Snowboard Waist Width 101 // What is a functional board width? 

Lars is single handedly elevating snowboard knowledge in average joes like myself. Truly appreciate the way you explain things w/o making it dry and giving simple ways to understand the nuances of snowboard tech. I’ve learnt so much more from handful of your videos than the hundreds that I watched over the years. If I ever make it out to fernie, beers on me 🤙 Btw, I’ve switched to posi/posi on my t finder and this thing came alive!! As you’ve said before, I was able to put more pressure on my front foot and really drive into turns!

This is exactly the kind of information and thinking that I love. These are the details that I wonder about when things just don’t quite feel right or I notice different people with different preferences.

This is the best info of this kind on YT. Speculation or not, it's great to hear people talking about it. Even if you are buying a board from a shop and not online, it's good to go armed with some ideas and hard numbers.

I’ve been riding since ‘92, and have been dabbling with making my own boards for the past few years. I thought I knew a lot about snowboarding, but making boards made me realize I hardly know a thing! So glad I found your channel, I’ve learned so much essential knowledge just in the few videos I’ve watched so far.

I've gone down the rabbit hole myself in calculating all of these variables. I've been looking at where I actually apply pressure with the heel and balls of my feet, and centering the bindings based off that measurement vs simply centering the boot. It's an art and a science.

Great video! Just got a 160 hovercraft 1.0 with a waist width of 26,8. I have a size 29,5 foot and roughly looking at the width and my angles (+28/+10) I will have very little overhang...thankfully. I love to do very hard carves on slushy blues for which the old hovercraft is very much equipped to do.

Good thing about this video: without saying it, it demonstrates that for big feet (size 13 and up) there aren't many wide enough snowboards on the market.

Example case(for hypothetical average rider)- Foot length 27cm Board waist 25.5cm Board under foot 26.5cm Boot 30.5cm =2cm overhang each side at 0 deg 9 deg reduces overhang by 3-4 mm =17mm overhang each side. Carving guy may want wider board, rail guy narrower board. Good analysis, thanks! Waiting for episode on how to surgically trim a few mm from toes and heal bone.

This was an awesome video, so much good information in here. I also was listening to a podcast where Mikey Franco was saying the ideal board width is 1cm overhang on toe and heel.

Your math checks out when measuring my setup, bravo.

Thanks so much, I do all this crazy stuff myself, but your rules of thumb are great and simplify everything. Please keep providing this "nerdy" episodes.

Great advice. My second board I bought on special was a Dump Truck 163, 258 waist. I've never ridden it because I just know it's too narrow for my size 12s. Guy in shop said I'd be fine - took the sale, but it's about 25-30mm over hang. Just tried turning back foot forward, but that feels so wack, I'm normally 25 front negative 15 back duck. If I didn't/couldn't carve I might get away with it, but it's an aggressive all mountain and if I take it I'll want to lay it down.

Love your channel cause i am an OCD snowboarder.

Great job. Very informative. I wish manufacturers would just stop giving waist width and start giving widths at reference. Would seem much more useful.

Hi, those measurement examples are gold! Thank you!

I would take this snowboarding semester course

Simply great video Explained in a way that is easy to understand and still very detailed so anyone can use it as reference and adjust some parts if needed based on exact board, shoe and so on Nice to see videos like this, kudos to you

Great subject, looking forward to your detailed advice 👍

That was extremely insightful, thank you.

Back again, watching your brilliant videos - no hype or bullshit just solid, useful information 👍 How do these modern, super wide boards ride? The Ride Warpig XL for example ( recommended for my weight and foot size ) has a waist width of 277 but my foot length is 270 🤯🤷‍♂️

I am shocked at how this channel has so few subscribers.I just started learning to snowboard,and went looking for all sorts of educational videos.Quite frankly,RU-vidrs with most subscribers (on snowboarding topic) are much less informative,and what I feel is that some of them are less passionate about giving actual knowledge unlike this channel.All the best luck to you.We all want to see you grow 🎉🎉🎉

As always an awesome video. I like your approach. Learning so much. Thank you!

I have size 7.5 feet. This topic is very important to me. Thanks!

measured my differences, and the difference on the right side is 1-2mm and on the left side 0-1mm, so i'd say that's quite good on my stance, which is 21 and 6. overhang is 1.4 to 1.6 cm

Excellent explanations as always!

Very informative, spectacular content. Thanks a lot for this.

Hey Lars, that is great info 👍 Should be in the school books ;D

Nice vid! With Adidas you’d add only get 18 mm extra to your mondo, with Burton around 22 mm. It’s also worth to mention that custom insoles supporting the natural arch of the feet really help to downsize/get a performance fit more comfortable.

