# Should I adjust my edge angle or detune?



## henry06x (Feb 16, 2011)

onthefence said:


> I hear this is a good idea for boxes and rails, but I don't want to lose any effectiveness on groomers since that will be my go-to. I just REALLY don't want to catch an edge while on a box or rail and put myself in a position of possible bad injury. Could I maybe adjust the edge like 1 degree or would that be bad and/or pointless? What about detuning?


If you detune you will loose control on harder pack surfaces. You detune to keep you edges from grabbing as aggressively. On my detuned board It feels fine in softer conditions, then when it gets hard or starts to get icy the edge hold is crap and I usually switch to my other board thats not detuned. Now I detuned the entire board tho. You could detune the center (thats where most the sliding is done anyways) and leave the contact points to still keep some of the edge hold but it's still not going to be as good. You can detune the tip and tail with no negative side effect to help with buttering, presses, and what not but don't get into the contact point.


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## ig88 (Jan 3, 2012)

There are two edges and hence two edge angles. So you have a base edge and a side edge.

I know very little but from what I understand, you tune your BASE edge angle to less than 90 degrees, say to 89 degrees to avoid catching an edge on features like boxes and rails. Some may suggest a more drastic change in the base edge angle for this purpose.

Then if your edge hold is sub-par, say in icy hills, you could consider tuning your SIDE edge angle from 90 degrees to 89 degrees to see if there is any improvement. Again some may suggest a more drastic change in SIDE edge angle, but for starters 89 is commonly quoted. Obviously changing the SIDE edge angle is only just one of the several options you could go into to alter your edge hold.

Also everything depends on what your factory default angles are to begin with. Go with how you feel as you change things incrementally. Basically you can go from 90 to 89 to 88, but it's quite impossible going back to 90.

Detuning is usually applied to the nose and tail plus an inch's length into the effective edge (past the "contact points" at either ends). The purpose is also to further reduce the likelihood of catching an edge again. No angles are quoted in detuning as all you do is to render a sharp edge to one which is more rounded, with, for example a panzar file in a gentle manner.

Tuning (the part of the board excluding the nose and tail) the BASE edge and SIDE edge changes their respective angles. Tuning does not effectively blunts the edges. Sharpness is still maintained.

Detuning (nose and tail) blunts and removes the sharpness of the edge.

I would like to learn more too so please correct me if my concepts are wrong.


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## jdmccright (Apr 8, 2011)

89 and 88 help with ice but make the board harder to ride because of catching. For a full park board you want to just round off your edges. But there is no going back from that so make sure its what you want.


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## lonerider (Apr 10, 2009)

onthefence said:


> I hear this is a good idea for boxes and rails, but I don't want to lose any effectiveness on groomers since that will be my go-to. I just REALLY don't want to catch an edge while on a box or rail and put myself in a position of possible bad injury. Could I maybe adjust the edge like 1 degree or would that be bad and/or pointless? What about detuning?


If you have EVER taken your board in to get tuned, the shop will do a 1/1 base/side edge (actually 89/1... but 1/1 is easier to understand). So you might already have a 1/1 on your board. I would do *anything* except get a 1/1 edge. You should also keep a diamond stone with you and deburred any nicks you get on your board.

1/1 is an excellent all around for groomers, jumps and boxes. If you are riding a box at an actual snowboard park (maybe not true for small ghetto snowboard parks), they typically have polished and smoothed it so the chances of catching your edge with a 1/1 edges is basically zero. 99 times out of a hundred you are going to be sliping out on your uphill edge and not catching your downhill edge. Dulling your edges is really for street stuff, where you are riding a handrail outside of the park. Wannabes detune/dull there edge because they want to pretend they are pros... but they are just poseurs.

I basically have never caught my edge doing a boardslide on a park box in the last decade of riding. It sounds like you are starting out and are only going to be doing 50/50 which is with your board parallel to the rail... in that case the chances really ARE as close to zero as you can get (unless there is like an exposed screw or off-angle panel... then you are going to catch your edge no matter what). 

Actually... I was doing boardslide with my board like this for an hour before I realized what happened and I didn't catch an edge (I just thought the rails/boxes felt "sticky")










What I have caught my edge on is doing a boardslide on a corrugated pipe like this. Even then it was like one time in a entire session and I don't think dull my edges would have helped as even a dull edge is going to catch if you jam it into a crack.


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## a bag of it (Oct 2, 2011)

Absolutely do not detune your board. I ride my park board pretty sharp and I can't tell you the last time I caught my edge on a rail or box. If you catch your edge it's your fault, not the edge's.


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## timmytard (Mar 19, 2009)

That's a sweet little setup ya had goin' there.:thumbsup:

Which guy are you, SUPER baked guy?

& what is that SUPER baked lookin' dude saying @ the end?

TT


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## slyder (Jan 18, 2010)

Totally shredded my face slamming off a corregated pipe, feature I won't ride anymore detuned edges or not this was a board I was demo'ing and was not detuned very sharp edges=shredded face


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