Why You Should Wax vs. Paying Someone to Maintain Your Snowboard?
If you’re 6 years old, you’re probably either having a store, a friend, or a parent waxing your board, but if you are 9 or older and haven’t started to learn the art of waxing and you ride more than a couple times a year, then you need to reconsider. If you are a competitive snowboarder, and you aren’t doing the regular maintenance and care of your equipment, you need to begin doing it for several reasons. Not only is it majorly cost effective, it’s convenient when you need to work on a board in between races, especially for those using 1 board for multiple races., and it helps you extend the life of your boards.
Can you imagine doing 4 boardercross races over 2 days on 1 board without additional waxing. Practice runs, heats, finals, etc. and you can rack up 10 or more runs a day. If you can’t work on your own board and only have 1 race board, how do you plan on prepping your base? Most racers not only work on their boards between races, but they definitely redo them the night before and between races. This is going to require a certain level proficiency and some basic equipment; otherwise, you’re trusting your board to the unknown guy working in the shop at whatever mountain you are on and paying who knows how much to get it done overnight, if you even can.
The other reason is cost. At around $30 for a basic waxing, why would you want to pay someone else work on your board for you, when a weekend warrior’s season (~$300) of paying someone to wax your board will more than pay for the basic equipment necessary to keep your boards moving great on the slopes? If you are competing and paying for basic waxings for riding and practicing and then shelling out $90 or more each for competition waxings 10 or more times a year (~$1,500 for practice and races), now you’ve paid for racing/competition tuning equipment in less than a season including the cost of wax.
Lastly, it’s a good way to ensure your equipment is being maintained. Waxing gives you the opportunity to ensure that your equipment is always in good shape and safe to be out on the mountain. You’ll notice dings and chips in your edges that can cause carving issues; you’ll see issues with your bindings that could cause them to fail and endanger you and others on the hill. It also lets you ensure you are maintaining your base. Different snow conditions, as well as the original quality of your snowboards base, can make it so you need to wax more, or less often. If you are having to take your board somewhere to get them done, you are more likely to not get it done as often as necessary and this will lessen the life of your board.
Over the next few months, I am going to spend some time talking about establishing a tuning kit, different waxing techniques, and maybe even some advanced waxing techniques. This will give you some time before the season starts to get everything together and get some practice in.
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