[Danny]

Alright collective UKBers, I'm looking for a bit of board advice.

I'm moving house shortly—from Northern Ireland down to Falmouth. Here in NI I have a fairly large wall in my garden which I've had a lot of fun on over the years. It's ~45 degrees into a roof to lip affair (contrary to received wisdom, I've found the roof to be more than worth it, if only to maintain interest). The new house in Falmouth has a garage, so I'll be looking to build a more typical woodie.

I'm thinking of steepening the board to about 60 in order to get a bit more out of the space. Is this a punt move? I'm thinking I could still use boney small holds by setting a number of them on little triagular blocks to vert them up a bit. Larger holds on the 60 for a bit more thuggery. Does anyone have any experience climbing on 60 degree boards? Comments and advice much appreciated.

For reference on a good day I'm a fairly unheroic mid to high 7s climber.

[Nibile]

Good idea. End of Story.

[lagerstarfish]

if you build it steep, then you can find out how you like it and know that you can rebuild it less steep by just cutting down the supports and panels and refitting them

if you build less steep, you can't easily make the beams and panels longer to make it steeper

that's logic that is

[ducko]

I personally prefer less steep boards im making one atm and it'll be 40 deg and be full of poor hand and foot holds, i get much better gains outside after training on the 30deg board we have at the mill, I bareky touch the 55deg except for a bit of a power top up now and then. Either way having a woodie is mega regardless of angle

[Danny]

Good idea. End of Story.

Brevity.

[Doylo]

Personally I wouldn't want to go much over 50 even if it means less moves. 60 is too steep to train small holds effectively and finger strength is the most important thing outside.

[Danny]

I personally prefer less steep boards im making one atm and it'll be 40 deg and be full of poor hand and foot holds, i get much better gains outside after training on the 30deg board we have at the mill, I bareky touch the 55deg except for a bit of a power top up now and then. Either way having a woodie is mega regardless of angle

Agree here in general, but where I'm limited by height the 40-and-less gets me less climbing surface...on that subject, I've always disliked kickboards on small boards as a lank b/c probs tend to follow the same pattern: crouchy small hold setup into big move to slightly better hold and done.

[Danny]

Personally I wouldn't want to go much over 50 even if it means less moves. 60 is too steep to train small holds effectively and finger strength is the most important thing outside.

Mebs I'll do 50 into a roof section. As much as I know that's an anathema to the training hardcore, in practice my motivation to train remains a little higher when I can cock around a bit between the serious stuff.

[Will Hunt]

With regards Ducko's comments, I think it will depend what you want to use the board to train. If you're prepared to build some mini volumes to stick tiddly crimps on then it sounds like a win to me, especially if anything less than a 60 is going to mean too short a board.

Andy Popp's board has a short roof section at the end of it and it worked quite nicely. I can't see why people have a problem with adding that? If you've got room to do it then it just adds extra versatility to the board.

[slackline]

Adjustable angle? 

Perhaps slightly more work.

[remus]

Extra board surface is tempting, but I think 60 degress is a bit too steep for any proper small holds. If you're relying on volumes for usable small holds I think you'll just end up with very few small holds on your board because having lots of volume son your board is a pain in the ass.

[Will Hunt]

Extra board surface is tempting, but I think 60 degress is a bit too steep for any proper small holds. If you're relying on volumes for usable small holds I think you'll just end up with very few small holds on your board because having lots of volume son your board is a pain in the ass.

This is also true. Basically just don't listen to anything I say about training as I'm crap at it.

[Danny]

Adjustable angle? 

Perhaps slightly more work.

I think you misunderstand Slackers—remember that the whole point of steepening would be to get more climbing surface in a garage with limited vertical height. Adjustable would be limited to the max surface you could get from the least steep angle.

[Danny]

I'm leaning towards 50 max with a roof. I'm also crap at training Will.

[SA Chris]

I'm leaning towards 50 max

Impressive balance skills!

[SA Chris]

as a lank b/c probs tend to follow the same pattern: crouchy small hold setup into big move to slightly better hold and done.

Surely that's a product of poor problem setting?

[dave]

as a lank b/c probs tend to follow the same pattern: crouchy small hold setup into big move to slightly better hold and done.

Surely that's a product of poor problem setting?

It's also a product of what happens if you buy a set of holds that are roughly of similar size and stick them on in a random pattern - i.e. the usual starting point when you build a board. Big kickboards and very steep boards are easier to deal with if you have a big range of holds at your disposal (most home boards don't), and ideally lots of users of different ability and/or lots of man-hours available to finetune it (i.e. lots of wasted session on your board pissing around moving holds). For the above reasons most average home board users would be best sticking to non-extremes of angle and a small or nonexistent kickboard, IMHO.

[Doylo]

I can see why people say no kickboard but I've always climbed on boards with kickboards and prefer them so I'm just going to go with a small one on mine.

[andy popp]

Andy Popp's board has a short roof section at the end of it and it worked quite nicely. I can't see why people have a problem with adding that? If you've got room to do it then it just adds extra versatility to the board.

I think the board is about 45 (with short kick board) into maybe 2 and half/3 foot of roof and round the lip is a short vertical section with one long rail. Almost all the problems finish matching the rail. I've also no idea why roofs are seen as a bad thing - it has allowed for much more variety and  greater climbing surface and we didn't have to compromise the size of the 45 in order to build the roof.

[SA Chris]

I'm just going to go with a small one

And what about the kickboard size?

[slackline]

I think you misunderstand Slackers—remember that the whole point of steepening would be to get more climbing surface in a garage with limited vertical height. Adjustable would be limited to the max surface you could get from the least steep angle.

Apologies yes I have misunderstoodd.  If maximising climbing surface area is the intended goal then its surely a question that doesn't need to be asked, just go ahead and maximise the space. 

[Ti_pin_man]

for me there is a trade off between max surface area you can build Versus how much you might use it   I have a board that's about 48 degree and there are certainly days I wish it was slacker and the knowing that its use will be a hard session sometimes puts me off.  Its a trade off and only the OP can decide what he wants.

[DAVETHOMAS90]

Sounds like you might be thinking of something like:



That'd be rubbish, almost as bad as moving to Falmouth.

If you want a hand building it... 

Sounds mega

[tomtom]

It would be a bit disappointing to find someone had left a large turd near the footboard...

[Probes]

This is my old 60, I wish I still had it and would have one again every time over a lesser angled. The big kicker mean't you could put together some knarly crimps and snatches off the deck. Also my core and shoulders have never quite been the same after it got taken down.
Shocking quality vid  and ignore the blurb at the start it's bullshit.