Ok, I’m an idiot. I wrote a review a while back about the Yes 420 – I said it was good, but had some drawbacks, and that I wouldn’t buy it again.
I’m here to tell you that, actually, it’s the funnest board in the world!!
What’s changed?
I think a couple of things:
1 – I’m a much better rider this year than last year. This is year 3 of snowboarding for me, and while I was a decent rider last year, this year I’m a good rider. And my legs are way stronger, so they don’t tire as quickly in the chop.
2 – the snow has been amazing!! While we haven’t seen the epic proportions of places like the Sierras, we’ve had a few good dumps up here in the PNW, and I’ve ridden them all! I managed to get maybe 8 days on the 420 this season.
So, updated review: this board is insanely fun in the soft stuff. It has exceptional float, so there’s never any hesitation to launch into the deepest of pow stashes. When it’s tracked, you can literally fly from pocket to pocket of powder, and the board just digs in perfectly and floats, then pops you back up for the next flight. It handles jumps and drops surprisingly well, and lands stably. It’s squirrelly on the hard pack, but can still rail a turn.
It’s still not great in the chop, but not as bad as I thought earlier. I actually missed a number of great powder days on the 420 this year, because I had this impression in my mind that it would suck after a few runs, so I brought my all-mountain board instead. But I’ve ridden from first to last chair a bunch on it this year, and was grinning the whole time 🙂
Would I buy it again? HELL YES! It makes me feel invincible. The steepest, deepest, tightest trees at Stevens are no match for this little board – it turns when you want it to, it floats over everything. It might not be a coincidence that the two times I’ve smashed my ribs into a tree were on this board!! Not because it’s hard to ride, but because it’s so easy to ride that I find myself pointing into outrageous terrain at outrageous speeds without a second thought 🙂
Buy it!!! You won’t be sorry.