Reviewing the Proteus Snowboards Adjustable Camber Technology: Does the New Tech Deliver?

Proteus Snowboards have an innovative technology that allows the rider to adjust their board’s profile to camber, rocker, flat, or any combination of hybrid board profiles in between. With the ability to change the board’s profile at any time, Proteus has designed one of the most versatile and adaptable snowboards you can buy today. 

Is It Right for You?

What feature of the Proteus Adjustable Board sounds the most interesting?

0 / 5

• Use this menu to navigate all of the important sections of this review. It will help you understand if this board is right board for you.

Overall Rating

Considerations	Rating Out 5	Score Out of 100	Weight / Importance to Score
Resort Riding / Versatility	5.00	100	10
Pop / Power	4.75	95	10
Carving / Turns	4.30	86	10
Responsiveness	4.40	88	10
Speed	4.50	90	10
Ice / Poor Conditions	4.50	90	10
Switch	5.00	100	5
Jibs	4.50	90	5
Jumps	4.80	96	5
Dampness	4.40	88	5
Buttering	4.20	84	5
Fun to ride	5.00	100	5
Value for its Price	5.00	100	5
Extras	5.00	100	5
Powder (*Didn’t Review Yet)	0.00	0	0
Weighted Score	4.64	92.8	100

Our Rating: After calculating the weighted score, my rating for the Proteus Snowboard earned a 92.8 out of a possible 100 or 4.64 out of a possible 5 stars.

Overview Video of The Proteus Board Review

Here is a short video of me riding and reviewing the Proteus Adjustable Camber snowboard.

Details About the Proteus Board I rode

• My Rating: 4.65 / 5
• Flex Rating: 4/10 – I rode the “soft” flex pattern
• Actual Feel of Flex: 5/10
• Weight: 9.8
• How the Weight Felt Riding: It felt and handled like the average all mountain twin snowboard.
• Size I rode: 154 – you can see all of the specs and sizes available here.
• Price: $624
• How Price Compares: This board cost around $74 more than the average all mountain snowboard. (The avg board doesn’t adjust it’s camber profile, though.)
• Where to Buy: Proteus Website
  

The Feature Highlights of This Snowboard

• Adjustable Camber System 
  • This board can switch between six camber profile types. 
    
  • Proteus boards can be adjusted to ride any type of terrain. With the profile being adjustable, you can have more pop, board flex, or float whenever you need it. 
    
    
• Excellent Edge Hold
  • There are two extra contact points built into the sidecut of this board (The tech is similar to Jones’ Traction Tech 2.0). This helps the board grip to ice and firmer conditions.  
    
  • Additionally, Proteus adds carbon in X patterns to give the board torsional rigidity based on your stiffness preference when you buy your board. 
    
    
• Feels Like a Damp and Responsive Higher End Board
  • These are hand-built in the USA with the following materials:
    • Full sheet of biaxial glass and strategically placed triaxial glass for response, pop, and durability
      
    • A durable/lightweight poplar and Paulownia core
      
    • Polyurethane and vulcanized rubber for shock absorption
      
    • UHMWPE (Ultra-high-molecular-weight polyethylene) is added in the nose and tail for durability 
      
    • X Shaped Carbon reinforcements to increase the torsional stiffness and improve the response
      
    • A fast base – ISO 7500 sintered base
      
      
• Custom Graphics & Design at No Extra Cost
  • You can design your topsheet, and it will be added to a textured topsheet at no extra charge. 
    

How Does the Adjustable Camber Profile Work?

Each Proteus board comes with an adjustable mechanism (called the “Adjustable Camber System”) built into the center of the topsheet of the board. The camber system has two screws that allow you to tune the profile of the board. One screw adjusts the tension for the profile in the nose and the other for the profile in the tail. The idea is that you can adjust the camber profile symmetrically or asymmetrically depending on the conditions and how you want to ride your snowboard on any given day.

Adjusting the camber profile on a Proteus Snowboard feels a bit like tuning a guitar. Just as you would tighten or loosen a guitar’s tuning peg to increase or decrease the pitch of a guitar string, a Proteus snowboard allows you to tighten your board’s profile tension for a rocker profile position or loosen it to achieve a camber profile position.

Do You Need a Board With Adjustable Camber Tech?

Maybe not, but it depends on what you want in a snowboard.

There are other benefits to having more than one board beyond just the board’s camber profile.

Owning multiple specialized boards comes with these benefits:

1. Different Bases – Different boards have varying levels of speed and durability.
   
2. Different Sidecuts – Different boards have different sidecuts and are able to make make tighter or wider more easily turns based on their turning radius dimension.
   
3. Different Weights – Different boards can be lighter or heavier based on their core and the materials used.
   
4. Different Personalities – Different boards have different levels of board feel, dampness, or other characteristics that contribute to how they feel to ride.
   
