Over the last few years of snowboarding regularly I had started to see these strange snowboards with clips holding them together and edges that ran down the middle of the board. I was curious as to what these were and later found out that it was for something called a splitboard.
For many people this is something they have never heard of. It is esentially a snow board that is cut down the middle and that can come appart into two skis so that you can go ski touring. The two skis allow you to walk up and traverse as well as any other skier and then you get to snap it back together as a snowboard to enjoy the decent on your snowbaord.
Through my research online I came across a test festival that was advertised to be held in Austria and after contacting the organisers they advised it would be suitable for someone like me who was interested in finding out more about splitboarding and trying it but had not done so before.
The event was promited and held by the people who run www.splitboarding.eu and a write up on the event can be found here and there were all the major manufactorers present to allow you to test their eqipment over the two days.
I have to say I was very plently shocked that at how easy it was to change from ski to board mode and just how well the boards rode. I was expecting a lot of give and twist but none of this was the case.
I will certainly be buying a split board in the near future and will finally get to enjoy ski touring with my skier friends and other like minded plitboarders.
Hope to see you on the slopes.