Hello and welcome to my Rome Agent snowboard review.
In this review, I will take a look at the Agent as a freestyle snowboard.
As per tradition here at SnowboardingProfiles.com I will give the Agent a score out of 100 (based on several factors) and see how it compares with other freestyle snowboards.
Overall Rating
Board: Rome Agent
Price: $499
Style: Freestyle
Flex Rating: Medium (5/10)
Flex Feel on Snow: Medium (4.5/10)
Rating Score: 87.0/100
Compared to other Men’s Freestyle Boards
Out of the 36 men’s freestyle snowboards that I rated:
Overview of the Agent’s Specs
Check out the tables for the Agent’s specs and available sizes.
Specs
Style: | Freestyle |
Price: | $499 |
Ability Level: |  |
Flex: |  |
Feel: |  |
Smooth/Snappy: |  |
Dampness: |  |
Playful/Aggressive: |  |
Edge-hold: |  |
Camber Profile: | Hybrid Camber But mostly camber. Rome's "Fusion Camber" |
Shape: | |
Setback Stance: | Centered |
Base: | Sintered (Rome's "SinterStrong") |
Weight: | Normal |
Camber Height: | 9.5mm |
Sizing
LENGTH (cm) | Waist Width (mm) | Rec Rider Weight (lb) | Rec Rider Weight (kg) |
|---|---|---|---|
148 | 250 | 100-150 | 45-68 |
151 | 251 | 110-165 | 50-75 |
154 | 253 | 115-170 | 52-77 |
155W | 264 | 150-220+ | 68-100+ |
157 | 255 | 130-190 | 59-86 |
158W | 265 | 150-220+ | 68-100+ |
160 | 256 | 150-220+ | 68-100+ |
161W | 267 | 150-220+ | 68-100+ |
Who is the Agent Best Suited To?
The Agent is best suited to someone who predominantly wants to ride on the slower side finding sidehits and hitting the park. Fun in the trees too, but would get sinky if there was powder in there. Also lays down a decent carve, but just not at too high a speed.
So either that's your predominant style or this would be a great quiver option as the freestyle deck in your quiver, if you have other boards that you use for things like speed and powder.
Not quite beginner easy to ride, but easy to ride and a low intermediate or even a higher end beginner should be fine on this board and also suitable for advanced to expert park riders.
The Agent in More Detail
O.k. let’s take a more detailed look at what the Agent is capable of.
Demo Info
Board: Rome Agent, 2023 157cm (255mm waist width)
Date: February 17, 2022
Conditions
Date: February 17, 2022
Conditions
Overhead: Whiteout. Visibility really bad. Like 20%. Got a little better after a while.
Temperature: -1°C (30°F) through the day. -4°C (25°F) with wind chill in morning. -1°C (30°F) with wind in afternoon. Wind pretty much non existent though. 5kph (3mph) winds all day. Slight change of wind direction in afternoon, which wasn't as cold a wind.
24 hour snow: 0cm (0")
48 hour snow: 0cm (0")
7 day snow: 4cm (1.5")
On groomer: Nicely groomed. Soft packed. Got slushier as the day went on.
Off groomer: Pretty soft with a couple of harder semi icy patches but for the most part semi-slush, particularly as the day went on.
Setup
Bindings angles: +15/-15
Stance width: 575mm (22.6″) but reference is 535mm (21")
Stance Setback: Centered
Width at Inserts: 264mm (10.39") at reference stance. 266mm (10.47") at the stance I rode at.
Rider Height: 6'0"
Rider Weight: 180lbs
Rider Boot Size: US9.5 Adidas Tactical ADV
Bindings Used: Burton Malavita M
Control Board for Control Laps: Lib Tech Terrain Wrecker
Weight: 3100grams (6lb 13oz)
Weight per cm: 19.87 grams/cm
Average Weight per cm: 18.59 grams/cm*
*based on a sample size of around 200 models that I’ve weighed in 2019, 2020, 2021, 2022 & 2023 models. Heavier than normal on scales - quite heavy, but felt surprisingly light to ride on snow in comparison.
Powder
We didn't have any powder to test in on the day, but the specs and feel suggest that it wouldn't be great in powder.
It's true twin, centered and a camber dominant profile. There is some subtle rocker before the contact points but it's mostly camber.
Carving & Turning
Carving: Really good on a carve for a freestyle board. Not a carving monster or anything, but can lay down a really decent carve.
Turns/Slashing: Nice and easy to initiate a turn and easy/fun to slash.
Maneuverability at Slow Speeds: Nice and nimble when riding slow. Could whip it around easily.
Skidded Turns: Easy to skid turns on. For how camber dominant it is, didn't feel catchy.
Speed
Gets a little chattery and wobbly when you start to open out the speed. Not made to be a bomber, so not expected, but yeah certainly more of a slower more playful ride, than a bomber. Had good glide though.
Uneven Terrain
Crud: You feel everything, it's quite chattery. And gets bucked around quite easily, but it is easy super easy to correct your line.
Bumps: Really quick edge to edge and was super fun in trees and bumps. Easily hugs bumps effortlessly when going over top of them as well.
Jumps
Really fun board to jump with.
Pop: Really easy to extract the pop from this board. You just have to think about popping and it does it for you. Not a hugely high pop ceiling (i.e. when you really wind it up it doesn't give you a massive amount more) but just so easy to extract.
Approach: Not ultra stable but stable enough and can easily make adjustments when necessary.
Landing: Wouldn't go as far as to say it's a stomper, but really nice on landings. And for those less than perfect landings was really forgiving.
Side-hits: So fund. The perfect mix of agile, easy to spin, great switch and super easy pop. Plus nice and forgiving on sketchy landings.
