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YES Standard 2017-2018 Snowboard Review

  • Price: £430 / €499
  • Sizes: 149, 151, 153, 156, 159
  • Flex: 9
  • Profile: Hybrid Camber
  • Shape: Directional Twin
  • yesnowboard.com

UPDATE: Check out our review of the 2018/2019 YES Standard here

YES Snowboards was famously started by some of the snowboard world’s most famous elder statesmen. These days they’re even longer in the tooth, and so it follows that they’re spending more time in the powder than the park.

“You can load it up with tremendous amounts of pop thanks to the stiffness and central camber bend”

That’s not to say that Romain De Marchi, DCP and JP Solberg are purely about the ‘soul surfer’ element of the deep stuff. The free bus passes may be getting closer, but these guys still like to huck, drop and spin in the backcountry.

The YES Standard is the ideal snowboard for such pursuits. With its true twin outline and lightweight core, it’s definitely been designed with freestyle at the forefront. On firmer trails it rides like the ideal park board, albeit one aimed at more confident riders. You can load it up with tremendous amounts of pop thanks to the stiffness and central camber bend, yet still enjoy a mellower butter around on the rocker sections at the nose and tail.

Look closely, however, and you’ll see that the nose of the board has a slightly different shape to the tail. It’s not something that will affect you anywhere but in the pow, but in deeper snow the increased surface area of the nose will give you just a little more float. While some boards offer this by tapering the outline, the YES Standard maintains the classic true-twin feel that backcountry freestyle riders crave.

“The YES Standard maintains the classic true-twin feel that backcountry freestyle riders crave”

The Standard also features ‘MidBite’ on both edges. What this means is that the waist of the board is just a little skinnier than you would expect, resulting in quicker edge changes and less weight, but it’s normal service at the binding inserts so you won’t experience too much drag.

When there’s been a crazy dump, like the kind North America’s west coast experienced on a regular basis last season, you can get a little extra help by mounting your bindings on the set-back inserts. You’ll have to forget about sticking that cab 9, but at least you’ll stay afloat!

If your idea of heaven is a morning spent building a kicker and an afternoon of throwing yourself off it, it’ll feel like the YES Standard was made just for you.

The outline on the YES Standard is a beautifully subtle wedge.

Tester’s Verdict

Sam McMahon – whitelines.com

“Testing boards is fun, but sometimes one comes along and when you weren’t expecting it, the experience becomes transcendental. Stepping of the lift and clipping into the YES Standard was one of those moments – the sheer edge hold you get on this thing is crazy; pure trench-digging and screaming through corners, all while staying rock solid.

“Riding through deep snow is just effortless on this board”

I’ve never been a massive fan of fancy edge tech, but the ‘MidBite’ bumps on the edge really seem to be doing something here. This thing moves in just the way that the all-black spaceship they steal from Disaster Area in The Hitchhiker’s Guide To The Galaxy is described as doing. Am I babbling? You will be too after a few laps on this.

I’ve said it before, but the CamRock profile YES use is by far the best hybrid profile out there, giving tons of grip but lots of fun forgiveness too.

I was only able to take this out in spring, so couldn’t see what the ‘directional volume’ was all about, but after years of testing YES boards, I can’t imagine it’ll disappoint once you get in the powder.”

Trade Secrets

Alex Warburton – Brand Director, YES

Redesigning Romain de Marchi’s favourite board was fun in a post-Mid-Bite world.

Applying theories learnt from the past few years we were able to increase float, stability and edge hold while maintaining the aggressive response the Standard is known for.

Ride this one a couple of centimetres shorter than your ‘normal’ board, as it packs more power in a lower-swing-weight package.

The nose of the YES Standard features possibly the shallowest kick we've ever tried, but it floats in deep snow brilliantly.
The YES Standard features 'MidBite' edges to improve carving performance.
Graphic options for the 2017/2018 YES Standard

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