How to make a Nompa
A Nompa is a hybrid mountainboard made from a Nosno and a Trampa. Mix them together and you get a Nompa, which brings together the best elements of both boards; the stability and toughness of the nosno trucks and the customisability and indestructableness of the Trampa deck.
Why would you want a Nompa?
The answer is ‘Adaptability’. You build your Nompa the way you want it. If you want a downhill board for going really fast on firetracks you build it one way, but if you want a short, agile freeride board for getting between trees you build it another way.
I built mine for exactly that. It’s light, short, has pretty good torsional flex in the deck, and hardly any turn in the trucks. I built it because I needed a board for riding steep singletrack with lots of trees around (and in the dark). It’s probably as far out on the extremes as Nompas get, and yours doesn’t have to be anything like mine.
So, how do you you go about making your Nompa? First thing is to decide what kind of riding you want to do with your Nompa and how you want your board to ride. Then you can select the parts you’ll need to make your Nompa and put them together in the right way for you.
Deck
Nompa’s are made with a Trampa deck. The advantages of the Trampa deck over any other kind of deck are that you can shape it make it ride how you want it to. If you want a stiff board for BoarderX racing you might choose a 17 ply 35 Long deck and only shape the nose and tail, but if you wanted your Nompa for freeriding you might go for a shorter deck and cut loads out from the middle to make the deck twist more.
Your three options for decks are: 35 Long, 35 Short or 15 Short. Let’s look at the 35 degree decks first. Having a 35 degree nose and tail means you’ll get plenty of turn from your Nompa, making these the right decks to choose for most people. The only difference between the Long and the Short is the length of the nose/tail tips. The length of the decks between the creases are the same on both. So, if you know you want the extra ground clearance and increased stiffness that comes with having your trucks closer together, you can get a Short 35 decks. If you want your deck closer to the ground for more stability, or you want to be able to decide which way to have the trucks after you’ve bought the deck, go with a Long 35. Short 15
Trampa Decks are available in 12, 13, 14, 15, 16 and 17 ply. The more ply, the stiffer the deck, but also the heavier. You can reduce the weight of the deck by cutting away parts. Trampa Holy Pro decks have holes cut into the footbeds, which is an ok way of reducing weight if you aren’t using snowboard board or nosno soft bindings, or if you figure out where the bolt holes are going before you cut big holes in the wrong place.
Wherever you cut the deck, think about how reducing the weight will affect the ride. If you will be mainly downhilling then you’ll probably want some weight over the wheels to help with traction (of course the nosno trucks will give you most of that weight). If you want to make the board easier to jump you might want to take the weight from the ends and keep the stiffness in the middle of the deck.
Trucks
There are three options for trucks; Nosno Alloy axles, Nosno Composite axles or making your own flexi axles from Trampa deck material.
Nosno Alloy axles are the easiest to get, easiest to work with, and the toughest trucks available. Nosno Composite axles provide a nice ride with extra absorption over the rough stuff. They also have the advantage of having an off-centre axle which means you can give you board more or less ground clearance just by turning them around. I haven’t made any Trampa flexi trucks yet, but Brennig has. The hardest thing about them seems to be accounting for the curve in the material and how that affects the wheels (and what direction they point).
Placing the trucks closer together makes the deck stiffer (even if you’ve cut loads out to make the deck have torsional flex) and raises the deck height. Having the trucks mounted as far out on the nose and tail as possible will give the deck more flex, and so more absorption over rough terrain, and put it closer to the ground which will make it more stable at speed. It’s all about adaptability.
Bindings
You can pretty much put whatever bindings you want on your Nompa. Snowboard Bindings, noSno Soft Bindings or even MBS/Trampa/Scrub Ratchet Bindings if you really want to.
You can set up your bindings however suits you. And you can adjust them to suit how/what you’re riding. For Downhill you might want to set you bindings for getting into a speed tuck, and if you’re freeriding you might want your bindings set duck-feet to make falling leaf and riding switch easier.
Want to make your own?
There are a few Nompas out there in the world, made by people experimenting with building the right boards for the way they want to ride. If you want build a Nompa get in touch and we’ll chat through some ideas about what you want and how you can do it.