Nice job on a complex topic, Lars

Awesome breakdown. Thanks so much.

i guess if you calculate average (waist width + tail width)/2 : it should be quite the backfoot width. Fortunatly, now some brands give the underfoot width. Very difficult to anticipate the foot drag because it doesn't depend only from the width/boot size, : depending boot sole shape, heel cup shape, heigth of the sole from the snow....Best is to try and adjust. With the time and many trials, i know that i need at list a 27,5cm waist width if the radius is about 9/10m. And then adjusting in width by centering with the disk. Whatever, your advices and observations are always so clever and smart.

This is the first time I have heard anyone talking about shell fit for soft boots. I would run away screaming if someone tried to fit me with ski boots without doing a shell fit.

Always surprises me manufacturers quote waist, tip and tail width and its very rare they ever provide board width at the insert area

To make an even more accurate analysis, what is between the boot and the board should also be taken into consideration, the footbed area of the bindings. With same foot length and board width, different results are produced if the footbed is shorter or longer (actually harder or softer to be picky) because it imparts force to more external or internal points of the board so the leverage power changes. Taking the very practical example you give at the beginning of the video, it would be correct to put an additional piece of wood between the 2. What do you think about this ? I know that your was just a practical example to make everyone understand the concept. Mine is just an in-depth, more realistic additional reasoning

I’d love to see you carve the Biru! I know that’s not its primary use but I think it would be awesome to see you on it!

I think I found my functional width limit with the Korua TF 60. At 278 waist it was quite a lot to handle in the lumps, added to by my hacked, on the slope tip and tail detuning with a rock. 😂

I like and comment on the video before watching it. :) P.S. That Makrill looks sooo nice!

In Variable snow conditions I need more width to carve and not boot out. I don't ever really experience the board creating to much force on my ankles. As My edges are high other than jumps, pow and pre season. I Really enjoy wide Volume shifted board in Moguls.

Hey lars, I am in the unfortunate situation of having large feet (My snowboard boots were fitted to size US 14). I am in the process of relearning how to snowbard properly after doing it very casually over the last 10 years. Essentially i was just counter rotateting constantly / doing completly skidded turns down the mountain. I got new gear last year and even got the widest board i could manage to find (170UW board with a 285mm Waist width) but after watching this video and doing the measurement you did I have about 30-32mm overhang on both my toe and heel edge. The issue I am running into while learning to carve / snowboard again is there are times where I feel like I may be booting out while doing carved turns ( on steep runs). I have a feeling a large part of this is due to me not being balanced properly over my edge so i am over enngadging my edge to keep grip. I also know that I pick up to much speed when during my carves which require me to carve more agrressively to keep my edge. I guess what i'm trying to figure out if riding on my current setup is viable at all if my goal is to have a more carving focused riding style. I am fine with my "carving potential" being capped for the time being as I work on teqniue and then in a few seasons modifyng my gear with shorter boots and shorter binding to reduce my overhang. Like if you had this ammount of overhang would you be able to make some kind nice carving work even if you couldn't push it close to what you normaly do. I understand how much I have to learn / practice / improve but i just hate the idea of putting work into it if there is really nothing i can do with this much overhang Also thank you for making this channel, as someone who works in a technical field. Ihe way you describe snowboarding concepts coming from a deep fundenmental understanding of the entire system has been such a breath of fresh air. I swear i have learneu more watching 2 hour of your videos than I have in the previous 50 hours before.

I've tried mounting the Now bindings for the first time and there was way too much toe drag. So i tried the second method, where the slots are perpendicular to the board length. It looks much more even. But now one heel hangs over more than the other, even though both bindings are in the equivalent holes. (I think) I don't understand. My board is a mountain twin, so it's not as if one end has some weird taper.

Thanks lars

Very helpful video. Do you have any recommendation on the minimum overhang on both heel and toe side for all mountain/freeride？

super. really great !!!

Hi Lars, Thanks so much for all you do! I’ve learned a lot from your content. I have a question about boot length and overhang. You mentioned that boot length is typically longer than foot length due to the shell and liner, and you suggested adding about 3.5 cm to account for this. I understand that, but I’m still unsure how to apply it to waist width calculations. For example, my foot is 27 cm, but my size 28 boot is closer to 31.5 cm with the outer material. Based on this, wouldn’t my overhang be more significant than just a few millimeters? I’m concerned that if I follow the method in the video, I might end up with too much overhang for all-mountain riding and carving. Could you clarify how this extra boot length should factor into waist width calculations? I’d love to hear your thoughts. Thanks again for all your work!

