YES Basic Snowboard Review: Freestyle Snowboard Review

Who is the Basic Most Suited To?

The Basic is a great board for anyone looking for a really good, buttery but otherwise stable feeling, freestyle board at a great price. 

Also a great option for beginners - especially those who see park riding in their future - it's a board you can start out with as a beginner and keep it as your park board, basically for as long as you wanted. 

Suitable as an all-mountain-freestyle board, just don't expect it to be a bomber or an aggressive carver or anything like that. 

Bindings angles: +15/-15

Stance width: 572mm (22.5″)

Stance Setback: Centered

Width at Inserts: 262mm (10.32") 

Rider Height: 6'0"

Rider Weight: 185lbs

Rider Boot Size: US10 Vans Aura

Bindings Used: Burton Malavita M 

Weight: 3040g (6lbs, 11oz)

Weight per cm: 19.24g/cm

Average Weight per cm: 18.45 grams/cm*

*based on a small sample size of 51 boards that I've weighed in 2019 and 2020 models. So the basic is heavier than normal, but it felt normal on snow to ride, maybe very slightly on the heavier side, but pretty much normal.  

Powder

There wasn't any the day I rode it - but from riding previous models and based on the specs, it's not going to be a great powder option - fine in shallow stuff, but when it gets deeper, it will get sinky. 

Carving & Turning

Carving: It's not the kind of board that drives aggressive carves at speed that well, but..

Turning: It's super agile at slow speeds - edge to edge is lightning.

S turns at slow to medium speeds are nice on this board too - really easy and smooth. Prefers to turn at medium and slow speeds and not so much at high speeds. 

Speed

Previously I've rated this board a little less for speed. But getting on the 2020 model, it actually surprised me a little bit. Still not like a bomber at speed or anything, but better than I was expecting and better than I remember it being. 

Not something you lay down carves on at high speeds - I found you're more holding on, but it held on better than I expected. 

Uneven Terrain

For weaving through bumps it's really good - being as numble as it is. But it certainly does feel the chop and the bumps. Not super damp. 

Let’s Break up this text with a Video

Jumps

Overall a very competent jumping board, more suited to small jumps. 

Pop: Not oodles of it, but what's there is super easy to access. It pops quickly and easily. Load it up and you don't get anything extra - so what's there is easy to extract. 

Approach: The approach for trickier sidehits is great, and for small jumps - but not as suited to larger jumps where you need to get more speed. 

Landing: Solid enough, but again, more suited to smaller jumps. Forgiving landings for those learning jumps. 

Side-hits: Great for side hits - especially anything that's not that straight forward to line up. It's nice and nimble and has that super easy to extract pop - is great for spins and forgiving on landings. 

Small jumps: This is where this board shines for jumps - I'd say 5/5 for small jumps. 

Big jumps: Not as suited to big jumps. 

Switch

It's a true twin with a centered reference stance. Enough said. 

Spins

The Basic was easy to get around, and has decent pop. It's also great landing and taking off switch. For bigger tricks not that suited but for flat-land spins and spins off small jumps it's awesome. 

Jibbing

Conditions weren't great for when I was hitting the jibs - conditions were a bit icy. But I still felt fairly confident hitting them on the Basic. It holds well in icy conditions and is really nimble, which made the approach even in those conditions good. 

And it felt good on the jib too. Would be interesting to get it on a softer day and be able to compare it to looser, jib friendly boards - it might be the case that I would give it 3.5/5 instead of 4/5. But since I was confident jibbing even in those conditions, I think it warranted 4/5. 

Butters

This board is really easy to butter. YES boards typically are - even some of the stiffer flexing ones, I've found. But the Basic is a step better - that softer overall flex obviously making it even easier to butter. 

Overall, the Basic is a great option for park riding and riding the groomers like a park. It's something also goes well in trees - so long as the powder isn't too deep in there - with some great agility at slow speeds. 

Also a great option for beginners who want a board that is still quality and that they can transition easily into freestyle riding on but that still won't break the bank.