low wax board on rails?

[zealandblack]

Normally, when I hit rails, particularly board sliding on down rails or boxes, I would notice a little bit of resistance during the slide, generally I just got through it by anticipating the stickiness and keeping balance and adjusting my weight accordingly. I figured, that's just a part of rail riding: sometimes the board sticks a little bit, just balance and get through it.
At the moment, however, my board is in major need of a waxing. Usually I wax often, but lately I've been busy between days on the mountain and haven't had a chance to wax in quite a while. Anyway, riding yesterday, I noticed that I slid waaaaaaaay smoother on the rails. So much so that my first hit of the day I ended up slipping out onto my ass on a back board because I anticipated the usual resistance, and landing on the rail with my weight too far back. Once I made the adjustments in my riding, I was hitting boardslides smoother than I have before on both flat and down rails/boxes.
My question is, is this actually because my board was really really low on wax? Logically I suppose it makes sense, because wax creates friction between board and ground, so less wax means less friction, means less resistance on rails... If so, is this something that all park riders know, and I've just been riding like an idiot with a waxed up board for the last few years? Or is this all in my head, and something about my technique has unconsciously changed to make my rail riding smoother?

[gprider_capita]

it's the wax

[lonerider]

Originally Posted by zealandblack

I with a waxed up board for the last few years? Or is this all in my head, and something about my technique has unconsciously changed to make my rail riding smoother?

It's because you didn't scrape the excess wax off your base. The wax only fills the pore of the base and you shouldn't be able to see it on the base (except for the lack of a dry white look to your base). A proper tune involves scraping the wax a lot (as much as you possible can with a *plastic* scraper), then polishing with a brillo pad, and finally brushing with a brass brush... but usually most people only scrape a little.

[zealandblack]

I dunno if that's it. When I wax I scrape my wax thoroughly (scraper, brilo pad, steel brush), and I know what a board feels like with a poor scrape job, especially on rails. I've tried out friends' boards that have literally stopped halfway down a rail sending flying. I guess I shouldn't have said it was "sticky" before in my original post, but just like a liiiiittle bit of resistance, vs yesterday where it felt darn right greasy.
Or maybe I have just been doing a kind of shitty job of scrapping lately and just didn't realize it. I'll try paying closer attention next time I scrape, and try to be especially thorough when brushing it and brillo padding it.
Regardless, I'll probably try experimenting with it this week by riding a day like this, then waxing (thorough scraping) and then heading out the following day to see how much of a difference I feel. I was just kind of wondering if simply not waxing is something that people actually do for rail riding.

[zealandblack]

You know the more I think about it, you're probably right. I brush and brillo pad my board, but I'm probably half-assing it and the wax I use doesn't really show up against my base in most sections so there could be little bits that i'm leaving behind. And what I'm left with is an adequate (still slides as opposed to a bad scrape which really doesn't slide) but not great (slides with minor resistance) wax job. Sorry for the extra posts, I'm pretty much just thinking out loud at this point.