I Love this in depth materials that you make. It is rare in YT snowboard content. May I ask what size is this book and what is the thickness of the liner that you use?

Hi, in one of your video’s you mentioned a pad underneath you binding to lift the whole binding and avoid heel and toe drag. Can you tell me which pads you use? Thnx! Greetings, Steven.

As usual your information is very insightful could you also give the measurements in inches? Question: what size and length board should I have with a size 12 boot 30.O eur size for a all round riding deck? We also always talk about all the variables something many riders don't really understand thanks!

Hey man great video! I love your channel and all the in depth info you give, I appreciate all the work that goes into these videos and please keep it up! Quick question, if I’m following you right then with a boot of about 300mm, at a binding angle of 15 degrees for both (15 positive on front 15 negative back) my ideal waist width would be around 275? Does that sound right? I’m not trying to be exact, just trying to get an idea of my ideal width because I’ve been trying to figure out for a while what fits my size 13 US boots!

Hi Lars, I was wondering what your opinion was on using risers for snowboards, allows you to down-size for a much narrower board, saves weight, and still allows for the lever mechanic you talk about early in the video. What do you feel are some downsides in using risers? I am also curious about our opinion on using heel risers inside your snowboard boots. To me it feels a lot more comfortable because it allows the ankles to have more room for dorsiflexion which allows me to bend my knees further than I could otherwise, the ankles can only bend so much upwards before either the heels start to lift or toeside. I can forsee it also reducing ankle injuries in choppy terrain as well because there is room to bend here.

How does the makrill ride on groomers vs the shorty 64W? and...great channel!!

Great video! ...but what about hight when in binding? Your boot is not flat on the snowboard, it's elevated differently depending on binding cushioning etc.

I would love to know how you set your binding angles if you rotate the insert disk to slide back and forth on the board (instead of side to side) to get equal overhang? Im switching to union atlas bindings for my all mountain freestyle board and the closest i can get to center, on the middle heel cup setting (1), is 11/16” toe over hang and 1 1/8” heel overhang w/ a 2” boot clearance. Waist width is 26.1 cm, size 11.5 boot. Ive been carving pretty hard with the cartel x’s (same board) but with 13/16” toe/ 1 1/4” heel overhang so i know its doable, but would love to know what even overhang feels like!

How does that work with volume shifted boards?

This makes buying a snowboard so confusing. So I need to buy for my weight along with the correct size waist so im not draggin my boot. Yet manufacturers wanna know my height? Along with not giving me underfoot width but the waist width so I have to assume its bigger underfoot. Why not just tell me so i dont have to guess. Is having a board with the proper width better or is proper board legnth?

What in case you cannot make toe and heel overhang even? is it better to have more overhang on toes or heels?

Very useful information. A friend of mine who is an advanced level rider & can really achieve a high board angle when carving has large feet & usually wear a boot size uk 12. Boot drag has always been an issue for him as he doesn’t like to run a specifically ‘wide’ version of his chosen board (primary board CustomX 162) - runs a fairly high positive front angle & significant negative rear angle which helps minimise drag as you have said - though he still struggles. His method to overcome has been to develop his own binding baseplate risers made from around 1.2cm thick rubber floor tiles to increase the distance between boot & snow when on edge- which really seems to work him without too much compromise on board feel. Have you any experience of this type solution ? I would be interested to know your thoughts. There doesn’t seem to be any products on the market - so either it’s completely nonsense, or my friend needs to get his patent applied for quickly & lead the charge 😂

Thanks for the informative video. I’ve been on the hunt for a better performing setup. I had a hunch that possibly I was in too big of a boot. I have ride fuse US11 / mondo29. My foot actually measures 28cm. Good boot but the fit has always been a little off. The wrap liner is a little too large for my slim lower leg. I try not to overtighten, but I still get a little heel lift. I may look into sizing down 1/2. I also took some board and overhang measurements. Board: Lib tech BRD 162w, 265 waist width. Front foot 21 degrees angle with 17mm over on the toes and 15mm on the heel. Back foot angle +3 with 25mm over on both toes and heel. Stance width just under 22in or 56cm. Figure the extra overhang on back foot is due to the 15mm taper of this board along with a mellow binding angle. Any suggestions, feedback?

Another great video Lars! Would be interested in how foot bed height affects this. Is there a height you never go over, or even under? The higher the footbed the more leverage you have no?

