Voile Hyper Glide Review

Voile stepped their game up with the Hyper Glide, which, true to it's name, has great glide, a small pack size, and light weight; the skins can fold up to fit almost anywhere and are one of the lightest in the review. Overall, they performed better than what we'd normally expect for the price. Voile paired up with Pomoco to produce this model. Some classic Voile touches, like the Voile Ski Strap and classic tip loop, have been preserved, but it also uses the Pomoco layered waterproof membrane to improve the waterproofing.

Glide

For intermediate to expert splitboarders, glide is the topmost priority. Glide describes the amount of resistance that occurs between the snow and the plush of your skin when sliding forward. Less resistance means better glide and ultimately an easier, more efficient stride. The Voile Hyper Glide skins impressed our reviewers with their slippery, seamless movement.

This skin uses a hybrid plush that consists of 70% mohair and 30% nylon. This combination offers enough glide to perform well during remote and distant routes when speed and endurance are necessary. This is a very standard mix for blended skins, but we found that it offered slightly enhanced glide compared to some others of similar mixtures. This skin is great for experienced backcountry users who want more glide for increased efficiency in the mountains.

Grip

Security on the skin track is important, and when the track gets steep or icy, security comes from both the grip of your skins and your technique. When you are still mastering technique, you rely more on grip, which is largely determined by the materials used and the surface area of the overall contact patch. The Voile Hyper Glide offers a solid grip-to-glide ratio that broadens its appeal to a wide variety of users.

The Voile Hyper Glide offered impressive grip from its blended carpet; enough grip to consider as a first skin for those who might take to the technique semi-quickly. This skin covers the majority of your snowboard base, which provides more surface area than average, therefore, more grip. We found this valuable in steep terrain. Ultimately, this skin offers plenty of grip and will have your back if your technique is a bit shaky.

Ease of Use

The Voile HyperGlide is a surprisingly lightweight and packable option, which is what sets it apart from the rest in this metric; it is comparable to the ultra-light skins we tested. Otherwise, it offers a pretty standard out-of-the-box experience. However, we would like to see skin savers included with the product to help with the storage and increase the lifespan of the glue.

Fortunately, the skins come with the tip and tail clip attached, saving you time and effort in the initial setup. The skin itself is sold in 130-millimeter widths, but you should note that this is a bit narrow for some of the boards found on the market today. We cut this skin to fit a 256-millimeter waist width board and struggled to get a clean cut due to the limited amount of overhang. Other than that, the skin-cutting experience was fairly standard.

As mentioned above, these are incredibly packable and lightweight due to their blended plush and thin carpet. We did not expect this out of these skins, but we were pleasantly surprised that they could fit almost anywhere and didn't add much weight to our packs; the uncut skin weighs 246 grams.

Attachment System

The attachment system of a split board skin is a large component of the user experience, and we found the HyperGlide to be fairly standard, reliable, and easy to use. We had very few qualms.

The attachment system is hardy; the tail strap uses a urethane strap that resembles a standard ski strap and is outfitted with a simple aluminum clip that fits the corner shape of a splitboard tail well. The tip attachment is a metal bar that is riveted onto the tip of the skin. The only drawback to this attachment system is the size. Depending on the shape of your board, the tip clip from any pair of skins can catch on the clip system found on the ends of a splitboard. This is more likely with bulkier style clips like the Phantom tip clip. It's easy to avoid, but takes some accuracy and attention when setting up.

Glue and Glop

The most frustrating experiences while transitioning your splitboard usually have to do with glue. You need the glue to be tacky so it doesn't slip around on the base, yet easy to pull apart when adhered to itself. Luckily, the Voile Hyper Glide did just that. Skin material also needs to be rather waterproof to prevent it from glopping and protect the integrity of the glue.

The glue found on the HyperGlide is exactly what we would expect from Pomoca. It's tacky on the base and takes moderate effort to pull apart when adhered to itself. The skin uses Pomoca's layered waterproofing membrane that exists between the fibers and the glue. When touring in spring-like conditions, we noticed the fibers would get a little wet, but it never transferred through to the adhesive. As a natural fiber, mohair is eventually bound to get wet, and the membrane did a good job of protecting the integrity of our adhesive. When traveling through warm snow and then back into cold snow, we experienced very little glopping (this is the prime condition in which glopping will occur).

Value

These skins offer a great value for those looking for a mohair nylon mix. They offer impressive glide, good grip, and they are lightweight and packable. All this comes at a competitive price among our test fleet.

Conclusion

The Voile Hyper Glide skin is a worthwhile investment for split borders looking for a blended skin that comes at a marginal price increase to a standard nylon skin. We recommend the skin to anyone looking for a lightweight and packable option that offers impressive glide and is easy to use.