Small jumps/Big Jumps: Best for smaller jumps but handles medium well too. Less suitable for really large jumps.
Switch
Really good as expected.
Spins
Really good for spins. Easy to get spin around, nice easy access pop and sets up and lands switch really well.
Jibbing
Felt really confident lining up jibs and popping on and off them.
Butters
Nice and easy to press the nose and tail and both nose and tail feel the same to press.
Score Breakdown and Final Verdict
Check out the breakdown of the score in the table below.
RATING | Contribution to Final Score | |
|---|---|---|
JUMPS | 4.5 | 18/20 |
JIBBING | 4.0 | 16/20 |
SPINS | 4.5 | 13.5/15 |
SWITCH | 4.5 | 9/10 |
BUTTERING | 4.0 | 8/10 |
UNEVEN TERRAIN | 3.5 | 3.5/5 |
POWDER | 2.0 | 2/5 |
SPEED | 2.5 | 2.5/5 |
CARVING | 3.5 | 3.5/5 |
TURNS/SLASHING | 4.0 | 4/5 |
TOTAL after normalizing | 87.0/100 |
The Agent is a really fun board, if you're looking to ride a lot of park and/or ride the mountain playfully like it's a park.
It's a gem for sidehits, small to medium jumps and spins. It's really good for jibs and butters too and can lay a better carve than you'd expect as well.
Not going to be the one if you want to straight line bomb the mountain or search for powder, but overall a really fun all-round freestyle oriented board.
More Info, Current Prices and Where to Buy Online
If you want to learn more about the Agent, or if you are ready to buy, or if you just want to research prices and availability, check out the links below.
- US
- UK/EU
If you want to check out some other freestyle snowboard options, or if you want to compare the Agent to other freestyle snowboards, then check out the next link.
I ride a rope tow and do a lot of jibbing. Funny enough ive been on a rome ravine for the past 3 seasons (had 5 of them😂) Just grabbed an agent 154. Size 9.5 vans boot and about 170lbs at the moment. Concerned about waist width at the moment. Will i be ok?
Hi Jack
Thanks for your message.
You should be all good, IMO, in terms of width. I rode the 157 and it measured 264mm (10.39″) at the inserts at reference stance and 266mm (10.47″) at the stance I rode at ( I rode it a little wider because the reference stance was narrower than I prefer. In the 154 that would translate to around 2mm less than those numbers. At that width, I’d be very surprised if you had any boot drag issues with 9.5 Vans. Even if you had a straight back binding angle, I’d be very surprised. I ride with +15/-15 angles predominantly, which does help, but with 9.5s (allbeit very low profile ones) I’ve never had boot drag down to as low as 256mm at the inserts.
So yeah, long story short, I think you’ll be all good on the 154 Agent width-wise.
Hi
I am transitioning from season rentals to owning a board. Have been snowboarding for the last 4 seasons in the PNW. The last 2 seasons have been great, going down hill at moderate speeds on groomed blue slopes, snowflaking or slow and tight turns on black slopes.
I tried the park with SMALL features last season, those small jump ramps but with no airtime and some flat boxes but tripping over to the side most of the times.
I want to learn riding in the park with SMALL feature and also learn tricks on downhill rides, Would also like to try riding between trees this season, but everything as a beginner, so that its fun and easy going and not too taxiing. That said, down hill groomed trail riding ( intermediate level ) is what I would still want to do , at least half of the time this season.
165 lbs, 5″9 , 9 boots
Please help in picking up a board, or make suggestions outside of this shortlist.
YES Typo – 155
Burton Process Flying V – 155
Rome Agent – 154
Thanks for your help
Hi Will
Thanks for your message.
I think you’ve narrowed it down to 3 good options and size-wise, I think you’re spot on too. I don’t think you can go wrong with any of them for what you’re describing, but some things that might help make your decision.
– The Typo is the best in icy conditions, with the Rome being a step down but still OK and the Process Flying V not great in icy conditions, in my experience
– The Agent is the best for carving, followed by the Typo, then the Process Flying V
– The Process Flying V and Typo are better for powder over the Agent
– The Process Flying V and Typo are better at speed over the Agent
– For jumps the Agent is the best, IMO, then Process Flying V/Typo
– For boxes/rails, I’d go Agent then Process Flying V, then Typo
– Typo is the easiest to Butter, but the Agent and Process Flying V still easy to butter/press
– In terms of feel both the Agent and Typo have what I’d call a “stable” feel, which I would describe as half way between loose and locked-in. The Process Flying V has a looser overall feel
Hope this gives you more to go off for your decision
Thanks Nate.. Your analysis really helps.
Another option I considered in the meantime, would appreciate your input.
1. Capita Outer Space living – 154
2. Burton Process (Purepop Camber) – 155
Like I said earlier, I am looking a board that will help me in learning park riding but without compromising the speed+stability+control for downhill riding. In the PNW conditions vary, especially when the wet surface after daytime drizzle freezes due to temperature drops later in the evening and night, making it a hard and erratic surface for night skiing.
Hi Will
Both those boards would work. The Process, being predominantly camber will be more tricky for jibs. It’s certainly not a super catchy board, but a little more so than the other options, IMO. The Outerspace Living (OSL) would certainly work for what you’re describing, with the biggest question mark being icy conditions.
I don’t think there’ll be anything there that you’ll dislike, but my instinct would be Typo, to give you a good balance between everything and being good in icy conditions. I would probably go Agent as a close second.
Thank you very much Nate. Your input has been priceless.
I am going with YES Typo, because of their underbite tech, as compared to Agent’s pure reliance on Camber for edge hold.
You’re very welcome Will. Hope it treats you well and that you have an awesome season!