Random question, just because I notice the logos on your kits... how's Haglöfs compare to Arc'teryx? My general sense is Arc'teryx and Norrøna are in a class of their own for North American-accessible outerwear, even compared to other brands licensed for Goretex Pro. But heard rumblings Haglöfs is in a very similar tier. Just speaking compared Arc'teryx versus say Burton [ak] or high-end Patagonia, I'm struck by how much more dialed in the pattern is and how much tighter the seam allowances are. Although that's pre-Anta acquisition Arc'teryx, not sure these days how things are holding up.

I am not sure the effect in choppy snow is that strong? I did notice my widest board to strain my feet when riding icy slopes all day having less leverage to dig the edges in. An effect that is somewhat lessened with Skatetech bindings. Last two days anh the night between it almost constantly rained with a bit snow thrown in, resulting in ultimately wet, heavy sticky snow, soon tracked out into bumps that often at some pressure would collapse. To test different structure/wax in these conditions, I happened to be switching between 3 boards each day going down the same slopes. It sure was a workout for the legs absorbing the bumps and dealing jaggedness of the ride, but no issue with the leverage. And worst was the narrowest of the 3, for being the softest (even though the turniness of its hybrid rocker makes good snow moguls less work), stiff volume shifted in the middle and stiff carving board best, but hardly any narrower than the volume shift, rather just a good deal longer. So defenitely stiffness and maybe length being much stronger factors there?

Hello, what about plates or risers ? Thank you

Smashed it!

Hi! I'm 1,72cm (usually 20' to 21' inch stance width) and I weight 65kg which, generally, puts in a 153 board (most of them with 25cm of waist width). My feet are 27,5cm and going with your initial rule, most boards are 2 to 2,5 cm shorter than my feet at waist width. Would you recommend me going mostly for volume shifted boards to "fix" this? And if so what board would be a good pick for all-mountain freeriding (there aren't many options I'd say) for me?

My foot measures 265mm and I ride an Orca 153 which has a waist width of 267mm. As an intermediate rider, I’m now thinking this is too much board for me on non pristine conditions. Thoughts anyone?

Im a mondo 27.2 but managed to fit into 8.5 K2 ortons. My daily ride is a K2 Excavator 154 with a 264mm ww andnits never felt overly wide or sluggish to me. I really want to try the K2 Special Effects, but the ww is 284mm and it leaves me with no overhang, the boot essentially lines up with the edge. Am i crazy to try riding this thing? Id consider myself an advanced carver and find myself booting out in softer snow on my other boards. Cheers!

Hi man, great content, finally I have some more reference, thanks. I have a question, I currently have a Salomon HPS with about 270mm under the foot and with a 10.5 boot I have a protrusion of 25mm which is almost too much to be able to do some turns properly. I would like to replace it with a korua Transition finder and I'm undecided between the 157 and the 160, I weigh 73kg and everyone recommends the 157, I know that under the foot it measures 280mm so I would have a protrusion of about 20mm from the edge. With the 160 I would reduce the overhang to 15mm from the edge, but it is really very wide at 278mm in the center and 290mm under the foot. In your opinion, which choice is the most appropriate, I would really like to perform a good carving, but it is also true that it is also a very versatile all-rounder board, so I don't know if it makes sense to exaggerate so much. A thousand thanks sorry for the very long message.

Great video. What would be useful, and what I've never seen, is a comparison of BSL across soft boot brands or models given an equal mondo size. That is, which soft boots are the shortest, and most compact?

hmm just got a new set up, new boots, board and so now iam a bit scared it wont fit xD i got 3,5 cm at Backfoot, front +12 and back -12 degree got a 155 board midwide is 251mm. Got an 11 Boot.

Great job as ever Lars. 🏂👍

Lars, Do you know why Jones snowboards recommend women to buy disproportionately wide snowboards compared to men? Check out their recommendations for waist width on the website, Men’s US5-7 = 24-25cm waist. Women’s US5-7 = 23.7-24.5cm. Almost the same width board recommended for a much smaller women’s boot?

Hey bro! Big fan of yours. I am currently encountering trouble when getting a powder board like yours. It would be great to have your input. I’ve been looking to get a gentemstick, but I see that there is quite a variety of length as well as shapes. There are quite a few model of fish tail boards and swallowtail boards. They also released swallowtail boards that are crazy long in length and tail which I don’t think normal all mountain board length logic applies. Could you help out on how to pick one? I’m 175cm 60kg, I have a jones all mountain directional project x board that rides decent in light pow. So my choice is really deep pow specific and I hope it can be maneuvered within the trees as well.

Hey Bro! Still waiting on that email; let's do that collab this month. We should ride together when conditions improve or maybe do a simultaneous livestream on both channels if they don't? My email address is in the last minute of my Secrets video.