Brand Focus - YES. Snowboards

YES. Snowboards are an absolute phenomenon! The fact that the YES 156.5 is the most visited review on Snowboard Review is testament to the guys behind the brand. When JP Solberg, Romain De Marchi and DCP found themselves left out in the cold by Burton, they grabbed the opportunity to work with Nidecker to create their own brand. YES. was born and the 2009/10 season has seen the guys release their first range of boards. Tom from Snowboard Review managed to grab an hour with founding member JP Solberg, to find out a bit more about YES. and the trials and tribulations of starting a brand from scratch.

We’re stoked to see that you’ve started ‘Yes’ with long-time riding partners DCP and Romain De Marchi. Obviously those two have kids now so their priorities have changed slightly, I guess being able to do their own thing and not worry about competitions and psychotic video-parts (Romain in Pop) really suits them. What has starting YES done for JP Solberg? And how have your priorities changed since starting YES?

I used to have a girlfriend but since I started this company it’s no more.

Are you working a lot harder then?

Yeah I guess I am. Like you said DCP and Romain both have kids now, they both needed to have homes and spend more time with their families. I’m just living out of a bag! This is pretty much what I’m going to be doing and like I said I’m going to put my heart and soul into this project, which for the moment means I’m the face of the company. If they need me to be the one out there partying and showing face then I’ll do my thing. It’s easy for me to talk about YES because I haven’t heard a bad thing about what we’re doing….I really believe in the product.

I remember reading an article where you said riding for Burton was a bit like being locked into the Matrix!

It’s like living in a bubble you know? It’s really refreshing to take a step outside and realise that there are all these companies that are pushing good boards, good boots and good bindings.

After being cooped up in the matrix for so long; has being detached from mainframe and loosing a certain amount of security and pressure rekindled your romance with the sport?

Yeah that’s exactly what it’s done. I feel like I’m kinda rediscovering snowboarding because now I get to do whatever I want to do. I don’t get somebody telling me to fill out a weekly report….little things that I really don’t think have anything to do with snowboarding. I get to do whatever I want, I’m my own boss….which I think shows in my riding and it’s the same with Romain and DCP, there’s fire now! Have you seen Neverland yet?

No I haven’t seen Neverland yet.

You haven’t seen Neverland yet!!

(JP looks at me a little disappointed)

Well I’ve seen a couple of clips; I really liked Sylvain’s section.

Yeah he’s super good.

And I saw Gigi’s section.

Man Gigi’s insane. Gigi’s video parts never really bring justice to his riding. When you actually watch him ride that’s when you understand how sick he actually is.

Obviously Tadashi is now involved in the project which no doubt helps the Japanese connection, but you guys aren’t getting any younger.

For sure I’m getting older, you are too, It’s a natural part of life.

You four have been at the forefront of the sports progression, you’re household names, obviously that’s a massive help in promoting the brand.

Have you seen the Transworld exposure-meter? We ended up at ninth place and we haven’t spent a single dollar on marketing.

People are really talking about YES.

Exactly, I think it’s funny because we were ahead of brands like Oakley…..companies that have put millions and millions into their marketing budget to make their brands visible. We haven’t done anything but snowboard.

It definitely helps being involved with Absinthe though.

Absinthe is a family thing. The crew that’s with Absinthe now is tighter than it’s ever been; I talk to all the guys on a regular basis. I came to London from Moscow where we had sold-out shows for the premiers…..it’s crazy because I must have been to 25 cities promoting the film and everywhere we went there have been sold-out shows.

I guess you could say they’re your best riding buddies?

Exactly, the funny thing is that it doesn’t even feel like we’re going filming. Even when we’re using the Helicopters we’ll always do a couple of runs just for fun. Sick shit still goes down but at the end of the day we all want to ride a bit, find our feet, before we get into the filming. With other filming companies it’s like you have to get straight into it but Absinthe is like a big winter vacation!

