anyone riden the new YES boards?
hey team, quick question. looking for a new board to ride locally (perisher) and to take over to canada at the end of the year. had a good look at the new YES board (156cm) and was wondering if anyone has had one on the slopes yet? know how they go? looking for an all mountain/freestyle board. love the powder and enjoy a bit of park aswell. cheers.
Hey brodz_82, I have ridden the YES boards, and they are an amazing all mountain board.
They have regular camber between the feet for stability and grunt, and then a negative camber in the tip and tail for maneuverability and playfulness (and float in powder as well!).
The camber profile they is different to everyone else, it was designed to provides the team (RDM, JPS and DCP) with a no compromise all mountain deck that can satisfy their ‘powerful’ all mountain style, but allow for more ‘cruisy’ park and slow speed riding. The 156.5 is RDM’s board, it has an assymetrical sidecut and the ULTIGRIP edge profiling system - it is an incredible all mountain deck.
Hope this info helps. Here are some links to some other YES reviews as well. Enjoy Canada!
http://www.popmag.com.au/content/2009/07/yes-snowboards/#more-12048
http://www.ballistyx.com.au/index.php?newsID=6345
http://www.snowboardermag.com.au/news/industry-releases/870-yes-snowboards-review-demo-dates
well thats awesome that it was designed perfectly for them to be both powerful and playful, its kind of weird that they never had that done for them before now isn’t it?
anyway to be serious, they are made by nidecker so you know they are built well. most snowboards are designed well and are fun to ride nowadays, so if you’re stoked on one just go for it.
What’s the cost of the decks here in Australia? Seems like in the interviews they were aiming at $299-$399USD. Wonder how that translates to Aussie prices.
They retail for $859.
cheers for the replys, ended up going out and getting one. the reviews and the boys at my local board store raved about them. im back down the snow in 2 weeks so i’ll let you all know what i think of them, cheers
No worries, yeah please let us know how it goes.
They retail for $859.
No Way, each model?
eeks.
I jsut cant and wont pay that much, especially for an unestablished brand.
I guess they are hoping that the pro riders names sell them, but seriously. I just wouldnt do it.
It is a very competitive market out there.
In saying that though snowslider (and don’t worry, I do think on the surface, for an un-established brand it is very expensive), a Custom here retails for around $800 ($550 in the US) (Jer you would probably know the exact figures better than I would), the Ride DH is $850 ($460 US)...these are just off the top of my head from our local, which is in Adelaide so most probably more expensive, but unfortunately that’s just how much boards cost here…
But you are right about the “new brand” part - I think despite what might be said about the technology etc, there is a LOT riding on whether name recognition alone will be able to get and keep YES in the market…good on them for taking a potentially terrible situation and turning it in to a (potentially) good one, looking forward to observing their progress over the next few years…
OOPS, I had forgot about USD vs AUD.
That makes a difference.
I looked up on the Burton website, and the Burton Custom retails for $549.95
According to this site: http://www.xe.com/ucc/convert.cgi
549.95 USD
=
657.436 AUD
So, still asking $859, AUD is a lot of $$$$$$
I look forward to seeing if the pros themselves can market the names, truly I dont think it can… I think they are excluding a large population of the snowboarding consumer base. Name branding is everything to sell a product. I really dont think a pro rider sells boards for a company to the general consumer. They do to the ‘core’ group of all ready established riders… those getting 40 or 50 days a yea and more, but this is not the general population. and truthfully, if every board was rode 50 days there would be a lot more problems with boards then currently reported.
I used to read a lot of literature from the NSAA- National Ski Areas Association - it is a US organization, and they collect data from US resorts. The main population of ski resort visitors only go 2 days a season. Seriously!
In order to maintain the current level of growth (this was data from about 5 yrs ago) They talked about strategies to grow that consumer base of 2 days a year visitors, to 5 day a years… and the current 5 day riders to 10 day riders, and the 10 day riders to season pass holders etc.
Strategies included multi day passes good for all season etc.
I’m way off topic now, but anyway - I dont think the largest populations of the snowboarding consumer base even knows who JPS, DCP or RDM are.
You can forget about using xe to work out the cost of boards here…. You have to add
The ‘snowboarding is an expensive sport and we live on an island’ tax, plus the ‘we only have a short season so we can charge people what we want’ retail price mark up. 
They are placing themselves in line with the premium snowboard market. Anything less would be selling themselves short really. Of course the first year is going to be the hardest, and I’m sure they’re not expecting to sell snowboards by the truck load. But you have to start somewhere. If you make a premium product with a great team, you shouldn’t lower the price just because you are new to the market. If you really want to succeed you have to look well beyond the first year. A lot of people are talking about the YES boards, a few people are buying them, feedback comes out, word of mouth etc… and they are already in a better position for next year. If they make an excellent product, which I believe they do, I think their strategy is a good one. Only time will tell but I would like to see the YES brand do well.
You can forget about using xe to work out the cost of boards here…. You have to add
The ‘snowboarding is an expensive sport and we live on an island’ tax, plus the ‘we only have a short season so we can charge people what we want’ retail price mark up.
hahaha very true…plus the fact that when the 2010 gear was ordered down here, the dollar was at about 65c to the US dollar, whereas now it is about 83c, meaning the Custom would work out to about $845AUD retail when it was ordered, without including the “crappy island tax” 
and Jeremy, fantastic call as always, a lot of people can’t see that far into the future, (probably the cause of a lot of the worlds problems at the moment…)
Once again good luck to them, hope to see some feedback soon…
You can forget about using xe to work out the cost of boards here…. You have to add
The ‘snowboarding is an expensive sport and we live on an island’ tax, plus the ‘we only have a short season so we can charge people what we want’ retail price mark up.
What are the months of your seasons usually?
Sometimes we only get 3 months.
Dec - feb.
That is the southeast US.
Out west in CO and Utah they start much earlier maybe Sept and sometimes go into April.
Jeremy,
I’d like to see YES do well also. the riders deserve it.
The season officially starts here in about the second weekend of June and finishes the first weekend in October.
We would rarely have enough snow at the start and end of the season though. Well in the New South Wales resorts anyway.
Maybe if we are LUCKY, just enough for 1 or 2 runs to be open.
Best months are July, August, September.
Personally i feel that any brand that is putting their heart on their sleeve and jumping in to compete deserves a chance. Unfortunately board sports at the moment are getting flooded with brands that are cashing in. It’s a trend that happens with popularity of a sport and its growth.
YES boards look good. Unfortunately i haven’t had the chance to ride one though or touch one for that matter. I do say though good on them for stepping up and going for it, in such a competitive market. How many companies have started out with no one knowing them or completely against the grain and now have a strong following?
On saying this though everyone has their own choice when it comes to product so each to their really. But before you jump to conclusions understand a product and then make a conclusion.
DC boards are fresh in store for this year and even they are struggling to sell for us. They seem like good boards so i guess its all time before we know.