Board is sticky when it shouldn't be..

[makenewusername]

Sorry if this seems cluttered, I didn't really take the time to organize it all and make it neat, so just deal with it

Okay guys.. I live in Minnesota and love to snowboard on the local hill.. It's small compared to a mountain but bear with me.......

A bit about my style of snowboarding: I snowboard in park only, (just for reference i'm male and 17 years old- weigh 130 pounds.. 5'6" tall), I ride a forum scallywag board (2011).

Okay.. I think that covers the basic information. Now onto my problem!


Alright, I know you guys are gonna say it's "just" the slush but I'm seriously pissed right now.. It's 40-45 degrees out here still (just cooling down to start winter) and i'm RIDING ON ARTIFICIAL snow currently.

Okay, so regardless, here is the problem: I'm getting stuck on the snow a ridiculous amount. More than I should be Every time I get off the rope tow I start sticking to the snow like crazy on the flat at the top.. It's so bad that all of the other snowboarders glide right past me.

I doubt it's the wax.. Last night I applied a coat of all temp wax on my board and when I got to the hill today it stuck badly. I couldn't go as fast as the others and it felt like i was on sandpaper. The other people around me just boarded right past me while i had to jump my board (from nose to tail) to move anywhere.
Even when downhill I couldn't get enough speed for any features. it was super bad.. So mid afternoon I asked the guy in the shop for his input and had him put some warm weather wax on thinking that would solve the problem. When I came back he said he removed loads of dirt from my base so that made me feel better. I thought the problem would be resolved but when I got back on the slopes, IT WAS STILL STICKING THE SAME AMOUNT!
It absolutely ruined my day on the hill.


Okay here is how I wax my board:
I use an all purpose wax because that's the only one I own
I have two sawhorses to hold my board on. It works alright, gets the job done.
1. I make sure my board is room temperature
2. Make sure iron isn't smoking when I apply wax on ( I use an old household iron)
3. Apply a smooth layer onto the board and wait for a half an hour before I scrape
4. I scrape in a back and fourth motion (pushing and pulling) making sure not to gouge my board
5. YES, I scrape off all of the wax and then buff it..
6. I buff using steel wool/scotchbrite pad in a crosshatch manner.
7. I clean up the mess I made scraping



Some other information:
- Normally with the all temp wax my board works just fine in cold/icy conditions (any time that the snow is less than 25 degrees.)
- I am absolutely TICKED off that we're going to get 3-4 inches of snow over the weekend and my board won't be ready.. I'm willing to go to some severe extents to get it to work
- I snowboard for around 5 hours per day every day (the season just started one week ago though- i've gotten in a good 30 hours of boarding so far)


Please help me figure out what's going on!

[ThunderChunky]

Does the base have a black smudge color?

[makenewusername]

No the base does not have a black smudge color to it. What would that mean if it did? Just like pollutants. And if so how much might that slow my board down?

[poutanen]

None of that really makes sense... I was going to say it was the snow at first but if everyone's gliding by you something's wrong.

When I scrape I tend to only scrape in one direction. And when you buff, you don't need to go crazy on it with steel wool, just a bathroom pad run from tip to tail works best, and a nylon brush if you've got it.

Again though, if they did a wax job for you on the hill and you're still "sticking" I have no idea what's going on. Were you riding through a puddle?!?

[wrathfuldeity]

perhaps you should base clean by stripping all the wax off, let it dry and then re-wax with warm temp wax

[linvillegorge]

Those slushy mashed potatoes can be pretty damn sticky. Here in CO in those conditions, we just find steeper terrain.

[lonerider]

Have you ever gotten a base grind on your board? A smoothf/fine structure base is going to suction onto warm/wet snow typically people have a medium structure in their base, but maybe the manufacturer or the previous owner changed the base structure (actually even my Never Summer stuck to spring snow a lot more than I thought it should - and then I gave it a base grind).

Here is a link to learn more:
Base Structure Tips for ski and snowboard

[makenewusername]

Originally Posted by lonerider

Have you ever gotten a base grind on your board? A smoothf/fine structure base is going to suction onto warm/wet snow typically people have a medium structure in their base, but maybe the manufacturer or the previous owner changed the base structure (actually even my Never Summer stuck to spring snow a lot more than I thought it should - and then I gave it a base grind).

Here is a link to learn more:
Base Structure Tips for ski and snowboard

Hmm maybe that would be a good idea. Thanks for the tip, i'll give it a shot.

[ShredLife]

base grind isn't a bad idea - but when i ride slush/spring conditions i go faster if i strip absolutely as much wax from the base as possible and ride it bare. get a base grind and don't wax it.

[AWNOW]

It's your wax.

Use warm wax, not all weather wax.