Jones Hovercraft 2.0 Splitboard Review

The Jones Hovercraft 2.0 is Jones' first major update to the cult classic Hovercraft after 14 years. The 2.0 sits in the line as their flagship powder board, but has always been known for being far more capable than just a pow board. It features a slightly volume-shifted shape, which means it is wider at the waist and shortened in length. This gives it float but keeps things maneuverable. We tested the board in a 160cm length, which comes in at a 267mm waist width, a long 9.3m radius, and 17mm of taper. The Hovercraft also features Jones 3D shaping in the nose and their traction tech edges. The Nose is long, and the tail is short with a small swallow tail. All of these features put the 2.0 right in line with many pow specific shapes.

Powder

Those who have ridden a lot of different snowboards will know that there are just some shapes out there that offer life-changing powder riding sensations. For us, the Hovercraft 2.0 is one of those boards. The big nose, short tail, and especially the 3D profiling all combine to create a high-performance, powder surfing machine. Rolling the board edge to edge in deep snow, you get the sensation of hydroplaning at the edge change, followed by easy acceleration throughout the turn. There is a lot of support and a big sweet spot on this board; steer it off your front foot, or settle back and nimbly pop the tail around, it does it all.

The Hovercraft is happy making a variety of turn shapes in powder. You can easily let your turns run fall line, and the long sidecut and stiff tail keep you stable, or you can slow it down and shorten the radius of your turns. This makes it an incredibly versatile board for a variety of terrains. You can take the Hovercraft out on big open faces and let it run, or take it into low-angle trees and slalom all day. If it's snowing outside, it usually means avalanche danger has increased, so you're likely sticking to lower-angle terrain. The 3D shaping and fast base of the Hovercraft makes low angle days a blast because it reduces friction and lets you glide and accelerate with ease. If you're in the market for a new powder board, it's really hard to go wrong here.

Firm Snow

For all of its soft snow prowess, the Hovercraft is a surprisingly fun and competent board for firm snow conditions as well. The magic of this board is in its ability to navigate many different snow types, despite its powder-centric appearance. We found the edge hold to be good with this board, and it offers the damp ride we've come to expect from Jones. The Hovercraft is wide, which can push you around a bit on firm, bumpy terrain, especially for riders with smaller feet, but we wouldn't call it chattery. On smooth snow, the traction tech edges and longer radius keep you feeling locked in, and we had a good time carving up old windboard snow on this board.

You can definitely feel the waist width on the Hovercraft when you're trying to make quick turns on firm snow, but the 3D shaping does help loosen things up and tame the width. The 17mm of taper also helps for initiating turns, but it does hinder overall edgehold. When the terrain gets steeper, that short tail does a lot for helping you bring the board around in jump turns. As you press into the front of the board and bring the tail around, it is easy to notice how much less board you have behind you to clear the uphill slope with. The flex between the feet of the Hovercraft is also more forgiving, which helps for getting into a steep jump turn. For folks with bigger feet, we think this is a good option for a maneuverable board in technical terrain.

Variable Snow

If you're out days after the storm and the powder is chopped up, the Hovercraft is still a fun board to bash snowpiles and race through moguls with. The short tail and taper allowed us to wiggle through moguls with ease, but if we wanted to straightline, the stiffer tail kept us upright, and the big nose plowed through the bumps. Whether you like turning through chop or bashing through it, the hovercraft lets you do so. It leans to the side of wanting to turn around it more, but it's still pretty fun to straightline and even gap moguls with.

For even worse snow conditions, the Hovercraft has a way of making old crusts feel about as good as powder would on any other board. The floaty nose easily breaks through the crust without feeling caught, and lets you make normal turns. Oftentimes, we speak of boards that are good in crusts as allowing you to get from point A to B comfortably, but the Hovercraft might have you hiking back up to ride that same crusty run one more time.

Stability

In soft snow, we couldn't really find a speed limit on the Hovercraft. Like other boards in the Jones line, there's a more forgiving flex between the feet but stiffer flex in the nose and tail, with the tail being the stiffest part of the board. This flex kept us feeling stable at speed while still allowing quick, last-minute decisions without much effort. In choppier snow or firm conditions, we liked to dial our speed back a bit on the Hovercraft. The board's medium flex and the lack of a full-size tail kept us from feeling totally locked in in these conditions, and we were getting bucked around a bit. If you like to really drive the front of the board through this terrain, the board gives you the sensation that you're overflexing the nose, though we never overpowered it. Anytime we went too heavy into the nose of the board, it always popped us back into place, but regardless, it likes a more centered or backseat position to drive from.

