Board maintenance

[bigdan]

So I have my new boards but I'm not sure if they need waxing because the are a little rough on the bottom but I'm not sure if thats how the boards just are. Also if they do need waxing I can just take them to anyplace that does waxing for skiis and snowbaords correct? Thanks!

[Kocho]

Depends on what the roughness is from. Some roughness or rather "texture" is expected on new boards. If these are brand new boards, you can probably just wax them, provided the edges and bases are in good condition (some are not, right out of the box). Any ski shop should be able to wax them. Or you learn to do it yourself, as that is something that is good to do on a regular basis and you will save $$$ over time (and might save time too - takes just a few minutes to wax yourself vs. driving to a shop to drop them off then to pick-up).

[Davelynam]

Go grab a travel size iron from target or walmart, and then buy a few sticks of wax. buying everything you need costs about as much as 2-3 wax jobs. i wax once every two or three times out, and i take my waxing gear with me everywhere I go riding. the boards you have will have some texture out of the box, but come with factory wax. you should be able to go skiing a few times on them like that, but I would recommend waxing them. dont go to a shop for wax. when you wax your own boards, your able to inspect them every time and know exactly whats going on with your equipment.

[bigdan]

Depends on what the roughness is from. Some roughness or rather "texture" is expected on new boards. If these are brand new boards, you can probably just wax them.

Texture is the word I was looking for hahaha. Yeah they are new old stock Greco hooked me up with.

go grab a travel size iron from target or walmart, and then buy a few sticks of wax. buying everything you need costs about as much as 2-3 wax jobs. i wax once every two or three times out

Good advice, I'll look up how to do it myself. Trying to save as much money as I can

[Kocho]

I'm sure Dave L. has infinitely more experience than me in waxing, and a light travel iron certainly works and is easy to take on a trip, but I think a bigger old-fashioned heavy steel bottom iron is better (compared to the light-weight Teflon-coated cheap variety of today). I like a bigger surface area and a heavier iron myself. However, due to $$$ reasons (and because it works well enough) I am using a $15 iron from Target presently. It is metal and works fine, but being thin it tends to alternate between slightly too hot (wax smokes) and not hot enough (probably wax does not penetrate as well) because of the way its thermostat works - it is alternating between on/off all the time. An iron with a heavy bottom takes longer to heat-up but then stays at a relatively more constant temperature and you can get a more consistent wax melting. For someone who does that waxing from home mostly, or does not travel much, I'd go with a big fat heavy iron ;-)

I admit to having used a resort's room iron to wax my skis (once!) - after thoroughly cleaning it after I was done, it was no worse for it. But that's not what I'd recommend as a regular practice ...

Also, someone here suggested to use a nice (thin, flexible, and with a clean edge) metal spatula instead of the typical plastic wax scrapers. It seems to work faster and lasts linger than the plastic scrapers that get dull quickly and start to require a lot of effort to scrape off wax (or need to be re-sharpened)...

[Wookie]

I won't disagree with anything the guys noted above except for one thing ....

Buy a ski waxing iron. Unless you are flat broke there is no reason to repurpose a clothes iron for skis. You can grab a ski waxing iron on the internet for under $25 and it pays for itself in one use. Wax your friends skis for $5-10/pair and make a little bank. The reason here is ski waxing irons don't have holes in them, are shaped to move wax easier, and their thermostats hold heat right at a the temperature where you need it. Clothes irons, especially inexpensive travel irons, tend to get too hot. You want to warm the ski base not toast it. You want to melt the wax not burn the wax. Smoking wax equals carcinogens and overheated irons can damage your skiboards.

For me I grabbed this kit off of Sierra Trading Post last season:
http://www.sierratradingpost.com/swi...g-kit~p~1869t/

It's listed for $150 but STP regularly sends out discount codes and I grabbed it for $75 last year. With four riders in my family it paid for itself after one use if you consider that a wax and tune is around $20 per set at my ski shop.

If you just want the iron here is one for $35 and I am sure you can get a 25-35% off code from Sierra over the holidays:
http://www.sierratradingpost.com/swi...-iron~p~7604k/

[valmorel]

R8 boards have high quality sintered bases. These are highly absorbent of wax, but happily the wax load builds up IN the base over a number of waxings. This is what you want, not a light skim off wax on the surface, so, especially for the first few waxings, take your time. Allow the wax to be absorbed by the base. At the end of the season, put on a thick coat of wax and don't scrape. Store the boards this way for the summer.

[bigdan]

I won't disagree with anything the guys noted above except for one thing ....

Buy a ski waxing iron. Unless you are flat broke there is no reason to repurpose a clothes iron for skis. You can grab a ski waxing iron on the internet for under $25 and it pays for itself in one use. Wax your friends skis for $5-10/pair and make a little bank. The reason here is ski waxing irons don't have holes in them, are shaped to move wax easier, and their thermostats hold heat right at a the temperature where you need it. Clothes irons, especially inexpensive travel irons, tend to get too hot. You want to warm the ski base not toast it. You want to melt the wax not burn the wax. Smoking wax equals carcinogens and overheated irons can damage your skiboards.

For me I grabbed this kit off of Sierra Trading Post last season:
http://www.sierratradingpost.com/swi...g-kit~p~1869t/

It's listed for $150 but STP regularly sends out discount codes and I grabbed it for $75 last year. With four riders in my family it paid for itself after one use if you consider that a wax and tune is around $20 per set at my ski shop.

If you just want the iron here is one for $35 and I am sure you can get a 25-35% off code from Sierra over the holidays:
http://www.sierratradingpost.com/swi...-iron~p~7604k/

Thanks wook, I'll look into the kit and see if I can get it for cheap

Thanks for all the advice guys, just trying to get everything squared away before the season starts and have an idea of what I'm doing [emoji16]

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