YES Pick Your Line Review: Freeride Snowboard Review

Hello and welcome to my YES Pick Your Line Review.

In this review I will take a look at the Pick Your Line 2017 model as a Freeride snowboard.

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

Overall Rating

Board: YES Pick Your Line

Price: $599 (USD recommended retail)

Style: Freeride

Flex Rating: Stiff (4.5/5 on YES’s flex scale)

Flex Feel: Stiff (8/10)

Rating Score: 91.8/100

Compared to other Men’s Freeride Boards

Out of all the Men’s Freeride snowboards that I rated:

• I looked at 20 different Men’s Freeride boards
• The average price was $599 (USD)
• The average score was 82.1/100
• The highest score was 91.8/100
• The lowest score was 57.1/100
• The Pick Your Line ranked 1st out of 20!

Overview of the Pick Your Line’s Specs

Check out the tables for the Pick Your Line’s specs and available sizes in the charts below.

Specs

Sizing

Who is the Pick Your Line Most Suited to?

This board is for anyone who wants to adventure and explore the backcountry – and rip it up on the groomers when the powder’s not around – but it’s in the powder that this board really comes into its own.

For anyone who needs a board that is fast, stable at speed, a great carver and performs brilliantly in powder – the Pick Your Line is a great choice.

Definitely not for the park and not for the beginner or intermediate rider.

The Pick Your Line in More Detail

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

Demo Info

Board: YES Pick Your Line 2017, 159cm, 253mm waist width

Date: Tuesday March 30^th

Conditions: Groomed on piste – hard packed but slushy especially in the afternoon. Icy patches in spots particularly in the morning. Mostly slushy conditions on groomers and off the trails. Very slow conditions in general (bar the occasional icy spots) – cascade concrete for sure. Which made it a point and shoot day in order to keep up speed. But there was plenty of slush to float over.

Bindings angles: +18/+3

Powder

Had terrific float in the slush. You could really just point and shoot this board and it floated over effortlessly.

And that’s not really a surprise given the boards specs – a hybrid camber profile (great for powder with the rocker sections tip and tail) and a 25mm setback stance.

Carving

The Pick Your Line was a fun, fast, aggressive board to wield. You really feel like you are wielding this thing – and like a large sword it is harder to control until you’ve built up the strength to control it and the technique to control it – but once you do you have a more powerful weapon.

You really feel like you have a powerful weapon under your feet with this deck. Opened out into a carve like the best of them.

In the icy patches I encountered in the shady spots it held an edge really well – better than most boards I’ve had to deal with ice on. Part of that is down to the underbite edge tech that YES now uses on their boards.

In terms of flex, YES say this is a 4.5/5 (which in my mind translates to a 9/10) but I would say it’s more of an 8/10.

The board isn’t technically tapered, even though I’ve said it’s tapered directional. They use gradually tapered sections in the side-cut, instead of just pinching in the tail. This helps to stop that washy feel you can get with a tapered board, which part of the reason why it’s so good on hard and icy snow as well as in powder.

Learn more about the Pick Your Line in the Video Below

Speed

This is a really fast deck. Even though I had very slow cascade concrete conditions on the day it was still fast – and I was very thankful to have a fast deck that day.

It has a sintered base which is nice and quick – so long as you keep it well waxed. The directional shape and stiff flex help to make this deck quick too.

Uneven Terrain

Too stiff to really hug the bumps so you want to just fly over them. You really want powder or groomed hardpack with this board so when you get that you won’t have to worry too much about it.

That said, it didn’t feel too bad in the bumpy stuff.

Jumps

It’s the kind of deck that’s designed to grip and lock into the snow – not leave it. But it actually jumps pretty well and landings felt pretty stable.

Of course this is great to have, not so much for jumps in the park, but for popping over lips and the likes.

Switch

Switch was possible but felt unnatural and weird – not what it’s made for and not something I did a lot on it!

Changes from the 2017 Model

The 2018 model is mildly stiffer than the 2017 model but subtly so – this was already a rather stiff board. The reference stance has also been narrowed – as it has on a lot of YES boards.

Changes from the 2016 Model

The 2016 model changed quite a bit from the 2015 model and the 2017 model has also had some tweaks. The 2015 model was actually quite decent at riding switch and was a little less directional.

But the 2016 changed to be a more pure freeride deck and brought in that Tapered Underbite tech. I personally think it was an improvement. The 2017 hasn’t changed as much as from 2016-17 but the setback has changed from 10mm to 25mm making it just that bit better at floating in powder.

Score Breakdown and Final Verdict

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

The Pick Your Line is a great choice for those that want a board that rips it up when they’re in the powder but also if you want to still be able to have a blast when riding it on the groomers when the powder isn’t around. It’s one of the better free-ride boards I’ve ridden for groomer riding.

Of course freeride boards, in my opinion, should also be good at carving on groomers (or they’d be a powder board in my books) but the PYL just does it that little bit better than others.