The 2022 Nitro Prime Raw Snowboard Review

Board: Nitro Prime Raw

Size: 158

Camber Option: Flat Out Camber. Flat almost all the way to the tips with a little rocker before the upkick.

Bindings: Rome Black Label

Stance: 21.5 Wide 15 Negative 12 Goofy

Boots: K2 Thraxis Size 10

My Weight: 200lbs

Resort: Arapahoe Basin

Conditions: Over cast skies, warmer temps turning colder, grapple snow falling at time, zero to moderate winds, firm fast groomers, frozen chunder, ice, a little slush on the lower mountain, and some hero snow here and there.

Flex: This board has that run of the mill softer in the tips and then stiffer right at the insert pack and softer at the dead middle with a lot of torsional flex. The overall flex comes in at just below a middle of the road.

Stability: It’s about as stable as a Kleenex stopping a wet aggressive sneeze. So that means you’re feeling just about everything in it. The tips flap at high speeds and you feel that reverberation. Underfoot any time you hit a something firm with the board or push into frozen chunder you’re body is getting rocked. Basically it’s not that damp of a board.

Ollies: This board has 100% skate pop on it. You do not have to load it up but instead can roll in and snap it at the last minute. As it is a slightly softer board it does fold a little on the tail so don’t expect a big return when you do pop with this board. Even with that said it does an OK job of getting into the air for what it is and makes sidehits and rollers fun to play on.

Pop On Jumps: Well due to the type of season we had jumps are non existent at A Basin this year so that means launching the Hollywood Sidehits which are not man made jumps. With that said would I hesitate to hit a small or even medium jump with it. No, it’s got enough pop to hit smaller features with ease, anything big though you run into the lack of stability on this board being an issue.

Butterability: This board can butter but what do you expect from a flat to rocker softer flexing deck? There’s a huge sweet spot in the nose and tail that you can just lock it into. There’s next to no fight from this board so don’t worry about that.

Jibbing: This board is very approachable to jib with. That flat with the micro rocker is so ideal for learning how to press. If you already know how then don’t sweat it. The tips lock in with ease and will hold the press if you want them to or if you’re feeling lazy you can slap it down. When it goes sideways it just hugs the whole feature in a soft caring embrace that says “hey we’re going to slide this” and then you make it to the end of the feature and you’re off.

Carving: This is a very easy and smooth transition from toe to heel on this board. You notice that it just rolls with zero effort from edge to edge. When on edge you can drive into the sidecut with relative ease and make the carve more aggressive or mellow with minor ankle flexing. It does have limitations if you try to push this board for super hard carves, it just lacks the flex and rebound to make it happen. Keep it to quick tight set up turns or medium mellow carves.

Rider in Mind: Progressing all mountain rider.

Personal Thoughts: It’s been a couple years since the last time I rode one of these, and by a couple years I mean 8. So in that time has much changed with how this deck rides? Not really it’s still a consistent board for someone learning to progress on. It has limitations which is fine but is very forgiving and allows for mistakes.

Comparable Boards: K2 Raygun, Capita Pathfinder, Libtech Terrain Wrecker

Binding Recommendations: Nitro Rambler, K2 Indy, Burton Mission