[James Malloch]

I wondered if anyone has much experience of different board sizes? I'm looking at options for one and I'm unsure on what size to go for (i.e. how much space can I take over...).

Ideally I'm probably aiming for something that's not too steep (approx 25-30 degrees - which I think is similar to the easier pudsey depot board?) as I'm keen to use it in part to rehab my wrist and I think anything steeper would be too much for it for a while. It would be good to set some circuits and just use smaller holds for setting harder problems.

Something that's 2 sheets of ply (approx 2.44m square + kickboard) would be the easiest, though this would take over all the space we have width wise and as I'm 1.85m tall I'd be worried that the climbing length wouldn't be enough to set more than a few moves without making everything bunched, especially at such a shallow angle. Though maybe the width would allow decent length problems?

We could probably extend the upwards climbing length to 2.7m which would go some way to helping with the height issue.

Any advice or experience would be appreciated as I really don't know how climbable different sized boards would be.

Alternatively there's a 5m x 6m big garage for rent in Skipton (£270pm) if anyone fancied chipping in and making some kind of training facility...

Edit - changed 3m to 2.7m

[SA Chris]

What height have you got to play with? My board is 26 degrees (random angle I know, but was based on location of rafters) and is 2 1/2 sheets of ply high and 1 wide. I'm a similar height to you, and can easily do problems up to 10 moves with a bit of contrivance, and have some loops up to 16 moves which i can do fairly comfortably without feeling like I'm dragging my arse on the ground. PM me a number and I can show you some vids to get a feel for what's possible.

[James Malloch]

What height have you got to play with? My board is 26 degrees (random angle I know, but was based on location of rafters) and is 2 1/2 sheets of ply high and 1 wide. I'm a similar height to you, and can easily do problems up to 10 moves with a bit of contrivance, and have some loops up to 16 moves which i can do fairly comfortably without feeling like I'm dragging my arse on the ground. PM me a number and I can show you some vids to get a feel for what's possible.

Maximum width would be 2.4m (though ideally would be a little less 2.0 or 2.2, perhaps).
Max height (inc kicker) is 2.6m
Max depth is approx 1.15m before lighting gets in the way (though I guess this would be put on a longer cord & hung out of the way if really needed.  Think it would start to make it more than 30 degrees for this though which is going into the too steep category.

I'll drop you a message with my number now, thanks!

[M1V0]

I am the proud owner of a 48 degree, 1.1m wide, 2m tall (equating to  a length of ~2.8-3m climbing surface) board in the shed at the bottom of the garden. It's okay, but I consider it as a purely training tool, not somewhere I would spend a leisurely afternoon on, rather it is a 45 minute blast of high-octane falling off. If I had the space I would have it much wider because it allows a lot more use (e.g. backhand/gastons become a lot more usable because you typically need wider feet to make bigger moves off those).

At 173cm myself, I can get between 2 "big" moves and five moves from bottom to top, but that's obviously much steeper than your intended board. At least if yours is wide you're may be more inclined to make more use of the space and as you say, circuits.

From what others have said on the forum, don't bother with a kickboard, you'll be able to reach the top with feet on the kicker and it is a real difficulty to force yourself to not do so.

[tomtom]

I am the proud owner of a 48 degree, 1.1m wide, 2m tall (equating to  a length of ~2.8-3m climbing surface) board in the shed at the bottom of the garden. It's okay, but I consider it as a purely training tool, not somewhere I would spend a leisurely afternoon on, rather it is a 45 minute blast of high-octane falling off. If I had the space I would have it much wider because it allows a lot more use (e.g. backhand/gastons become a lot more usable because you typically need wider feet to make bigger moves off those).

At 173cm myself, I can get between 2 "big" moves and five moves from bottom to top, but that's obviously much steeper than your intended board. At least if yours is wide you're may be more inclined to make more use of the space and as you say, circuits.