5. Different Levels of Response – Different boards will be made to be more or less responsive.  
   
6. Different Levels of Edge Hold – Different boards will have varying levels of edge hold or grip.
   
7. Different Levels of Pop – Different boards offer varying levels of pop. 
   
8. Different Flex Patterns – Different boards offer varying levels of flex.
   
9. Different Shapes – Different boards can have different shapes, which aid the board in being able to float or carve in a particular direction. 
   
10. Different Widths – Different boards can be wider allowing the rider to size down in the length of their snowboard. 
    
11. Different Graphics – Different boards have different graphics.

As someone who gets to go to tradeshows and review a lot of boards, I’ll admit we are living in the age of the board quiver. The messaging is all around us about the many benefits of having a lot of snowboards to pick and choose from. However, that option is expensive and not affordable for the average rider. 

Does the Tech Deliver for the Average Rider?

Yes, because the average snowboarder only needs one board that is versatile enough to handle every type of riding they like to do, and this is that board.

I thought the tech worked as described and was very simple to use. I was imagining it would be on the heavy side, and it wasn’t. In our weight testing, the board weighed exactly the same as my other all mountain board, the Capita Resort Twin.

Overall, I would recommend giving the Proteus board a try. With a few adjustments with the wrench they provide, you are able to match your board’s profile to the type of terrain you’ll be riding for the day.

Having the ability to adapt the board’s profile to the terrain was convenient and it makes this one of the best (if not the best) all mountain snowboards that you can get right now.

Image Gallery From the Review

Here are some images I took while reviewing this snowboard. The captions on the images will show what I was testing at the time, and you can watch the review video to hear what I thought of each test.

Pros of the Proteus Snowboard

Here are the primary advantages to getting this board.

The Ability to Adjust Your Camber Profile

The Adjustable Camber System is the main highlight of a Proteus Snowboard. This is the mechanism that allows the board to switch between settings for the following profiles. 

1. Full Camber – The carving and ice setting. This is a full camber setting where the center of the board is concave (lifted up off the snow) while both the nose and tail point downward. It’s the shape that resembles closest to a lowercase ‘n. 
2. Flat – The jib setting. This setting has the tension settings to keep the board completely flat with no curvature at all.
3. Rocker – The slush and butter setting. This is a full rocker setting where the center of the board is convex (facing down on the snow) while both the nose and tail point upward. It’s the shape that resembles closest to a lower case ‘u’.
4. Mid Camber – The groomers setting. This setting is a camber setting with mid tension. The result is a less exaggerated arc of camber.
5. Full S Curve – The powder setting. This setting has a full rocker tip in the front with camber under your back foot.
6. Mid S Curve – The setting for carving trees. This setting has a mild rocker in the front with a camber section under your back foot. 

I found the system to be easy to use. You simply use the wrench tool that comes with your board and spin the screws in either direction to tighten or loosen your board’s tension based on the profile setting you want.  

How Do You Know When Your Board Is In the Camber or Rocker Position?

To make this process very simple, Proteus has built an easy-to-follow visual indicator into the Adjustable Camber System. 

• When the visual indicator shows your tension is furthest from the tightening screw, your board is in a camber profile position. 
• When your visual indication shows your board’s tension is closest to the tightening screw, your board is in a rocker profile position.  
• When your visual indication shows your board’s tension is in the middle, your board is in a flat profile position.  

It’s a Hand Built Board That’s Made in the USA

These boards are made custom right here in the USA. Proteus is a small snowboard manufacturer that began making boards in 2018 out of Lakewood, Colorado.

As you ride this board, you can feel the time and attention that went into it. It feels sturdy and high end, as if someone took the time to really get it right.

It’s the Lowest Cost Option for a Custom Graphic Board

A major highlight is that Proteus Snowboards lets you personalize your board with a custom graphic for a surprisingly low price when compared to most other custom snowboard manufacturers. 

Here’s a comparison of custom snowboard prices from other popular brands (as of May 2024):

• Proteus: $624 
• Mahar: $799 
• Meier: $919
• Donek: $935
• Moonchild: $1,066
• Gilson: $1,150

Proteus shares their image guidelines on their website, and as long as you can share a high resolution image within their specs, they’ll be able to put your graphic on your board. 

Here is the graphic they helped me design.

A Note about Proteus’ Custom Graphic Specs: 

• You can fully customize the topsheet and not the base. Proteus’ bases are reserved to include their brand name. You can customize the colors of the base to match your topsheet, though.

I am noting this because the custom brands mentioned above allow you to fully customize both the topsheet and base. Proteus allows you to customize the topsheet fully. They only allow you to change the colors of the base. Your custom Proteus board will still include their branding on the base). 

Still, if you’re looking to ride your own board design, this is the least expensive option out there at the moment. It also can be a better deal than the other brands above because you can adjust the profile of the board to match your preferences.

The Base is Noticeably Fast

The base of the board surprised me with how fast it felt on the indoor snow. 

Usually, Big Snow’s indoor conditions feel dry and slow. However, the ISO 7500 sintered base in the Proteus board felt noticeably fast for the conditions I was riding in. Anyone who has ever ridden Big Snow’s indoor park will tell you it can be difficult to have enough speed to hit every single feature in their park. The good news is that I had no issues with speed using this board. Whenever I needed to get some speed, I simply went flat-based, and the Proteus’ sintered base was delivered. 

