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Too early to wax ?

13K views 52 replies 21 participants last post by  Karasene 
#1 ·
Just got a new snowboard.... is it too early to wax it ? since its prolly another 2 months before snow starts to fall... or should i wax it now to protect the base and wax it again when the snow starts to fall ?

How often do you guys wax your boards ?
 
#5 ·
Do you know how to wax your board?

I mean I don't see why you would need to wax it just to protect it, when it's just going to be sitting in your closet.

Some people wax every other day, some every week, some once a month, some never do...

If you're riding every day/every other day I think you would be fine waxing it once a week. It's just a fun ritual to do..

You will be find riding it a few times, then waxing it up.
 
#16 ·
On the East coast, definitely.. man made snow/ ice and corn, your base will go white in a day or two.. but like WasatchMan said.

Some wax every other day, some every week, some once a month, some never do.

If you want to keep you base nice and slick on the hill wax it.. if you don't mind a bit of drag and a decrease in speed then don't bother waxing it as often.

PS. If you're going to buy a tuning kit.. don't get suckered into paying a high dollar for a "waxing" iron.. any iron will do.. travel irons work great. Pick one up at a yard sale and you'll be set.
 
#17 ·
Won't hurt to wax early, won't hurt to not wax now. Unless you plan on doing an iterative waxing using an actual base wax and doing several passes then finishing with a race wax, you can just do it the week or night before your first trip. When I get a board, I take it to the bench grinder and take down the edges. Wax it up and scrape it, unless it's going to be sitting around all summer, in which case skip the scraping. Throw some stickers on it and wait for the snow.
 
#18 ·
Is the base sintered or extruded? Scuttlebutt says repeated waxings are good for sintered bases.
 
#24 ·
I supposed this isn't maybe the right forum area to ask this, but it is a waxing thread...

I recently (well, end of last season) switched from plastic scrapers to a metal scraper. The metal scraper seems to take the wax off much better with less effort, but I'm wondering if it's possible to take off too much wax so that you end up with a suboptimal job. Should I back off more? I don't want to go back to the plexiglass scrapers. The edges wear eventually and I have to keep replacing them.
 
#30 ·
Just use a metal file to sharpen your plexiglass scrapers. Edges just get rounded is all, square em up. No reason to buy new ones... actually if you know of a sign shop near you, you can prob get some acrylic offcuts for nothing and use those.
As for metal scrapers, i've been using one and as long as you are careful not to gouge into your base then you should be good. Even saw a 'pro' at the shop doing it. Must be legit :rolleyes:
 
#32 ·
When I got the metal scraper, the first thing I did was round off the corners so I couldn't take out a gouge. What I'm hearing is I shouldn't get too enthusiastic about scraping with a metal scraper -- better to leave a little wax on rather than bear down too much. I can do that.
 
#33 ·
Nothing wrong with using a metal scraper as long as you are careful not to gouge it with the corners. If you've rounded them off, it's fine. I usually take a sharpening stone to my metal scrapers every so often since I also use them for shaving off p-tex, although the straight razor works much better for this. The metal scrapers hold an edge for a very long time and are great for scraping off wax and freshly applied p-tex or epoxy infused p-tex.

As Cr0 already pointed out, you can't really scrape off too much wax. Either you are scraping excess wax or you are damaging the base. A HDPE scraper works fine too, just take care to maintain its edge or you will be doing a lot more work than you have to.
 
#37 ·
My trip was one of the best of my life so far. Spent almost 3 weeks in South America. Met up with my buddies who run SGT (SASS Global Travel | Ski/Ride/Surf Guides | Summer Ski & Snowboard Camps | Action Sports Outfitters) spent a week and a half riding and a week and a half traveling; Staying in Hostels and seeing the country on my own while not being able to speak the language was quite the experience. I loved every minute of it.:D

Alright I have one more question...

Are you a robot or an alien? :dunno:
 
#41 · (Edited)
WAX IT!! It puts you at one with your board. It's a bonding experience!
haha this! I pop in the head phones and wax the board with as much enthusiasm as i have when actually riding it!

I suppose you could use a metal scraper if you were good enough, but more than once i have been going at it and caught the edge of the scraper and increased the angle so much it jammed into the board and took of a good bit of the wax i just put down, i wouldnt want to risk that sort of damage with a metal scraper.

also op's OG question, no, you can't wax it too much and have adverse effects, but you can wax it too much and waste wax. Do you need to wax it 2 months before you ride it...no. but if you are that anxious to get the snow season started and you want to occupy your time with snowboard related activities, go for it. But more than likely you will wax it now, then two months down the road you will end up waxing it again just to be sure, so you are just wasting wax at that point.
 
#51 ·
i use an iron with holes around the edges, i just drained out the water and make sure its not too hot and it works just fine. like they said, just keep it moving and don't let it sit in one place. Also since we are talking about waxing a board make sure you loosen your binding hardware from the base so the board so it does not cause adverse warping.
 
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