If you haven't heard of the Korua boards yet, you should watch the Yearning for Turning videos. But beware, the videos are a feast for the eyes in a class of their own, increasing the urge to snowboard immeasurably. They also confirm that the surf-inspired snowboards are a lot of fun and work in the big mountain lines of Alaska, on the groomed slopes of Europe, but also in the deep snow of Japan. Korua Shapes have successfully contributed to the general trend towards quiver boards in the last winter season in the northern hemisphere through passion, fun and good marketing. The consistently white and red shapes were spotted more and more often in ski resorts, as well as in well-known snowboard magazines and their social communication channels.
First impression
Of the eight different shapes currently offered by Korua, there is the Tranny Finder (157 cm) and the Pencil with 164 cm as a splitboard version. According to the manufacturer, the Pencil is well suited for fast turns and effortless edging in deep snow and should feel reactive and shorter than it is. It is designed to maintain speed in deep snow turns, while the pointed nose protects against too much snow in the face and helps to smoothly initiate turns. The 164cm board has a so-called "float-camber", which means camber between the binding and a rocker in the nose area. With 4478 cm², the Pencil offers plenty of surface area to melt snow underneath and therefore also helps riders with large feet to hold turns.
Tester & test conditions
I am 190cm tall and weigh 88kg. With a shoe size 47, the wide board naturally suits me. The Pencil was tested with a Spark Ultraburner binding, Spark crampons and Voile skins. The binding, as well as the crampons, worked wonderfully on the Pencil and enabled good power transmission. The board was mainly tested in fresh winter snow conditions, no spring tours were undertaken.
Test report
I was impatient to see how the Pencil would perform in action, so I did my first few laps on the board on the groomed piste. As expected, the wide camber board is a lot of fun and, after a few test attempts, allows you to enjoy long, fast and, above all, deep turns. It is also suitable for big-footed skiers with shoe sizes up to Eur47/UK13. Although I have not directly compared the splitboard version of the Pencil with the normal version, the additional 400gr (Pencil 2.9KG, Pencil Splitboard 3.3kg) make the board heavier and probably a bit stiffer than the non-split version due to the inner edges. The high weight of the board costs strength and makes the board less playful. As expected, switch riding is not exactly easy either. The pop of the board is also rather low due to the short tail. The pre-installed Karakoram splitboard clips help to form a good unit from the two halves and the camber provides the necessary edge grip; the short tail also makes it easy to initiate short turns.
