Swim shorts, board shorts
or trunks?

The three names get used interchangeably in shops, but they describe genuinely different garments — different lengths, different waistbands, and one of them is built for a job most people never do.

Updated 26 July 2026 · 5 min read

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The short version

	Trunks	Swim shorts	Board shorts
Length	Upper thigh	Mid-thigh to just above knee	Knee or below
Waistband	Full elastic	Elastic with drawstring	Flat, fixed, lace-up
Liner	Yes	Usually	Usually not
Built for	Swimming	Everything	Surfing

Trunks

The shortest of the three, with a fully elastic waistband and a mesh liner. Trunks are what most people picture when they think of a man swimming laps — minimal fabric, nothing to drag in the water, nothing to dry out afterwards.

The trade-off is that they are unambiguously swimwear. Nobody wears trunks to walk into a café. If your swim is the whole activity, they are the most practical option. If the swim is one part of a longer day, they are the least.

Swim shorts

Mid-length, elastic waistband with a drawstring, usually a mesh liner, usually pockets. This is the general-purpose option and it is what the overwhelming majority of people should buy.

The reason is not that they are better at swimming — they are not, trunks win on that narrowly. It is that a swim is rarely just a swim. You drive there, you walk from the car, you sit down to eat, someone suggests a walk, you drive home. Swim shorts are the only one of the three that handles all of that without looking out of place, and the drawstring means one pair fits across a reasonable range of weight.

Board shorts

Longest of the three, reaching the knee or past it, with a flat non-elastic waistband that laces closed at the front. Almost never lined.

Every one of those features solves a surfing problem. The flat waistband is flat because an elastic gathered one digs in when you lie chest-down on a board. The lace closure holds under the force of a wave that would drag an elastic waistband off. The length protects your thighs from board wax and rash. There is no liner because you are expected to wear a rash guard or wetsuit shorts underneath.

If you surf, board shorts are correct and nothing else will do. If you do not surf, you are wearing a garment engineered around constraints you do not have — heavier fabric, more of it, a waistband that cannot adjust, and no liner.

So which one

Honestly: unless you are getting on a board, swim shorts. They are the compromise option, and in this case the compromise is the right answer for nearly everyone, because the constraints board shorts optimise for do not apply to a pool, a lake or a beach holiday.

Buy trunks if you swim seriously and regularly and want the least fabric possible. Buy board shorts if you surf. Buy swim shorts for everything else.

What we make

Swim shorts — mid-length, elastic waistband with a drawstring, mesh liner, pockets. We do not make board shorts or trunks, which is worth saying plainly rather than pretending one product suits every use.