If logging airtime is your thing, the Hovercraft could be an adept partner. While we wouldn't say it's freestyle focused, it does have a cozy sweet spot for landing in powder. If you find yourself going over the big nose on this board in powder, your balance was probably off long before you hit the snow. The lofty front end on the hovercraft kept us upright in all but the diciest of landings off of cliff drops and side hits in soft snow. In firm snow, the board feels quite stable on landings as well, likely thanks to its cozy width. There is some fun pop with the Hovercraft, but compared to stiffer boards, it's a touch soggy. The tail does have a slight kick to it, so you could land switch without totally burying it, but it always felt a bit exciting for us.

Maneuverability

If the snow is soft, the Hovercraft is maneuverable and easy to get around tight spots. In firmer snow conditions, the forgiving flex, taper, and 3D shape help make it quicker than other wide pow boards, but you can still feel the width fighting you a bit. The torsional flex of the Hovercraft is fairly forgiving, allowing easy foot steering at low speeds. We found this characteristic of the board to give it a nice balance across terrain, but if you want something for ripping through tracked-out tight terrain, a narrow board with a tighter turn radius will probably be better. If there's any kind of soft snow on the ground, though, we could surf through the tightest of terrain with ease on the Hovercraft, taking advantage of its short tail to maneuver around and goal post trees.

The Hovercraft is definitely a board that leans to the turnier side of the spectrum, rather than straightlining, so if you're someone who prefers to arc their way through the terrain, this board is a great choice. We paired the Hovercraft with several different bindings during testing and found it to be compatible with many setups. Throwing a stiff pair of bindings and medium-stiff boots on this board makes it pretty lively and stable, maybe even a touch twitchy if you go too stiff on the boots. Our favorite pairing was a medium-flexing binding and medium-flexing boots; we found we could still control the board with this setup, but it offered a really fun, surfy feel on powder days.

Uphill Performance

There is nothing too special going on with uphill performance on the Hovercraft. It does feature Jones' traction tech on both sides of the ski edge, which we do find to add a small improvement to grip sidehilling, but that's about as far as it goes. The board has camber, which gives it grip, but it is quite wide, which makes it harder to fit into narrow tracks and to sidehill with. At 3,400g, it's not a board for gram counters. Overall, it's an easy skinning and competent board, but if uphill is your priority, there are better options.

For those rocking hardboots we like that Jones doesn't push the touring mounts forward; this leaves lots of space for tech toes. This is also beneficial for softboot setups, in case you'd like to set the stance all the way back on a big storm day (not that you have to, though). At transitions, the Hovercraft's hardware is efficient. The board features classic Karakoram Ultra-Clips, which are simple and function well even if the board is iced up. We like that Jones chose the simpler Karakoram tip clips on this board as opposed to the tip locks. We find these are simpler on pow days when it may be cold, and snow is clogging up your clips. One downside to the 3D shaping is that it doesn't hold skins well, and they tend to peel and collect snow here. This made us need to clean our skin more often at transitions.

Should You Buy the Jones Hovercraft 2.0?

If you're looking for a new powder board to add to the quiver, the Jones Hovercraft 2.0 should surely be on your list. Beyond just powder, though, the Hovercraft makes a great daily driver for someone focused on a more turny style of snowboarding. The Hovercraft leaves us grinning ear to ear when soft snow is flying, but even if conditions aren't perfect out there, it is fun and capable. Riders with bigger feet looking for a compact solution to steep terrain should also keep the Hovercraft on their radar.

What Other Splitboards Should You Consider?

We love the Hovercraft, and pull it off the rack more days than not, but if you are looking for something stiffer to charge big terrain with, the Cardiff Goat Pro Carbon should be on your list. If you like the idea of the Hovercraft's more forgiving flex, but want something more freestyle-oriented, the Cardiff Crane Enduro is worth checking out. Lastly, if you really like the idea of the Hovercraft but want to save a little money and maybe want something a bit stiffer, the Korua Transition Finder is a great option.