On this episode of Head 2 Head in Powder Mountain, Utah, we have a triple header between the YES. Warca, Ride Warpig, and Lib Tech Orca. Which board will claim the victory?

Check out the video below or read on to see what happens.

And before we jump in, a quick note that we aren’t sponsored by any brands to create this review. These are our own personal opinions on these boards. Now let’s get to it!

A bit about us

Everett Pelkey

• Height: 5’7"
• Weight: 180 lbs
• Years Snowboarding: 19
• Favorite Terrain: Anywhere you can bring freestyle fun and turn the mountain into a playground

Mike Leighton

• Height: 6’2”
• Weight: 185 lbs
• Years Snowboarding: 23
• Favorite Terrain: Steeps or trees if the snow is soft. Ripping groomers or the park if it's sunny

Ride Warpig

• All-Mountain
• Directional
• Soft/Medium Flex (4/10)

The Warpig is part of Ride’s Pig series. It is a unisex series that tends to run much wider in the platform, so you can ride a much shorter board than usual. It features a rocker profile, so you'd think it would be a little bit more washed out. But as a result of that wider profile, once you get it on an edge, it really holds a solid edge.

Lib Tech Orca

• Directional (Volume Shifted)
• Stiff Flex (7/10)
• Camber / Rocker / Camber

The Orca is a higher-end directiona boardl. It has a bit of rocker in the center and changes to camber underfoot.

YES. Warca

• Directional Twin
• Stiff Flex (7/10)
• Camber

The Warca is YES.’s new board for 2023. It's not a coincidence that there's an Orca and a Warpig next to this board. Combine those, and you have the Warca. It's short, wide, and true camber. It also features YES.’s mid-bite, which is a narrower section in the middle of the board that helps with that engagement and that nimbleness. The Magna-Traction also creates a wavy edge line.

First up…

[Everett] They all have a slightly different style of carving, which made them super fun to ride. The Warpig has a nice rocker. And while using it to initiate turns, you can make big, wide, open turns. Whereas the Lib Tech Orca is super nimble in the middle. You're able to twist it and get those sharp, really dramatic turns in. The Warca, however, finds a sweet spot in between the other boards and showcases the benefits of each of them. The result is just a fun, hard-carving board.

[Mike] The Warpig has more of a traditional side profile, it has a bi-radial side cut. But, as you're going into your turns, it's reliable, and you know what to expect with every turn.

The Orca has a C2 camber in the middle. So, in some of those more high-speed carves, you have to be a bit more dynamic where you're starting more on your front foot and finishing on your back. It's more of a flowy turn. But, on a higher-edge angle, if you're someone that likes to hammer their turns, the Warpig is going to feel a lot more familiar than the Orca will.

Lastly, the Warca is true camber, and it holds an edge like a true camber board. But it's still nimble because of that mid-bite in the waist width. It’s really a blend between the other two options.

[Mike] So, my pick for carving is the Ride Warpig. It's the first board I rode this morning, and when conditions were hard, it held an edge in and out. This is what I'm reaching for if I'm focusing on carp.

[Everett] I'm right with you there, Mike. The Warpig was super fun to lay in trenches as you're going, and it was reliable through everything. So, I'm definitely going with the Ride Warpig as well. As much as I thought the Lib Tech Orca was gonna take this category a little bit more, and while that board does have Magna-traction to help, the Ride Warpig knows exactly what it's doing when it comes to carving.

Next up…

[Mike] For the category of Freestyle, all these boards are really fun and playful. You can really press out the Orca. The Warca can really be buttered around; it has a fair amount of pop in it. But I really think the Warpig—with its more traditional shape—can be locked in, and you can dial in where you are. If you're buttering around, there's no variability—it's reliable.

All three of these boards are not necessarily freestyle boards. They're capable of spinning and landing things. They’re all really stable, and landing tricks in choppy conditions is really easy across the board.

[Everett]I like the Ride Warpig’s rocker feature. That makes it more of a freestyle-oriented board. I really felt comfortable getting into butters and presses, and even initiating spins off side hits. I can see why you could even take that into the park.

