@peeetem As far as I know, the only other brands making 30cm waists are Winterstick, Trench Snowboards, and Kindred Snowboards.  Coiler is not taking orders and Prior seems to be out of business or on the edge.

I can put you in touch with Carl at Exegi.  His website is funky but he's making boards right now!  Pm me.

Posted by: @wild-cherry

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Kindred Snowboards.

I don't know if they can go as wide as a 30cm waist?  The ProCarve 171W tops out at 284, but what might be more limiting is the nose width of 333.  Their titanal doesn't go to the tips, so it might just be the total width of their press that's limiting.

I do have a board on order from them (since May!), but actually went for a narrower 272 waist as I already have the C4 (and underhang with my mondo 260) for softer conditions.  Hopefully I won't regret that width choice.

Thanks @wild-cherry  !
How would you compare those brands to each other, and also Donek?
Recommend one more than the other?

Well, I'm happy to give my opinion on these but it's just that, one man's opinion.

I've never ridden a Winterstick.  I have ridden only one Kindred (Mark Fawcett's personal board, a prototype but very close to the production ProCarve if I'm not mistaken).  I've ridden about five Exegis and twelve different Doneks.  I've owned two Priors, about 17 Coilers and ridden maybe 25 JJAs...  Just for background.

My opinion is that of these brands, Donek, Winterstick and Kindred are the lowest performance for high edge angle freecarving.  Hard for me to put these in order but at least Kindred and Winterstick are building soft boot boards with some Titanal.  I would have to assume that Winterstick's Seth Wescott Pro is a great board for BX, but that's not a freecarving board.

Prior is pretty close to out of business if they've even still taking orders.  They had some good freecarve boards 15 years ago when Chris Prior was in charge, but I have no reason to think they've made any advancements since then.  Coiler only builds boards when he feels like it, they're just about impossible to get.  So these two brands don't really need to be ranked.

I would put Exegi's performance above Donek, Winterstick and Kindred.  Carl doesn't use Titanal but he has some unique designs and construction methods that work surprisingly well.  I can say with confidence that these are a big jump up from Donek in performance and that the materials they use are similar.

I'm not shy to say that I feel that JJA/Big SB is in a class all its own.  The big European and Asian carving brands don't build wide boards (yet) so they're not even in consideration.  The only other brand that comes close (and again, this is only one man's opinion) was Coiler.

I spoke with Winterstick, Prior, Coiler and JJA before committing to Jasey for the original batch of 30 C4s.  Coiler wasn't interested in building more boards that he absolutely has to, so Bruce was out.  Prior and Winterstick wanted me to design the boards.  I considered it, even knowing that I was unqualified, because I figured that we didn't have to make the best freecarving boards on the planet, we just had to be noticeably better than Donek to start taking some market share. 

But Jasey's attitude was more like "Step aside son, I know exactly how to build what you're looking for!".  I liked his confidence and the extensive knowledge and experience he displayed so I went with him, even though his boards were the most expensive.  I absolutely do not regret that decision.

So, @peeetem, if your budget is limited I would recommend Exegi.  If you want the best pure freecarving board there is, it's a Big Snowboard.

@board-doctor has a wide Kindred coming soon.  Ask him in a month how it compares to the C4?  There are quite a few guys on this forum who have owned Doneks and JJAs, I don't want to speak for any of them directly, but the consensus seems to be that these brands are not even in the same class.  I will give Donek tons of credit for the vision and for taking the risks that let to the wide board revolution, and for their excellent marketing campaigns.  Without Donek and Ryan Knapton, I would probably still be riding hard boots...

@peeetem Have you looked at Vaughan? I rode a Vaughan Wildcard for a couple runs last winter, and it had a bit of what I like in my C4, especially around turn initiation. It's a very fun & beautiful board, made in Canada too! It's not as wide as you want, but since it's a deeper sidecut, the width underfoot is more than you'd think so it might not be as bad. And I'm not quite sure anymore, but the one I rode might have been a customized board that's a bit wider, but I don't remember. Maybe contact Dave and ask him?

I currently own a Big G4 and korua dart. Before that I had a Kessler X carve 164. Rode a bunch of Donek boards last season at their demo event. 

The Donek boards felt good. They were forgiving and easy to carve. When I started to push them they couldn't handle much edge pressure. I felt I had to hold back. On steep runs I didn't feel confident at high edge angles and higher speeds. 

The kessler I had was a very good board. It was quite pleasant to ride. It was very locked in and handled edge pressure well. Really damp. When I started to get better and push it harder the nose felt pretty soft. Also it was not a wide board with only 260 in the waist so I had to run steep angles. 

The G4 was an eye opener. Hands down the best carving board I've rode yet. Has the perfect width for my size 10 boots. This board is so fun and builds lots of confidence. It handles a lot of edge pressure and high edge angles so this makes steep runs very fun to carve. It locks in but slarves easy when you want it to. Also quite playful for being a big carving board. I had no issues doing 180s and 360s on some small side hits around the mountain. 

Thanks so much for all the help guys! I'm going to PM James and try to get an Exegi board.