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I received my new Prior on Monday evening, I hadn't expected it quite that soon, but I had tuesday off so I spent a few hours setting it up and waxing it for use at Keystone the next day. Out of the box, everything was beautiful, quality looked great. I set the bindings (K2 V8) up @ +20deg front, +10deg rear, which was somewhat random, but I run the angles on all of my boards differently depending on my moods, anywhere from +15 to +33deg front, and -3 to +18 rear.

Tuesday, as I made my way down a few blue groomers on my way to the Outback, it felt very solid underfoot, and held an edge well on the firm snow.

Several lift rides later, I'm standing at the top of the Outback Express chair looking at the North and South Bowls, getting into skin mode. First attempt, some fumbling around, trying to decide what order to do things in, gloves off, gloves on, gloves off again, people looking at me funny, felt like it took 30 minutes. Blah. Once I got it changed, skinning is good, tractor skins do their job well, people look at me funny and point and whisper to one another. Change it back, run down the South Bowl, about 4 inches of windblown snow over a firm base, the board rides as well as any solid board I have been on, not really enough pow to get a feel for it's true purpose, but it's good. Back up the chair, change it to skin mode again, slightly less fumbling, same amount of whispering and pointing, skin up, change it over, run down the North Bowl. Slightly better snow on this run, powder performance feels great.

Went up again today (Thursday), crappier snow and strong winds gave me a chance to practice changing over in miserable conditions, and I got to earn some really lousy turns. I spent more time on the groomed runs because the conditions were better, and if I couldn't see the board I don't think I would know I was riding a split. Now I just need to get into the BC with this board.

Overall, highly recommended so far.

Thanks for the review derm!

Glad you're diggin the board.

Im seriously looking into this board, is switch out of the question? Im concerned if I buy a swallow tail it willl be for dump days only, not on variable conditions when I may ride switch to get around obstacles, etc.

What boots?

It will ride switch on hard snow, I've made several runs completely switch at the resorts, but if there is more than two or three inches of powder, you end up scooping it up between the tails as you ride.

I'm totally stoked on this board, to the point that I will probabaly sell my Arbor and get the non-split Prior Pow-Stick as my main resort board. I still have my K2 Ambush if I really get the urge to ride switch a ton, but that doesn't happen much.