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YES. Hel Yes 2021-2022 Women’s Snowboard Review

  • Price: £469 / €500 / $500
  • Category: All-Mountain
  • Sizes: 146, 149, 152, 155
  • Flex: 7/10
  • Shape: Directional Twin
  • Profile: Combo
  • 3D: No
  • Base: Sintered
MORE INFO:
YES.COM

YES. are unusual in the current market for continuing to place a lot of focus on signature boards. In our opinion, it’s great to see a brand stand so strongly behind their athletes – and that’s especially the case in the women’s market, where few non-contest riders have enjoyed the same product support as Canada’s Helen Schettini. It helps that her long-running pro model – the Hel Yes – is so darned good.

“Want to draw fluid lines through the backcountry like Helen? Well buying her board is a good place to start”

Who Is The YES. Hel Yes For?

Want to draw fluid lines through the backcountry like Helen? Well buying her board is a good place to start. It’s a capable steed for fast and furious resort riding, too.

Shape, Profile and Sidecut

The Hel Yes is based on a directional twin outline, which means the tip and tail are the same shape but the stance is set back a few millimetres. This helps you sink the tail in deeper snow and gives you a little more nose to drive through slush and crud when you’re charging resort. At the same time, that mirror image silhouette makes it easy enough to ride switch if you want to up your butter game or take some laps through the park.

The base profile also includes a directional element, with a camber section positioned slightly back from centre and extended rocker towards the nose. The idea here is to keep the board feeling lively and ‘spring loaded’ on hardpack, but – thanks to the elevated nose – floating beautifully in pow without having to exert much effort or suffer the infamous back leg burn.

YES have made huge strides in the science of sidecut, and the Hel Yes benefits from their UnderBite tech. Essentially it tightens the radius just in front of, and behind, the bindings, resulting in way more edge control when you engage a turn.

“YES have made huge strides in the science of sidecut, and the Hel Yes benefits from their UnderBite tech”

Construction and Materials

Helen’s board boasts one of the most exciting cores in the YES line, made from a mix of classic poplar and super springy paulownia, with lightweight bamboo stringers. If this was a wand in the Harry Potter books, it would be a super rare combo from the top shelf of Mr Ollivander’s shop. The topsheet is a little less exotic, laid up using a biaxial weave, but between the glassing and that lively core they’ve dialled in a mid-to-stiff overall flex. Newbies might find it too firm; experienced shredders will thrive on the response it offers.

No corners have been cut with the base, which is made from sintered P-tex for pure speed – as befits an all-mountain model of this calibre. Stunning artwork by textile and graphic designer Guillaume Rousseaux adds the finishing polish.

“Stunning artwork by textile and graphic designer Guillaume Rousseaux adds the finishing polish”

Roundup

The latest Hel Yes is a board that just gets better and better as you progress. Constructed from premium materials and shaped to tackle every corner of the mountain, it’s all the snowboard intermediate to expert riders will ever need.

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