The board that Thomas Magnum would load into his Ferrari and drive to the mountains with, if he wasn’t on a tropical island and living in a luxurious mansion. The 2014 Butterknife seems to just follow in the footsteps of its predecessor. Some may like this some may not, read the review for yourself.
Board: Rome Butterknife
Size: 155
Camber Option: NoHangups Rocker. Flat between the feet with a 3d profiling in the tips to elevate the contact points.
Bindings: Rome 390 Boss
Stance: 22.5 Wide 18 Negative 15 Goofy
Boots: K2 Thraxis Size 10
My Weight: 175
Resort: Breckenridge
Conditions: Mix of sun and clouds turning into overcast conditions with a miniscule amount of fresh snow. Over all the snow was firm and fast.
Flex: Little bit stiffer between the feet softening up in the tips. The over all flex pattern lends itself to be a versatile twin.
Stability: Compared to last years this just felt more stable. Charging through rutted out terrain there weren’t any issues with instability or causing you to go over the handle bars or into the backseat. This board never felt like it was going to buck you.
Ollies: There’s snap if you really load it up, but for those lazy last minute roller poppers it was just mediocore.
Pop On Jumps: The flex pattern lends itself to being more of a jump board in my opinion but the snap off a lip is just sort of there. You can get it done but don’t expect it to send you to the moon.
Butterability: Much like I said last year the flex pattern in this board just isn’t conducive to buttering. You have to really center flex the board to get the board to press. The blunted shape in the tips is super nice if you can get up on it.
Jibbing: Blunt shapes are the best in my opinion for nose/tail presses and if you can find the sweet spot to initiate this then you’ve arrived, if you can’t I might suggest checking out the Artifact, Shank, Boneless, or one of the other softer boards in the line. Between the bindings there isn’t that typical jib friendly flex that gives you that “locked” in feel.
Carving: Last year I had some issues with the sidecut gripping when trying to lay out carves, I didn’t find that with this years. Instead laying a carve was a breeze, quick set up turns weren’t an issue, and over all it just felt good bombing a groomer transitioning from edge to edge.
Rider in Mind: Not too sure where this falls in the Rome line but over all I would say that maybe the guy that’s looking for something with a deceiving name that can do more than butter might like this. It has a more all mountain freestyle flex in a twin shape.
Personal Thoughts: I’m still not sold on this board. The flex pattern just doesn’t fit for the name and I think that doesn’t do it justice. The blunted shape is amazing though and more boards should have that in my opinion. One of the weirdest things I noticed was how slow this base was. It just felt like Velcro at times even though no one else was having issues. It definitely wasn’t the wax job either.
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Disclaimer: This board was loaned to us for product review from the Rome Snowboards Rockies rep.
4 Comments
now stuck between this and the shank can you tell me the differences in these boards?! pros or cons?
Construction is the most obvious one. Shank is built to be sized down and has a different profile all together. Pros vs cons depends on what you’re looking for out of it.
Im a size 12-13 boot, do you think its wide enough that I wouldn’t catch?
Probably.