Wax

[ShiftyRider]

I use an old clothes iron and paraffin wax from the grocery store. From a wax standpoint California snow is quite different, elsewhere it's best to use actual ski wax.

Half my friends have never waxed, I guess the ski shop does it.

Where do you stand?

 

[Tony Crocker]

Yes, the ski shop (often as not that's Garry Klassen) does it. My daily drivers have the DPS Phantom treatment, which is a permanent substitute for waxing.

I defer to race knowledgeable skiers like Patrick and EMSC, for whom waxing is more important.

 

[EMSC]

paraffin wax from the grocery store

Probably works just fine for spring type snow. Not a good choice for new snow or cold snow conditions.

I mostly tune my families gear in the basement, though occasionally get tired of that and use a shop maybe once per year.

The phantom base treatment Tony references is very decent. It's not like freshly waxed skis, but more like a couple day old wax job. Probably 80% of the benefits and no more waxing ever.

'Real' waxing is a super weird art form at the level of high end ski racing. Enormous amounts of time and effort put forth by technicians trying to dial it in for very specific conditions each race.

I'm more basic now-a-days. Just use a simple temperature based wax as needed (probably 5-10 days on snow between depending on lots of factors). In Colorado it can be pretty simple as much of the season is simply cold temp wax until at least March. Then have to start playing a bit more with options (at least for racing for my son, for me I just stick to the temp range my very next ski day is going to be).

But like I said, world cuppers and some people are really, really into it and you can go crazy with various techniques and wax blends and etc... trying to achieve perfect wax for a particular day. While it's interesting stuff to know, I don't find those efforts to be worth it for recreational skiing. Tons of work and even waste for tiny gains that only last a very short while.

 

[ShiftyRider]

gear review dps phantom



Another complexity I skip is scraping, I figure the snow will do that quick enough.

2 exceptions...

Powder days you wanna have your best base for the first run so definitely scrape.

Additionally if there's gonna kinda be a "race" for the ideal mid- or upper-mountain lift at opening bell, I humbly recommend you Scotch-brite as a final step.

 

[sibhusky]

When Race Wax was ending their production of their hydrocarbon waxes, I bought enough to last the rest of my skiing career. I generally do extensive preseason prep with hot scrapes, using softer wax, then a layer of CH3/4 for protective purposes and then slap on the wax of the day week. Then the rest of the season is just wax of the week, either red or green as appropriate. Towards season end I'll make sure my structure is fresh, start adding some fluoro and maybe go to a universal wax, trying to find something that will last through AM refrozen slush and still work on actual slush later. I've occasionally grabbed a second set of skis after lunch. I've really started minding the aspect vs the sun and try hard to gauge when to leave to avoid those early spring grabbies. Once the fresh snow stops falling on slush and it's all turned into corn things improve again.

Most of our season requires green wax and that's all. It's spring I find difficult.

I freshen the structure and polish edges most of the time the skis are brought home for waxing. I use a rotobrush after scraping - one of my best Christmas presents.

As some of you know, I'm not the usual demographic that's a wax geek. But if you're on a chair and bring it up I'll still be talking about it when you're skiing away.

 

[jimk]

Probably works just fine for spring type snow. Not a good choice for new snow or cold snow conditions.

I mostly tune my families gear in the basement, though occasionally get tired of that and use a shop maybe once per year.

The phantom base treatment Tony references is very decent. It's not like freshly waxed skis, but more like a couple day old wax job. Probably 80% of the benefits and no more waxing ever.

'Real' waxing is a super weird art form at the level of high end ski racing. Enormous amounts of time and effort put forth by technicians trying to dial it in for very specific conditions each race.

I'm more basic now-a-days. Just use a simple temperature based wax as needed (probably 5-10 days on snow between depending on lots of factors). In Colorado it can be pretty simple as much of the season is simply cold temp wax until at least March. Then have to start playing a bit more with options (at least for racing for my son, for me I just stick to the temp range my very next ski day is going to be).

But like I said, world cuppers and some people are really, really into it and you can go crazy with various techniques and wax blends and etc... trying to achieve perfect wax for a particular day. While it's interesting stuff to know, I don't find those efforts to be worth it for recreational skiing. Tons of work and even waste for tiny gains that only last a very short while.

Last time I used paraffin wax was about 10 years ago. I didn't bother scraping it and first time I got off chairlift I almost fell because my skis stuck to the snow like fly paper
I tune in my son's garage in SLC where he as a good set up and where I spend several months each winter. I very rarely take skis to a shop except for base grind when they are about 5 years old. Never tried Phantom. I too just iron-on a temperature based wax as needed every 5-10 ski days. Too lazy to bother scraping since the snow does that in about two runs.

 

[ShiftyRider]

The reason I was thinking about wax is cuz I do it for friends before we go to Snow Summit or Baldy, but they travel for skiing too and if that paraffin is still there then, chances are I forgot to tell them they need to plan for that themselves LOL.