That’s the life…

Dude its sick!

Obviously one day you guys aren’t going to be at the forefront of the sport. Where are you going to find four future YES riders that will make as much of an impact on the sport as you guys have?

I just want to have the right people representing YES. I guess you just have to put your ear to the ground and be conscious of it. It’s funny because ever since we’ve been doing this we’ve been approached by riders with agents….at the end of the day it’s just snowboarding and think if we’re going to be getting any more riders involved in YES then I’m going to know those people. It’s important to know where their head is and if they’re still stoked on riding.

I’m guessing Gigi and Heiki couldn’t be persuaded to get involved?

Gigi’s doing his thing with Volcom, which he’s always been doing. And Heiki, he’s really hard to get a-hold-of; he’ll just go underground then pop-up with a sick video part. That is what’s sick about Heiki though, he’s such an underdog.

It’s kinda crazy that he’s signed to Weekend Snowboards because it’s such a small brand.

That’s good, I guess they make good boards and I guess he must be stoked on the product. I haven’t talked to him about it.

They’re making really small quantities….only 400 boards this season. It’s crazy that one of the biggest names in Snowboarding has signed to such a small brand.

When I see him I’ll definitely be digging on that.

What does it mean to you to finally be working on something that is small, fresh and partly yours?

It’s my baby. It needs to be born then hopefully it grows…..I’m just so stoked that people like the boards.

Obviously you’ve started YES with NDK creative, who have also just started brands with JJ and Antti Autti, how did this partnership come about? Why Nidecker? Was it the Romain/Pulp connection?

That’s exactly it. The connection came through Jim Zbinden, who does the Pulp68 thing with Romain, he’s worked closely with NDK creative for a while doing designs etc. I guess Nidecker weren’t making as many boards as they wanted to so they approached us and asked us if we wanted to start our own brand and offered us the keys to the factory. It was an easy decision to make, we all thought ‘Fuck yeah, let’s do this!’

Are YES snowboards Nidecker boards in disguise? If not, what makes them different from a Nidecker or an Antti Autti or a Jones? How much R&D have you and the guys put into developing these boards?

We’re hustler’s dude. We went to the Nidecker factory to see what we could work with and we told them we were going to take everything. Nidecker have the sickest technology. Nevertheless we designed our own moulds and must have tested around twenty different shapes before we decided what to use.

So the shapes were developed purely by you, Romain and DCP?

Yeah we developed all our own moulds. We invested a lot of time and money; to make a mould is really expensive. Before you make a mould the process involves a lot of cutting, gluing and researching.

Where did you do all the R&D? Did you take a lot of the test boards out with you when you were filming?

Portes De Soliel is about 40 minutes away from the factory, so you could glue a board then be riding it the next day! I filmed my whole video part in Portes De Soliel; Justin didn’t use half the footage that we actually filmed but I think 90% of the footage in Neverland is from when we were testing the boards in Portes De Soliel.

Was it nice to spend a bit of time in Europe?

It’s sick, the good food and the mountains. If I had to choose one continent to stay in then I’d stay in Europe all year

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I guess you’ve got to travel all the time though?

Dude I’m on a satellite, wherever the snow is that’s where I am. For the last couple of years it’s been super good in the States too.

Do you think you’ll ever settle?

I don’t think so; wherever it snows, that’s where I’ll be. I’m a weather man; if I see the low pressure coming in then I’m buying a ticket and I’m gone

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Did you get out to AK last season?

I was there for about 6 weeks. Ak is tricky, kinda like Norway as they have a similar latitude, you can have really harsh conditions but when it’s good it’s ‘the shit’.

So beforehand when you went on trips to AK I imagine Burton would have paid for everything. Now that you’re doing your own thing is all the money coming out of your own pocket?

Pretty-much yeah, I’m still paying for that trip…..stuck it on the credit card.

Savage!

