ESPN - Jones Snowboards women's splitboard

Jones to make women's splitboards

By Colin Bane

Courtesy of Jones Snowboards 

Jones Snowboards is introducing a line of women's snowboards, but the Women's Solution, Jones' split, has made us especially excited.

Jones Snowboards is one of a handful of companies betting big that more women want to get into backcountry terrain. The company recently announced it will be introducing a new women's line for the 2012-2013 season including the Mothership, Solution Splitboard, and Twin Sister, female-specific versions of the company's popular Flagship, Solution Split, and Mountain Twin boards.
"Having a splitboard shaped for female demands is unique and will for sure encourage more and more women to hike out to the backcountry," Jones athlete Bibi Pekarek told ESPN.com. Pekarek, an Austrian freerider known for tackling big-mountain lines, spent this season testing the new boards while filming with Jeremy Jones and his crew for "Further," Jones' fall 2012 Teton Gravity Research film. "It's great to have a high performance freeride board that works perfectly for my size and strength. It performs great in wide open powder but is also amazingly easy to turn in steep technical terrain."
Jones and Pekarek are teammates on the O'Neill Snow team, and she'll help anchor his new Jones Snowboards women's team. "When I started Jones Snowboards I knew I would make women-specific product," Jones told ESPN.com. "I just needed to find the right women to develop the product with. I am super proud of the outcome and can't wait to release the boards to the public next season."

Courtesy of Jones Snowboards"It performs great in wide open powder but is also amazingly easy to turn in steep technical terrain." -- Bibi Pekarek

The Jones Snowboards women's team also includes Winter X Games 2011 Snowboarder X silver medalist Callan Chythlook-Sifsof, an Alaskan boardercross racer who is on the U.S. Snowboard Team and has also been making her mark in big-mountain competitions like the North Face Masters and World Heli Championships; King of the Hill 2011 winner Holly Enderle; and splitboard mountaineer Liz Daley, who helped Jones develop the women's version of the Solution Splitboard.
"The new women's Solution is lighter, shorter, narrower, and a bit more flexible than the original Solution split: I'm in love," Daley said. "The board is great in powder and really any condition. It turns effortlessly because of the rocker, and the Magne-Traction really holds an edge in icy skinning and riding conditions. It's a great board for women wanting to get into the backcountry and it has evolved appropriately from the men's version to fit women's dynamics."
The Solution Splitboard is available in 152 centimeter or 156 centimeter lengths, and is a split version of the Mothership, designed for high-speed lines on steep terrain with a blunt nose and a directional rocker profile with camber underfoot. Both boards feature Forest Stewardship Council-certified wood cores, and have the same construction as the men's boards, with carbon stringers, sintered base, a mellow Magne-Traction edge, and Alu Protect aluminum reinforcements on the tip and tail. The boards are featured in Jones Snowboards 2013 catalog, and will be in stores this fall.