Rome Artifact Review

* as per Rome's website

Who is the Artifact Best Suited To?

The Artifact is best suited to someone looking for a not-to-aggressive, but also not-too-playful, freestyle first, but also capable on the rest of the mountain, board. 

It's only major weakness is for powder. But it's also not a speed demon or anything

Not suitable for beginners, IMO, but still not a hard board to ride or anything, so anyone intermediate and up, should be fine on it. 

The Artifact in More Detail

Bindings angles: +15/-15

Stance width: 535mm (21.1″)

Stance Setback: Centered

Width at Inserts: 267mm (10.5") 

Rider Height: 6'0"

Rider Weight: 180lbs

Rider Boot Size: US9.5 Adidas Response ADV

Bindings Used: Burton Malavita M 

Control Board for Control Laps: Lib Tech Terrain Wrecker

Weight: 3080grams (6lb 13oz)

Weight per cm: 19.74 grams/cm

Average Weight per cm: 18.71 grams/cm*

*based on a sample size of around 250 models that I’ve weighed in 2019, 2020, 2021, 2022, 2023 & 2024 models. So the Artifact was heavier than normal, but on snow it felt normal. Or maybe a touch heavier than normal, but not by much. 

Powder

None to test in on the day, but based on feel and specs, the Artifact is likely to be hard work in powder. It's a full camber, true twin, centered board, so not too much in its favor for easy powder float. 

Carving & Turning

Carving: Really decent carver for a freestyle board and for its flex. The camber dominant profile helps here. Holds onto carves at good speed well. 

Ease of Turning/Slashing: It's not not like "easiest board to turn in the world" easy, but it's easier to turn that the average board. 

Maneuverability at Slow Speeds: Nice and quick edge-to-edge at slower speeds. Quite nimble.

Skidded Turns: It's not the most uncatchy board in the world ever, but also not something that I would call catchy either. Not easy to catch an edge on it. 

Speed

It can handle a good amount of speed before it starts to feel unstable. But there's a point where it does start to feel a bit unstable. Also it's an extruded base, so not the fastest base on it. 

Uneven Terrain

Crud/Chunder: It's not a chop destroyer but it's not terrible either. Feels it and can get thrown around in it, but also not too bad in terms of making corrections.  

Trees/Bumps: Felt nice weaving between bumps. Would get a bit sinky were there powder in the trees. But did well in no-powder trees. 

Jumps

Overall really fun for jumps. This is the strongest factor for this board, IMO. 

Pop: Nice and easy to access and decent total pop.

Approach: Stable enough for most sized jumps and good for making any necessary adjustments along the way. 

Landing: Felt nice and solid on landings and can land tail heavy and get away with it. Maybe on really large jumps could feel a little wobbly on landings but good for most jump sizes. 

Side-hits: Really fun for side hits! 

Small jumps/Big Jumps: Sweet spot is small to medium jumps. But large fine too. Probably not quite as suitable for anything bigger than large. 

Switch

Really good for riding switch, which isn't surprising, given it's a centered, true twin. Transitions to switch felt good. 

Spins

Good for spins. Feels balanced and easy to spin in the air and sets up and lands switch nicely and has good pop.  

Jibbing

Decent on jibs, without being amazing. Felt like the approach was good and dismount at the end was fine, but didn't feel great when actually on the rail/box. 

Butters

It's easier than most to press, but it's not like super flexy in the tip and tail. But enough that it should be easy for most to get a good press out of it. 

Score Breakdown and Final Verdict

Check out the breakdown of the score in the table below.

The Artifact excelled for jumps and sidehits and was a decent little carver. It was also great for switch, buttering and spinning with. 

Whilst it's no speed demon, it's decently stable at speed and had good edge hold in harder/icy conditions.

It's one of those boards that you don't have to ride too aggressively to get good response out of it, but it can handle a bit of aggressiveness in your riding.