Rome Artifact Pro Snowboard Review

Rome's Artifact Pro is a board that loves to get air. 

But while getting airborne is it's best characteristic, it's versatile enough to be a one board quiver, if you you don't tend to ride powder. 

I rode it on a day with a good variety of conditions, including some harder/icy patches and otherwise mostly soft bordering on slushy snow.

Off groomer wasn't much fun on the day, but this isn't a board well suited for that anyway, so I wasn't too disappointed to not be able to put it properly through its paces outside of the groomed trails. 

Reference for Perspective of Review

I will take a look at the Artifact Pro as an all-mountain-freestyle snowboard.

And, as per tradition here at SnowboardingProfiles.com, I will give the Artifact Pro a score out of 100 (based on several factors) and see how it compares with other all-mountain-freestyle snowboards.

Overall Rating

Board: Rome Artifact Pro

Price: $559

Style: All-Mountain-Freestyle

Flex Rating: Medium (5/10)

Flex Feel on Snow: Medium (5.5/10)

Rating Score: 83.3/100

Compared to other Men’s All-Mountain-Freestyle Boards

Of the 33 current model all-mountain freestyle snowboards that we tested:

❄️ The Artifact Pro ranked 21st= out of 33

Overview of the Artifact Pro's Specs

Check out the tables for the Artifact Pro's specs and available sizes.

Specs

Who is the Artifact Pro Best Suited To?

The Artifact Pro is most suited to someone who likes to get air (whether a lot of it or launching off of smaller features), but also wants a board that can carve and handle a good amount of speed. 

Not going to serve you very well in powder, so makes a great pairing with a predominantly powder oriented board for a well balanced two-board quiver. If you don't tend to see much powder (or choose not to ride it), then it could also make a one-board quiver. 

Not for beginners, IMO. Whilst it's not a super challenging ride, it's also not something that's likely to boost the confidence of a beginner, given that it's not catch-free and not super easy to initiate turns on. 

The Artifact Pro in More Detail

Bindings angles: +15/-15

Stance width: 21" (535mm)

Stance Setback: Centered

Width at Inserts: 266mm (10.47") 

Rider Height: 6'0"

Rider Weight: 180lbs 

Rider Boot Size: US9.5 Adidas Response ADV

Bindings Used: Burton Malavita M 

Weight: 6lbs 3oz (2800 grams)

Weight per cm: 18.30 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. Pretty close to average on the scales. A little under. And felt a pretty normal weight on snow too. 

Powder

Nothing to test in but the specs suggest it's likely to be woeful in powder. Full camber, centered true twins without much nose don't tend to float well in powder, in my experience. 

Carving & Turning

Carving: I found the Artifact Pro to be a really decent carver. Stiff enough to hold on to faster carves and you can feel all that camber helping to really dig the edges in on a carve. A great option as a freestyle board that can carve. 

Ease of Turning/Slashing: It's not effortless to turn, but it's nothing that requires too much effort either.

Maneuverability at slow speeds: Again, it's not lightning quick to turn when riding slower, but it's also not bad.

Skidding Turns/Catchiness:  There's some consequence to skidded turns on this board, if you do it at the wrong time. It's nothing that's super catchy or anything either, but it's not completely catch-free.  

Speed

I found that this board can handle a good amount of speed without feeling unstable. It's not you're out and out bomber, but instead gives you a balance of good stability at pretty high speeds but also being fun at slower speeds. 

Uneven Terrain

Crud: Felt pretty pretty stable in more cruddy conditions. It's heavy enough and stiff enough not to get bucked around too easily. It's not a crud destroyer or anything, but really decent for a freestyle focused board. 

Bumps/trees: Not super quick edge-to-edge but not a slouch either, so weaving between bumps/trees was pretty fun on this board. It held and gripped well in the icier patches too. 

Jumps

This board was born to jump, really. This is it's best feature in my opinion and was super fun getting this thing airborne. Great pop and really stable on landings (despite being a 153, which is small for me). 

Pop: Pretty easy to access the Artifact Pro's pop. It's not the easiest access pop I've experienced, but it doesn't take too much effort to extract the pop out of it. And then when you do put in that extra effort, it has plenty of total pop. 

Approach: Surprisingly stable on approach, given I was on the 153. Would have felt even more stable on a longer size (I'd ideally ride this in a 156). And also had a good mix between maneuverability and stability (maneuverability would be a little less on the 156 for me).

Landing: Again, despite being the 153, it felt really solid feeling on landings. Being slightly over the average weight helps here. And not being too soft and having all that camber likely helped it too.

Side-hits: Overall very good on side-hits. If I was being fussy I would say a bit more in terms of ease of maneuverability, but overall this thing was a blast on side-hits. 

Small jumps/Big jumps: Really well suited to all types of jumps. On the 153, I would say the medium jumps are it's sweet spot, but in the 156, I think it would perform even better for large jumps.

Switch

Felt really good riding switch. No surprise given it's a true twin. Transitions didn't feel catch-free, but so long as I was concentrating, at least to some extent, on good technique in transitions, it was fine. Landed and took off well in switch for 180s too. 

Spins

As mentioned above, it was good for taking off switch and landing switch, so good for those 180s, 5s, 7s, etc. Also felt really even and balanced in the air and felt like it had an easy swing weight (noting that I was riding a 153, which is small for me). The pop that it possesses was also nice, particularly off smaller features where I had to generate enough air to get the spin around to where it needed to be. 

It doesn't over spin on landings and if you land short on your rotation it's not super punishing. It's also not super forgiving, so it can catch if you don't get all the way around, depending on the angle you're landing on. 

Jibbing

It's not ideal, but also decent enough. More challenging than softer, less catchy boards if you're a weaker jibber, but if you're a strong jibber, should be fine for you. 

Butters

You've got to put a bit of pressure on the ends to get them to flex, but it's nothing that requires (assuming you were to get the right size). too much effort. 

Doesn't over flex - at least it didn't for me and I was on a smaller size, which I would be more likely to over flex, so it's unlikely too, again assuming you're on a good size for you. 

Score Breakdown and Final Verdict

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

The Artifact Pro is a really fun freestyle board that carves better than a lot of others and has good stability at speed too, for an otherwise predominantly freestyle focused board. As you'd expect, it's not going to be great for riding powder, but it's otherwise a very versatile board, that feels at its best when getting air.