Snowboards

YES. Optisplitstic 2021-2022 Splitboard Review

Price: £900 / €1000 / $1000
Category: Splitboard
Sizes: 159, 165
Flex: 9/10
Shape: Directional
Profile: Camber
3D: No
Base: Sintered

If you’re going to show up late to the party, you’d better show up with a pack of beers in one hand… and one more pack in the other. With the splitboard market already looking pretty competitive and offering a huge range of options to suit all terrains, abilities and budgets, the YES. Optisplitstic unapologetically caters to hard-charging freeriders who take a no-compromise approach to performance and reliability in the backcountry.

“It adopts the same shape and outline as the Optimistic snowboard and was designed with input from the team at Eagle Pass Heli”

Who Is The YES. Optisplitstic For?

Riders who are scoring big mountain lines, technical ascents and long days out in the backcountry. It adopts the same shape and outline as the Optimistic snowboard and was designed with input from the team at Eagle Pass Heli. If ever you needed a glowing endorsement for a splitboard – this would be it.

Shape, Profile and Sidecut

That powerful directional shape with a fully positive camber elevates the Optimistic into the big leagues for confident and aggressive riders. It won’t have quite the same surfy, slashy feel as something with a large swallowtail or floaty rocker nose, but if you’re tackling steep lines at high speeds, you won’t be needing those kind of features.

Camber also plays an important role on the way up, too. The increased traction on the base and edge should give you some more confidence to trust the grip underfoot on any hairy ascents. Given the wider waist width and slightly volume shifted nature of the Optisplitstic, that extra bite on the edge comes in especially useful.

And as we’ve come to expect from YES. the Optisplitstic get the sidecut treatment, just like their solid line. UnderBite technology pulls the edges in right around the inserts, which offers up some additional traction bumps on either side of your feet to engage, grip and release the edge more effectively throughout every phase of the turn.

“The increased traction on the base and edge should give you some more confidence to trust the grip underfoot on any hairy ascents”

Construction and Materials

YES. are giving the Optisplitstic a flex rating of 9/10, which makes sense given it adopts much of the same DNA as its olid counterpart. A triple woodcore configuration comprised of poplar paulownia and bamboo keep things light enough for those long slogs up to the summit, but you’ll feel the full force of the stronger, more powerful wood stringers on the descent.

The split specific hardware is provided by Spark R&D (let’s be honest, if you’re going to make the best possible splitboard at your disposal, where else are you gonna look?) and the clip system helps to bolster up the Optisplitstic’s torsional rigidity so it will ride about as close to a solid board as you could ever hope for.

That’s finished off with a Sintered True base – and one that will retain plenty of wax and make the top end speeds pretty inviting on every line.

“The Optisplitstic means business. Just look at it for crying out loud — it even looks like it’s dressed in a suit”

Roundup

The Optisplitstic means business. Just look at it for crying out loud — it even looks like it’s dressed in a suit. Thankfully, there’s a lot more than it’s understated monochrome colourway might at first suggest. It’s a real beast of a split. If youre after the occasional yomp in the sidecountry, save your money. This one’s reserved for pretty dedicated backcountry boffins.