“I spend as much time as possible each winter out in the backcountry on my splitboard so the Spark Surge had a good going over.

I previously had issues with Spark setups. Mainly the bolts that hold the baseplate and the heel cup together have always worked themselves loose and I mean each time I use them!

Each time I switched over from walk to ride mode I had to get out my tool and tighten everything. If I forgot to do this ritual I could almost guarantee to lose a screw.

“The Surge is a stiffer and more responsive binding to the Arc, lending itself to more aggressive riders and steeper terrain. I really liked the feel of the high back and the straps. I found the whole binding responded well when called upon.”

In the past, I ended up using glue to remedy this problem, although that’s not ideal if you ever need to take the binding apart for some reason.

So, I was pleasantly surprised that in the time I used the new Surge this didn’t happen, stoked.

The Surge is a stiffer and more responsive binding to the Arc, lending itself to more aggressive riders and steeper terrain. I really liked the feel of the high back and the straps. I found the whole binding responded well when called upon.

Obviously, the usual luxuries of dampening and comfort as sacrificed for weight saving on a split binding but I still found the Surge to be comfortable enough for all-day touring.

My one major gripe with this binding is the ‘easy to use’ climbing wire. The promo video for the Surge shows you just how easy it is to adjust as the gradient changes on your climb. In reality, it’s about as easy as the UK leaving the EU.

I don’t know if it was only because they were brand new and hadn’t been used yet, but it just wasn’t easy to work. Instead of being able to use my pole to easily flip between different angles I found myself dropping to one knee and having to force it into place using my hands.

On a flat section, this is frustrating but manageable; try and do it on an icy traverse though, testing!

I can imagine this could be something that would aggravate someone trying splitboarding for the first time and potentially put them off it altogether.

Saying all that, the touring mode adjuster for the high back is super simple to use and really effective.

Ultimately, the descent was super rewarding on the Surge bindings, but the climbing wire was enough to make me cautious about using these again”