YES Basic Decade 2019 Snowboard Review

YES Basic Decade Snowboard Video and Written Review Review by The Good Ride

• User Reviews
• Product Specs
• Product Images
• Questions?

Ethics Statement: We don’t get paid by the manufacturer to write these reviews.  No one is perfect and we do make money from the “Where To Buy” links below, but this is our best attempt at an honest and objective review from an average riders’ perspective.

How This Review Happened:  We borrowed this for an extended demo and returned it.  Then liked it soo much I bought one.

Size: 155 & 158
Days: 10+
Conditions: Pretty much all good snow except for a few hard patches.  Some messy good snow, some well-groomed good snow and some in between.
Riders: James (Size 9, 5’10” 185-195lbs)
Boots: Adidas Tactical ADV
Insoles: Sandsole Custom Insoles
Bindings: Union Atlas, Union Superpro, Now Drive
Set Up: 22.5” Centered 15 front -15 back

Approximate Weight: Feels light but not chattery and wimpy like some ultralight boards can.

Flex: Pretty medium-stiff between the feet but medium in the tip/tail.

Sizing:  I feel torn between the 155 and 158 for my specs.  After time on both, I prefer the 158 over the 155 as it’s still very fast edge to edge and feels like it fits my overall specs very well. I would like the 155 a little better for riding the pipe or just having something a little more spinny.   Overall the 155 and 158 seem to top out at a size 10 boot and anything after that I’d probably go with the wide.

On Snow Feel: Very stable but not catchy.  Super easy to one foot, flat base and not have the Yes Basic Decade auto-spin on you.

Edge Hold: That same great 4.5 out of 5 feels for grip. Love that underbite tech when in the hard stuff and I like that it doesn’t grab too much in the soft snow.  If you are mainly going to see hard snow maybe a full magnetraction board like Lib-Tech would be the better call but I love the stability underfoot in the hard snow with the Yes Basic Decade that allows a consistent feel underfoot in all conditions.  It always provides a stable feel underfoot and it’s more than just a hard snow favorite.

Turn Initiation: Very quick and springy.  It feels like someone gave the Yes Typo speed but it’s not in a tragic personal life choice or a super annoying way to be around.

Turning Experience: Great turner and this high-end tech make the Yes Basic Decade way more fun than the Yes Basic or Typo and I loved the feeling of a turn on this ride. It’s just lively underfoot and making all kinds of variations of short radius to even medium to wide radius turns are fun. It really shines with the throwing it back and forth with quick but not super drawn out S-turns.

Carving:  Even though the Yes Basic Decade doesn’t have a different camber profile from the Typo or that much different Camber profile from the Basic it out carved both and was more fun to lay it over.

Speed: I thought all the super light tech would make this a chattery mess but the Yes Basic Decade did a great job absorbing chatter with the boots/bindings I was riding it with. There is a little going on in the nose/tail but nothing like I thought it would be.

Uneven Terrain: In softer snow could dance around moguls all day with the Yes Basic Decade 155 and it worked really well in the bumps.  It will buck a bit if you want to hammer over big bumps but it felt like it was absorbing those micro bumps pretty well that you see in the harder groomed runs. However late in the season, I discovered how it really fell apart in harder uneven snow.

Powder: With the slam back inserts the Yes Basic Decade floats like a true all-mountain board should.  Not amazing and a good bump below dedicated powder boards but better than most twins with a centered stance.  Set all the way back the difference between the nose and tail to the insert is 4.5″ making the setback on board from center of the waist 2.25″ which is a lot. If the reference stance width works with your stance then you can get 2.25″ back on board with a 22″ inch stance width on a 155 or 22.5″ with a 158.  These Slam Back inserts won’t work with mini discs though and only work with the exact stance width with Burton Re:Flex bindings. So be careful.

Buttering: A little more work than the Typo or Basic but I liked the way it felt equal in the tip/tail like the Basic.

Switch: Super easy either way and it’s almost as good as the Greats.

Jumps: There is soo much more pop out of the Yes Basic Decade compared to any board in the Yes Line and there isn’t even any more camber.  This just springs into the air on an ollie and if you like hitting kickers this can handle most sizes you want to hit without getting weird on those, like me, that love to go small to medium.

Jibbing: It’s a little too bucky for my taste compared to even the Typo and even more so the Basic.

Pipe: Such a fun board to ride pipe with and I couldn’t stop lapping the pipe in my free time with the Basic. At the end of the testing day, I kept going back to the car to grab the Yes Basic Decade and do a few pipe laps with it.

So the Yes Basic Decade takes everything we love about the Basic or Typo and gives it a more lively powder friendly ride. It was one of my personal highlights this year. I can’t guarantee it will be the same for you but I want one in my quiver.