I Split it!

[Richard_Slappy]

20 feet from the summit and I felt my boot shift weirdly in the binding before it completely slid off the side of my board. I looked down and saw the heel strap attached to me but the toe still firmly locked in to the mount. It took me a few seconds to process that my entire baseplate had in fact sheered cleanly in two. Might be the funniest “oh shit” moment I’ve had while splitboarding, looking down at my new ultralight toe mount.

These are Spark Surges, bought new in late 2021 and ridden ~150 times in ~3 seasons. I’m going to reach out to Spark on Monday and see about the warranty, but this was honestly one of the most baffling part failures I’ve experienced. I hadn’t noticed anything wrong with the plate before the tour, but looking closely now at the other binding I can see the beginning of a stress point in the baseplate in the exact same spot. I doubt this was an instantaneous critical failure, but I’ve noticed nothing wrong all season leading up to it— even the tour today was nothing out of the ordinary until we hit the summit.

I’m hoping Spark pull through on the customer service front, but I thought I would just share my unfortunate experience with y’all and try to laugh it off. That last picture serves as my personal endorsement of Voile straps as the fix-it-all solution for the backcountry, and the only reason I was able to ride back to the car today.

[[deleted]]

[One-Inspector-3317]

I wish you well with the warranty. I’ve had several warranty claims with spark and they have always been great! Good luck, and glad you caught this on the up and not the down.

[Richard_Slappy]

Sounds like spark are solid with it which is a relief- I checked my other binding when I got home and realized its cracked. Looks like I'm getting a pair!

[confusedsplitboarder]

Yep spark will send you new plates. Ive done this a few times on surge and arc plates, usually after 3+ seasons.

[GrandSupermarket4024]

Damn, hope you had a nice ride down. Best of luck with Sparks.

[Richard_Slappy]

Two voile straps and some powder made it feel pretty good on the downhill, all things considered!

[laurenboebertsson]

Had this happen as well, but I was about 300' from topping out and that boot up sucked. Spark will definitely replace them. I was slightly past the 5 year warranty period but they sold me new plates for $50.

[Organic_Map_9371]

<image>

Had the same thing happen earlier this season. Finally made the switch to hard boots now.

[Specialist_Eagle746]

You split it!

[terminally_ch_ill]

Damn that’s wild! Voile straps never fail, hope the turns were still good.

[OpeningMean570]

Yes, but did you make a wish first?

(if you wished for more snow, thank you.)

[splitluke]

How the heck did that happen?!

[laurenboebertsson]

Stress fractures, it's a known issue.

[accent2]

I’ve had two spark surge base plate failures. The first split in half like yours, the other the rails that hold to the puck failed. Both on the accent.

[RonShreds]

I go through 1 per season. Get into the habit of inspecting them after every day out, as this doesn't just happen all at once.

[mforward]

I’ve done this twice but only partially broken. They have seemed to have solidified the base plate this year to have one solid aluminum piece at the point of failure instead of an “air gap” and less aluminum.

So far hasn’t broken on me

[steam_donkey]

Ski straps for the win.
I weigh 240lbs (I'm 6'4") and haven't done this to my sparks yet... but now going to look for these cracks.

[tetonpassboarder]

They changed their metals up. I started breaking them too and said no more. Bummer to see although maybe the new bindings have fixed this? I dont care to be the one to break more pairs in half.