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The NS/Karakoram split report

First of all, I'd like to thank all of you who have offered up advice/constructive criticism, posted pictures, and encouraged us virgins in our splitty adventures. Without all of you, I'd still be post-holing the crap out of Carson Pass or would have finally given up and started skiing again! I can barely afford the shit-ton of money I already fork out for one winter sport! Nevermind a second...

Second, I went into this without fear of F'in the whole thing up. I knew it was my first time and I knew there was no way I was going to spit out a professional quality board so I just went for it. There were times when I probably could have done a little better job by spending more time setting up or tracking down a better tool, but in the end I knew I'd own a splitboard. If you can tour with door hinges, I was certain to get out there on an acceptable splitty! No offense to the extra creative folks! You were part of my inspiration!

I went shopping for an acceptable board on Craigslist and ended up with a Neversummer Premier 161 for $90. Score right? Not exactly... More on that later... I bought it late last winter and rode it a few times to see where I wanted my stance. Ended up being a pretty rad board so I'm excited to see how it all works out very soon!

So what do you say we get to some pictures?

A slightly used but perfectly good board...


The law of averages…


Too late to turn back now…



After cutting the board in half I found three long holes in the core just like the ones libtechsplit found in his Legacy. Here it is in the backyard drying after the first round of G-flex. Unfortunately it gets worse! We're about to get to that…


Round two of filling the ruts in the core… I used G-flex for everything on this project to keep it simple and it worked out well after finding these! Varathane just wouldn't have cut it!


K-clip countersunk holes…


And the K-clips installed…

I decided to install the board clips first to help keep things together throughout the rest of the process. As this is my first attempt, I cannot comment on whether it was better or not but I think it was. Several times during the process I thought to myself how much harder things might be juggling two planks instead of one. I think I’d do it again if only for the simple fact that I felt like I was the proud owner of a splitboard at this point. There was still a lot of work to do but this was a good landmark in the process.


Here’s where things get shitty! The obvious next step is to keep drilling and while using the Forstner bit, I ran into a more problems. The holes/grooves/ruts I found on the inside cut were EVERYWHERE!!! (They must be here for a reason!) Some of the holes I drilled for the t-nuts got screwed up because big chunks of the core came out while drilling. The reason is that the ruts were so close together that the wood got knocked out without anything to support it laterally. I was careful and was working slow so the damage could have been worse, but I still had to fill it in with G-flex again. My opinion of Neversummer isn't what it used to be to say the least.


First round of G-flexing the shit out of the t-nuts…
On the left side you can see where the G-flex has seeped into one of the holes in the core. Maybe I just added a custom flex to my board???


Round two was done at the kitchen table because it was the only way I could watch the Art Of flight at the same time.


Round three was more of the same…


I didn’t see this anywhere else on here and thought it was a pretty good idea. I took a router attachment for a Dremel and leveled off a fine grain grinding bit with the base of the attachment. The housing made it a little difficult to access each of the t-nuts immediately but after a pass or two it all came off really clean!


I was more than happy with the end result! There’s no need for a base grind before I get out there which means one less thing to do. In the end I’ll get one for sure but it’s nice to know I don’t have to wait if the big one hits!




All that’s left to do is mount up the hardware! I went with Karakoram for a few reasons. First, I liked the idea of a couple guys coming up with a completely new concept from scratch! (America!!! FKNA!!!) Bryce was also helpful and quick to respond to my emails which makes it easier to maintain my bias...

Second, I read that they’re much more stable in touring mode. Since I was a skier at one time and expect to spend much more time in tour mode than in ride mode, I thought this would be better for me. To each his own I guess…

Either way, I’m STOKED!!!!! Here’s a few fun ones to end the post. Hope you enjoyed it and I hope it helps someone down the road…






Thanks again everyone for all the help along the way! My skins arrive in the next day or two so I'm sure I'll be out for the next storm. I'll report back with all the goods as soon as I calm down from the stoke! I can't wait!!!

Looks good man! Great Idea on the dremel!

My option had the same holes in the cut, but i never had any issues when drilling holes...



I spoke with the old team manager at Option (who now is the manager at Jones Snowboards) about this. Apparently they used a special type of core that was dry layup, and it was very common to get air bubbles. He was also saying how those cores hold up and last much longer than traditional wet lay up cores. I can attest to this because both of my Options, which are now approaching 10 years old, still have the same pop and ride they did when i got them many years ago. Apparently they had a bunch of cores left, and shipped them to the nidecker plant to be incorporated into next years Jones boards.

Not sure why yours had so many other holes though, that seems a bit excessive...

Great write up- thanks for sharing! I have a lot of questions and comments, but I'll just start with a few. Maybe those cores were made, and the air bubbles reduced the weight of the board, why else would they do that? I think that it is great that you stuck with it. Looks like you added inserts so that you could ride with many adjustments instead of the typical DIY voile type install. Did you save all the specs for the Karakoram mounting holes? I wanted to split one of my solids so I can use my Karakoram bindings. They look great on your board too! Maybe we will see each other at Carson pass!

@mountainbikeak Thanks! It's been a fun project!

@B-P I thought it seemed a little excessive as well but I really enjoyed riding the board last season so I'm not expecting any problems. (Good to hear about the durability though... It puts a little confidence back underfoot!) I don't even think the boards overall integrity was compromised but I am a little concerned about some of the t-nuts where extra core material was removed maybe cracking? Only one way to find out so bring on the snow!!!

@fitit It sounds like they were meant to be there after B-P's experience, as well as others I've read here. How they got there is one for NS to answer as it's hard to tell with such a small cross section. I can't imagine a manufacturer could ever let something like that slip without it being their intent...

I did add the extra inserts. The dimensions were pretty standard so it was easy to just keep adding one more inch... I wanted some variety so I'd have more info to base my next board on, and I think cambered boards are pretty rad so long as you're standing on them correctly. (We all rode powder just fine before rocker came along simply by setting our stance back a little.) I'm not a rocker hater by any means (ride a LibTech half the time) but I think the stability at speed and turning characteristics of a fully cambered board often suit my riding style.

First off, nice work! Let us know how it rides.

The routed grooves in the bottom of the core are definitely there on purpose. I've found them in several NS splits that I've built. (Not in the Legacy's, though.) Besides making the board lighter, their size and distribution affect the flex of the board, allowing different flex to be designed in at various locations. I've also found 3/16" or so carbon fiber stringers running in grooves, for the same purpose.

Don't worry about chewing up the core where you drilled it. By filling it with epoxy, you've most likely made it stronger than if it was solid wood. I've never seen any issues with the ones I've done, anyway.

Sweet work! Thanks for sharing!

The Karakoram bindings and hardware really sex that DIY up! Looks like a fun stick, should ride great. Congrats.