Location: Winter Park, CO
Snow Conditions: Hardpacked to softpacked groomers.
Setup: I rode the Rome Hammerhead with the Mob Bosses bindings and Vans Ferra boots size 8.
Size: 153cm.
First Impression: Woah crazy shape but you don’t notice it when you are riding.
Weight: Average.
Flex: The Hammerhead is definitely built to be a softer park flex for on-mountain jibbing and freestyle fun. Torsionally it’s a softer more playful board, easy to engage into the next turn and get quick response for turning. It’s stiffer underfoot to give you support and stability while cruising. The nose and tail are medium range for flex, definitely soft enough to be playful but not overly soft so you wipe out while buttering.
Turning: Easy engagement on the Hammerhead. Overall it’s a pretty forgiving, easy to ride board. The softer flex and thinning between the bindings allows for you to get quick response out of it. Underneath the bindings you have more support with a stiffer flex so you feel like you can still cruise on it. Short turns were the most impressive, longer turns did okay but this board was built for quick.
Stable: The Hammerhead is softer so it’s not as stable as other charging boards. Instead of speed, it’s built to ride the mountain in slower, freestyle waves of fun. While most cruise down a cat track, this board is one that you’d play on the sides of the run, ollies, butters, stalls. When it came to speeds and carving, it was better than expected but it’s not what the board is meant for.
Pop: It’s a very playful board, super easy to butter with and surprisingly not catchy on the nose/tail with the shape. I was expecting catch and it never came.
Switch: The Hammerhead is a true twin and rode like a true twin on the mountain.
Overall Impression: The Hammerhead is Rome’s latest freestyle snowboard with influence from the classic Hosoi skate influence shape. It’s insanely fun and the shape gets so much attention on the mountain, it’s just weird looking but you still have a very capable board underneath to play on.
Shay’s Honesty Box: I wasn’t sure what to think about the Rome Hammerhead when I first saw it but it looked fun and crazy…which can be a good combo. At the on-snow it was probably the funnest board I rode during the demos, super playful and softer with a crazy fun design to it. Props to Rome.
Review Disclosure: I demoed this board at the SIA On-Snow Demo at Winter Park, CO.
