Detune Your Snowboard: What, Why, and How?

Lightly trace the edges with the file until they become slightly dull. Feel the sharpness of the edge by pressing your finger down on it. Practice on the edges at the tip and tail of your board to find the right amount of dullness.Every year I’ll tune my snowboard a month or two before the season starts mostly out of anticipation for the season itself.

Personally, I’m a freerider, so a tuned board is crucial. And I’m sure a lot of our readers have tuned their board at one point or another. But have you ever detuned a board? Why would you even want to do that? Sounds like something stupid to do. Believe it or not (you better believe it), there are some cases that detuning a board is a good idea.

What does Detuning a Snowboard Mean?

Detuning a board is more about reshaping your edges than dulling the edges, since most snowboard edges protrude from the board at 90 degrees. Though, the 90 degrees is what you want in general as it provides the best grip for carving into the snow. When hitting rails though, you’re usually moving much slower, not really carving, and worried about landing on your butt too often.

This is where detuning is plays its role. Instead of maintaining a 90 degree edge profile, you can detune your board so they protrude at a smaller angle, thus prevents you from catching as much edge.

When/Why Should I Detune my Snowboard?

• Riding rails, boxes, bent trees…
• If you’re a beginner and worried about catching too much edge.
• When you’re in the mood to muck about/butter on the snow.

How do I Detune my Snowboard?

You can do it yourself or take it into your local snowboard shop. For beginners who just bought a brand new board, I urge you to take it into your local store and have them take care of it. If you have an older board and are comfortable detuning it yourself, here’s how:

You’ll need:

• Course File – can be found at any hardware store.
• Diamond Stone – used to polish your edges.
• Clean Cloth

The steps:

1. Find the widest part of your board at the nose and tail (these are the contact points). It’s the section of edge that’s most likely to catch an edge.
2. Start an inch back from that point and use the course file to round out the edge toward your nose. Repeat with the tail end.
3. Now for a light detune of the entire edge. Divide your edges into 3-4 equal sections (including the contact point edges you just filed)
4. Place the file on your edge at about a 45 degree angle and make a pass over each of the sections. This will give each section a light detune.
5. Feel for the edge and do another pass over if you necessary.
6. Remove the edge shards with your clean cloth – this is important, so don’t forget to do it.
7. Polish your snowboard’s edges with the diamond stone to buff out all the micro burrs left behind.

Video

Tips

• Files work in 1 direction so keep that in mind when filing your edges.
• Dull your edges to about 88 degrees – anything more than that will be a waste and could damage your board.
• East coast riders should be careful as to not over do it… with our snow conditions, we need our sharp edges.
• Some boards come factory detuned so find out if your board is factory detuned or not before attempting to detune it.