Board: Yes 420 UnInc. JPS
Size: 152
Camber Option: Blended Camber Plus Rocker. It’s a directional camrocker with 4mm’s of camber under foot.
Bindings: Rome Black Labels
Stance: 21.5 Wide 15 Negative 12 Goofy
Boots: K2 Thraxis Size 10
My Weight: 200lbs
Resort: Arapahoe Basin
Conditions: Sunny bluebird skies, a little wind, cooler temps, pockets of wind loaded powder, ice, chunder, frozen corduroy, and perfect corduroy.
Flex: This board is stiffer and you have to take note of that. Sure it’s a directional flex but it is minimally directional as the nose barely has more flex than the body of the tail. The torsional flex is pretty much non existent.
Stability: Between the flex and the width of this board you have an insanely stable platform. This is a board that just wants to plow through everything in its path. The only time you feel anything is when you jar your body on a hard set down off a drop or ramming into a frozen death mogul under the fresh snow.
Ollies/Pop: This isn’t the poppiest deck out there in the volume shifted realm. For what you put into it you don’t get that much out and that’s not to say you have to put a lot into it to get it to load up. But even still putting more in than the load of the camber section requires should net you a better result. At the end of the day it just doesn’t pop.
Butterability: You pretty much just leverage your weight over the nose or tail to butter this board and hope that the added girth gives you what you want out of it. It’s really not that buttery and that’s upset because it’s so damn wide it should be optimal for this.
Carving: While being ultra wide this board does get on edge with relative ease, it’s not quick or nimble, but it’s not hard to get it on edge. It lays a trench and due to the stiffness just cuts through everything in its path. The main power of this board is right under the back foot and that’s to be expected with the setback camber. Sure it can carve and does it well enough but it’s not that exciting on edge and you’ll realize that while it gets the job done you just wish it did more.
Rider in Mind: Surfy style low angle pow rider.
Personal Thoughts: At the end of the day it’s a volume shifted snowboard and that’s where I leave it. I’ve ridden better and I’ve ridden worse. The nice thing is how wide it is. The downside is how stiff it is doesn’t lend itself to being overly playful. It’s great at punching through heavy snow and it’s stable but it’s just not as lively as it could be.
Comparable Boards: Libtech Apex Orca, K2 Excavator, Ride Mtn Pig
Recommended Bindings: Now Select Pro, Ride A-8, Burton Cartel X
