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Gear reviews | Korua Pencil Splitboard

The best path between two points is not always the straight one

by Marc Stal 11/07/2016
Who doesn't know the longing for curves? This longing can be satisfied with the Korua Pencil splitboard in combination with the necessary amount of fresh snow. With its surf-inspired shape, the Korua Pencil is a quiver (second or third) splitboard that makes drawing curvy lines in deep snow a pleasure and also invites you to carve on the piste.

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.

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The Pencil Splitboard certainly doesn't fulfill its full raison d'être on the piste, but in deep snow. In ascent mode, the binding of the Pencil is well positioned and the short tail makes hairpin turns a breeze. The camber helps to keep the skin or edge in the snow on the ascent and the straight inner edge provides good grip for crossings. The width of the individual halves still fits well in modern ascent tracks and the long rocker nose helps to keep the ski tips above the snow when tracking in powdery snow. However, the weight of the long, wide board is rather high. The Pencil is certainly not a splitboard for winning uphill races.

The Pencil is fully in its element on descents in powder snow. Here it shows what it has learned from surfing and lets you float effortlessly on the snow thanks to the long, wide nose. Despite its short tail, it runs smoothly at high speeds and ploughs through the vegetables, so it also behaves well in variable snow conditions. Landings in deep snow are easy to master and you rarely have the feeling that you are diving off the front. It behaves well on descents on free, open areas where you set the turns yourself; but the Pencil is also easy to navigate on fast forest descents and you can maintain a good speed despite the length and width of the board.

The Pencil does not have a continuous steel edge, so the last part of the nose is edgeless. On a descent through the forest, a snow-covered fence or tree stump was accidentally hit, which then left a scratch on the nose. This did not change the performance of the Pencil. Otherwise, the board makes a very stable impression and light stone contact resulted in minor, negligible scratches. The Pencil is also less suitable for switch riding in powder and is not ideal for backcountry freestyle action, but it gives a wonderful surfing feeling in the forest as well as in open terrain.

Conclusion

The Korua Pencil Splitboard lets you rediscover the new, old way of snowboarding on the slopes - away from quadruple corks and towards carving. Off-piste, it develops its full strengths and delivers what it promises. It can be edged very easily in deep snow, allowing you to make long and short turns without losing too much speed. The board facilitates the lift immensely and conveys a wonderful feeling of leaning back and enjoying. Due to its high weight, it is not necessarily the ideal board for altitude hunters, but as a board for lift-assisted tours and variants with shorter ascents, it is the ideal fun board. All in all, one can summarize: "It is nice to draw lines with this Pencil". In this sense, "Never Stop Snowboarding".

Advantages & Disadvantages

+ Very suitable for curves
+ Surf feeling
+ Robust
+ Smooth at high speeds
- Heavy
- No continuous steel edge on nose and tail

Details

RP: 699.- Euro
Topsheet // Gelcoat
Glassfiber // Biaxial
Core // Poplar Light
Base // ISO 6000
Bend // Float Camber
Length // 164 cm
Float // 4478 sqcm
Effective Edge // 1180 mm
Running Length // 1030 mm
Tip Width // 324 mm
Waist Witdth // 269 mm
Tail Width // 293 mm
Taper // 31 mm
Avg. Sidecut Radius // 8.2 m
Scoop Radius // 1200 r
Setback // 20 mm
Recommended Stance // 55 cm
Adjust. Range // 50-64 cm
Board Weight // 3.3 kg (without hardware)
Rider Weight // 60-90 kg

Here is the Korua website with more information.

This product was loaned to powderguide.com by the manufacturer during the test period. PowderGuide Test Statement.

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This article has been automatically translated by DeepL with subsequent editing. If you notice any spelling or grammatical errors or if the translation has lost its meaning, please write an e-mail to the editors.

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