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I'm about to buy my first split, I was thinking about getting the gnu billy goat or the travis rice pro model, are these boards worth the price or would i be better going for something else? also I need to know about the sort of accesories i'd need. I ride almost exclusively in the french pyrenees

Hey Rowan

I can't comment on the boards as my experience is liminted to my old DIY and a Jones Solution which I've only had a very short time.
Here's my complete list of "other stuff", which so far has been adequate:

Tranceiver (I don't even look at my board without putting it on)
Shovel
Probe
Black Diamond Avalung pack
Skins - G3 Alpinists
Harscheisen/ski crampons - Voile
Collapsable poles - cheapo ones from Decathlon, £10 each. They do a great job for the money.
Crampons - Simond Caimons 10 pointers, also from Decathlon.
Aluminium water bottles x 2 - camelbak bladders break when you stack!
Sun hat - extremely uncool but very functional
Multi tool
Spare ladders
Spares of all binding fixings
1st aid kit

That's it.

How do you find the jones solution? i mean jeremy jones is kind of a reference for splitboarding

If you have an oppertunity to rent before you buy, or demo I would try a few different board/models. Dont base you choice on who signature is on it or graphix. These things cost a lot and you will want the board to ride good in all conditions. Base your choice on things you like on your regular board. length, sidecut, type of construction, rocker, camber , "pop" ect

Hey don't worry i'm not a complete noob it's just mervin does have a very good rep for awesome innovative boards

In my experience, the actual ride of the board itself probably accounts for something like 20% of the overall experience of splitboarding.

Avy skills and being competent with everything in your pockets and pack is WAY more important than how much pop your board has for making your experience enjoyable overall, not just those times you get to ride a perfect 2000 foot fall line in a foot of fresh snow. And yes your shit will break and fail exactly when you have no opportunity to fix it, so +10 points for bringing extra binding parts on tours.

I'd say more important than (riding) board feel is a board that feels good for skinning, and having good skins and ski crampons, as skinning is what you are doing most of the time.

That being said, Kyle Miller did a side by side comparison of his experience riding on 5 or 6 boards. If you search around on here you'll find the thread.

Good luck...

Here is a pretty detailed list from the Canadian Mountain Guides.
http://www.acmg.ca/03public/resources/gearlist.asp

In my experience the actual ride of the board accounts for probably 80 percent of my splitboarding enjoyment
If I am looking at a steep icy drop with lots of rocks I need to have the confidence that the board Im on will hold an edge because I find the slide for life really takes away from that days enjoyment

Skinning for me on the other hand is 80 percent know how and 20 percent board, or maybe 10 percent board and 10 percent skin quality

i've been very happy with voile splitboards, and for someone just trying to get into the sport, the convenience of being able to buy a complete package (board, mounting hardware, skins, even bindings if you want) is really attractive. It takes a lot of the guesswork and sale-prowling out of the process.

Just did seven days back to back on it and I like it.
It's not a very playful board but I guess that's obvious by looking at the shape.
It does handle really well on bigger lines and at speed.
I found it stable and fast.

Skinning was fine. I didn't notice much difference from my old DIY.
I guess icier conditions will reveal how useful the mellow-mag is.