2013 Nitro Prime Used and Reviewed

Monday, June 18th, 2012

You ever start looking at a companies line up and realize there’s boards after boards after boards that just seem to overlap to the point it doesn’t merit the 20 dollar price increase? Yeah somewhere in Nitro’s line this board fits but honestly it wasn’t all to memorable and I’m sure there’s something better.

Board: Nitro Prime

Size: 155

Camber Option: Zero Camber

Bindings: Raiden Phantoms

Stance: 22.5 Wide 18 Negative 15 Goofy

Boots: K2 UFO Size 10

My Weight: 165

Resort: Breckenridge

Conditions: Gray skies, mix of sleet/snow, choppy turd snow, sheet ice, low visibility, and a a nice topping of whatever other crap you could find sprinkled in for good measure.

Flex: Slightly softer in the nose then stiffening up as you progress to the tail. The over all flex though is somewhere around low level intermediate all mountain board and middle of the road park.

Stability: Throw the idea of stability out the window. You will feel every little variation in the snow especially at speeds.

Ollies: There’s some snap but not enough to make it stand out as an overly poppy deck.

Pop On Jumps: There’s enough to handle small jumps up to intermediate level.

Butterability: With next to no real effort this board will butter around. The softer more entry level oriented flex just lends itself to being pressed, slid, and whatever you want to do on snow.

Jibbing: The sweet spots for pressing are real big and let you lock in to presses with next to no real effort.

Carving: On the sheet ice it failed to grip but just about anything would have that problem in my opinion. Otherwise it’s a sidecut you can lock into mild to moderate carves anything more and the board just can’t handle it. Short set up turns are not an issue at all.

Rider in Mind: It’s designed for the progressing rider that isn’t sure if they’re going to the park full time or to the mountain that’s why it has a directional shape and flex.

Personal Thoughts: The flex lends itself to being pretty fun on jibs in the park and can handle small to some intermediate level features. I wouldn’t ride it if you were more advanced and really pushing it to the next level. The lack of dampening does suck though and you will feel everything underfoot.

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