Furberg Freeride Split 170 - 21/22 - First Impressions

Our Rating

4 out of 5

the Short Read…

This is first-impressions, just 8 days on this board so far, but I tell you, I want more. It’s got a couple of major innovations that really seem to add something to it’s performance. It’s not a quiver of one for all types of riding but big mountain freeride is it’s home and there it really delivers.

Looking out over the Reserve Naturelle de Carlaveyron, next to the Brevent lift, Chamonix

The Long read …

I was a bit nervous about riding this thing, because I’d read some opinions and reviews online saying that you have to really work this board to get it to turn, and that it’s generally a bit of a weird experience, like no other board, and that it takes some getting used to.

Nope, I can’t relate to that, now I’ve ridden it myself. My first few turns caught me by surprise by being super easy to initiate and then so much more positive and powerful than I’m used to (a 5 year old Jones Solution, a board I love), it really went where I wanted it to go.

The standout features are these:

It’s got a large sidecut radius at 14m (boards are typically about 9)
It’s got a tongue-and-groove system locking the halves together in the middle of the board - something Furberg call Floorboard Technology…

So let’s talk about these and other aspects of the board:

Overall shape - It’s long, at 170cm and it’s wide at 27.7cm at the waist - good for a bigfoot like me, with my 295cm boot. The front and back ends both have a similar shape, with what little sidecut there is curving gently into the tip and tail – meaning I often have to check the touring fixings to figure out which end is the front!

The sheer width of each half makes keeping pressure on an edge difficult, when touring on harder-snow traverses, even with hard-boots. The length of the rear makes jump-turns in deeper snow that little more challenging, and of course the length means narrow chutes could be tricky unless you are just gunning it. For these reasons I feel that technical terrain, going up or down, is not quite this board’s forte - but basically every other aspect of backcountry riding is.

Going from one edge to the other, being so wide, you might expect to feel it ‘plop down’ on to the flat before going up onto the other, but Furberg seem to have got the torsional flex right so you can start to engage the front of the edge while the back is still flat and so edge-to-edge feels smooth - edge to edge is easy.

Long side-cut radius - This is the bit that some reviewers seemed to struggle with, but I didn’t. Literally the only time I really noticed this was when carving on piste and describing hugely wide arcs. In all other situations, the combination of reverse side-cut and long rocker just turns so easy.

That gentle curve from wait to tip and tail, really does make this board quite catch-free. Go test it out on a drag-lift, where the snow has been polished almost to ice, or on an icy cat-track. You’ll notice it’s less twitchy, less nervous.

Floorboard Technology - The board has a stainless steel tongue sticking out about 3mm from one board-half and just running roughly just beyond the front and back binding inserts. It’s matched by a groove sunken into the other half. It’s one of those super obvious face-palm moments when you see it. Flex and vertical play between the two board halves when riding is pretty much eliminated between your feet. The idea is to make it ride more like a solid board – and that’s exactly what it feels like.

I’ve encountered dubiousness from some people about this feature - is it really solving a problem anyone cares about? In deep pow, do you need this extra stiffness? Maybe not. But in any sort of harder snow, where the bottom ski would otherwise take more of a pounding between your feet, it can now borrow some of the strength of the top ski and hold the line better.

Even if you have hard boots, and your bindings are a type that are in direct contact with the top-sheet over a bigger area than just a puck, my opinion is that you still get something extra, noticeable and good from Floorboard.

It is a projection and a hole though, so that tongue or the groove can ice up. Furberg provide a plastic tool you can use to clean ice away from both sides. In 8 days touring I used that once - but admittedly these weren’t super cold conditions. The tool itself is a bit on the large side, and pointy sharp at it’s corners - I was never quite sure the best place to carry it.

Forgive the shag-pile carpet! Showing the length of the tongue

Cons

My biggest concern about the Freeride is more of a construction thing - the top-sheet. As can happen, the board has fallen onto it’s side when I’ve had it leant up against something, bit of a bang but the only damage was the top sheet ‘bubbling up’ a bit at the impact point. It’s just cosmetic for now, so I’ll monitor that as I ride more.

The only other thing worth mentioning is that despite it’s long tail, I’m not sure it has a huge amount of pop to it. Maybe it’s meant to provide more of a platform to absorb shocks, big mountain style landings etc. Not a big deal for me, ollying stuff was never a strength of mine!

Summing up

Due to it’s size, it may not be the most ideal for super-technical ascents or tricky jump-turns. Anywhere else it’s super easy to initiate turns and once on it’s edge, you can feel the stability, the platform and energy that the Floorboard Technology gives you, holding that edge and reducing the amount of ‘smear’ in the turn. It can be on rails, this thing, when you want that. In deeper stuff, you have float, manouverability, stability and responsiveness to spare, and it seems to power through the crud with ease.

As we ride it more - something we are super looking forward to - we’ll post any updates here.

UPDATE: Furberg have released an updated 22/23 version of the Freeride out now - mods to the shape and core - check it out here.