The YES. Typo is only the second snowboard i have owned in my 4 years on the slopes, but it took quite some time and consideration before i bought it. After progressing from the beginner lessons in my first year boarding, i quickly realised that the shonky rental equipment available in the cheap Bulgarian resorts was fairly limiting! So i decided to purchase my first snowboard as soon as i got back, it was a fairly rushed affair on ebay and i didn’t really know what i was buying, so i just picked one with a cool name and nice design and got on with it (you can read my Bataleon Omni 155 snowboard review here). I ran the board for one season and quickly realised three things, one was that the board was bloody rigid and designed for carving, two was that at 6ft1 the board was too small for me and highly unstable with big speed and three that i was a bloody idiot for blindly buying something on ebay, but hey, we all learn from our mistakes!
So this YES. Typo 158 snowboard review is my learnings from my rookie mistake and a story of how things turn out alright in the end! After my second season of boarding, i had progress relatively well and was comfortable on most runs on the mountain and had even started lapping the park learning some beginner tricks. This helped me start to put together a bit of a spec for my next snowboard and build a bit of a shortlist. I was now armed with the knowledge that i was now hunting for a decent all-mountain board that was rigid enough to carve quickly down the piste, provide enough flex for a few laps of the park and be responsive enough to handle a bit of off-piste powder should the occasion arise. After a few evenings of online research, reading reviews and scoping out manufacturer websites to see what they say about their boards, i decided to visit Ellis Brigham a.k.a. The Snowboard Asylum in Milton Keynes and see a few of the boards on my shortlist in the flesh.
When i rocked up at The Snowboard Asylum i was pretty stoked to find out that they actually offer demos on a handful of snowboards that they stock, and seeing as the have the Milton Keynes Snozone indoor real snow slope next door, i think that’s an epic idea. After a quick blitz home to grab my bindings (currently running K2, read the review here) and kit i was ready to demo 3 boards that were on my shortlist. First up was the board that i had prejudged to be my favourite and perhaps already the winner, the Bataleon Evil Twin, it certainly looked pretty rad and the brand and name were so cool i felt like a rockstar just carrying it! A few runs down the Snozone indoor real ski slope and i was pretty impressed, it certainly felt a lot more versatile than my Bataleon Omni. Next up was the YES. Typo, i don’t think i expected much from this board and i wasn’t really too familiar with the YES. brand name either to be honest, however once i strapped up my bindings at the top of the slope and set off, i soon changed my mind! Everything just felt so natural and effortless on this board, even though it was quite a bit longer than my old Omni 155 it turned so nicely and had a good amount of flex so i could easily pop and few ollies and cheeky tailpresses on the short slope. Before i committed to buying the board though, i needed to check out the third and final option just incase it was even better than the Typo, the final board i tested was the Sims Juice, i subsequently found out that the Sims brand was the child of former World Snowboard champion Tom Sims, the brand had a lot of heritage and was originally a family run business which unfortunately went bust, but then the brand was bought up by Never Summer Industries and they’re back on shelves again today. Personally i think this was the coolest looking board of the three that i tested and i did immediately fall in love with the cool design. Once i got it on the slope it felt pretty good but it just didn’t make me flow like the YES. Typo did, even after a few runs i still couldn’t convince myself to part with my heard earned cash for it, so i headed back to The Snowboard Asylum and whacked out the credit card ready for my new YES. Typo 158.
YES. Typo 158 snowboard review – How it handled on the real mountains
So after treating myself to the new board the next thing to do was to book a holiday and go and ride on some real mountains. After two years progressing on relatively cheap holidays in Bulgaria (Borovets and Bansko), we decided to step it up a level and head over the the French alps, our destination of choice was the Three Valleys of Courcheval, Meribel and Val Thorens, which combined is the biggest snowboard resort in Europe! In the first few hours on day one i felt so sketchy, the board felt super slippy and i was picking up way too much speed to easily (it turned out the ‘real’ snow at the Snozone wasn’t quite so realistic), however once i built up a bit of confidence and settled in to a rhythm i once again started loving the YES. Typo snowboard!
Getting in to the technical part of the YES. Typo 158 review, i have to say that the best thing about this board is how it is totally confidence inspiring, which was really important for me as i progressed from a beginner to intermediate snowboarder. The board felt really light underneath my feet and had just enough flex in it to be playful yet supportive when you carry more speed into some carve turns. As an intermediate boarder wanting to learn some simple tricks i was constantly looking for little lips to ollie off of and the YES. Typo gave plenty of pop without too much effort, meaning some pretty impressive looking jumps with a decent amount of hang time, even enough for me to attempt a few indy grabs! I was also working on a lot of butter tricks and this really was an area that the board excelled in, it slides nicely through the snow and by transitioning your weight over the board you can easily pick up the nose and tail, something that was infinitely harder on my rigid Bataleon Omni. I also learned to ride switch with YES. Typo and being a directional twin, it made really light work of this (once i got the hang of it!), so with my new found confidence i decided to head up to the DC Area 43 snow park in Meribel-mottaret and see how it handled there. Despite being a fairly lengthy board at 158cm, the YES. Typo is really adept to making tight turns and speed checks which really helped me out in the park when i approached a feature with just a little bit too much speed, i managed to land and few 50/50s and boardslides on the boxes and rails in the park and this snowboard wasn’t even breaking a sweat!
Overall if you’re looking for a good quality and user-friendly all-mountain snowboard then the YES. Typo comes highly recommended. I’m constantly progressing as an intermediate rider and i can just feel that i am nowhere near reaching the limits of this boards performance. Yes there will be better boards out there for the park, for carving or for powder, but if you’re not fortunate to be able to own multiple boards, then you definitely won’t be disappointed if you invest in the Typo, it truly is a board for all occasions. I hope you found this review helpful, if you did then please share it and if you’d like to find out more about this snowboard and buy it online, then please click the button below. If you have any feedback then please drop us a line via the contact us page. Cheers guys!