ahead of me there:-)

I found the change-over from skis to snowboard and back as quick and easy as advertised (taking little more than one minute to assemble the snowboard at the top of the trail, on firm ground, to about 3 minutes to split back to skis in soft, deep, off-trail snow on the descent, when the slope became too shallow to ride.

View Details: Voile Split Kit (DIY)

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