How To Hot Wax Your Snowboard:
Snowboards need to be regularly waxed to keep the base running nice and fast. Applying a fresh coat of hot wax every few times you ride is ideal. Or if you notice that your board's base looks especially dry or seems to be running slow, now is a good time for a hot wax.
There are four things you will absolutely need:
Wax: be sure to buy ski or snowboard wax that is designed to be applied with a hot iron. There are plenty of choices, but a good all-temperature wax will work well in most snow conditions.
Scraper: pick this up at your favorite board shop along with the wax. Plastic or metal scrapers are both fine, just avoid really wide scrapers that are sometimes marketed for snowboards - they don't scrape as well as the smaller ones.
Iron: now might be a good time to invest in an iron designed especially for waxing skis and snowboards. These are smooth on the bottom and therefore apply a nice smooth coat of wax. Or you can go down to your nearest Salvation Army or Goodwill and pick up a used household iron for a few bucks.
Scotchbrite: these rough green pads are available at any grocery store next to the kitchen sponges.
Some optional but helpful items:
Base Cleaner: if your snowboard's base is dirty, clean it using a base cleaner (find this at your board shop) and a rag before you hot wax it.
Vices: setting up a workbench makes tuning and waxing your board much easier. Vices are available that hold your snowboard in place while you work.
Lets get started:
Review picture to the left>
1. Drip
Put down an old sheet or some newspaper to catch dripping wax. Then put your board base-up on your new vices (see optional items) or on some books.
Plug in your iron and set it to a medium heat. It should be hot enough to readily melt the wax, but not so hot that the wax smokes. Hold the iron perpendicular to your snowboard with the pointed side down. Press the wax bar against the hot iron and hold it there. As the wax drips, move the iron up and down the base of your board until you have stripes of dripped wax 1 to 2 inches apart. Set the wax aside.
2. Iron
Now iron in all that wax until the base of your board is fully covered. Keep the iron moving; leaving it in one area for too long can damage the snowboard.
3. Scrape
Turn off the iron and wait 15 to 20 minutes for the wax to set and cool. Now grab the scraper and scrape off any excess wax in a nose to tail motion. Scraping away all the wax may sound counter-productive, until you realize that a hot wax actually opens up the pores in a snowboard's base where you want wax to go. Excess wax will only slow you down.
4. Buff
After scraping, rub the scotchbrite pad in a nose to tail motion to take off the last of the wax and give your board a finishing touch. You are now ready to ride.
Board Tuning
Board Tuning is the key to having a comfortable and enjoying ride on the slopes. It's the little effort that keeps you cool on the slope all day long!
Base We begin looking for extra speed by revisiting base preparation. First, it’s important to have the base "stone ground" at your shop for the prevailing local conditions. Grind textures and patterns have a substantial influence on a board’s ability to accelerate and maintain speed, and there are a near-infinite number of grind combinations available for different conditions–consult your pro shop about their suggestions for where you ride. Remember to tell them you only want the board ground. You’ll finish the tune yourself.
With the grind complete, it’s time to bust out the structure brushes. With a more "open" grind (for wet, granular spring snow), use a nylon or horsehair brush. If the grind’s texture is very fine and tight (cold, mid-winter conditions), use a brass brush. Either way, the same technique applies. Brush the base in longitudinal strokes from nose to tail. What you’re doing is removing all the "micro-hairs" left deep in the grooves by the grinding process. Although minute, these will create speed-robbing drag if neglected. Brush until the small flecks of base material don’t collect on the bristles and the base looks shiny and smooth.
When satisfied that this initial brushing phase is complete, wrap some 320-grit sandpaper (finer for extremely cold conditions) around a rectangular wooden block and, using light pressure, sand the base lengthwise the same way you used the brush. This process removes all the sharp "peaks" from the stone-ground texture, presenting more surface area to absorb wax and leaving the "valleys" to channel moisture. After sanding, brush again to remove any remaining debris.
Edges
Now let’s turn our attention to the edges. You’d be surprised how much effect the steel edge can have on a board’s overall performance. It’s vitally important to have the edges honed to a fine, smooth finish.
After filing in the desired bevel [Remember beveling? See Tech, Volume 5, Number 4], begin polishing the edge with a new, flat whetstone or diamond "DMT" stone. Both should be used wet–I like to keep mine soaking in water in an old coffee cup. Position the stone at the same bevel you just filed and, with light pressure and one- to two-foot strokes, begin polishing the edge. If conditions are exceptionally firm, or if the rider prefers a razor-sharp edge, I’ll use a fine, four- or six-inch file and lightly resharpen certain areas of the side edge–between the feet, for example–then work these areas with the stone again. Check your progress by lightly dragging the tip of a fingernail down the edge, feeling for unwanted burrs.
After the edge is properly stoned, I like to take the polishing one step further. Wrap a section of 320-grit "wet-dry" sandpaper tightly around a file. Using it wet and maintaining the same bevel angle, lightly sand the edges–be careful not to dull the edge you’ve just worked so hard to sharpen. Pay extra-close attention to the base edge, which is the most crucial when you’re carving hard; extra polishing here will significantly improve both acceleration while turning hard off the tail and your ability to maintain speed in the flats. Follow the 320 with 600-grit in the same fashion.
Detuning
Detuning the contact points is a rider-preference thing. However large the actual detuned area may be, make it as smooth as a baby’s butt with your gummy stone. Blend the detuned area from dull to sharp by gradually extending the length of your stroke away from the contact point. Make one final, extra-light gummy pass down the entire edge–nose to tail–to remove any remaining micro-burrs.
