Maintaining your Ski’s

To quote the famous line from The Karate Kid, “Wax on, Wax off”!

My personal favourite quote is “Always look eye”, but unfortunately it doesn’t relate to this article!

It’s important to maintain your ski’s if you want to get the most out of your skiing and waxing them reguarly is a big part of that. I found a great article on Homeboyski that gives a great run down on how to DIY waxing:

 ”Basic waxing is pretty easy and it doesn’t take much time. Waxing decreases the friction between the ski and snow, and therefore provides better sliding. Before talking about waxing, let’s find out what is needed when waxing your skis.

- time 15-30 minutes
- place to mount your skis
- ironing iron
- base wax
- cold weather wax (-10 centigrade degrees or colder)
- warmer weather wax (-10 – 0 centigrade degrees)
- acrylic scraper
- abrasive paper
- nylon brush
- copper or steel brush

If you are not a racer, basic knowledge of waxing is enough. If you are a racer, you need to develop your waxing skills much further. Anyhow, in this post we discuss about the basics of waxing, which is enough for most of the skiers.

Start by waxing your skis with a hard base wax in order to create a water resisting hard base. For this purpose you can use the cold weather wax from known wax makers, such as Swix, Betamix and Start. The cold weather wax is scraped warm to the ski, after which the extra wax is brushed away. Start brushing with the copper or steel brush, and brush only from tip towards tail, not in the opposite direction! Finally by using the nylon brush you brush the ski slippery. You can test how slippery the ski is by letting the brush move on the ski. If it moves easily, brushing is done well. If it gets stuck, there is still some wax to be brushed away.

Many people are satisfied already in this phase, but if you wish to have your ski even more slippery, continue waxing with the wax designed for the current weather. After you have spread the wax on the ski, wait until it becomes cooler and harder. After that scrape the extra wax away, just like said above.

In order to get the best out of your skiing, wax your skis regularly. Personally I recommend waxing your skis at least once a week if you ski every weekend.“