The one note with the base in this board is that you’ll have to wax it often to keep it fast. This is the type of base that dries out quickly, so when it looks grainy like this, you’ll want to wax it.

The Proteus team left me a note saying they waxed my board with an all temp wax. However, by the time I got to ride the board, it was looking a little dry, so I had to wax it again.

As long as you pay attention to when your base is looking white or grainy, and you wax it, you’ll be more than good to go.

A Lot of Snowboard for Its Price

You get a lot of board for the price you pay. 

With the average snowboard costing around $550, for $75 more, you can get a custom hand-built board that can act as your entire quiver. This is one board that can save you from buying other styles of decks and it comes with a two year warranty.

Cons of the Proteus Board

The Tech Takes Some Getting Used for Getting On and Off the Lift

Having a raised 3d section of the topsheet takes some getting used to while trying to get on and off the lift. 

Skating to lift and trying to either use the Adjustable Camber System or a reference point to put your foot behind will take a few runs to get the feel of. 

One really nice detail is the textured top layer of the Proteus board that works almost like grip tape while trying to skate to the lift with this board. It’s easy to grip wherever you put your back foot, so even if you accidentally step on the Adjustable Camber System, you basically wind up using it as a raised built in stomp pad. 

The Tech Adds an Extra Point of Flex Resistance

I mentioned this above where the Adjustable Camber System has a different feeling flex than the rest of the board. This became problematic only when doing a wall ride and trying to come back into the transition slowly. It’s not the largest issue because I could just adjust my profile to match the transition and try again. I am noting it because how often will you want to make an adjustment for one trick? You’d probably just adapt your line and keep moving.

The main summary is that if you need your board to flex in the center (while you’re in a camber position), speed and some muscle are your friends. Otherwise, you might just need to adjust your camber profile to a more rockered setting.

It’s Around $75 More Expensive Than the Average Board

The Proteus snowboard is around $75 more than an all mountain board you might buy at your local ski shop.

However, the main reason you would want to spend that extra $75 is to get the ability to truly customize your snowboard. For the extra cost, you essentially get an all mountain, park, and powder board in one snowboard.

However, if you don’t think you’ll customize your board based on the conditions you ride, then you might not need to spend the extra money. 

You Might Not Need an Adjustable Board 

Adjusting your board is an extremely nice feature that I didn’t know I’d make use of. However, there will be other riders out there that just don’t need this feature.

Some of you enjoy having multiple snowboards in your quiver or you get by just fine with having one really good all mountain snowboard. If that’s you, there is no harm in that. I also enjoy owning multiple boards and mixing it up now and then with a different board under my feet now and again.

So Is the Proteus Board Worth It?

Yes, but for the right type of rider. If you’re looking for an all mountain board that can carve well, rip the park, and also float in powder, then this board is absolutely worth checking out. It’s got a high end feel to how it rides, and the potential cost savings alone make it worth checking out.  

At the time of writing, the Proteus snowboard costs around $624, and you can adjust its settings to perform like an all mountain, park, or powder snowboard. It’s one extremely versatile all mountain snowboard that eliminates the need to buy a separate park and powder board for your quiver. It will save you money from having to buy multiple boards.   

That said, trying out new snowboard technology isn’t for everyone.

Some of you like the simplicity of not needing to adjust your board’s tension and want to avoid the learning curve or complications the additional tech might bring while you ride. If you’re the type of rider who is reading this and thinking, “profiles don’t need to be adjustable,” then a Proteus board is most likely not for you. 

The true benefit of the Proteus board is that it is easy to adjust to the terrain you’ll be riding on any given day. The feature allows you to save a few trips to your car to switch between another board. That saves you some time and allows you to get a few extra runs per day.  

All in all, having the convenience of being able to match your board’s settings to the conditions you are riding is an incredibly useful feature, and I highly recommend you try this board. 

Regarding the Learning Curve of the Adjustable Camber System 

• For making the adjustments profile themselves – I anticipate it will take me around one full week of riding to learn the nuances of where exactly I like my settings and how to get them consistent. Right now, I am still using the three lines as reference points to get my profile in a generally consistent spot. 

• For riding with the Adjustable Camber System: I’ve already gotten used to riding with it after a few runs. You basically make an effort to put your foot behind it as you skate to the lift. After that, it’s just being mindful of the board’s flex pattern. All boards have different flex patterns, so with this one, it’s just worth noting that the board’s tips are more flexible than its center. 

Where Can You Buy a Proteus Board?

You can buy a Proteus Snowboard right from Proteussnowboards.com.

If you like the look of the board that I rode for this review, you can get it right here.  

With that said, here is my list of the top all mountain twin boards. None of these allow for an adjustable camber profile. However, all are very versatile for multiple types of riding.  

Still deciding?
Continue on to page two of this review to see how this board feels to ride. The next part goes into details of the boards carving, jumping, jibbing, and powder performance.

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