Ride Wild Life Written Review Review by The Good Ride

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Ethics Statement: We don’t get paid by the manufacturer to write these reviews and this is our unfiltered opinion. We do make money from the “Where To Buy” links, but this is our best attempt at an honest and objective review from an average riders’ perspective.

Ride Wild Life 2021 Snowboard Review- How it rides and who it is for

How This Review Happened:

We borrowed this for an extended demo and sent it back.
Size: 157        
Days:5+
Conditions: Pretty great mid-winter groomers with spring like weather. Only a little hard snow
Riders: James (Size 9, 5’10” 185-190lbs), Peter (Size 8, 5’11” 185lbs)
Boots: Adidas Tactical ADV, Ride Lasso Pro, Ride 92

Insoles: Sandsole Custom Insoles, F.I.T. Gamechangers, F.I.T. Gameghangers LP
Bindings: Union Atlas, Union Strata, Ride C-8, Ride C10

Similar Boards (but not the same): Ride Berzerker, Korua Otto, Lib Tech Terrain Wrecker, Capita Mercury, Jones Mountain Twin, K2 Manifest, Yes Typo, Jones Frontier, Ride Algorythm,

Set-Up: 21”, 21.5”, 22” Wide. 21 front -6 back. Close to Reference and Set all the way back.  22” Wide. 15 front -15 back.

Approximate Weight:

The Ride Wild Life isn’t a heavy or light board. It is right in the middle. (We don’t put in the exact weight because with wood cores there is no consistency in a boards weight)

Sizing

Here are some ideal US boot sizes for the Ride Wild Life. You can of course go bigger or smaller but these work best for not turning the board slower than it should be and not having the dreaded Toe & Heel Drag.
151: 7.5-8.5
154: 8-9
157: 8.5-9.5
160: 9-10
163: 9.5-10.5
158w: 10-11
161w: 10.5-11.5
166w: 12-13

Shape/Camber/On Snow Feel/Ability Level

The Ride Wild Life gives you a directional shape but it isn’t a massive departure from being a twinish/directional twin kind of ride. The Camber profile has a little early rise in the tail going to camber underfoot with a good bit of rocker in the nose. This makes for a stable, forgiving ride that has a predictable feel underfoot in all conditions. When centered it rides like a semi-directional mtn freestyle board and when set back it rides more like a freeride board. This isn’t the most forgiving board out there but it is a massively far cry from the catchy feel you get from full camber. With a little effort an intermediate can skid turns when they get off their game.

Flex/Pop/Buttering

The flex of the Ride Wild Life is pretty stiff between the feet going to medium to medium stiff in the tip/tail. It feels stiff and damp but not dead and there is still good pop to it. It isn’t easy to butter but we found it easier to Ollie. It isn’t the kind of board that just pops on command but it needs less work than you would think for the flex.

Speed

The base of the Ride Wild Life is not super fast but it keeps its speed pretty well for this price point. There is a lot of dampness though and it could handle more speed than I was willing to give it. Peter really likes to point it and pleased his inner evil colonel.

Uneven Terrain

What a great all day ride. The Ride Wild Life can handle first to last chair on a Saturday. It powers through chunder really well but also doesn’t get cranky when you have to deal with messy slow speed resort riding as well.

Edge Hold

There is pretty competent grip here for the occasional hard patch. The Ride Wild Life doesn’t let go as easy as some boards I have ridden from Ride in the past. That being said it isn’t something you want if you often ride in hard to icy snow.

Turn Initiation

So the Ride Wild Life has initiates a turn really well. It is very much the opposite of the Berzerker. It responds well if you need to initiate a turn quickly but also doesn’t want to turn all the time. It is great for those that like to point it.

Turning Experience/Carving

Like I said above the Ride Wild Life is very different from the Berzerker when it comes to turning. The Berzerker initiates a turn super fast and then mellows out a little bit in order to not send you turning back up hill. The Ride Wild Life starts the radius of the turn mediumish and then accelerates a little. So when you decide to commit to a harder turn it doesn’t fight it. This, along with the moderate camber under foot makes for a very fun carving/turning experience. You can tell it to do long drawn out S-Turns at high speeds but also have fun carving across the groomers without the board fighting you too much. It can even circle carve pretty well.

Powder

There is a decent amount of set back on board with the Ride Wild Life. With a stance width of 22.75” you can get 2.25” back from center of board. On Reference Stance at 22” you can get 1.125” back which isn’t bad either. You combine that with early rise before a long floaty nose it does really well for an all mountain board. This gives you a taste of what it is like to ride powder with a freeride board if you set it all the way back.

Switch/Park/Freestyle

The Ride Wild Life is a great board for hitting kickers and getting air. It tracks really well into jumps. I liked the way it rode in pipe too as long as the walls weren’t too hard. The flex was too stiff for us to jib and we wouldn’t recommend it there. Switch riding was very doable and when we were on reference stance it was a pretty decent mountain freestyle ride.

Conclusion

The Ride Wild Life is one of those great one board quiver rides that can do almost everything well but nothing great. It can bomb but still give a pretty well rounded turning experience. It can ride centered to give you a mountain freestyle experience but still give you some directional freeride style float in powder. This is a great one board quiver choice for the price point.