5 TIPS TO KEEP YOUR SNOWBOARD IN TOP CONDITION

Waxing, waxing, waxing. Everyone knows they should wax their board. Half do it, half might once a season at best. In a magical fairy land you should wax your board every couple of days. In the real world you should wax it after each trip unless you’re doing a 4 month season in Canada or something. Waxing aside does anyone really pay attention to what else they should do with their board to maintain it? Here’s a few things starting with the obvious:

1. Waxing your board in the short term makes you glide better and go faster. In the long term it can protect and extend the life of your base. The base of your board is made up of P-Tex which has little pores which open up when heated, much like your skin when you’re relaxing in an onsen after a hard day of riding in Japan. Filling up those pores will give you a smoother ride. If you notice your board, especially near the edges is rough and turning a white-ish colour its time for a good wax.

2. Sharpening your edges isn’t required anywhere near as often as waxing. If you run your finger down your edge, be careful, but if you feel some burrs and roughness in the edges it may be time for an edge clean up. A gummy stone will help being your edges back to a uniform sharpness without changing the angles of your edges. If you’re don’t feel remotely sharp on your finger you might want to look into a full tune-up. This can sharpen and reset the angles to ensure you can hold an edge in icy Aussie snow conditions. If you like riding rails and boxes like me I actually file my edges or ‘detune’ them when my board is now so they don’t catch as easily on a rail so it’s totally up to your riding on how often you sharpen your edges. Although don’t go to crazy because a board can only take so many tune-ups before there is nothing left to sharpen.

3. Removing rust off your edges can be easily avoided by keeping your board dry and not storing it in board bag straight after riding as it will lock the moisture in with the board and your edges will deteriorate. We get rid of general rust when we wax customers boards because I can’t deal with leaving it there but be warned if you finished your season, chucked your board straight in the bag and left it there over summer you might have some serious rust and my arms probably won’t cope with trying to remove it all as a perfectionist courtesy, you’ll need a full tune-up.

4. Repairing any gauges in your base from nasty rocks or the like is imperative to keeping your board in good condition, especially if you’ve got a core shot. A core shot is a gauge that is deep enough that it exposes the core of the board. If not repaired, the timber in the core rots making it susceptible to snapping. You can get your board ‘p-texed’ at most snowboard stores including Oz Extreme!

5. Delamination of a snowboard can be pretty gnarly. If you find the top of your board has come away from the rail you should get it fixed so the core is sealed and you’re not going to get a rotten core. Delamination is different to chipping your top sheet, if a bit of your shiny graphic comes off don’t stress but the actual separation of layers is the real issue. Repairs require an application of epoxy resin and some clamps to set and can be done at our store as well as most other snowboard stores. You can do it yourself depending on the severity of the delam but definitely do your research before getting stuck into it. Most delams are repairable, although the board may suffer in performance slightly, however if the rail has actually popped out I’d probably consider investing in a new stick.

Delamination (above) vs topsheet chip (below)