Reporting back
So I took my new Antler out to Sunshine Village today, near Banff, Alberta.
Sunshine Village Ski & Snowboard Resort in Banff (Alberta) Canada - Banff (Alberta). Conditions are amazing for November, but still pretty sketchy. The cool thing was that I was worried about this board on hard packed snow and groomers so I got plenty of that to try out. The snow was okay, but not great. I'm going out again Saturday and it's snowing right now and supposedly all day tomorrow so I might get to try it in a bit of powder.
The board is a 157.5. I'm 5'11", 163 lbs. It has Burton EST Genesis bindings on it. I wear Burton Ambush boots that are also new (I redid my whole setup this year).
I want someone else here to buy and review this board, because it's not what I expected. I was expecting something really soft and bendy. It actually seems pretty stiff to me. It's surprisingly similar to the 2008 Custom that I'm replacing, to me.
It handled itself super well on steep sections with poor snow. I never felt out of control. It was really great in the trees, and in tight narrow sections. It's a little more forgiving than the Custom when I'd land switch, and landing jumps always felt super stable to me. It also ollies really nicely. It seems to have some pop to it. I felt like I could ollie pretty high with normal effort. I started enjoying that. I found myself ollieing crap just because it was easy to.
The board is not fast. The guy I was with rode a 163 Arbor and I'd be hammering it hard to catch up and he'd be carving and I wouldn't catch up. I like this about it. I like playing around on the hill and I don't need to go fast. Usually I'm the guy waiting for people so it's cool to slow down a bit.
I was hoping it would feel a lot lighter, but it doesn't. My buddy's Arbor felt about the same weight. So if one of the boards was lighter, it wasn't easy to tell.
So I like the board a lot, but it wasn't some magic awesome thing that changed everything. I thought it would be more different than my Custom. I predict I'm going to really like it in the park, but I won't get a chance to try it there for a few more weeks.
I'd like to hear someone demo it against a few other Burtons to see how it compares. I think it might really come alive in powder because it's obviously a rocker board but doesn't feel like it to me.
So in the end I can't really say if I'd recommend it or not. It's a pretty expensive board and I paid full price. I like it and I'm going to ride it a ton. After this Saturday I'm going out next week and then again on the 18th so I should get it figured out pretty good.