All great posts...thanks
I'm keeping the Burton Mystery which is a pretty good powder board as far as non powder dedicated boards go. Really the only powder my second board would need to be able to handle would what ever fell on groomed runs. If there was a big dump of fresh new snow id be going with my Mystery.
Im strongly leaning towards the Custom X based on feedback and the fact that I wouldn't need to get a second pair of bindings since my current ones are EST.
No votes for the Vapor? Lets assume they were the same price...would the custom still be a better board then the Vapor? Im purely going for performance...i dont care about the cost. If the Custom X is a better board then great, but if not id prefer to just buy the best for what Im looking to achieve.
I've been riding Vapors for four years and I have a two board setup of very similar style so I'll add a few thoughts. Cambered board is the vapor and hybrid board is Sherlock, two pairs of C60 bindings (thinking of swapping these for two pairs of diodes - thoughts on that are welcome).
I live in Ontario and make a couple trips to Whistler each year, and I am a near zero park person except the occasional small jump and playing near the bottom of the pipe.
In the east my primary board is the Vapor and when out west I mostly ride the Sherlock. In Ontario the Sherlock comes out when there's fresh snow or warmer temps, or in the afternoons on sunny days.
While I haven't ridden the Mystery I demo'd the Method for two full days so I have a pretty good understanding of a similar board. I chose the sherlock over the Method because it was a little more powder/soft snow oriented and I already have the Vapor for other conditons. Unfortunately I haven't ridden the Custom X.
I think that if you are tip top rider and are looking for board that will handle the steepest of steeps at Mach 10 and the hardest hard pack and some ice too then the custom X will marginally perform better while you are driving through crazy technical carves, and if you're that good (which is really good) you'll be able to push the custom X past the performance envelope for the Vapor everywhere other than doing massive airs in the pipe. Poutine guy, the king of the T7 might be such a rider, and with the T7 gone the Custom X is his next best choice in the Burton line.
If you're not that tip top carving maniac of a rider you might like the vapor more. It weighs nothing, is still a pretty stiff board, has fandamtastic edge hold, it's a perfect companion to a flying V shape in that if fills the gap (custom X probably does too). Like the custom x it's not a board that you can just dick around on and stay upright but if you push it, it's there for you. On a five day trip last year I rode the sherlock the first four days in soft snow and with the last day looking like all groomers i went back to the Vapor, which after 30 feet on the flats I caught an edge and it tossed me the ground to remind me that I wasn't on some happy skatey hybrid anymore. With that reminder done for the rest of the day I had a great time charging along down the corduroy, and later in the day slicing through the choppy crap (this will be true with the custom X too).
Based on specs the vapor might be a little better in the trees than the custom X, due to a slightly narrower side cut but I'd think that the Mystery would be the best choice there (other than the sherlock which turns on a dime with its extra deep sidecut).
Burton says the Vapor is more refined than the Custom X, and while I can't say for sure till I demo a custom X I can get what they mean; presumably it's not quite as twitchy. It may be a little less precise but I can tell you that I myself find it pretty damn precise when paired with a stiff binding.
I suspect that going forward I'll swap the sherlock for some different iteration, but as long as the Vapor's in the line I'll be keeping with it, it's a great cambered board, light weight, pretty stiff, super fast, carves real good.
So there's a long counterpoint to the various Custom X endorsements. And of course the best thing to do is try them both and then decide. I suspect the differences will be slight, and either will be way better than the Mystery when the conditions are not Mystery suited.