Whatever, it’s all good. We’re selling a few boards now and although it’s pretty-much all going back into YES I’ll be able to pay it off one day! All I want to do is snowboard and the fact that I’m doing it for my own brand is amazing. Living the dream!

You’ve got three boards in the line-up this season and all have Camrock, a compromise between camber and rocker…..how does it ride in comparison to normal camber and normal rocker?

I was always sceptical about the whole rocker thing too but I wanted to give it a go, I think Camrock is the way all snowboards should be built. We took a lot of the ideas that we had developed back at Burton for the Uninc boards and although the boards are very different we think we’ve come up with some great snowboards. We’d been doing the Uninc boards for absolutely years and I’d been riding for Burton for over 10 years. I feel like I’ve graduated from college or University. The way that Burton bring you in, teach you how to do everything and keep you really close to the product has been so useful.

Do you feel you’re even closer to the product now?

I guess now I’m really putting my heart and soul into it.

Are you not worried that you’re alienating some customers by not keeping a normal camber on at least one deck?

For next year we’re going to be producing five lines and one of those won’t have the Camrock. Tadashi is going to do his own thing, slimmer boards for the Japanese consumers. We’re also going to do a directional board for next year and a full asymmetrical twin. All the shapes we’ve produced this season have been a real hit, I’ve ridden them all and I really think they’re a hit.

Which boards are you all riding?

Romain and myself are on the 156.5 Asymmetrical Twin Camrock and DCP rides the 159 Twin Camrock. We’ve also got a 162 Directional Twin Camrock. It’s crazy because after all the testing was finished I rode one deck all year.

As in you didn’t change your snowboard at all? You didn’t break or damage it?

I didn’t snap it and it wasn’t beaten up, for the first time in a while I got emotionally attached to my board…..it’s my baby. With Burton it was different; I was riding different boards for different types of terrain and snow. Last season I was too lazy to switch my bindings over and took the 156.5 on the steepest runs and I have to say it handled real good. The whole idea behind a bigger board is it’s more stable and cruisy, but the 156.5 was perfect.

Do you think that’s because of the Camrock?

I think so yeah, rocker is insane for powder.

What about the Asymmetric sidecut; have you noticed any difference there?

I’m not going to say it’s changed my life, we haven’t reinvented the wheel. Board companies were using it a long time ago and it’s funny that it disappeared because it makes a lot of sense if you think about it. It just makes so much sense; changing the heel-edge sidecut so that it performs similarly to the toe-edge sidecut. I can’t really believe that manufacturers veered away from it, for me it’s the only way to build a snowboard.

I heard rumours that you’re only producing boards in limited quantities of 100? Is that true?

That was the limited edition series.

Have they all been sold?

We’ve literally just open sales on our website. Dude I’m now a Snowboarder and a web designer!

Did you know that your website has been down for the last couple of days?

Is it down? Shit! I’m on tour man!

So who’s organising that side of things while you’re away?

Romain….I definitely need to give him a little call today! That’s awesome! Today is my last day of being on tour so I can get back to working on the website fairly soon.

How long are you back in Bergen (JP’s home town in Norway) for?

Two days then I’m off to Indonesia for two weeks of surfing!

That’s your other passion isn’t it?

I guess I snowboard so that I can surf. It’s funny how little Snowboarding has done for my Surfing and how much Surfing has done for my Snowboarding.

So do you Surf like a Snowboarder? Stinky legs?

I’m working on that! I think we all do if we’re honest. Poopy stance!

This season a lot of manufacturers have put their boards up in value quite considerably, one well-known brand in particular, but Yes seem competitively priced even though you’re using advanced technology like ultimate-grip and asymmetric sidecuts. Why are Yes boards so well priced?

