Mounting a Cooziecage™ to the downtube of my Pugsley made beer-drinking in the winterwoods possible and, so, that was a great and rewarding first-effort in this regard.
Then I did some, well I guess you could call them, multisport-snowbike-to-xc-ski excursions up Schultz Creek, which were a hoot. Probably got the first-ever ski descent of Kentucky Waterfall in the process, too.
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Snurfer Nomad, snecret snurfhill |
To test this idea on the cheap, I bought an inexpensive but nonetheless quite clever little snowtool called a Snurfer Nomad from the Vermont manufacturer who's been making them in the USA since 1965. Because it doesn’t have any bindings or metal edges, it’s super lightweight, so it was easy to mount on to the rear rack of my Surly Pugsley or to carry lashed to the old Craterpacks backpack I use when I go lightweight ski-touring in the hills north of town. Only everso-slightly safer than sledding, but nonetheless gloriously stupid and also terrifyingly fun, turns out snurfing is a rad, additive wintertime diversion from the typical just a snowbike ride or just a xc-ski tour adventure, precisely as Lyle said it would be.
I had some good fun a few times riding on my Snurfer Nomad solo early this winter. But then, midseason, I got to watch another one of my friends shred my snuper snecret snurfhill on his kid's Burton Throwback.
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DIY Throwback unboxed |
So I started looking around for a cheap used Throwback on eBay, but it would appear that such a thing doesn't really exist. Then I looked at some of our local used sporting goods and thrift stores for a decent used snowboard that I could remove the bindings from and improvise into an ersatz backcountry snurfboard. But all I could find around town was garbage, all of it thrashed from years of abuse or neglect, and often both. For about 10 minutes I even searched online for a legit vintage Burton Backhill, but they must be very highly sought after. Every single one I saw for sale cost as much as a used car.
It was about then that I stumbled upon Burton's DIY Throwback kit, which, it turns out, sells for something like 30% less than the Snurfer Nomad. The DIY Throwback comes as a rockered-on-one-end rectangular plank of unpainted laminated wood with a p-tex base. Not really a kit, I guess, but nonetheless very DIY. There are no templates, no plans, no instructions with the DIY Throwback. It's just a gorgeous naturally-grained plank of wood, a couple sticky-backed footpads, a long rope, a wooden handle, and thou.
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DIY Throwback ready to ride |
After using my hand jigsaw (and a carefully rendered long paper template to make sure the two halves mostly matched left-and-right) to cut out the rough shape of the board, I finished all the edges and curves with a handheld belt-sander and then I used a router with a small round-off bit on the top-sheet to make all the things very nice and smoothish and purdy. I think the finished product looks nice.
I’m not a very handy guy when it comes to building things, but now that all has been said and done and test-ridden, I'm rather proud of this project. And, I think my Burton DIY Throwback snowboard rides pretty darn well, too.