10 Best Line Skis of 2023 | All Types of Skiing

The contemporary classic and best selling model from Line is back again in its 107 mm waisted incarnation. In short, the SFB is an all-mountain ski that brings a little bit of everything that Line does best.

The SFB has the playful carver shape we see in the Sakana with the lilt and lift you get from their convex-tipped powder models. This tied together with Line’s park base makes these skis one of the better rounded options from Line and at large.

While SFBs can do most things well, they have a hard time keeping up with stiff all-mountain skis when you need to navigate chunky snow or debris fields. But that’s a small price to pay considering the freedom they allow on the rest of the mountain- they’re a veritable passport to anywhere else accessed by a lift.

If you can’t make up your mind about which Line ski to choose, the SFB takes good elements from all of them.

The Blade takes Line’s incredibly playful and liberated style of skiing and translates it for those who want to keep their skis on the ground. Imagine the punk rock attitude of their park series translated as a carver that flips from edge to edge like a coin. 

Similar to their Sakana and Pescado swallowtails, the Blade is built to turn. But it’s more capable of doing so through sloppy snow and hardpack.

Their frontside destroyer status is achieved through an undeniably alien shape. Bulging out from a serviceable 95mm waist all the way to a bulbous 154 mm tip, they look more like a canoe oar than a ski.

Combined with conservative rocker and minimal tail taper, the Blade true to fashion has a whole lot of edge to it and is built more for firm snow than the Sakana or Pescado also listed.

Line’s Blend brings all of the same “freestyle/freeride” impact that made it beloved by all-mountain park enthusiasts in years past. This is for tricksters that also like to take the action where they can find it outside the park.

The Blend specifically approaches the problem by emphasizing park performance while giving you something to work with on the rest of the hill. 

The Blend lands somewhere in the middle of buttery and burly, making them a notably versatile option for those with a deep repository of park tricks.

They balance bendability with a low swing weight and reasonable support on landing, but for that reason you probably want to avoid flying too high unless you’re confident in your ability to land soundly and consistently.

Line’s twin, swallowtail sweethearts are back again this season, and boy can they turn! And then some. Most at home plunging in and out of soft snow like an upstream salmon, the Pescado’s iconic tail keeps your shovels out of the snow and favoring a high-sailing, surfy feel.

They also allow you to mount the ski back from center without sacrificing aft stability, as the rigid titanal swallowtail tips add a little extra edge you’d otherwise miss.

These are definitely soft snow skis. To be sure, on hard pack or crust you’d feel a bit of a “fish out of water” and that’s alright. Unless you’re living somewhere that sees multiple daily inches or only hits the slopes after a big storm, they’re a bit of a specialty piece that will spend a lot of time in the garage or the roof box. But, when conditions are right, it’s hard to find skis that are as much fun to ride.

A far more versatile yet no less fun alternative to the Pescado, the Sakana is everything you’d expect out of a carving ski from Line. Taking major notes from the Blade listed above (the oversized shovel and aggressive sidecut), this ski is practically aching to get up on edge.

Regardless of skill level, skiers should have no trouble laying squiggly, convoluted sets of railroad tracks down tame to tough slopes.

“Sakana” comes from the Japanese term referring to a small snack customarily served with alcohol, maybe Line is trying to tell us something here. As far as we’re concerned, it epitomizes everything that has made Line the iconic ski brand they are today,  emphasizing fun and never taking themself too seriously.

It’s hard to have a better time on shallow sluff or soft spring slough.

Though the Sakana has earned its salt both on and off piste, you’re better off looking for something a little more traditional for big bad lines and bad conditions.

It’s easy to recognize a dedicated powder ski. Though there’s a lot of talk about optimization and getting the most out of your post-storm slashes, when it comes down to it, it’s all about the minor details separating the best from the rest–a surprisingly subtle “hint of Line.”

Featuring acclaimed “convex base technology,” the Outline is a featherweight behemoth ready to give you more float and fun for your run down any face with decent coverage.

True to form, the Outline takes a playful approach to its ends. Its twin tip build coupled with a generous amount of flex and convex tips and tails lend themselves to a smooth and loose feel while laying fresh tracks and cruising back to the chairlift, though they heavily favor a centered stance which could very well take some getting used to.

Weighing in at an impressive 2030g per ski, they also serve as a reasonable touring ski for deep, low-consequence lines.

Lightweight freeride skis are a hot ticket item nowadays, particularly those with a wide waist. The Vision is on the stiffer end for skis in this style, giving you more support underfoot for steeps and soft but uncertain landings. They nail the “light in hand, heavy underfoot” feel manufacturers aim for in this category.

We’d recommend the Vision 118 as a wide touring ski or a resort powder ski for people looking to cut down on fatigue and aren’t as concerned about throwing tricks.

To say that the Vision is Line’s answer to Atomic’s Bent Chetler wouldn’t be inaccurate, but that’s not the whole story. The Vision is constructed in a way more conducive to going straight down the hill, offering more stability and support if less “trickability.” 

If you’re after more versatility, the rest of the Vision series includes offerings at 108 and 98mm alternatives.

As trends change and technology improves, we see skiers who want something less specialized. Something that’s not necessarily adept, but at least adequate in any terrain they choose.

The latest iteration of the Chronic is a great daily choice for 50/50 frontside-freestyle skiers, or those who want something a little tougher than they typically get from Line for riding rails. 

The last few seasons we’ve seen a lot of toeing the “Line” between park skis and all mountain rippers.The Chronic is a classic ski from Line, and like the Blend above, is sitting somewhere between the park boundary and the rest of the mountain.

However, where the Blend is soft and accommodating of some more bendy and buttery freestyle tricks, the Chronic gives you a little more to work with in variable snow.

There’s no denying Line’s rapport in Freestyle skiing. The Tom Wallisch Pro model– the once much-anticipated and now long-celebrated, dedicated freestyle ski in their lineup–remains the most trusted model from Line for hitting XL park features.

But these skis don’t just go big, they’re on the aggressive side of a freestyle swiss army knife, but any seasoned trick skier should be able to bend, slide and otherwise slay these skis anyway they imagine.

Given the reputation of the pro backing them, the Tom Wallisch should be on the shortlist of any serious park rider looking for a new ski to blow up. But what really sets them apart is a unique tip and tail taper.

The edges on either end of the ski are designed to be forgiving when landing rotation, so you don’t catch an edge and slam when you don’t quite bring your spin around.

As budget-conscious skiers everywhere mourn the retirement of the longstanding Sick Day series, Line went back to the lab and spliced together two of their best selling models to fill the void. The Blade Optic collection takes notes from the ultra-stable, snow-slicing Blade while capturing the freeride spirit found in the Vision series.

We chose the Blade Optic 92 because it fills the same niche as the aforementioned Sick Day series. It’s the only model out of the new lineup without any metal in its build, making it the lightest, most maneuverable, and the most affordable out of the series.

The Blade Optic 92 has big shoes to fill, but we think that it hits on all of the points we loved about the Sick Day- and some more.

Given its low weight, forgiving ride, and reasonable performance on variable now- we think this model, and the series overall, holds appeal for a wide variety of skiers. It’s a great starting point for riders branching out into the all-mountain category, as well as veteran skiers in search of a playful, freestyle oriented model.