Along with Enni and Werni, Brage is helping out the brand in more ways than one. These legends of the freestyle contest circuit all recently shifted their focus towards the backcountry – and as such, were in need of a splitboard that could compliment their talents. Basing Vimana’s first split on the Meta – an all-round powerhouse, selected for this year’s Whitelines 100 – was a team decision, explains Tronna. “It’s kind of coming back to what our riders want – because as I said, we don’t make boards just to fit a target market, or anything like that.” The consensus was that most splitboards currently on offer are too stiff, especially torsionally, when compared to a solid board. “In deep powder, it’s still okay to have a super-stiff board, because you can ride a bathroom door, you know? It doesn’t matter!” laughs Tronna. “But we wanted to build a splitboard that felt exactly like a normal board.”
As for how this was done, naturally he’s keeping his cards close to his chest, offering only that it involves Vimana’s own blend of carbon and Kevlar, arranged in a unique way. The hardware partnership he’s chosen plays a part too: “We work closely with Union, and the metal clips that Union provides are way better than anything else on the market, I feel. They stiffen the board in different angles and not just, like, a lockdown.”
“It’ll take more than a global pandemic to ground Tronna’s flying palace”
For the verdict on how it rides, it’s over to Brage again, who had been involved in the discussions about its design for around six months. There was a lot at stake when he took his maiden voyage on the Meta split at an early season board test – so how was it? “If you have a board that you like under your feet you know immediately,” he explains. “After two or three test runs through the mountain, I stopped at Tronna’s spot and gave him a hug.”
So far so good for Vimana’s first shuffle into splitboard territory, then – but don’t expect too many other models to follow suit. It won’t happen until the team calls for it, and with the Meta splitboard ticking so many boxes, the only short-term plan in place is to add a few more sizes.
As for the long term, it’s impossible to know – but a massive sea change is unlikely. The Vimana method has real staying power; evidently, it’ll take more than a global pandemic to ground Tronna’s flying palace. Even when things were at their bleakest, packing it in was never on the cards. “I’m always the optimist,” he smiles. “When I started Vimana, I had a friend who was good with finances look at the numbers. He told me, ‘this is not gonna work…’. But if you start something, you have to jump into it, and ignore everything, and just focus straight ahead.” And what did this sage advisor have to say once Vimana’s monochrome wave had swept across Scandanavia, and beyond? Another smile. “‘He was like, what the fuck!’”
Sometimes, life is fair after all.