YES PYL (Pick Your Line) Review

The YES Pick Your Line (PYL) has an uncanny ability to perform well at both fast and slow speeds. And can handle and excel being ridden aggressively, yet feel forgiving enough to still ride more slowly/casually. 

And that's definitely not to say that it's just a good middle ground between those things. At speed and, particularly, on a carve and in powder, it's up there, but still achieves good slow speed agility and ease of turns. 

In this review, I will take a look at the PYL as a freeride snowboard.

As per tradition here at SnowboardingProfiles.com I will give the PYL a score out of 100 (based on several factors) and see how it compares with other freeride snowboards.

Overall Rating

Board: YES Pick Your Line 2025

Price: $499

Style: Freeride/Aggressive All-Mountain

Flex Rating: Mid-Stiff (7/10)

Flex Feel on Snow: Mid-Stiff (7/10)

Rating Score: 90.2/100

Compared to other Men’s Freeride Boards

Overview of the PYL’ Specs

Check out the tables for the PYL’s specs and available sizes.

Who is the PYL Most Suited To?

The PYL is best suited to a number of different riders. 

It can make a great one-board quiver for those who spend a good amount of their time riding at higher speeds, carving and in powder, but who also wants a good amount of forgiveness to go along with that. The one-board quiver candidate for this board probably isn't in the park much, but might like to hit the ocassional jump, side-hit or cliff-huck. 

Or it can be a great addition to a quiver. In a two board quiver it would be great paired with a freestyle/park board or an all-mountain-freestyle board. And could form a multi-board quiver too, being the daily driver or the go-to for powder-days and icy days. 

While it is relatively easy to turn for how aggressive it can ride, it's still not for beginners and for the most part, I would say you'd want to be at least solid intermediate for this board. 

PYL DetailS

O.k. let’s take a more detailed look at what the PYL is capable of.

Demo Info

Board: YES Pick Your Line (PYL) 2025, 159cm (253mm waist width)

Date: March 24, 2024

Powder

Nothing to test in on the day but from past experience with earlier models of this board and based on specs, it's a board that will be really good when the pow arrives. 

While it only has a small amount of taper (around 6mm) and a small reference stance setback, it has a really big nose, with a huge upturn of rocker in the nose. In contrast the tail is not only narrower and shorter, but it also has very subtle rocker.

The 1-4-2 rocker-camber-rocker profile doesn't really represent the contrast in rocker in the tail and nose that you can see and feel with the board. I suspect this is because the rocker in the nose starts so much earlier - and just keeps rising.

Carving

This thing is so darn fun on a carve. And it's one of those boards that manages to be just as good for all types of carves. Fast, slow and various radiuses (OK so I probably should have used the term radii - but, I don't why it does, but radii just sounds so pretentious - and my spell check didn't have any issues with radiuses, so I think it's good to go!).

It probably has it's limits in terms of super high speeds, but I couldn't find the limit on it and it's a rare breed that can carve well at high speed but still be good on a lower speed carve. 

Turning

Ease of Turning/Slashing: And for how well it rides at speed and carves, it's actually pretty easy to turn and slash as well. Another combination that I've found to be quite rare in snowboards. It's not ultra easy, but remarkably easy, given it's other qualities. 

Maneuverability at slow speeds: Again, the combination of the PYL's slow speed and fast speed qualities are pretty remarkable - the way it's able to do both so well. It's not among the top tier of edge-to-edge quickness at slow speeds, but it is top tier in terms of how good it is at slow speeds vs fast speeds.  

Catchiness: Really un-catchy, even when ridden slow. Not fully catch free but for how well it rides at speed and particularly for how well it carves, it's remarkably low in catchiness. 

Speed

I found and have always found the PYL to be nice and stable at speed and relatively chatter free. I did experience some chatter, but nothing crazy. The glide isn't great, so you don't get that acceleration and if you don't pick up enough speed when approaching a flat area or uphill, it can be a struggle to get through. 

But in terms of stability at speed, it feels really good. 

Uneven Terrain

Crud/Chunder: Not ultra damp, but damp enough, and nice and stable going through or over messy snow. Some chatter, but it's not bone-shaking. 

Trees/Bumps: Really decent edge-to-edge quickness and in powder, it goes really well in trees too.

Jumps

Really decent for jumps. Not ultra poppy but some pop there.  But otherwise a really nice balance between forgiveness and stability. 

Pop: Not super easy access but not hard to extract either. Total pop isn't bad, but not super poppy overall either. 

Approach: Great balance of stability and adjustability leaning more to stability side.

Landing: Nice solid landing platform and decently forgiving too, for when you don't quite get the landing stomped. While it's not great for landing tail heavy, it's not too bad either - there's some tail there to support you, if you land leaning back a bit too far. 

Side-hits: It wouldn't be my go-to for side-hits, but still really decent, especially for a freeride board. 

Small jumps/Big jumps: Really all sizes work well on this board. Because of it's stability, I would go with big jumps as it's best jumping quality, but really it's good for all sizes of jumps. 

Switch

Was pretty forgiving on transitions to/from switch and felt quite easy to ride switch on. And while it does look/feel a little odd having that big 'ol nice on your back foot, it's not super directional feeling when not in powder, if you can put that look/feeling out of your head. 

Spins

Pretty good for a directional board. Not super light swing-weight and takes some effort but not bad. Definitely doesn't over spin and not too bad at finishing a spin on the ground when you haven't quite rotated enough.

And setting up and landing switch is doable too for 1s, 5s etc. 

Jibbing

Felt relatively confident with this board taking it on jibs, which I don't necessarily with all freeride boards. Still certainly far from ideal for it. 

Butters

It takes some effort to press the nose and tail, as you'd expect at it's flex. But it's nothing that's oppressively stiff in its nose/tail. And when you can get that force on there, it locks in nicely. 

The nose and tail do feel quite different to press though, naturally.

Score Breakdown and Final Verdict

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

The Pick Your Line is a great board, well before you look at the price. And then when you look at the price you realize just how good the value-for-money is for this board! Versus boards in this category and with similar performance, it's well below the average price - but well above the average performance. 

But even taking that out of the conversation, it's a board that impresses with its ability to achieve some rare combinations of slow/fast, aggressive-yet-forgiving riding qualities.

And the fact that performs so well in both icy conditions and powder, makes this board suitable for a good variety of terrain types and weather conditions.