“I’m an avid splitboarder. In fact, I’d say it’s how I spend the majority of my time in the mountains. My setup is pretty niche, (Fürberg split with Karakorum bindings), but it works well for me and I regularly do days touring in excess of 1000m+.

Truth be told, when I was asked to test out the Burton Anti-Social split I wasn’t super excited. Hand me a new Jones split and I’d have been getting the skins on quicker than you could say “Can you test this fo….”, but something about a Burton split wasn’t really getting me stoked.

Anyway, like splitboarding, testing has its ups and downs. I dutifully set the Anti-Social up and planned a short and mellow 300m tour to give it a test-drive, with fairly limited expectations.

How wrong I was about to prove myself.

Within the first few metres of skinning, I was super impressed at how lightweight the core was. There’s not a lot of additives in here, but Burton’s wood layups seem to drastically reduce the overall weight without – they claim – compromising it’s riding performance. Time would tell…

It also felt pretty narrow underfoot which made for efficient trail breaking. Also, Burton, what’s that material on the topsheet that keeps the snow from sticking? It works a treat.

The transition at the top was made easy. The Karakorum clips offer a really solid interface and keep the board torsionally solid.

Then came the descent. All I can say is “Wow!”. The Anti-Social rode as well as any solid powder snowboard I think I’ve ridden. Solid, stable, manoeuvrable and loads of float.

“I got to the bottom and loved descending on the Anti-Social so much I decided to head back up and do it all over again!”

That rocker in the nose and the tapered outline is very deceptive. It looks quite subtle, but it worked super effectively for keeping the board afloat and making all my turns feel next to effortless from a powerful, centred stance.

I got to the bottom and loved descending on the Anti-Social so much I decided to head back up and do it all over again!

If you’re new to splitboarding (assuming you’re already an experienced all-mountain rider already though) this would make a great option to begin exploring the backcountry with.

If you’ve done a lot of touring and are just looking for a new model, I honestly can’t fault this one. The camber underfoot made it solid on-piste and would no doubt provide plenty of stability in sketchier snow out in the backcountry. So long as you’re not dead set on having the fastest base in the world or super expensive, weight reducing additives, this is a really great option!”