The Wax and Tune Ya Goon Thread

[scrub]

Today was my first time Waxing with Hertel, it is so much easier to scrape than the Uncle Stanky's I have been using but it doesn't smell as good.

[kimchi]

@jclinares This Ski MD tool was great pick up for me.

https://www.tognar.com/skimd-pro-glide-waxing-system/

Use whatever wax you got on hand, rub this tool onto base to create friction and melt / spread wax. Basically souped out corking. Takes some elbow grease but I can have a 163-ish board done in about 5 min.

I use it for travel, emergencies dry bases I forgot to wax, and just maintenance overlay to extend time between iron applications. In non-spring conditions I can get about a day out of it, or I can extend the time between hot ironing-- usually 2 days, have gotten up to 5-6 and could probably go longer if I just did this every day. I'm too lazy to do full temp-specific joy hot wax applications, but I'll do a quick 5 min warm/cold wax overlay if I think I need some help over Hot Sauce based on conditions in the parking lot.

[pow_hnd]

Today was my first time Waxing with Hertel, it is so much easier to scrape than the Uncle Stanky's I have been using but it doesn't smell as good.

Hertel is the bomb. Best wax I’ve ever used. I even inquired about buying the brand a few years ago.

Didn’t work out, but I have stocked up in case the brand goes away.

[Spenser]

@jclinares This Ski MD tool was great pick up for me.

https://www.tognar.com/skimd-pro-glide-waxing-system/

Use whatever wax you got on hand, rub this tool onto base to create friction and melt / spread wax. Basically souped out corking. Takes some elbow grease but I can have a 163-ish board done in about 5 min.

I use it for travel, emergencies dry bases I forgot to wax, and just maintenance overlay to extend time between iron applications. In non-spring conditions I can get about a day out of it, or I can extend the time between hot ironing-- usually 2 days, have gotten up to 5-6 and could probably go longer if I just did this every day. I'm too lazy to do full temp-specific joy hot wax applications, but I'll do a quick 5 min warm/cold wax overlay if I think I need some help over Hot Sauce based on conditions in the parking lot.

Sweet relief - this is the product I hadn't been able to remember for a few years!

[ad1105]

The MD is rad; I’m usually on top of my wax routine but it’s definitely the best ‘quick’ solution that I’ve tried, especially when I using FC739. Still bummed that someone stole mine at a demo day a couple years ago. Might re-up.

[SJF_NH]

The guy in the video is Mike DeSantis, he's a good dude in Framingham MA (Ski MD) and does incredible tunes. I forget who he was with (Volkl?), but he used to travel around with their world cup team as their tech/tune guy, so he's like an artist when it comes to base structure, tunes, edge shaping. He used to put this structure on my boards that he called "Striped Bass", which was fast as fuck.

At one time some of the Olympic team people for both snowboards (especially the hard-boot guys) and skis used to Fedex their gear to him to get them perfect. I've been doing my own tunes for years now, but when I used to give boards to Mike regularly, he's the one that convinced me (and showed me firsthand), that many if not most of the snowboard bases brand new come out of the factory fucked up, the tolerances are just not stringent enough. I'm not sure if he's even still doing snowboard tunes anymore, he often complained that because his equipment and the grinding stones are so expensive, he could do 5 pairs of skis for every board he did, just because there's a lot more variability across a snowboard base. But whenever he gave me a board back from grinding etc, it was like night and day, riding a totally different deck. Which turned me into a nitpicker when it comes to level bases and polished edges.

[Jean77]

The guy in the video is Mike DeSantis, he's a good dude in Framingham MA (Ski MD) and does incredible tunes. I forget who he was with (Volkl?), but he used to travel around with their world cup team as their tech/tune guy, so he's like an artist when it comes to base structure, tunes, edge shaping. He used to put this structure on my boards that he called "Striped Bass", which was fast as fuck.

At one time some of the Olympic team people for both snowboards (especially the hard-boot guys) and skis used to Fedex their gear to him to get them perfect. I've been doing my own tunes for years now, but when I used to give boards to Mike regularly, he's the one that convinced me (and showed me firsthand), that many if not most of the snowboard bases brand new come out of the factory fucked up, the tolerances are just not stringent enough. I'm not sure if he's even still doing snowboard tunes anymore, he often complained that because his equipment and the grinding stones are so expensive, he could do 5 pairs of skis for every board he did, just because there's a lot more variability across a snowboard base. But whenever he gave me a board back from grinding etc, it was like night and day, riding a totally different deck. Which turned me into a nitpicker when it comes to level bases and polished edges.