From what others have said on the forum, don't bother with a kickboard, you'll be able to reach the top with feet on the kicker and it is a real difficulty to force yourself to not do so.

Mine is similar - and as M1V0 said I wish I had more width to allow a bit more variety in the type of move allowed. That said - its been up 9 months now and I'm not bored (or restricted) by what I can do on it... Have a think about the overhang though - as you may get an extra move in if you go for a 30-35 rather than 20 degree... You can make a steeper board much easier by having larger foot holds...

[Duma]

Is that vertical height?

Mine is 1.7m wide, 3.2m climbing height, 30 degrees. its vert height is 2.77m ish?

width for me is ok, dont feel restricted in wide moves, and having the height for several upward moves is really nice. have to be careful keeping the footholds small enough to still need tension - I have three sets of footholds of varying difficulty

kickboard on my angle or less is pointless I'd say, and prob even anything less than 40 degrees tbh.

[dunnyg]

Go as wide as you can get away with, and maximise climbing length (so as steep as you can get away with). Depending where you order your ply from, you can get it cut to size which helps if tools or time are limited. This is not from board building experience but canvasing opinions during the design of one. If only the roofer had fixed the garage leak  ....

[James Malloch]

Is that vertical height?

Mine is 1.7m wide, 3.2m climbing height, 30 degrees. its vert height is 2.77m ish?

width for me is ok, dont feel restricted in wide moves, and having the height for several upward moves is really nice. have to be careful keeping the footholds small enough to still need tension - I have three sets of footholds of varying difficulty

kickboard on my angle or less is pointless I'd say, and prob even anything less than 40 degrees tbh.

Yeah the room is 2.7m floor to celing, so probably get to about 2.6m max height in reality.

[Duma]

I wouldn't want to go much shallower than 25-30 degrees, holds get really small and skin limiting much below that i reckon.

[Bradders]

I have a 25 degree board for circuits. Ignoring the top 20cm or so which is vert and has fingerboards on, dimensions are

3m wide
2.3m board surface
2.1m actual height
0.97m actual depth

No kickboard (I don't even have one on the 45 opposite). I'm about 180cm tall, so can reach from footholds at the bottom to the top.

It's great for circuits, but the width makes all the difference on that front. If it was only 2m I think with the limited vertical height it would feel very restricted. I haven't actually tried setting any non-circuit problems on it yet but imagine it'll be okay when I do get round to it. Will just use some really tiny little grifters 

[M1V0]

Go as wide as you can get away with, and maximise climbing length (so as steep as you can get away with). Depending where you order your ply from, you can get it cut to size which helps if tools or time are limited. This is not from board building experience but canvasing opinions during the design of one. If only the roofer had fixed the garage leak  ....

Not sure how bad your leak may be, but the shed roof leaks everywhere. The felting is no longer waterproof and where the boards underneath are sodden, they've sagged. I have a large swathe of plastic sheeting up that channels all the water into a bucket in the corner...

[James Malloch]

I have a 25 degree board for circuits. Ignoring the top 20cm or so which is vert and has fingerboards on, dimensions are

3m wide
2.3m board surface
2.1m actual height
0.97m actual depth

No kickboard (I don't even have one on the 45 opposite). I'm about 180cm tall, so can reach from footholds at the bottom to the top.

It's great for circuits, but the width makes all the difference on that front. If it was only 2m I think with the limited vertical height it would feel very restricted. I haven't actually tried setting any non-circuit problems on it yet but imagine it'll be okay when I do get round to it. Will just use some really tiny little grifters 

Do you think you'd still get decent circuits if you sacrificed 0.5m width for 0.5m length, maintaining the same angle? That's about what I could get at 25 degrees...

[Duma]

I'd give up width down to well under 2m long before I gave up even an inch of climbing length - I'm much more motivated by being able to set more upward movements, and I still have a few circuits set on mine with only 1.7m width that work fine. Up and down is better than side to side too imo.

