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Your Skis and Snowboard

A basic guide to maintaining your equipment

Problem What to look for Solutions

Your skis/snowboard feels slow and sticky on the snow
  • Dry base, ski/board has a white haze covering the base
  • Gouges and scratches in base of your skis/board.
  • Skis or board not flat
  • Buff Wax, a machine applied quick layer of wax & polish
  • Hot Wax*, will saturate your base with wax if very dry
  • Structure*, improves glide, reduces friction.
  • Gouges and scratches to be filled with P-tex*
  • No ‘bite’ on hard snow
  • No stability in turns
  • Tails ‘wash-out’ from underneath you
  • Your edges may be blunt or dull
  • There is rust or burrs on edges
  • Side edges & base edges need to be sharpened and honed to a specific angle. Approx. every 3-5 days skiing/boarding

Your skis or snowboard catching edges when starting turns.

Your skis or snowboard feel like they just want to go straight.
  • Happens especially on new skis or snowboards
  • Edges too sharp, particularly tip and tail.
  • Your Skis or snowboard need to be de-tuned at tips and tails to help easier initiation of turns.

DEFINITIONS

 

*Structure This is a fine pattern imbedded into the base of your skis / board through a stone grinding process which reduces friction and provides better glide.  Similar to having different tyre treads for different road conditions, you can also have different structure patterns for different snow conditions.

*P-tex  This is base material that is used to fill gouges and scratches in your base. As a general rule your ski/board surfaces should be flat and smooth.

*Hot wax This is applied with a hot iron. As your base is essentially like a sponge, (dependent on your ski or board base material), the wax will be absorbed into the base stopping it from drying out and providing improved ‘glide’ on the snow.

Subaru - offical vehicle of Mt Ruapehu