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How to Buy a Jones Splitboard
Jones Snowboards offers an insane quiver of unique, purpose built splitboards. Having so many choices sometimes makes it hard to choose the right board for your riding style. This Jones Splitboard buyers guide aims to answer all the questions you should be asking before buying your next splitboard.
Start with the Shape
What shape suits your riding style? The shape of a splitboard is the main thing that determines how the the board will ride. We simplify shape into sidecut radius, taper, and waist width.
Size Up or Down
The shape and flex of a board impacts what length board you'll need. Your goals and desired experience result in sizing true, sizing up, or sizing down. The "right" size might surprise you!
Assemble the Kit
A splitboard does not stand on it's own. It's one of four parts that work together to create the riding experience: rider, board, boots, and bindings. Let's make sure your full kit is aligned with your board.
Understanding splitboard shape:
What catches your eye?
Start with the sidecut
Imagine this: You're tracing a giant circle on the ground and the only template you have to use is the edge of your splitboard. You keep repositioning your board and tracing along the edge until you've created a giant circle. How big is that circle? THAT is how we measure sidecut radius on a snowboard.
Is the circle 7 meters? or 9? While that seems like a small difference on paper, that will make a HUGE difference in how a board rides.
Let's use 156-ish boards as reference and compare sidecut radius across our Jones boards.
Jones Mind Expander 154: 6.9m
Jones Stratos 156: 7.2m
Jones Solution Split 158: 8.5m
Jones Ultralight Butterfly 154: 8.8m
Jones Hovercraft 2.0 156: 9m
A longer sidecut radius is happiest arcing huge turns and makes the board stable at speed. Most big-mountain freeride boards like the Solution have a huge sidecut radius! A short sidecut radius makes it easier to initiate turns and keeps the board super nimble at low speeds. Less radius = more playful.
Our most playful boards are the Mind Expander Split and Stratos Split. Our most aggressive boards are the Solution Split and Ultralight Butterfly. Why is the Hovercraft 2.0, with a 9m radius, not included as most aggressive? Because sidecut is not the whole story. Keep reading to learn about taper and waist width.
Start with the sidecut
Imagine this: You're tracing a giant circle on the ground and the only template you have to use is the edge of your splitboard. You keep repositioning your board and tracing along the edge until you've created a giant circle. How big is that circle? THAT is how we measure sidecut radius on a snowboard.
Is the circle 7 meters? or 9? While that seems like a small difference on paper, that will make a HUGE difference in how a board rides.
Let's use 156-ish boards as reference and compare sidecut radius across our Jones boards.
Jones Mind Expander 154: 6.9m
Jones Stratos 156: 7.2m
Jones Solution Split 158: 8.5m
Jones Ultralight Butterfly 154: 8.8m
Jones Hovercraft 2.0 156: 9m
A longer sidecut radius is happiest arcing huge turns and makes the board stable at speed. Most big-mountain freeride boards like the Solution have a huge sidecut radius! A short sidecut radius makes it easier to initiate turns and keeps the board super nimble at low speeds. Less radius = more playful.
Our most playful boards are the Mind Expander Split and Stratos Split. Our most aggressive boards are the Solution Split and Ultralight Butterfly. Why is the Hovercraft 2.0, with a 9m radius, not included as most aggressive? Because sidecut is not the whole story. Keep reading to learn about taper and waist width.
Stratos Splitboard
The stratos is my most consistent recommendation for folks in the Tahoe area and beyond. What's interesting about the Stratos is that it's the only "freestyle" splitboard that we carry. This means that it's made to pop, jib, play, and stomp with confidence.
Some Jones "freeride" boards, in contrast, are a lot less surfy and are not very fun until you're going really fast. I was stoked to discover that the Stratos is super playful in low-speed trees while also being stable at speed.
This is because of the Stratos's short, 7.2m turn radius. The board is really happy making tight corners and even hop turns.
This is an excellent board to daily drive in Tahoe pow while being capable enough for bigger missions in the Eastern Sierra. Find me on my Stratos most days, always with a big smile on my face.
- Max
Pickup available at 415 North Lake Boulevard
Usually ready in 24 hours
Stratos Splitboard
159cm
415 North Lake Boulevard
415 North Lake Boulevard
Tahoe City CA 96145
United States
About Taper
Taper is the difference in width between the widest part of the tip and the widest part of the tail. Taper is usually expressed in centimeters and ranges from 0-2cm.
All the boards we carry are tapered. This makes sense as all our boards are directional. Having a narrower tail makes it much easier to pivot the board quickly, keeping the board super responsive.