[T_B]

It’s worth considering that a 20-30 deg 2.4m high board with a kickboard means you’ll have your feet on the kickboard for all but maybe one move. So it won’t feel 20 - 30 degrees.

My 27 degree board is 2.8m high x 1.7 wide on top of a 35cm kickboard but I find it pretty hard to set any problems harder than around 7a without the holds becoming mingin crimps. I use it for warming up and circuits (obvs it would be better if it were wider).

If I only had one board I’d make it steeper, unless I wanted to focus on circuits. My other board is 60 deg so pretty savage. I’d have preferred it less steep but it’s 3.5m long so even as a tall person you get a fair few moves off the kickboard. It’s only 1.8 wide but that’s fine for up problems.

[M1V0]

I'd give up width down to well under 2m long before I gave up even an inch of climbing length - I'm much more motivated by being able to set more upward movements, and I still have a few circuits set on mine with only 1.7m width that work fine. Up and down is better than side to side too imo.

For sure. Anecdotally, even with 1.1m width, I can still manage "circuits" by just going straight up and straight back down. Tedium, but it does the job.

[Bradders]

I'd give up width down to well under 2m long before I gave up even an inch of climbing length - I'm much more motivated by being able to set more upward movements, and I still have a few circuits set on mine with only 1.7m width that work fine. Up and down is better than side to side too imo.

For sure. Anecdotally, even with 1.1m width, I can still manage "circuits" by just going straight up and straight back down. Tedium, but it does the job.

It's all just different variants of tedium at this kind of scale really isn't it. Whether you're going up and down or round in circles is kind of neither here nor there.

As others have said, just do as much as you can get away with in the space you have.

Do you think you'd still get decent circuits if you sacrificed 0.5m width for 0.5m length, maintaining the same angle? That's about what I could get at 25 degrees...

If it was the only board I had, I'd push it to 30 or 35 degrees and get extra length. You'd still be able to set easy problems and circuits using larger holds. Aerocap might be tough unless you're a total beast but there are ways round that.

Try to think about how you'll use it in future, not just how it is now with a dodgy wrist.

[Duma]

It's all just different variants of tedium at this kind of scale really isn't it. Whether you're going up and down or round in circles is kind of neither here nor there.

I disagree with this (though not the tedium bit!) Up and down is better than side to side imo for training circuits especially if your feet aren't moving much. And unless you're going narrower than 1.5m there's no need to go down the same part of the board you came up.

[M1V0]

It's all just different variants of tedium at this kind of scale really isn't it.

Sums up most training succinctly.

[csl]

Ideally I'm probably aiming for something that's not too steep (approx 25-30 degrees - which I think is similar to the easier pudsey depot board?) as I'm keen to use it in part to rehab my wrist and I think anything steeper would be too much for it for a while. It would be good to set some circuits and just use smaller holds for setting harder problems.

Why don't you build it as steep as you would like to train on when healthy, and maximise the height, but install a big kickboard until you've rehabbed your wrist.

That way it'll feel like a less steep board when you need it to, but then you can just remove the kickboard when you are back at full strength.

[Bradders]

It's all just different variants of tedium at this kind of scale really isn't it. Whether you're going up and down or round in circles is kind of neither here nor there.

I disagree with this (though not the tedium bit!) Up and down is better than side to side imo for training circuits especially if your feet aren't moving much. And unless you're going narrower than 1.5m there's no need to go down the same part of the board you came up.

Sure the only thing more tedious than circuits on a small board would be to try to argue about whether up / down is better or worse than sideways 

As I said before, just maximise the space you have. You'll always wish you had a bit more.

[Will Hunt]

Ideally I'm probably aiming for something that's not too steep (approx 25-30 degrees - which I think is similar to the easier pudsey depot board?) as I'm keen to use it in part to rehab my wrist and I think anything steeper would be too much for it for a while. It would be good to set some circuits and just use smaller holds for setting harder problems.