We don’t want to hit our riders where it hurts. I’m not looking to be a millionaire doing this, if I can live my passion and ride my own board then that’s enough for me. For me it’s all about contributing to the sport and giving a little something back. YES is never going to manufacture bindings, boots, outerwear or anything like that. If you focus on one thing and do it well then you shouldn’t have to spend lots on marketing, hopefully the good reputation will spread organically. Marketing is where a lot of brands spend their cash. If you look at skateboarding brands; they specialise on manufacturing one thing and do it well; there are companies making decks, companies making trucks and companies making wheels. I never really understood why DC diversified; to me DC Shoes snowboards sounds weird. I think the people behind brands should really stick to what their passion is; I guess the price of our boards is sending a message to those brands. Snowboarding is expensive enough already; if you think about it Surfing is pretty sick because all you need is a board and something to cover your arse.

For the fifth time we’re interrupted by people wanting to know more about the product but don’t have a clue who JP is! JP’s visibly stoked to see people looking at the boards and is itching to talk about his product to anybody who will listen.

This shit is on fire dude!

I know it’s a bit of a cliché but what are YES bringing to the sport/industry that other brands haven’t managed yet?

Yeah it is a bit of a cliché but YES is probably one of the only companies that is genuinely rider owned and rider run. It’s for Snowboarders by Snowboarders. There aren’t many companies that are run by just four snowboarders

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It’s literally just you four running the ship?

Yeah man. I can see why the website is down because we’re absolute idiots when it comes to website building….but we’re learning every day. YES is a REAL snowboard company!

I had the idea that a company involving JP Solberg, Romain De Marchi, DCP and Tadashi Fuse would have a massive team of people behind the scenes.

We’re literally doing everything these days which is real funny. We’re laughing everyday and having a great time doing it.

Your board graphics have been designed by Jim Zbinden founder of the Pulp68 familia. Will there be designs from other artists for those with a different taste?

Well Jim’s not part of it anymore, he’s an artist, he thought YES was getting too big and wanted to go back to doing his own thing. He just wanted to get back to focusing on his snowboard store.

So we can expect other collaborations in the pipeline?

Oh yeah! I don’t think we’re going to be doing pro-models or signature models but I’ve met a lot of people over the years that are really inspiring artists and I’d love to get them involved in YES. I think YES can be an outlet for artists who love the sport and want to collaborate.

A bit like Endeavor?

Kinda……but not really! I have a lot of good friends that I think could bring something really special to the table, I’d love YES to be their outlet.

What are Romain, DCP, and Tadashi like to work with? Is there ever a bad day in the office?

Dude they’re family to me. Tadashi’s English isn’t that good though! I’m surprised he even gets through customs sometimes. Back in the day he didn’t even speak a single word of English and always had a hard time getting through customs but now he’s getting better….I’m just joking Tadashi.

So I guess it’s good to have a Japanese connection because it’s a big market?

Well he’s a sick snowboarder and that’s the reason he’s on YES. I rode with him a lot when I filmed with Mack Dawg a couple of years ago and I was blown away by how good he was. He’s a stompy ass mother!

He’s quite short isn’t he!

Same height as me….calling me short?

Uh……..no (I wanted to say YES but in all honesty he’s not much shorter than me!)

So, a few questions about the man JP Solberg; what brands do you aspire to?

I like the skate company Cliché but I guess I aspire to people, mostly artists. The guys that designed the graphics for my Uninc boards back in the day like Andy Herscowitz and Dows Green are really inspirational. I’m not really into companies because ultimately they’re not as genuine and interesting as people.

How does a rider so prone to injury learn how to do a double cork?

Fuck dude, just send it!

How many times did it take you learn?

The one featured in ‘It’s Always Snowing Somewhere’ was actually my second attempt; I couldn’t actually believe I landed on my feet. We filmed that whole video part in a week! That was the first time that I filmed with my buddy Mads (Johnson). We’d always told them that we’d be able to get some serious shit filmed but they thought we were trouble together and told us it was never going to happen. I guess it proved them wrong when I started landing doublecorks!

Did you ride more with Mads this year?

