# 162 Skunk Ape BTX



## Guest (Dec 14, 2008)

i'm fairly new to snowboarding. Did some research online and read BurtonAvenger's review about this board. Despite his dislike of the board, i went ahead and bought it, following the suggestion of quite a few local guys. GLAD I DID! first impression was "oh shit, what'd i do?" it was early season up at Keystone and icey as fuck. to BA's credit, the magnatraction WAS quite "catchy" towards the ends of the edge. spent most of that day on my ass. went home and did a little "detuning" of the edges and adjusted my stance from +15/-15 to +15/-6. 
took it up to Vail the next weekend. dumped about 2 foot that weekend. started getting used to the BTX. the prior weekend, it felt a little squirrelly to me and would slide out easily. started learning to do a tail press... felt fairly comfortable doing one when the day was done. it handled the fresh snow well. only buried the nose once on a mogul-infested black diamond... 
Fast-forward two weeks to today... took it back up to Snowmass. it's been dumping snow up there so there was lots of powder. hardly anyone on the mountain. ripped it all over the mountain all day. did about a 20 ft tail press with ease. it seemed to float right over most any powder. Only problem i had was in one ungroomed area that was about 4ft deep. i got BURIED! Started to feel comfortable enough on it to really start picking up speed on some blues. oddly enough the faster i went, the more stable it felt. ABSOLUTELY LOVE THE BOARD NOW! as far as what BA said about it feeling to stiff, or being a "plank", i think this is far from the truth. it's a big board made for bigger guys. isn't he like 160lb or so and was testing a 162cm? i just don't think he has enough meat on the bone to get this thing to flex. So all of you big-footed fellas out there, fear not, this is a badass board! TWO THUMBS UP!!


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