When do Base Scratches/Gouges affect performance?

762 Views 8 Replies 6 Participants Last post by Etienne, 4 mo ago

Awchute

Discussion Starter · 4 mo ago

I have a couple boards that I love and ride them everywhere - steeps, chutes, trees and everything in between. Problem is I have accumulated tons of scratches and some deeper cuts from rocks on the base of both my "free ride" decks.

One deck (Rossignol XV) has a decent amount of ptex poured in already and had a base grind earlier this year. My other (K2 instrument) is also starting to accumulate rock damage (both vertical streaks and deeper horizontal gouges near the edges) but no core shots yet.

At what point do you retire a board based on accumulated scratches and gouges? Or do you put it away only once there is a core shot or edge blow out that is too significant or costly to repair?

It's hard to say if or how damage affects performance since we ride in different snow conditions, temps, mountains, fresh wax vs not so fresh wax etc on any given day so it's not obvious that "hey this board is not ripping like it used to".

Thanks for the pointers.

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Chern

· #2 · 4 mo ago

each scratch, each gouge, each ptex repair is because you and the board are sharing an experience.
when I wax my board and look at each repair and each scratch I’m reminded of when and where and how much I enjoy snowboarding.…or how dumb I was to ride off piste in early December.
In Japanese it’s called “wabi” or seeing the beauty in imperfection and impermanence.
Embrace the boards imperfection and impermanence.
gouges and scratches that don’t affect performance are just cosmetic but they tell a story.
If you enjoy them, keep riding them…. .with all their imperfections.
Ultimately, your board is just a tool.
If that tool isn’t working for you then it’s time for a new tool….or a choice of tools.
It never hurts to have a third or fourth board in case the XV or the K2 are no longer rideable.
Eventually you’ll need a new board but for now if you’re happy, enjoy!

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Chern

· #6 · 4 mo ago

MrDavey2Shoes said:
It’s actually called wabi sabi.

wabi is a bike company.

I am going to stick with just wabi or "侘" for a snowboard.
"Wabi" = impermanence, flaws, and imperfection of an object or how something degrades with use.
"Sabi" = effect that time has on an object.

We can agree to disagree.

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Chern

· #8 · 4 mo ago

MrDavey2Shoes said:
Unless you're putting scratches in your board outside the realm of time I think you've got to come to terms with the Sabi in your Wabi my brother

You really need that Sabi to go with my Wabi. However, my flaws and imperfections prevent it. Embrace my imperfections . . . . . .

@Awchute you must be getting a kick out of your post.
It's your post. Do we go with WABI or WABI-SABI ?
Maybe name one board Wabi and the other one Sabi ?

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