Snowboard why wax

A sintered base is more porous and therefore able to absorb more wax. Because of this, when a sintered board is waxed well it will run faster and smoother than an extruded base. However, an unwaxed sintered base will run slower than an unwaxed extruded base and therefore requires more waxing attention to keep it running fast.

You can tell when your snowboard needs to be waxed simply by how it feels, as well as how the base looks. What will I need? Structuring brush. Before the iron goes anywhere near your base, make sure to loosen off or fully remove your bindings. Clean the base. The most common cause is simply neglecting to wax regularly. The high friction of snow acts like sandpaper to abrade the base, wear off wax and leave the p-tex dried out.

Black bases make it easy to tell if your bases need wax, though close examination of clear bases in good light will reveal the same condition. Bases that need wax will appear whitish in areas, especially along the edges where pressure and friction tend to be greatest. Use small localised circles until an area is covered before moving onto the next area.

A sign of spending too long on one area is if the wax stays wet for more than a couple seconds after you leave it. Just try to keep moving as much as possible. The board and wax are going to need to cool down for a while before you scrape. Ideally leave it for minutes. As with edging, it's generally advisable to scrape from nose to tail. Get your plastic scraper and angle it at around 45 degrees, then push hard and scrape along the length of the board. Continue until all the visible wax is gone and the surface is smooth and even.

Most scrapers have a square cut out of the corners. Use this to run over your metal edges. This is where a bit of pride comes into your work.

With this phase you can make your base shine and significantly increase its performance. Firstly, take your scotch pad and give each area of your base 3 or 4 hard strokes, to even out your scraping job. Then take your nylon base brush and give each area 3 or 4 hard strokes, working from nose to tail — this adds structure to your base, which stops suction and allows it to run smoother and quicker.

Leaving the board in one place is how you can end up damaging your base permanently. Let the wax cool. Leave the wax on the board for approx minutes, until it has cooled down and set.

Get scraping. Once the wax has cooled, hold your plastic scraper at a 45 degree angle and carefully work from nose to tail, scraping off any excess wax. Long, continuous strokes are key for a smooth base. Check your edges. Any wax left on your rails will render your edges pretty ineffective, so make sure to use the notch at the end of your scraper to remove any stray wax.