i finally got some turns on the pocket and wanna report what i found:
this board was way more challenging to ride and way different than i expected. first off, it's a lot stiffer than i would have ever guessed. this lends it to really rail turns and i can really lay down even with a rocker camber. i was expecting soft and flexy, so i mounted some 390 bosses adjusted for more movement and now i'm rethinking that choice and will swap some older rome targa's to see how it feels. the rocker is deceiving because it almost feels like positive camber under foot with a rockered nose.
it steers 100% from the front foot, which should have been obvious because it has no tail. so when i came in for a big slash, it was pretty easy to spin the whole thing around. i have a hard time initiating good heel side turns from the front, so i was washing out heel side for awhile before i got it figured out.
it's wide af. it's like a coal shovel for a nose. with the convex base it rolls edge to edge pretty quick. i like wider boards so didn't have too much trouble adapting, but if you're used to 250mm waist it will feel pretty crazy for a bit.
predictably unstable at higher speeds ... unless you lock an edge and ride with a lot of control. because i couldn't slash speed with the lack of tail, i had to stay on top of my edge control to keep it in check at speed. it will go fast and handle it, but you really gotta know what you're doing or be ready to go down.
getting air is kinda tricky. i fucking tomahawked a groomer when i came up short on a side hit ... so beware, it boosts weird. like when i ride our sushi, it ollies basically like a skateboard. the PR does not respond that way, at least not as intuitively.
i've been riding since the mid-90s and this was one of the most challenging boards i've been on. for reference my daily diver is a k2 alchemist 164w, sometimes a cafe racer 156 and less so rome mod 156, so i like hard charging full camber boards. i still really like the pocket rocket and will probably sub it in on a daily basis, but it's not a hop-on-and-go-play type of thing, it's taking effort to figure out.
hot take: the pocket rocket is a quiver killer.