Rack Sizing Guide - Find Your Perfect Rack

Rack Sizing Guide - Find Your Perfect Rack

(Don’t need the lesson? Skip to the bottom and get right to the good stuff.)

To be an outdoor enthusiast is to know the struggle of organizing a mountain of oddly shaped outdoor gear. From bikes to surfboards and skis, there are countless obstacles like wheels, pedals, handlebars, fins, and bindings to deal with. While some gear is robust, others are fragile but all are similar in that they are constantly being tempted by gravity, and some can literally roll frictionlessly into an in-home disaster.

The good news is you’re ahead of the game and have successfully made it to one of the most helpful outdoor gear storage pages on the internet. Let us run you through a few considerations you’ll need to make before choosing the perfect racks specific to you!

1. Your space. Outdoor gear storage depends heavily on your home.

• Where do you have space to put your rack? Is a wall, floor, or ceiling best for your home?
• The journey to your rack is almost as important as the location of the rack itself so what areas have the easiest access for awkward gear like bikes or surfboards ?
• Will it be wall-mounted or freestanding?

2. Your gear. 

• Rule 1. Always size for your biggest gear. If you have Surfboards, Snowboards, and Skateboards, size for the Surfboards. If you have Paddle Boards and Snowboards, size for Paddle Boards. This ensures that your big gear will fit well and the smaller gear will fit easily. For example, our O’ahu Series arms are fitted for 1 SUP or Longboard but can easily fit surfboards or multiple snowboards, skateboards, or skis.
• Rule 2. When in doubt, size up. Both in terms of Series and number of arms. 
• We give recommendations for maximum gear size for each rack. If you’re on the fence, size up. It’s always better to have more space for your gear than not enough.
• Similarly, don’t be afraid to size up in terms of the number of arms. We all know how often our quiver seems to magically grow so, if you have 3 snowboards, consider getting a Moloka’i Quad (4 arms) for when you get that 4th. Even if the 4th doesn’t come for quite some time, our racks are good at holding lots of non-gear stuff (we’ve seen all manner of things stored on our racks from didgeridoos to karate staffs) and can always be put to use before that new board arrives.

3. Shapes and numbers.

• Width and Thickness over Length. A question we get a lot is “how long a board can this rack hold?”. The Length is almost never an issue for our racks but rather depends on your home and the wall length or ceiling height. For typically long gear, we also send 2 Mounting Bars that can be installed at virtually any width. What is important is the width and the thickness of your gear (including fins, bindings, etc.)
• Width of the gear should not be more than 2x the length of the rack arms. The angle of the arm helps a bit with this but, obviously, more than half of the width of each board should have some arm under it so it won’t tip over the end and fall. For example, if the arm length on a rack is 17”, the board should not be more than 34” wide.. We also play it safe and suggest dialing that back a few inches.
• Thickness is important because of the distance between each rack arm. This ensures that your gear can easily rest on the rack without interference from bindings, fins, wheels, etc. For example, a wakeboard’s width makes it a good match for our Kaua’i Series but the boots are tall enough that it really should be on our O’ahu Series to give it more clearance from other gear.
• Quantities. The amount of gear you have matters. If you have 4 wakesurf boards, it wouldn’t make sense to get a rack with 3 arms. This is pretty straight forward but gives you the opportunity to get creative if you purchase a big rack to display different-sized gear. For example, if you buy an O’ahu Trip for 1 Paddle Board and 4 snowboards with 2 snowboards on each of the lower arms.

Horizontal Wall Racks for skis and boards.

In order from smallest to largest.

Lana’i Series – Skateboard Decks without trucks and wheels.

Our skateboard deck rack is intended to pay homage to your skating life by displaying all of the skate decks you've accumulated over the years (without trucks or wheels) at a vertical angle to really show them off.

Maximum recommended board width: 17"

Hallsteiner Series – Skis • Poles • Paddles • Fishing Poles

Our horizontal wall-mounted ski rack. The Hallsteiner’s arm length and angle accommodate all types of skis and bindings and conveniently acts as a great paddle rack for SUP, canoe, and kayak paddles as well as fishing rods. 

Maximum recommended ski width: 7"

Vercules Series - Skis

Our vertical wall-mounted ski rack, the Vercules has a shelf with 2 incredibly strong brackets that allows skis to hang vertically with space on the ends for poles. Some customers even use our Vercules for snowboards and, while not our design intention, it actually works pretty darn well.

Maximum recommended ski width: 8”

Moloka’i Series – Snowboards • Skateboards • Longboards • Fat Skis • Waterskis

Designed to display snowboards with bindings and skateboard/longboards with trucks. This series offers enough angle to see each board and enough space to easily grab whichever board you want. This series fits individual waterskis and slalom skis perfectly & doubles nicely as a hoverboard rack (multi racks only: Duo, Trip, Quad).

