How to Wax a Snowboard? What tools do I need? Waxing maintains the performance, speed and longevity of your snowboard. In the following, you will be guided step by step through the whole process of waxing your Snowboard.
During the cold ski season, you need to learn to wax your snowboard in the right way for you and your snowboard.
Have you ever encountered that after using your snowboard for a while, you feel that it does not perform and is not able to continue to give you more skiing fun; this is actually the reason why you have not waxed your snowboard. The following will introduce you to the process of waxing your board so that you can reap more skiing fun.
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Why is waxing important?
Why ski waxing. When we ski with Snowboard, the bottom of the board is in direct contact with the snow, with a distant view, it may look like skiing directly on the snow surface; however, during the actual skiing process, the bottom of the board will form a layer of water film in contact with the snow surface, due to the liquid tension of the water film will cause hindrance to the speed of skiing. Therefore, we need to wax the bottom of the board. Paraffin wax is hydrophobic and can reduce friction with the water.
Waxing is actually like car maintenance. In the process of waxing, we need to observe whether there are scratches on the bottom surface of the ski, the edge is not damaged, can find the problem in time to repair to avoid increased damage.
In addition to the cause of the water film, there are reasons for the ski itself. The bottom of the ski is a lot of fine pores, evenly applied wax on the bottom of the ski, the pores can fully absorb the wax, thus reducing friction to enhance the performance and service life of the ski.
Tools to prepare
You will need a number of different tools that are specific to snowboarding, these snowboard waxing tools. As the saying goes, to do your job perfectly, you need to have efficient tools available; therefore basic tools are necessary and can give you a lot of convenience.
Here are the tools you will need.
- A sharpening stone for sharpening the edges of your Snowboard to restore sharpness and snow grip
- A steel brush for cleaning the base
- A soft, absorbent towel to dry off after cleaning
- A nylon-style brush for cleaning dirt and residual wax shavings from your Snowboard
- A nice sharp scraper for removing excess wax
- universal temperature wax, or a different type depending on your preference; hot wax needs to be heated and applied, while cold wax can be applied directly
- A holder for skiing or snowboarding. It’s okay if you don’t have one, it can do the job more efficiently
- Non-fixed irons, if you use cold wax, are not needed.
Check the condition of your Snowboard
Before you start waxing your snowboard, it is very important to have a full body check of the ski to make sure that there are no major imperfections on the base or edges, and if there are, they need to be repaired before waxing; because skiing with imperfections will aggravate its breakage and may eventually lead to breakage.
First look at the edges to see if there are any breaks or cracks, or if there are any flaws inside the base, any dirt corrosion, or any similar impurities. It needs to be cleaned or repaired before proceeding with the waxing step.
It is worth mentioning that in offline stores selling ski equipment, they usually have specialized repairers as well as professional tools that can help you repair your skis perfectly.
Give Your Ski Board a Waxing
According to the following steps, you can also demonstrate a professional ski board waxing process in front of your girlfriend:
- Prepare the tools you need: sharpening stone, steel brush, towel, nylon brush, scraper, all-temperature wax, iron.
- Remove the bindings of the ski board for easier operation, and lay the ski board flat on a stable surface. If you don’t want to remove the bindings, at least loosen the screws so that the board won’t be under too much pressure.
- Check and clean the surface of the ski board, using the scraper, nylon brush, and steel brush to remove dust, impurities, and remaining wax. After cleaning with warm water, dry the board with a towel.
- Drip wax. No matter what you do, you don’t want your eyes to smoke. When you apply the wax to the iron, you want it to be warm enough to melt the wax. It’s best to preheat the iron for about 30 seconds, then place the wax on the iron to melt it, and drip the melted wax onto the ski board. It’s recommended to first apply the wax to one-third of the board’s surface to avoid the wax drying out after dripping and needing to reheat the iron. The amount of wax dripped doesn’t have a big impact. If you drip too much, you can use the iron to melt the excess wax, and if you drip too little, you can drip more.
- Spread the wax evenly over the surface of the board, especially adding more wax within 10cm of the board’s two edges. When ironing the wax, pay attention to the smoothness of the iron’s surface, iron the wax to a transparent state, so that the wax dripping onto the board can fully melt and bond with the board, and be careful not to let the iron stay in one place on the board for too long. It’s recommended to iron back and forth over a long distance, and not to iron over a short distance to avoid damaging the ski board due to local overheating.
- Wait for about an hour, let the wax be fully absorbed and cooled down, then use the scraper to remove excess wax until the board’s surface becomes flat and smooth (leave a little more wax near the edge where you usually place your foot). If your ski board is old/used frequently, you can wax it again.
- Use a towel to dry the surface of the ski board, and keep it smooth.
Great, you’ve completed all the steps and successfully waxed your ski board. You can now enjoy skiing freely on the slope.
Final Thoughts
Waxing your Snowboard is a fun process that can make for a long day. The steps we have provided are for everyday use only, and if you are a professional skier, of course, you may have an instructor or wax technician who can guide you in a more specific direction. Either way, these steps will ultimately improve the speed, durability and other performance of your Snowboard.
FAQ
Do new snowboards need to be waxed?
When the snowboards are manufactured, the manufacturer already applies the original wax to the snowboard, so new snowboards do not need to be waxed. Of course, you can apply new wax if you are not satisfied with the original wax.
How often to wax snowboard?
It largely depends on remembering how you ride. If your riding causes the bottom of your board to wear out quickly, you may need to wax your snowboard after a few rides. Generally recreational skiing is about as good as you can get with one beating before the start of each ski season.
Can I use car wax instead of ski wax?
Car wax and snowboard wax are not the same thing. Simply put, car wax and ski wax are both designed to provide a layer of protection to the skating surface or paintwork against oxidation and hard scratches.
But the difference is that the ski wax corresponds to the bottom of the board (polyethylene). The professional ski wax has a shorter molecular chain, which is designed to allow the snow wax to enter the molecular gaps at the bottom of the board (polyethylene) (about 0.7mm in depth) in order to maintain a longer-term skating effect.
We ski mainly ski surface and the bottom of the board a very thin layer of water, snowboard wax has hydrophobic, so on the snow surface to slip. The ski wax used for cross-country skiing is the effect of inhibiting the glide. So with the wrong wax, not only does it not help the glide, the action will not do it.
Can I wax my snowboard with a regular iron?
There are special ski irons for waxing Snowboard. Both home irons and professional ski irons can be used for waxing. They both melt the wax; the temperature of the home irons is not as good as the temperature of the professional ski irons to control, so you need to pay special attention when melting the wax.
Do I need to clean my snowboard before waxing?
Cleaning the surface of your snowboard before waxing is a must. Waxing without cleaning the surface will damage your snowboard with impurities on it while skiing.
