Snowboard Review: 12-13 YES Greats

Location: Winter Park, CO

Snow Conditions: Hardpacked to softpacked groomers.

Setup: I rode the YES Greats with Salomon Absolute bindings and Vans Ferra boots size 8.

Size: 158 cm

First Impression: This is the closest I’ll get to riding with Craig Kelly. Great board with a damn good graphic series to pay tribute to snowboarding’s greats.

Weight: Average.

Flex: The YES Greats offers up a more stiffer torsional flex with the camber between the bindings and a softer more playful flex towards the nose/tail where the rocker is. The combination gives it a really stable ride between the bindings with a playful aspect to the nose/tail. Overall it felt on the stiffer end for mountain freestyle but still very capable of all mountain riding from park to groomers. The Greats feature camrock which is slight camber between the binding areas with variable degrees of rocker outside the stance.

Turning: The camrock helps make the board relatively easy to get on edge with the lifted up contact points. I didn’t catch into any of the turns, pretty smooth going and had the ability to handle a range of turns. Thanks to the stiffer flex, the longer S turns were my favorite. For the shorter radius turns, I had to put more effort to get the quickness out of them. The Greats has the deeper sidecut on the heelside edge so it’s so much easier to carve and grip on heelside turns.

Stable: The Greats definitely offered the stability package. Even in my notes, I called it super fast and super stable. The ultimate grip helped with holding an edge on the hardpacked conditions in the morning. The asym sidecut I absolutely love having the deeper heel sidecut than the toe, it just makes riding so much easier on the board. It’s still aggressive but easier for the rider.

Pop:  Noticeably pop to the board and still playful on the nose and tail where you want it. I just played with ollies on the rollers and it was easy going, lively without having to force it to get more.

Switch:  The Greats is a true twin asymmetrical board that rides like a true twin, without any adjustments whether regular or switch riding.

Overall Impression: It’s pretty rad to see YES come out with the greats of snowboarding featuring Craig Kelly as one of them (obviously no question there). The full line-up is here. It’s been rad to see the series change from Greats of history to Great beauties to Greats of snowboarding. The Greats is a stiffer all mountain freestyle charging board, it can really handle the whole terrain and pays tribute to the riders on the boards.

Shay’s Honesty Box: When asked what board I was riding, I was stoked to say I was riding Craig Kelly at the demo booth. It was a good ride and the closest I’d get to riding with Craig Kelly ever. Since I first rode a Greats board, I knew what I was getting into and it’s a good all around charging board that is fun to ride.

Review Disclosure: I demoed this board at the SIA On-Snow Demo at Winter Park, CO.