Capita bases do come 100% well done out the factory! Their bases are on another level.
Mervin bases on the other hand, you need to tune those after you buy them. Wich is a shame given the price you pay for a Mervin board

[SJF_NH]

Capita bases do come 100% well done out the factory! Their bases are on another level.
Mervin bases on the other hand, you need to tune those after you buy them. Wich is a shame given the price you pay for a Mervin board

Mike always had a hard-on for Burton bases, he said they were typically abysmal.

[kimchi]

The guy in the video is Mike DeSantis, he's a good dude in Framingham MA (Ski MD) and does incredible tunes. I forget who he was with (Volkl?), but he used to travel around with their world cup team as their tech/tune guy, so he's like an artist when it comes to base structure, tunes, edge shaping. He used to put this structure on my boards that he called "Striped Bass", which was fast as fuck.

At one time some of the Olympic team people for both snowboards (especially the hard-boot guys) and skis used to Fedex their gear to him to get them perfect. I've been doing my own tunes for years now, but when I used to give boards to Mike regularly, he's the one that convinced me (and showed me firsthand), that many if not most of the snowboard bases brand new come out of the factory fucked up, the tolerances are just not stringent enough. I'm not sure if he's even still doing snowboard tunes anymore, he often complained that because his equipment and the grinding stones are so expensive, he could do 5 pairs of skis for every board he did, just because there's a lot more variability across a snowboard base. But whenever he gave me a board back from grinding etc, it was like night and day, riding a totally different deck. Which turned me into a nitpicker when it comes to level bases and polished edges.

Capita bases do come 100% well done out the factory! Their bases are on another level.
Mervin bases on the other hand, you need to tune those after you buy them. Wich is a shame given the price you pay for a Mervin board

Maybe I got a lemon or their tunes aren't optimized for Sierra snowpack, but my Aeronaut base is sloooooow. Not competent enough to assess the tune versus base material, but WFO base on a B Free Thinker accelerated noticeably better with identical iron and brushing routines. Slow enough that I considered setting in new structure after 1-2 days on snow.

They updated the base material this year, curious if it makes a different.

[pow_hnd]

Honestly I think a base is a as good a a you treat it. Learning the proper routine and knowing how to condition a base when the deck is new goes a hell of a long ways in how it rides for life.

It’s not rocket science, but there are tools that separate “maintenance” from “performance”.

When I worked at a shop, the owners ( skiers, but our snowboard shop was a standalone separate entity) sent me to the Wintersteiger tune clinic 3 different times and it was taught by World Cup tuners and it was a 3 day course.

The biggest thing you can do for a snowboard when it’s brand new is to use conditioning wax right out of the gate, and spend an afternoon going over the deck like 4-5 times. With each time being a solid 15 minutes on the iron, at the right temp. Then if you wax your deck every time you ride it for the first 10 days, it will really set your deck up for its lifespan.

Other things I was taught.

1. Never ever use base cleaner unless it is absolutely necessary, a wet towel, followed by a warm scrape with wax will generally 95% of the time get your base fully clean.

2. You need to own a brass brush, a nylon brush and a horsehair.

3. Corking, is not really that beneficial for everyday riding, when one puts on some super hard wax for icy conditions (i.e World Cup race courses ) is when it’s most beneficial to cork. If you’re using an all temp wax a fiber-tex pad is worlds more valuable and useful. Basically the guy said corking is something that is done to literally just make you a few 10ths of a second faster than another competitor hopefully. He said people love to see that glossy/shiny finish you get from a cork, but it’s generally not doing anything for you and he stressed for his personal skis he never did it.

This is the routine I was taught

If your base is not dirty and doesn’t warrant a warm scrape

Brass brush - wipe with cloth/paper towel - wax with the iron at the lowest possible temp to melt your wax with ease, do it for a solid 10 minutes, was taught you should do it long enough over your whole board that when you put your hand underneath and touch your top sheet it should be warm, he super stressed that just doing the 2–3 minute ironing to get the wax evenly spread is not really enough to really be getting the wax into all those small micro crevices - let it cool completely - use a sharpener to sharpen your scraper every time you wax, as fresh sharp edge is worlds better and takes less effort - scrape - wipe with cloth/paper towel - nylon brush aggressively - fiber-tex - horse hair brush moderately

Obviously waxing/tuning is as much of an art as it is a science, and different people do it with different variations and/or tools. So another World Cup person could do things quite differently, but in the end get the same result.

The only thing I can say is that I have always been told consistently with almost no variation from big time tuners I’ve chatted with, is that if you’re serious about speed is that conditioning wax when it’s new and waxing it every single day your first 10 or so days on snow is key to setting up your base for its life span.