• Price: £565 / €680
• Lengths: 153, 156, 159, 162
• Flex: 9
• Profile: Camber
• Shape: True Twin
• romesnowboards.com

Park snowboards don’t come in all shapes and sizes (they’re almost all true twin), but they still vary a lot. Some are soft, noodly things that are perfect for getting spontaneous on the smaller stuff, while others are precision tools aimed at taking down the biggest features around. The Rome Mod is very much the latter.

“Patronised by Norwegian slopestyle master Stale Sandbech, the Rome Mod offers up an almost frightening amount of pop”

Patronised by Norwegian slopestyle master Stale Sandbech, the Rome Mod offers up an almost frightening amount of pop. Due to its stiffness, camber profile, carbon rods and a high-tech material called ‘Zylon’ running from end to end, this can load up energy like nothing else. The rods curve outwards towards the waist from near the nose and tail, so it doesn’t interfere too much with your ability to manipulate the board with your feet.

There’s even carbon in the base to reduce unwanted friction, so when the kickers are running slow you’ll have the best chance of staying on the right side of the knuckles. As for the weight, every measure has been taken to keep things from getting too weighty. The biax fibreglass is lighter than the industry average, while air channels in the wood core shave off even more grams.

If it sounds a bit much for you (and for a lot of riders, it will be), there’s a softer rockered version available too – but for the truly committed freestyler, the original Rome Mod wins out every time.