Review: Prior Powstick

Contributed by tom. February 2006.

Prior Powstick

I've been going back and forth on whether to buy a powder board -- although the powder days in Colorado are outstanding, they're also limited. But after we rode at Wolf Creek with 15" of fresh, I decided to take the plunge. I decided that the Prior Pow-stick was the one -- it's 181cm long to provide enough float for a person my size, and it has a swallowtail which makes it float better and makes it turnier (important for trees). Chris Prior, the manufacturer, replied the following to my questions about this board:

I would definitely recommend the Pow stick, I carves very well and I
know riders that have enjoyed both hard and soft set up on it. With the
plates you will need to have a gentler touch as it is easier to over
power the board if you dig too deep on edge. However it just takes less
effort to carve nice turns. I rules the powder and cruddy conditions,
sits up on top and floats so easily. Any depth over 25 cm this machine
is untouchable, it provides confidence at high speeds. We have changed
the shape from what is on the web site. The nose has been increased to
42 cm from 25. Its a longer much more gradual sloping nose also more
pointy, more like the traditional looking swallow tail. This shortens
the effective edge. The ride does change making the 181 ride much
smaller than its length would traditionally dictate. Feels like a
regular style 172 ish for maneuverability yet with the float of a 181,
it also carves well on the groomers. Definitely a beautiful easy board
to ride top to bottom runs and everything in between. I always have mine
on stand by when I know a storm is closing in.

Read more about the board at the Prior Snowboards page.

MOVIE

The board arrived on the last day of March, and I took up to Monarch for a test drive, with Lisa and Dr. Scott. It's so easy to make movies with the Mac, so here's a sampler of the test drive:

SHORT REVIEW

The board felt weird at first -- it's wider than any other board I've ridden, and I dropped the angles to 45FF/40RF. I centered the bindings on the inserts and ended up with a 20" stance. The conditions weren't the best for testing -- although Monarch got 3" of fresh in the morning, it was mostly gone by the afternoon, and so I mostly rode it on the groomers and dropped into a few tree runs. Carving took some getting used to -- the board is a lot softer than what I usually ride, but I could carve on it if I paid attention to staying over the board -- you'll see my arms out ("holding the tray") to angulate better. In the trees it was great -- very easy to manouvre, and in a few shots I felt the nose float up and the tail sink! Hard to write more after the limited test, but the board felt great and I cannot wait to ride it more. Going to hit Wolf Creek before they close for the season...

MORE INFO

Also read about riding swallowtails at Wolf Creek.