YES Optimistic Review

Board: YES Optimistic

Price: $549 (USD recommended retail)

Style: Freeride

Flex Rating: Stiff (8/10)

Flex Feel: Mid-Stiff (7/10)

Rating Score: 84.2/100

Compared to other Men’s Freeride Boards

Out of the 40 Men’s Freeride snowboards that I rated:

Overview of the Optimistic’s Specs

Check out the tables for the Optimistic’s specs and available sizes.

Specs

Who is the Optimistic Most Suited To?

The Optimistic is best suited to riders who want to ride in only one direction, have a tool that will handle deep powder, but can ride trees well, whether there's powder or not - and when there's not powder, is still fun to carve up the groomers with. 

Not for those who want to ride switch a lot, butter around or take in the park or side hits a bunch. 

So not a one-board quiver, unless you're riding doesn't include anything in the paragraph above. 

Not for a beginner, but more accessible than it used to be for intermediate riders. Has become an easier ride than it used to be. 

THE Optimistic IN MORE DETAIL

Bindings angles: +15/-15 (Nate) and +12/-9 (Fraser)

Stance width: 22″ (560mm)

Stance Setback: Centered (on effective edge)*

* but nose (316mm long) is considerably longer than the tail (156mm long) so overall setback on board is more like 80mm setback - so quite a lot.

Width at Inserts: 10.75" (273mm) at front insert and 10.71" (272mm) at back insert.   

Testers: Nate and Fraser

Fraser Specs: Height: 6'1" | Weight: 180lbs | Boot Size: US9.5 Adidas Tactical Lexicon ADV | Bindings Used: Fix Yale (M) 

Nate Specs: Height: 6'0" | Weight: 180lbs | Boot Size: US9.5 Adidas Tactical ADV | Bindings Used: Burton Malavita (M) 

Weight: 6lbs 8oz (2960grams) 

Weight per cm: 19.22 grams/cm

Average Weight per cm: 18.59 grams/cm*

*based on a sample size of around 200 models that I’ve weighed in 2019, 2020, 2021, 2022 & 2023 models.  Whilst the Optimistic appears to be heavier than normal, the fact that it's a wider board, it's more normal, given it's extra surface area. And it felt like a normal weight when riding too.

Powder

We had a bit to test it in, which was nice. It wasn't an epic pow day or anything, but there was still enough to get a good feel for how it would perform in powder. And it was really nice. 

No surprise there either. It's got a really long nose and really short tail and it has some taper. And it now has a bit of rocker in the tip and tail. 

Carving

Whilst it's not as hard a carver and not as good for carves at high speeds as older models were, it was still able to lay down some pretty aggressive carves. Now more fun for shorter/sharper and more moderate speed carves than it used to be though. 

Turning

Ease of Turns/Slashing: The Optimistic turns quite a bit easier than it used to. That's probably largely down to the rocker sections in the tip and tail and softened up flex. 

Maneuverability at slow speeds (nimbleness): Again, those rocker sections and softened up flex help this board to be more nimble at slower speeds. Now quite a bit more fun in the trees. Overall pretty quick edge-to-edge and not too much effort required to get it to change edges either. 

Skidded Turns: And to continue the trend, the new model is easier for skidded turns - and again the camber and flex changes are likely the reason. 

Speed

It's pretty fast for it's size/shape and has good stability at speed. Not quite as good as the old model was - that thing could charge. But still decent. And I personally can take the speed performance decrease for how much better it feels riding slower now.

Uneven Terrain

Crud: Takes quite a lot to buck this board around. And when it does, you can correct your line pretty easily. 

Trees/Bumps: Pretty quick edge to edge and that small tail really helps when weaving through tight trees - reducing the chances of catching your tail on a trunk or branch. 

Let’s Break up this text with a Video

Jumps

Not ideal, but not what it's made for either. 

Pop: There's some OK pop in there. Some if it is easy to access, but the rest of it you have to wind it up a bit to extract it. 

Approach: A good mixture of stable at speed but also pretty easy to make corrections on. 

Landing: Pretty solid when you nail it just right, but not great when landing tail heavy. Not surprisingly, given how small the tail is.

Side-hits: Nice for lining them up. But pop is not super explosive or easy to access and again, you want to get the landings right and not too tail heavy. 

Small jumps/Big jumps: Better for smaller jumps where the consequence for landing tail heavy isn't as big.

Switch

Nah, not great. Still doable, but with that small tail and big nose, it feels pretty weird riding switch. Transitions to switch not too bad though. 

Butters

Not super easy to press, but certainly easier than it used to be. But feels really different pressing the tail compared to the nose. 

The Optimistic has had quite a few changes for the 2023 model and it's become a mixture of the old Optimistic and the old The Y. Yet somehow I liked it quite a bit more than either of those boards previously. Not sure how that works but there it is!

It's still not my favorite board in the YES line, but I found it considerably more fun than it used to be. Really good for trees, particularly so when there's powder in there.

As it goes with snowboards, the decrease in flex is considered a downgrade and this has also resulted in a lower price - going from $669 on the 2022 model to $549 on the 2023 model. The Y was only $449, so I guess it's a nice middle ground. 

Changes for the 2024 Model

The 2024 model looks to be unchanged, apart from the graphic. 

Changes for the 2023 Model

The 2023 model is now a mixture of the 2022 Optimistic and 2022 The Y (the Y has now been discontinued).  A summery of those changes below: 

• Glass gone from triax + carbon on 22 model to Biax on 23 model
• Flex down from 9/10 on 22 model to 8/10 on 23 model, according to YES. Fraser and I felt it even softer than that - more like 7/10. 
• Camber changed from "full camber" to "2-4-2" Camrock
• Basically looks more like The Y now, except that the Y had a "Full Poplar" core and the 23 Optimistic has a Poplar/Paulownia core.

In terms of ride, it's a little less bomby and less capable of a hard charging high speed carve, but has become much easier to turn and slash and performs better in the trees. It's overall a less aggressive and more fun ride. For the shape it feels like the personality is more suited to it than it's previous personality and for me it works better like this than it used to.