Waxing Skis for the Best Lines
Add to Del.icio.usRemedial ski and board maintenance for the clinically lazy
by Josh RheaI typically neglect my skis to the point that a sheet of Velcro would perform better on snow than my battered bases. Don't be like me. It's relatively easy to keep your planks happy all season long with a minimal investment of time and money.
How to Wax Your Skis
Start with a shop tune. If you haven't done it by now, take your skis or snowboard in to the local shop for a stone grind, edge tune, and hot wax. Spend the fifty bucks, then maintain your investment for the next few months of snow.
Buy the basics. A simple ski/board vise (and something to attach it to—a kitchen counter will suffice), waxing iron, wax, brush, and an acrylic scraper are all you really need.
(L to R) Waxing
iron, bronze
medium coarse brush, Swix
scraper, warm
weather wax, and a rubber
band to hold ski brakes out of the way. Also pictured, Dynastar
Inspired skis and ski/board
vise.
When the sliding gets slow, wax:
- Choose a wax temperature rating to fit the current weather, or use a universal wax.
- Apply wax to a heated iron while holding over your flat ski/board base.
- Drip the wax in a thin line down the length of the base, averaging one nickel-sized drop per inch.
- When finished, place the iron on the base and melt in the wax, ensuring the base is evenly covered.
- Let one ski/board cool while waxing the other.
- Take your acrylic scraper and scrape off all the wax you can, scraping from tip to tail. This will require several passes over the ski/board.
- When you can no longer remove much wax with the scraper, move on to your brush. Run the brush from tip to tail several times. This removes wax from the base structure, letting you go faster.
- Wipe off any remaining wax from the edges and base, and you're ready to go.
- Proceed to smoke your buddies on the mountain the next day.
For major damage, go back to the shop. When your edges are trashed from grinding rails all day and your bases are riddled with massive core shots, see a professional. You're too lazy to fix it anyway, remember?