13/14 Never Summer Prospector Splitboard

HFT: I would suspect that the RC on the Prospector would also be shifted back: with 19 mm of taper, the board has to be designed with a significant set back in the stance, and it would make sense for the RC profile to be set back to match.
I really think the taper is key here. My Chimera Mace only has 4 mm of taper, and I really feel the difference in comparison to the furberg (~12 mm taper) and Storm (~10 mm taper). I like more taper for sure, as it makes the tail easier to push around and less catchy, and allows the rider to exit turns early if desired. Boards with no taper, like the Raptor, usually want to finish turns really hard, with lots of high pressure edge grip in tail: fun on hardpack, not so fun (at least for me) in the backcountry.
I was surprised at how well the furberg skins (with significant rocker between the feet, like NS), even with standard G3 skins I had plenty of grip: do you find the SL to skin well enough?

philip: good feedback, like I said, I found the furberg to skin really well, even with the mid rocker, and no inside edge (I guess the hard boots help as well), so I am not really worried about the skin performance of the Prospector, but when in doubt, ski crampons can work wonders. I guess I would rock G3 “high traction” skins on a Prospector, I have only used normal G3s on the furberg.
I am only considering the Prospector in the first place because of the taper, I am not interested in non tapered boards.
Here in CO 90% of skinning is on powdery tracks, and the other 10% is usually pretty predictable (such that one can be prepared with ski/boot crampons.)

I know folks who love the SL, but it is not the right board for me. Not that there is anything wrong with it, it is just a little too freestyle oriented for my riding style. The NS catalog clearly espouses the freestyle influence on the SL. The SL is a slighty directional near twin, with a deep sidecut, and no taper. I prefer a tapered board, more directional, with less sidecut; this kind of shape gives better float, more stability, and loosens up the tail a little to make the board more surfy, and easier to push the tail around, or change turn shapes mid turn (smear and slarve).
The Prosepector, in the 167X model, is the first design from NS which really appeals to me, and the way I ride-less sidecut, 19 mm of taper, with a medium/stiff flex. I am not sure how I will like the RC profile, but it does bear some resemblance to the rocker profile on the furberg, so I am hoping that it will give similar benefits. It appears to me that the Prospector was designed from a relatively clean slate, to be a backcountry board, rather than being a solid board designed for resort riding, which was then just made into a split-this is the first board from NS designed specifically as a splitboard; there is no solid Prospector.

I just did some math… The published N-W-T of the 167X is 30.9-26.8-29.0, if this is right, the “equivalent” sidecut radius (radius of a circle, based on sidecut depth and contact length) would be 13.42 meters.
I would be really psyched if these widths are correct, but I fear the catalog may have a misprint.

Scooby: I do not remember much from High School math, luckily there is the Internet. I used this calculator for the radius of an arc:

http://www.mathopenref.com/arcradius.html

It is not always entirely clear what dimension a manufacturer might mean when they say contact (or edge) length. I did use the 130 cm published in the catalog, even if it was 125 cm, the calculated radius would not change that much. I hope NS’ published numbers are right, if so, this board really interests me with its taper and relatively moderate sidecut, but I fear a missprint here…

@moridinbg wrote:

Did you try asking in an email? NS are usually very responsive.
I am interested in the Prospector as well. My Summit Split is too noodly for my taste, so something with increased stiffness from NS is very much welcome.

My Dealer (Bola) and I actually talked to one of their design engineers about it (they are buddies) and he was not totally sure on the dimensions, he did say the Prospector has a “GS type” sidecut. There are apparently a few demo boards floating about as well, so I might get to try one of those.
I am only doing preliminary research on boards for next year right now, so I am in no real hurry. Once it gets to be late summer, I can look further into it. I would prefer to just measure and actual board to be sure.