Maximum recommended board width: 13"

Kaua’i Series – Surfboards • Balance Boards • Skimboards • Wakesurf • Wakeskate

Our surf rack designed for shortboard surfboards. The arms are spaced to accommodate boards with fins and angled to maximize your view of each member of your quiver. Arm length and spacing also make the Kaua’i Series ideal for balance boards, skimboards, wake surf and wake skate boards. 

Maximum recommended board width: 24" (15" for Show-Off)

O’ahu Series – Paddleboard • Longboard Surfboard • Wakeboard

Our SUP & longboard racks are for big boards. Designed for paddleboards and longboard surfboards, the O’ahu Series is the best board rack on the market for safely storing and displaying these behemoth boards. Spacing between arms also makes them great for wakeboards with fixed boots. 

Maximum recommended board width: 40"

Vertical Wall SUP Rack - SUP • Longboard • Surfboard • Snowboard • Wakeboard • Wakesurf

Our Vertical Wall SUP Rack is one of our most versatile racks. Designed to hold big race SUPs vertically, this rack can easily hold anything smaller like surfboards, snowboards, wakeboards, wakesurf, you name it. Using our proprietary mounting system and 2 strong brackets, our Vert Wall SUP Rack installs easily and stays put. We also designed this to be modular so they can be installed seamlessly in a row.

Maximum recommended board width: As wide as they come.

Bike Storage - Bike Shelf

Rackcycle Series - Bikes - Road • MTB • Beach Cruisers

Our bike rack or bike shelf, as some like to call it, is one of our most popular items. Bikes can be large and unwieldy. Whether used for leisure or for transportation, finding good bike storage can be tough. Add factors like cramped city living and poor garage conditions and you are left looking to your home or apartment for storage. And what if you really love your bike and want to take great care of it but don’t want it leaning against a wall? Come with us on a journey, broaden your mind.. Wall-mounted bike rack. That’s right, hang your bike up and out of the way. Need something more? How about a shelf for your keys and wallet and two utility hooks for shoes, jackets, bags, helmets, etc? Our bike shelf looks great, holds a ton of weight, and installs in just minutes.

Flush Ski & Snowboard Wall Racks

Nubbin Series - Skis • Snowboards • Anything that hangs

Our Nubbins were born out of our Zero Waste Initiative in an attempt to upcycle small, unusable pieces of bamboo. Much like the discovery of Penicillin, we have stumbled upon something great that has quickly become a crowd favorite. Our Nubbins were designed to hold skis and snowboards flat against the wall, thus maximizing display and minimizing rack space. What we did not realize at the time was just how great they would be for things like bags, jackets, helmets, poles, clothes on hangers, and pretty much anything that can hang.

Vertical Freestanding Racks

Vertical Freestanding Multi Rack - Surfboards • Snowboards • Wakeboards • Wakesurf • Skateboards • Guitars

When walls aren’t an option, our Freestanding racks come to the rescue. Our Vert Free Multi is an absolute design masterpiece that assembles in minutes without hardware, makes no holes in your walls, and can hold just about anything. Made from gorgeous and super strong ¾” material, this rack features a base with ridiculously thick base pad that cushions your gear and a gentle lean that encourages your gear back into an upper cradle that fits surfboards, snowboards, wakeboards, wakesurf boards, water skis, skateboards, longboards, guitars, and anything else similarly sized. It’s gorgeous, it’s strong, it’s versatile. There’s no wonder about why this is a customer favorite and easily the best outdoor gear rack you’ll find on the market.

Maximum Recommended Board Width: 27”

Vertical Freestanding SUP Rack - Paddleboards • Longboards • Shortboards • Wakesurf Boards

Another gorgeous, easy-assembly, no hardware freestanding rack. Our Vert Free SUP Rack was designed as an alternative to the terrible-looking SUP racks that plague trade shows and homes all over the world. This rack is incredibly strong, with a larger footprint that most Freestanding SUP Racks found on the market. Super strong ¾” material, a thick base pad, and a strong tie down strap keep your boards in place and on display in-home or in-store. 

Above is an assortment of our racks to give a profile perspective of some of our most popular products. You will notice two of our Floating Shelves, our Bike Rack, our most minimalist snowboard and skateboard rack, and a good size comparison for our Ornate Series.

Floating Shelf Series

Shown above are our Single Shelf and Double Shelf cradles. We love the floating shelf craze that is going on right now. Our mission here was to create our own style of Floating Shelf with one major difference from the rest of the industry, our shelves hold some serious weight.

Moloka’i Show-Off - Skateboards • Snowboards

Our Moloka’i Show-Off is our smallest rack that uses our Mounting Bar System and is perfect for easily displaying your favorite snowboard or skateboard without breaking the bank or taking attention away from the board.

O’ahu South Chester - SUPs • Longboards

Our SUP & Longboard Racks are crowd pleasers. Figuring out storage for such large boards is difficult and with such big, gorgeous boards safety is a priority. The South Chester is measured and angled to make sure your board lays safely on the rack without coming out too far from the wall.