Do I need to wax a new pair of skis?

Julia Moss wrote:When we bought our new Rossignols a few years back we asked the shop if they should be waxed. No, they said, they're good to go. They've been waxed many times since but have never been as good as they were when we glided down their first ever piste...
I guess it depends where you buy your skis.

That may be because they didn't have excess wax on them when new. Many people, and even ski shops don't brush out all the excess wax after a waxing. That effect would be most apparent when it is very cold.

jbakes87 wrote:I've just bought 2 new pairs of skis for me and my girlfriend. A pair of Rossignol Alias Zip's for me and a pair of dynastar intuitive's for her. I was just wondering whether anyone knows whether I should bother getting them waxed before we head out to courchevel in December?

Definitely. And get them hot boxed as well.

I used my new board today and after only 3 runs down the chill factory slope the wax had worn off the sides, so I told my friend who laughed at me and said I should of prepared my board at least 7 -8 times before using it , by that he meant wax the board then go over it with the iron and let it cool and then go over it again and let it cool and so on 7 or 8 times then scrape it off only if you're going to use it soon . I asked if that's just what the professional's did and he said he didn't know any body who didn't do that to a brand new pair of ski's and why would anyone not wax before using . Maybe it's just a Norwegian thing ,who know's ,all I know is it gives me another excuse to get the iron out 8)

Lesson number 1: never use your own skis at Chill Factore.
Mine dried horribly and went all white after skiing there for 1.5 hours.

Tony_H wrote:Lesson number 1: never use your own skis at Chill Factore.
Mine dried horribly and went all white after skiing there for 1.5 hours.

White and furry is normal for skis used on indoor snow. I think there is a different wax blend you can use, to protect them.

Hotboxing ....... is it really that important for a weeks skiing or is it another attempt to empty my wallet.

bandit wrote:
White and furry is normal for skis used on indoor snow. I think there is a different wax blend you can use, to protect them.

Shouldn't be, unless they are rental skis. You might want to go with a lower temp wax, instead of a universal.

The cure for base burn always seems a little drastic. Apply a graphite wax, don't scrape, just brush out with a "barbeque brush". This is a very coarse steel brush. It needs to be angled a little, so you are pulling the bristles rather than pushing them. The process is repeated until the base burn is gone. It removes the hairs, and forces wax into the base.

A tip for preventing this is buy some Swix CH4 low temp wax. Crayon your regular wax onto the base. Create some powdered CH4 by rubbing the block on a clean file. Spread a little of this powder in a band along the edges of the base (about 15mm to 20mm wide). You can use your finger for this. Now iron the wax, scrape and brush as you normally would. This gives a little more protection to the base edges, without sacrificing glide when the board is flat, or having to work with low temp wax over the whole base.

Ian Wickham wrote: Hotboxing ....... is it really that important for a weeks skiing

No. In any case it's yesterdays technology that has now been superseded by the Bolt Wax Future infrared waxing machine http://www.bolt-wax-future.com/ . This has been in use here since 2005 and is now marketed worldwide as the Montana Wax Future http://www.ski-service.com/Produkte/Machines/Handmaschinen/WaxFuture/tabid/1180/Default.aspx?language=en-US it is used by all the major ski manufacturers to wax their world cup race skis. Whereas hotboxing only really works with soft base prep waxes, this method can also be used with harder glide waxes. Some of the smaller manufacturers are also using it to wax their consumer skis.