Why don't you build it as steep as you would like to train on when healthy, and maximise the height, but install a big kickboard until you've rehabbed your wrist.

That way it'll feel like a less steep board when you need it to, but then you can just remove the kickboard when you are back at full strength.

James. Do not take the advice of a man who posts a video of himself using a heel on a board.

There is only one answer to the question of how big should a board be and that answer is as big as possible. Build it as wide as you can and build it as tall and steep as you can. You've got a decent height (more than I have) so it's possible that a 30 would work but for goodness' sake don't go less steep than that. Personally I wouldn't go less than 40 with the height you've got (you've about 20cm more height than me and if my board was a 30 it'd be shit). If you do a 30 board either don't have a kickboard or just a very small one. You'll need to move that light but it's not that big a job compared to the additional benefit you'll get from a deeper board.

[tomtom]

James. Do not take the advice of a man who posts a video of himself using a heel on a board.

:D I'd noticed that too.....

[James Malloch]

Ideally I'm probably aiming for something that's not too steep (approx 25-30 degrees - which I think is similar to the easier pudsey depot board?) as I'm keen to use it in part to rehab my wrist and I think anything steeper would be too much for it for a while. It would be good to set some circuits and just use smaller holds for setting harder problems.

Why don't you build it as steep as you would like to train on when healthy, and maximise the height, but install a big kickboard until you've rehabbed your wrist.

That way it'll feel like a less steep board when you need it to, but then you can just remove the kickboard when you are back at full strength.

I'm not sure we'll have it when fully healthy (otherwise we'd go steeper now). It's currently going in the spare room as we won't have guests for a while and, hopefully, we're off on a big van trip in about 6 months by which point it'd be down permanently, or at least fully dismantled for a while.

Ideally I'm probably aiming for something that's not too steep (approx 25-30 degrees - which I think is similar to the easier pudsey depot board?) as I'm keen to use it in part to rehab my wrist and I think anything steeper would be too much for it for a while. It would be good to set some circuits and just use smaller holds for setting harder problems.

Why don't you build it as steep as you would like to train on when healthy, and maximise the height, but install a big kickboard until you've rehabbed your wrist.

That way it'll feel like a less steep board when you need it to, but then you can just remove the kickboard when you are back at full strength.

James. Do not take the advice of a man who posts a video of himself using a heel on a board.

There is only one answer to the question of how big should a board be and that answer is as big as possible. Build it as wide as you can and build it as tall and steep as you can. You've got a decent height (more than I have) so it's possible that a 30 would work but for goodness' sake don't go less steep than that. Personally I wouldn't go less than 40 with the height you've got (you've about 20cm more height than me and if my board was a 30 it'd be shit). If you do a 30 board either don't have a kickboard or just a very small one. You'll need to move that light but it's not that big a job compared to the additional benefit you'll get from a deeper board.

I think it's looking like we'll go for the 2.4m wide and just use whatever height we can get out of it. though still torn betwen 25 & 30 degrees. Need to do a few more sums and work out where it comes to in the room etc. Wouldn't bother with a kickboard for either I think.

[Bradders]

There is only one answer to the question of how big should a board be and that answer is as big as possible. Build it as wide as you can and build it as tall and steep as you can. You've got a decent height (more than I have) so it's possible that a 30 would work but for goodness' sake don't go less steep than that. Personally I wouldn't go less than 40 with the height you've got (you've about 20cm more height than me and if my board was a 30 it'd be shit). If you do a 30 board either don't have a kickboard or just a very small one. You'll need to move that light but it's not that big a job compared to the additional benefit you'll get from a deeper board.

This.

Plus on kickboards, having had a 45 with a kickboard and now have one without, I'm personally of the opinion that they're basically cheating. Embrace the steepness.

[csl]

TomTom, Will - clearly if you have access to rock, then deliberately not using "technique" is something you'll get away with.

If your only climbing is on a board, and you have stupid rules to get strong instead of to climb efficiently, then frankly, you are a moron.