HISTORY OF THE SPLITBOARD
I want to briefly talk to you about a pleasant discovery made in an unhappy period, as to say during the forced stop caused by the lockdown for Covid-19, from March to June of this year.
The key clue came to me from my friend and fellow snowboarder, Erik Pernisco, that showed me an article published in the Skate Snow Board magazine, in April 1990.
A first splitboard set-up was shown on that magazine, for which the patent application was filed on 7th March 1990, by Eng. Nicolò Manaresi of Bologna.
In the article, the Engineer described the beauty of the call of fresh snow and the potential of this tool in looking for a deep contact with nature, that pure sense of freedom and fun.
After thirty years, this concept is still unchanged and perfectly updated.
I came in contact with Nicolò, and I asked him to share some boards of his great project with all snowboard and splitboard enthusiasts, to ensure that this project will not remain buried in a drawer.
A few years later (1991) the best known Brett “Cowboy” Kobernik would have presented his first splitboard experiment, which he shared with his friend and founder of Voilé, Mark Wariakois.
All of that, thanks also to all of you passionate riders.