Wide Board Question

For the last few seasons I have been going a few days and hiring all my gear so this year I decided to look into buying. I’m 6ft 1, size 10.5 boot and 70kg and would probably consider myself to be beginner to intermediate. I managed to find a second-hand unused K2 Darkstar in perfect condition and the right length for an absolute steal so went and picked it up without realising it was a wide board. I gave it my first go last weekend in not really ideal conditions for getting the hang of a new board and got thrown around a lot (serious bruising). I’m just wondering if you believe it may just have a steep learning curve (being a flat board that I’ve never ridden before) and that it may just take some time to get used to (if so some tips to ride a wide board would be great), or will my boot size and weight make it almost impossible to get the hang of? By all accounts they are meant to be a pretty nice board from what I can find online

Welcome to Boardworld, @Bstone!

Which brand and model boots do you have? Footprints are different brand-to-brand.

What size is the board exactly? We need to know the waist width before commenting on suitability. Boot size (footprint) vs waist width is what we need to consider.

Let me know and we can assess the situation properly.

Hello,

Thanks for the reply. I purchased a pair of Ride Rook’s that have a sole length of 32cm & the board is a 160cm and has a 26.5cm width at the bindings. I spent abit of time last night adjusting the bindings as i realised all the overhang was on the heel side (which might be the reason why it was so hard to initiate toe side turns). They are now centred with a slight overhang each side so hopefully that helps. Let me know what you think.
Cheers

Yeah, that’s super wide for 10.5 boots. Honestly speaking, the board is too wide for you. ?

That’s not to say you can’t ride it, and you’ve done the right thing by centring your boots, but I don’t think it’s going to get too much better. Also, 160cm is still pretty long for someone who’s only 70kg. You’re tall but your weight is more important to consider. Force is what flexes the board; force is determined by mass. Height will give you a bit more leverage but it can only do so much. If you can’t flex the board you’re going to struggle to ride it effectively.

What this all means is your board is going to feel like a boat and make progression more difficult. I know this isn’t what you wanted to hear but I’m sure you appreciate the honest feedback nonetheless.

How wide is your stance? (measure from centre of baseplate to centre of baseplate). Just curious as this can affect the ride as well.

Please let me know if you have any questions.

Yeh honest feedback is why i posted the question so don’t stress.

My stance is 56cm which seemed to align perfectly with the recommended holes.

Well il be heading back up the mountain in a few weeks so will give it another go and see how it feels with the minor adjustments and focus on technique, if it doesn’t work out its still in perfect condition so I’m sure i could sell it off.

Question though, my boots now hang over just under 2cm on the toe and heel side. From what my search online tells me, you really want to aim for that 1.5cm mark. so won’t my boots hang far to much on a regular board?

Thanks for all the help by the way, very much a learning experience for me

FYI I have 10.5s and rock a regular Yes the greats board which has a width of 251mm and while I do get a bit of overhang, its not enough to really cause me issues when carving pretty hard.

I think if you had a bad alignment when you originally rode that would cause more issues which should be fixed next time you jump on if I’m reading correctly.

GIve it another shot and let us know how you go.

What angles do you have your binding angles set at? I find it strange that you have that much overhang with 10.5 boots on a 265mm waist.

56cm = approx 22 inches. At your height, you could always try a wider stance width. I can’t promise it will make a huge amount of difference, but it might help, and it’s worth experimenting with stance width anyway to find your ideal stance. I’m only about 5"8 and I usually ride a 22.5” or thereabouts stance width.

I have my front binding at 15 and my back at -6. Yeh i dunno why there is that much overhang, my boots must not be very compact for their size.

I might do that, my stance could always go a touch wider for my height. i just started with the general heel to knee measurement and based it off that, but il extend it a touch and see if that feels ok.

Il post how it all goes after i come back from my next trip

Hey Bstone,

So I’m in US 11.5 boots and I ride a board that is 268 in the waist (not the bindings). And I love riding boards that way. I want the minimum overhang that I can get. So I think you can ride that K2 for sure.

That said, I’ve been riding for a long time and I don’t recommend minimum overhang for people when they are starting out. But if you stick with it, you can learn to ride that board. Or you could get a thinner board for now and come back to the K2 when you’re ready.

A tip I can give you for riding it would be to move you body further than usual, to get your weight over the edge you want to use. So on a thin board you might have just rocked from toe to heel, heel to toe with your ankles and still be over the edge. On a wide board you want to change edges by moving your hips right across the board, so you hips are over the edge you’re changing to and your body weight is stacked over the edge. This is a good thing to learn in general anyway because it will make you a more stable rider.

Hope that helps, good luck with it man!

I’d say the board is just plain too big for you, length and width. Something in the mid 150s range with 25.5-26cm waist should be much more manageable while still allowing your to progress your carving.

Personally I’m down to a US9.5 boot now, Ride Fuse, and I’ll only ride wide boards. Anything under 26cm and I’ll boot out, and I did often enough on a 164W Custom X which is 26.1. I’ve nabbed a large Ride Warpig which is 27cm waist and I absolutely love digging trenches on that thing, and even on that I was still getting some heelcup drag in spring conditions. I don’t feel it as being any harder at all to turn or ride than my other boards, possibly easier as it’s specifically designed to be ridden shorter and wider.

Wide boards have their place for sure, more surface area helps float, you can carve harder, and in general they’ll be ever so slightly stiffer than the regular width version. It just depends if those are attributes you think you’ll need or progress into, or if you’d be happier on a regular width board which is ever so slightly more agile, at the expense of how much angle you can tilt the board at while carving.