Prior Split Board is a great touring board. I had a chance to test it today in Whistler. Great stuff.

Riding - it goes well. In unprepared conditions is great. Very floaty, so you don't sink in the powder, even though the one I was testing was only 150cm. Unfortunately the 165cm was not available for the tests. On the prepared slope you could feel, that it is quite soft. But it was very manageable. I tested it with soft boots. Unfortunately I had a lot of toe and heel overhang, so I could not carve it. It would be great to try it with hard boot setup, but my plate bindings did not fit. During fast riding on a groomed slope, I didn't have any problems with wobbling and instability.

Touring - the skins were great. I tried some quite steep slopes today, and did not have a problem. The 2 halves are quite wide - much wider than most skis, so you don't sink in the powder. The soft boots made it very comfortable to walk in.

Changing over - takes about 10 minutes. In the snowboarding mode, the board is held together by 4 latches and the bindings. Bindings are secured with the safety pins. Only after the bindings are in place, the board becomes quite stable and stiff. To change the mode to touring, you only need to:

It is quite simple. The first time it took me 15 minutes to change from snowboard to tour mode. Changing back took about 10 minutes. After 3 changes, it took me around 7 minutes to change snowboarding to touring. 

Over all, the Prior Split Board is a great backcountry touring board. Touring is really enjoyable, and riding off-piste is pure fun.

I'd give it 9/10.

Check out the pictures.

This page was last updated on 08-05-2006.