Though the most surprising board from today was the Warca. That thing had snap. That thing had pop. Mike was getting so much air off of it and I did not see that coming. It was super cool.

[Mike] I agree. And I think that air has to do with the Warca being a cambered snowboard—you get that extra snap. It was really fun to ride from a pop perspective.

The only one I would say felt like it was lacking in pop was the Orca. The Warca was close in all the categories, but for freestyle, I have to go with the reliable snap and familiarity of the Warpig.

[Everett] My pick for freestyle is also the Ride Warpig.

Last up…

[Everett] Next, we're going through the category of freeride through all these boards. We really put them through the paces. Having variable conditions made it a great day to push them and see what they could and couldn't do. But, really, there's not much they couldn't do.

The Lib Tech Orca was super nice for the freeride ability of having that nimble twist right in the middle. I could really handle tight trees, bumps, and everything like that. Whereas the Ride Warpig is rocker and a little more dramatic. I had to take my time and be a little more flowy.

[Mike] From a freeride perspective, if you're pointing it through a lot of soft snow, the Warpig is great. However, when we got into more choppy, harder snow, because of that more traditional shape, I kind of got locked up. There was a lot of chatter underfoot and it became harder to control.

Though with the mid-bite, the Warca is a blend of both. There was a bit of that chatter because of that true camber profile. But with the mid-bite, it made the board more nimble edge to edge. So I could compensate better.

Honestly, the Orca blew me away. It has the ability to shift depending on the conditions and I was really still able to control the board. As much as I'm not always a fan of Magna-traction, having those extra contact points really helped. Think of a bread knife. When you're cutting bread, you're just trying to get through it. But with a steak knife—which would be more like this—you need a clean surface to use it. So, with the Magna-traction’s serrated edge, you have more contact points. And then with that rocker in the middle, and the board’s C2 profile, it felt really nimble and like I was always in control.

When I was following Everett on the Orca, I thought, "Oh, this is a breeze." There was no chop. In softer snow, this board has the tendency to sit back. You're gonna be floating all day.

[Everett] The Lip Tech Orca, even though it felt so light under foot, was super damp whenever I hit any uneven terrain. It was able to handle this terrain very well.

So, I'm going with the Lib Tech Orca for the freeride category. There's a reason Travis Wrights was riding this in the bigger, steeper lines. It felt like it wants to be in the Alaska backcountry. With this board, the steeper you go, the more it wants to go faster, and you only feel more and more in control.

[Mike] I'm gonna agree with you. The Orca was stable and ate up the chop. And its versatility is hugely important, especially in freeride.

The verdict

[Mike] We didn't pick the Warca in any individual category, but to me, it didn't stand out in any single category. It was a very close second in many categories, which is what it's designed to be. It's a blend of both boards.

For me, the Warca is the board I'm gonna reach for if I want something that can do a bit of everything. If we're getting a ton of fresh snow, and I'm riding some steep lines in Alaska, I might be reaching for the Orca. And if I'm ripping some groomers and playing around a bit, or if conditions are harder, I might reach for the Warpig. But if I'm looking for something that I can ride day in and day out and have a blast on it, my overall pick is the Warca. It really does blend all the good characteristics of these two boards and makes it its own. For example, it's camber, it's got the mid-bite, it's a twin, it's got a wide platform, it has that little bit of swallow on the tail and a little bit in the nose here. So it's gonna float, switch and regular. It really can do it all.

[Everett] So my favorite out of all three is the Ride Warpig. It suits my needs of having that playful freestyle feel. I could totally go hit the big line in the park with it and feel right at home. But if it's gonna start dumping later in the day, I can still go ride out and get the best powder days of my life.

[Mike] As you can see, we had very different opinions on three different snowboards. And we know that every snowboard works differently for every rider and in different conditions. So reach out to me, Everett, or another of our Snowboard Experts at Curated; we’d love to figure out what the best snowboard is for you.

[Everett] And if you want to see more reviews like this triple Head 2 Head, subscribe to Curated on Youtube. And, if you have any suggestions on what you want to see next, tell us in the comments.