More helpful than a narrow tail is a wider nose to float in pow and suck up bumps. A large taper means you can shift the volume and stiffness to the front of the board without making the whole board cumbersome. Here are our boards, ranked:
Jones Mind Expander 154: 2cm
Jones Hovercraft 2.0 156: 1.7cm
Jones Solution Split 158: 1.3cm
Jones Stratos 156: 1cm
Jones Ultralight Butterfly 154: 0.8cm
Ultralight Butterfly Splitboard
This board inspired a completely new perspective on splitboard mountaineering. The Ultralight Butterfly split is lighter than our lightest pair of skis (and all the splits) but it doesn't ride like ultralight gear. Skiers constantly complain about their noodley lightweight skis and I don't have a single complaint with how this thing rides.
The long effective edge makes this board confidence inspiring in steeps and the length and weight make it super easy to hop-turn in tight spaces. The directional full camber profile and low taper offer better edge hold than anything else I've ridden.
Taper of just 0.8cm on this board is part of what delivers such a unique experience on this board compared to others. All of my other splits are made for fun riding in soft snow. They deliver that by having a lot of taper, making them super easy to ride in pow.
The Ultralight Butterfly is a breath of fresh air thanks to it's ability to hold a critical, deep carve and power through. The full camber design and long effective edge would all fall apart if it didn't also keep the taper to a minimum.
Pickup available at 415 North Lake Boulevard
Usually ready in 24 hours
Ultralight Butterfly Splitboard
154cm
415 North Lake Boulevard
415 North Lake Boulevard
Tahoe City CA 96145
United States
Waist Width
Everybody knows their preferred board length, but do you know your waist width? Waist width is a measurement that tells you how wide the narrowest part of your board is. It's an important metric as a wider waist contributes more to the overall volume on the board than even board length.
You need lots of volume when you want your board to float through pow. Traditionally, you got more volume by getting a longer board. With Jones splitboards, it's sometimes the opposite! The waist width of the 156 Hovercraft 2.0 is a full 26.3cm, allowing you to ride the board 3-6 cm shorter than your traditional snowboard. Here are our splitboards ranked by waist width.
Jones Hovercraft 2.0 156: 26.3cm
Jones Ultralight Butterfly 154: 25.6cm
Jones Mind Expander 154: 25.6cm
Jones Stratos 156: 25.4cm
Jones Solution Split 158: 24.9cm
Hovercraft 2.0 Splitboard
We have some absolutely silly deep powder days in Tahoe. On the deepest days you want the widest board you can find. The Jones Hovercraft 2.0 is the widest board we carry.
This additional width makes deep powder days SO easy. Not only do you not sink as far when breaking trail, you can ride pow on your front foot! No leaning back required. Be mindful of the size you choose. Go with the 160 if you want a pow-day-only board. Size down 4-6 cms from your normal boards for a super versatile machine.
This board has always had some magic! It holds an edge incredibly well in steep, firm terrain and floats like a dream in pow. That makes it an excellent tool for both High Sierra technical ascents and Tahoe snorkel fests.
In 2024, Jones revised the Hovercraft. In these moments, we never know if people will flock to the new shape or start hoarding the old one. In this instance, with the Hovercraft 2.0, Jones knocked the ball out of the park.
Pickup available at 415 North Lake Boulevard
Usually ready in 24 hours
Hovercraft 2.0 Splitboard
148cm
415 North Lake Boulevard
415 North Lake Boulevard
Tahoe City CA 96145
United States
Ready to dive deeper?
How We Size Our Boards:
Men's Sizing:
Women's Sizing:
Freeride Length
Freeride Length
1-3cm shorter
1-3cm shorter
3-6cm shorter
3-6cm shorter
4-6cm shorter
4-6cm shorter
4-6cm shorter
4-6cm shorter
Mind Expander Splitboard
Free your mind! The Mind Expander is an experimental shape that fits right in to the Sierra Surfers quiver. Designed by renowned surfboard shaper Chris Christenson, it features a TON of taper (2cm) and a short turn radius (6.9m) which makes it a snappy, quick-turning sports car.
***I ride the solid version of this board in the resort and have fallen in love with it! I have not toured on the split just yet so I will reserve further commentary until then.
Thanks for reading!
- Max
Pickup available at 415 North Lake Boulevard
Usually ready in 24 hours
Mind Expander Splitboard
150cm
415 North Lake Boulevard
415 North Lake Boulevard
Tahoe City CA 96145
United States
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