Waxing Snowboards Guide
Many individuals who are interested in buying a snowboard and want to actually keep it around for years to come then need to take proper care of it by properly waxing your snowboard. Waxing your board is important if you want to maintain its features for many years.
In this article, you will understand how to wax a snowboard at your home, at your own convenience. Maintaining a snowboard is a very important part, as you would able to keep the snowboard for a longer time. It is not very difficult to wax the snowboard, once you have waxed your board a few times, you’ll know how easy it is to maintain it. You only need to get a hang of it. However, there are some common mistakes that are made by the new riders when they want to maintain their board for the first time by putting wax on it. You will come to know about this in the below article.
Why Do You Need to Wax a Snowboard?
First, you need to understand why you need to wax your snowboard. Does it actually require wax to maintain the snowboard?
Waxing your snowboard keeps it in a good condition for a longer time, if you are a professional snowboarder you would want this to become an essential part of the routine of maintenance. When you apply wax, it keeps the board from drying up, what it does mainly is to hydrate the snowboard in a similar manner that you hydrate yourself after a long run.
The base of the snowboard has several pores, when the base dries up it usually deteriorates the snowboard, the board becomes very agile and it then lowers the overall performance and the life of the snowboard.
When you maintain your snowboard by putting wax on your board it enhances the performance of the board as it glides across the snow, if the snowboard glides more it equals a better run. When your board doesn’t have that glide, you’ll find yourself going slower, making it harder to transition from one edge to another and inhibiting performance across the mountain.
Does A Snow Board Really Need To Be Maintained By Putting Wax?
All boards which are finished at the factory come with a roll-on hot wax thin coat. Now, this thin coat is only good for about 1 to 2 riding days. Now suppose you take a trip for snowboarding; you should get the hot wax put on the snowboard at a local shop or even try it for yourself.
Whatever be the case you will need to add wax to the snowboard, so it is always better that you get an extra amount of wax. The temperature of the snow you are riding on your snowboard is the main factor that you need to consider while you buy the wax. If the temperature is really cold you would require different wax than the ones you would use during the warm summer. This would be covered later in the article as well. However, you can select the colors from the available options such as red/blue/green to yellow to orange that usually depends on the weather to the condition you have chosen to ride.
How Often Should You Wax Your Snowboard?
Your snowboard comes pre-waxed from the factory, so it lasts for just 2-3 rides board before you might feel the need to apply wax again. The factory wax lasts lesser than the hot wax or iron wax. The hot wax generally lasts for at least 3 to 4 days of riding.
If you maintain the snowboard by adding hot wax you can ensure that it would glide better in any snow condition for better performance. You just need to be sure that you have used the correct type of wax which is perfect for the condition of weather. Let’s assume that you’re going to ride in cool temperatures then you might want to use green/blue wax.
Now suppose you will be riding in warmer temperatures, the redo/range wax is the perfect wax to be used. Sometimes you might want to get a wax that has a temperature that is in between, you should yellow wax.
Removing Old Wax from a Snowboard
Whenever you use wax on your board, you have to remove the excess wax. If you see that there is a lot of wax on the snowboard, then you need to use less amount of wax the next time. However, you don’t need a huge amount of wax to get an impact, you just need the perfect amount of wax so that the pores of the base can be filled.
The best way to remove the old wax is to use a plastic scraper or use a metal scraper. The areas which have the most amount of wax would be the ones that did not get in contact with the park or mountain (like the areas near the nose and tail) and also areas that were in contact with the body (like the area between your feet).
The Correct Technique to Wax a Snowboard
The best way to maintain the snowboard is to add the wax for the overall performance and experience when you go surfing. This will help you to glide easily when you are going down for cat-walks, thus it can smoothly transfer you from one edge to another or even help you in moving across the mountain and will also increase the life of the snowboard.
If you want to add wax to the snowboard you might need:
Scraper
Buffing Pad
Base cleaner
Waxing iron
Wax
Optional: You need to keep the board in a stationary position so that it remains in one position.
Prior to discussing the steps of maintaining the snowboard by waxing, let’s find out the most common mistakes people make while adding the wax by themselves. Let’s read about mistakes first:
Mistake #1:
Many do not scape their snowboard enough and thus the wax build
Mistake #2
Many overheat the base with the iron by continuously ironing over and over the same spot or leave the iron in one spot for a very long time.
Mistake #3:
Leaving your bindings attached to the board while waxing it
Steps to Wax Your Snowboard
Step 1: Use a citrus-based cleaner to remove any dirt and old wax.
Step 2: Always choose your wax according to the temperature when you are riding. It is easier to remember what wax to use in the weather condition, is to remember them through the combination such as for cold temperatures you can use the blue/green wax, for warm weather you can add the wax which is red/pink, and very cold temperatures always choose yellow.
Step 3: get the temperature right, you need the temperature of the wax correct, so that the wax melts but there is no smoke from the iron. Basically, the temperature should always be around 120-140 degrees Fahrenheit. Adding wax to your board should always be done at room temperature so that the pores open and the wax is absorbed better. If your base is cold it won’t absorb the wax properly.
Step 4: Drip the wax over the base and spread it in circles. Let it cool down and then scape of the excess wax.
Step 5: The excess wax needs to be scrapped off from the nose to the tail with a metal or a plastic scraper.
Step 6: With a scotch bright buff of the excess wax.
