2011 Prior BX 163

[Futahaguro]

So I just picked up my first new board! I'm cheap and I usually buy used but this was on clearance from Prior because they ground the top of the nose base a bit too much. I cannot tell and I never grind my boards so I don't care. Anyway, I wanted to post some pictures and my initial impressions and comparisons to my 2000(?) Avalanche Damian Sanders Ice Rocket 159.

The white spot on the nose in some of the pictures is from the flash, there are no blems on the board.

1. The board looks awesome. It has a matte topsheet with a cutout design in which you can see the carbon topsheet below The rise in the nose and tail is much less than the Rocket so the small amount of fakie riding might be even less now. I also have a feeling it won't be a great pow board but yes, I know, it is not desinged for that. However, it will probably be fine for the amount of powder I ride in. The base is pretty standard looking so nothing to report there.

2. I think my Rocket has a ~8m sidecut vs the 10/12 on the Prior BX so when placed back to back the Prior BX has a bit wider of a waist and definitely has more running surface and effective edge. The weight and thinkness is actually quite similar as seen in the below photos.

3. Stiffness wise it doesn't seem like a very stiff board. It feels like I can bend them both to the same degree with the same effort but nothing scientific here.

4. The weight of board is the big picture of the scale, 7.5 lbs. With the bindings it is about 15 lbs.

5. There is certainly less camber that my old Rocket so this should be interesting to see how it rides.

I will be riding it for the first time this weekend so I will try and report on it a bit more after the ride.

My setup;
Prior BX 163 with Bomber Secret Plates and Nidecker Carbon 900 binders. Regular footed TD2 3 degree cants on orange elastomers @ 25/15 with 50/30 toe/inward & inward/heel lift. 90 being all toe or heel.

[Sasquatch_Surfer]

How do you like the bomber soft boot plates ? I also have a Prior BX in the 168 and the thing is very fun. I was just curious how the feel is with the lifted bindings. Sometimes my heel cups hit when I get too happy heel side (I don't have much for angles) so was contemplating these.

[Futahaguro]

I have only ridden them on this board for one day but I rode them a bit more on my old BX board and I really like them. They probably add about 3 lbs to the board, with the cants and plates, but they really help with the boot out problems on hard turns. I will be riding them for a good amount in Colorado this weekend so I will have a better opinion on them then but so far so good.

One annoying thing, which cannot be fixed and is not really a design flaw, is that you need to completely remove the soft binding in order to change the angle. In theory you could tweak the soft binding angle up to 5 degrees in either direction but beyond that you are moving the binding off of the plate.

I have not launched myself off any kickers yet but I don't see any problem there if you are used to the setup. The whole reason I got this setup was because I wanted something that I could carve pretty well, not extreme obviously, but I could also hit some jumps on it and take it off-piste if the powder is there. I know it probably is not much of a powder board but I don't get any powder in MN anyway.