YES Standard Snowboard Review

O.k. let’s take a more detailed look at what the Standard is capable of.

Demo Info

Board: YES Standard 2019, 156cm (258mm waist)

Date: March 15, 2018

Conditions: Icy in a lot of places, especially first thing but even first thing there were some softer patches. Icy patches decreased and soft patches increased as the day went on. Sunny as! Clear blue skies. So, goes without saying 100% vis.

Bindings angles: +15/-15

Stance width: 545mm (21.5“)

Stance Setback: Centered

Width at Inserts: 270mm (10.6“)

Weight: 2880grams (6lb 5.6oz)

Weight per cm: 18.46grams/cm

Average Weight per cm: 18.21grams/cm* (so it’s really close to average)

*based on a small sample size of 24 boards that I weighed.

Given the width of the board, it’s quite light for per cm.

Powder

Even when centered, this board rides the powder well. This is mostly based on the 2018 model, when I had more powder to test in.

If you were to set it back (and it has some extra “slam back” inserts where you can setup with a decent setback if you want) it would be even better. But I was too lazy to do it, even though I had plenty of fresh powder to play with. The reason? It was good enough in powder when it was centered so I didn’t feel the need.

Now, I was also demoing for other characteristics and I wanted to test it in it’s normal stance, which is centered, but if you had a powder day you could slam it back and it would be worth it if you were going to be surfing the powder all day.

It has a good bit of rocker in tip and tail (so riding the pow switch is also fine) and it’s also has something that YES call a “directional volume twin” – which means it’s essentially a true twin except that the tail has a little less material in there (it’s the same width and length as the nose). You notice this in powder but not on groomers – so it’s essentially a true twin on groomers.

Carving & Turning

Even though there is plenty of rocker in the tip and tail of this board, it drives a carve nicely.

And for basic turns it’s nice and it’s quite forgiving. You can definitely get away with skidded turns and it’s not catchy at all.

Flex-wise YES rate this a 7/10 but I’d say more like 6/10.

Let’s Break up this text with a Video

Speed

This board can handle the speed and it feels stable even when bombing. It’s not going to be the speed demon that a freeride board is – but it’s certainly no slouch, especially for a twin.

Uneven Terrain

As with pretty much everything this board tries to do, it is good in uneven terrain. Between the 2018 and 2019 models I demoed the last couple of years, it could handle any terrain I threw at it well – something any good all-mountain should.

Jumps

This board is super fun on jumps and doing spins. It’s got that camber between the feet that really helps with pop and it’s got great stability for landings.

It’s got an even swing feel and with that centered stance feels really comfortable with spins.

And now that it has a lighter core (new for the 2019 model), it makes it even snappier and easier to pop and spin.

Switch

It’s basically a true twin and that shows when you’re riding switch. It wouldn’t be as comfortable riding switch in the slam back stance position but centered it’s a great board for riding and landing switch.

Jibbing/Buttering

Definitely doable – it’s not going to match it with freestyle or jib specialist boards or get close to them, but it can jib OK. It’s not something that frightened the daylights out of me when approaching jibs like some boards can (or make me skip the jib line altogether!)

Actually a really easy/nice board to butter. Easier than I expected with the flex that it has. It’s perhaps a little softer tip and tail than it is in the middle.

Pipe

Though I didn’t ride it in a pipe I think it would be a really good pipe board. It’s got enough stiffness, has good edge hold in hard snow and has a decent amount of camber between the feet to help drive between the walls. It’s also centered and virtually a true twin with a good swing feel.

Changes from the 2020 Model

The 2021 YES Standard, from what I can tell is the same as the 2020 model, bar the graphic.

Changes from the 2019 Model

The 2020 YES Standard, from what I can see is the same as the 2019 model. Only change is that there is the new size. It now comes in a 167.

Changes from the 2018 Model

The 2018 and 2019 are mostly the same. The one change is that the 2019 model has a lighter core. Otherwise it’s the same but this is a nice improvement. There were more major changes between the 2017 and 2018 models (see below).

Changes from the 2017 Model

There were a few changes between the 2017 & 2018 model.

Firstly, the sizings changed. There are no longer any wide sizes but the regular sizes are wider.

It now comes in a 149, 151, 153, 156 and 159. The 2017 model came in a 152, 154, 156, 158, 156W, 159W, 161W. But with that wider waist width, you can ride a shorter board if you want.

In terms of waist width the 156cm that I rode in the 2018 model had a 258mm waist width and the 2017 model 156cm had a 250mm waist width – so this increased quite a bit. The 159 now has a 263mm waist – which is wider than the 2017 159W, which had a 258mm waist.

The sidecuts and effective edges also changed for the 2018 model.