Well not really because he broke his arm in February and he’s been struggling with that ever since. I’m actually going with Mads to Indo on Friday, so I guess he’s back to fitness.

So you stomp another backside doublecork in Neverland?

Yeah but it’s not really about individual sections, it’s really nice this year because we have a YES section. The music for the video part is ‘Pigs in Zen’ by Jane’s Addiction which is really appropriate when you listen to the lyrics. Although Justin only put 50% of our footage in the film it’s cool because we can use the rest to make a promo film and put some up on the website…..when we figure out how to do that!

So it’s been a while since you last donned the pink bunny outfit; can we expect to see JP Solberg rocking the bunny outfit in next season’s releases?

I might bring it back, that suit is still in my closet dude! Filming that section in Transcendence was hellish, it was summer in Mt Hood and I put fur on….I was dying.

Any chance the flying bunny will replace the flying pig?

You just gave me a really bright idea…..we might use that!

For me the 5 most stylish riders at the moment are: Aaron Biittner, MFM, yourself, TonTon Holland and Markus Keller.

You’ve ridden with a lot of the top pro’s who do you think are the 5 most stylish?

They’re all great riders man; Aaron’s super cool, MFM has got to be one of my favourite guys and I rode with Markus a bit last season, definitely a sick style. I guess I drew my inspiration from Jamie Lynn but I love watching Marco (Feichtner) and Gigi ride. I also like to watch DCP because it’s like he’s surfing, he’s got the best turns in the business.

But Jamie Lynn is the rider you looked-up-to when you were a kid.

He’s stylish as hell man. Jamie’s always had his own thing going on; he was and is a true innovator. He’s still charging hard.

Jamie entered a competition in London’s Covent Garden back in 1995 where he was spinning really stylish switch bs5 methods, at the time this was a really innovative trick. As none of the judges realised he was dropping-in switch he finished in a surprisingly low position. Back then nobody would ever consider dropping-in switch during a big air competition.

I remember that event; Daniel Franck, Shaun Palmer and Johan all showed up. That was snowboarding back in the day; people didn’t really understand what Jamie was doing. He was a true innovator.

Do you think snowboarding can go any further than it has?

Fuck yeah. I think when you watch Neverland you’ll see that people have really stepped up their game.

I saw a clip of Kevin Pearce and Nico Muller riding the woods in Japan; some of the shit that those guys do is unbelievable.

Yeah it’s insane, have you ever been to Japan?

Not yet!

It’s insane, you can throw the snow at a wall and it will stick…..you’ve obviously seen how much snow sticks onto the trees. It’s heavy but it’s soft at the same time. I always used to go to Japan for contests so I always bought my smaller board, like a 152, but there’s something about that snow which means its still super floaty on a 152.

Are you going back there this season?

Oh yeah, I’m thinking of heading there in December to eat some Sushi, do a bit of promotion and hang-out. I love going to Japan, it’s so cool.

Tom’s random questions!

What tracks get you pumped for riding?

I listen to a lot of Bob Marley and I like listening to Biggie.

Have you got a favourite Biggie track?

No real favourites but ‘Sky’s The Limit’ is sick.

Who’s the robot at the beginning of Afterbang?

All of us man. We all did our thing in the suit at some point.

I watched it the other day and it’s still a classic.

It’s a sick film; we had so much fun making that movie.

Do you ride much with Jussi anymore?

No I really don’t see him anymore but he’s definitely cool as hell. He’s still an unbelievable rider and when you watch him ride you’re always saying to yourself ‘what the fuck!’

Last question; is YES unincorporated?

YES is definitely the new UNINC for sure!

Thanks JP

Any time, thank you!

Snowboard-Review would like to thank Jeremy Sladen from The Snowboard Asylum for hooking us up with the interview. YES. Snowboards are available from www.snowboard-asylum.com .

Posted by Tom Ewbank in Features.

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