Tuning Your BoardBy Kevin Chan
The Tunes for a Sweet Ride Only 30% of all people on the slopes ride on waxed equipment. Of these people, only 10% actually wax their own equipment. Really, you should wax your equipment about every 3rd time you go out snowboarding. Also very important is to sharpen your edges, especially in icy or hardpack conditions.
THE WAX JOB:
- Go to a place where it's okay to drip wax and you can have fresh air.
- Put your board up on blocks of wood, it's probably the easiest way.
- Get some citrus base cleaner, spray your board, rub it down. I've heard of people using lemon juice as well, it's up to you. Don't use any solvents.
- Use a plastic/plexiglass base scraper and scrape off any excess wax on your board.
- Get some snowboarding wax and an iron. Don't use mom's iron - buy one at a garage sale or something, without teflon is better.
- Heat up the iron, start at the lowest temperature when melting wax. Don't let the wax smoke, it's slightly toxic.
- Melt the wax up and down your board in thin lines, 2 inches apart is good.
- Use the iron and spread the wax over the board surface. A trail of melted wax should last about 2 seconds after the iron passes over one spot.
- Make sure your board doesn't get too hot(it'll delaminate), check by touching the topsheet. It shouldn't be too hot to hold, watch the inserts because they heat up first.
- Spread the wax evenly around the board and slowly add more until the board stops absorbing
- This may be about 1/4 a bar or something.
- Shut off the iron and put your wax away somewhere.
- If it's the winter, toss your board into some 'clean' snow and let it sit there for 20mins. This will set the wax back to it's original state(much better) If it's not, wait a while (1hr or so) until your board cools down.
- Use the plexiglass scraper and scrape off all the wax on the top of the board, tip to tail is the best way.
- Dispose of wax shavings, if you have a lot, don't worry. You'll know how much wax to put next time.
- Use a fibertex pad or scotch-brite pad and buff the board's surface tip to tail. It should kinda shiny and smooth.
- Use a stiff-bristled nylon brush, like a clothing scrubbing brush, and brush your board firmly from tip to tail, or in a criss-cross pattern if you ride slush.
- Take a fine nylon brush and whisk away the small particles - not too important.
THE SHARPENING:
- Get a hold of a 88/90 degree edge tuner for your side edges. You CAN use a file, but be very very careful. If you don't know what sharp is, mark your edge down with a black permanent marker. Once you file this away, your edge will be sharp. Some people use their fingernails, but I like to use my fingers to check.
- Use the sharpener from tip to tail(effective edge only) in firm, overlapping strokes. MAKE SURE YOU DON'T GRIND FILINGS INTO YOUR BASE. The effective edge is where your edges start curving inwards. You may want to start farther away from this point first, so you don't catch your edges a lot when you ride.
- Get a gummy/diamond stone(small sized) and buff up your edges in the same way. Don't run your knuckles over the edge when doing this, it's not fun.
- Sharpen your base edge. I like to use my gummy stone or a round rod of ceramic. It's pretty difficult to do this yourself. You can also use a file with a sleeve, but make sure you don't file your p-tex.
- Wipe off your edges with a damp paper towel or something so you don't get bits of metal all over the place.
MISCELLANEOUS TIPS:
- It's a good idea to buy a colder temperature wax and use it beside your edges when you wax, it lasts longer with the higher wear.
- Many people like to use liquid wax on the hill. Just follow the instructions on the bottle. It helps if you have little dry spots(whitish) on your base. Also, good in between races.
- Bring your gummy/diamond stone with you on the hill. If you just
started to sharpen your edges, you probably will want to bring it in case you sharpened too much of your effective edge, ie. catching edges lots. Also, good if you get rock chips.
- The gummy/diamond stone is great to quickly touch up your edges after each day, saves a ton of work in the long term.
- Dry all your equipment after each day, it will be happier.
- Carry a spare binding strap, bolt, screw, boot lace, etc.
CONCLUSION:
That's pretty much all you need to know for a basic tuning. It's a bit challenging and time consuming at first, but once you get used to it, tuning is a fun and simple matter. It's good to grab a friend to help you. Crank up the music and tune it up!
