First Ski Wax of the Season

OK, its finally snowing and of course your caught prepping for your first day of skiing at around 10:00 the night before.  Your tired, but don’t want to cheat on that first crucial wax job.  What should you do?

The answer is easy.  Take the time to do the job right!

The first ski tune of the season really is important.  If not done properly it could affect the rest of the wax jobs you put on for the rest of the season.  The following steps should help you to plan.  Some of them will not apply to your situation, but we are trying to be complete.  Also, if you don’t know what you are doing, check out the video to the side of this post, take a local ski tuning class, or let your local shop take care of it for you.  You can actually do quite a bit of damage if you don’t do it right.

1. Thorough Inspection:  First, take the skis down and give them the old once-over.  It’s amazing how much damage goes unnoticed during a busy ski season .  Take notes and plan to address any serious flaws.

2. Clean your skis and bindings:  Any mild cleaner can be used on the top sheets and bindings to remove dust, etc.  For the bases a good wax remover should be used that is specifically designed for alpine skis.  Old wax breaks down over time and will make new wax not bond to the base.

3. Fill base grooves or holes:  We recommend filling even small groves with petex (a hard base-like material that liquefies under heat).  Definitely fill holes that expose the core of the ski to avoid moisture build up in the core materials.

4. File or grind bases/edges:  A flat file can be used to remove small burs on the bases and edges of the skis and to help keep edges and bases level.  Sometimes base grinding is necessary and this should be done by a ski shop technician.

5. Ski Wax Application: Hot wax is the only way to go and can be applied with fancy ski wax irons or even an old clothing iron.  The trick is get even application while heating the base material some.  This helps the wax to bind to the base and give you a longer lasting wax job.

6. Scrape and buff the base:  There only needs to be a thin layer of wax on the ski, so scrape generously.  Following this use a kitchen cleaning pad and evenly buff the wax to a shine.

This process really only needs to be done once or twice a year to keep your skis in action ready shape.  In between simple waxing and base maintenance should suffice.