Johnny Lupo out of Boardworks in Bellingham-- one of the best techs I've ever seen --is strongly against grinding new boards. He'll set folks up when they come in for repairs and tunes, but for brand new boards he says the benefits aren't worth spending the money and losing the base material for most riders. And that's coming from someone who would financially benefit from tuning new boards.
Johnny is a good dude, a few of my boards have been worked on up there. I brought him a board that had a wee dinged edge from shipping and he told me to ride it and fix it next season. Could easily have taken my money. I feel pretty fortunate having him up the road.
Re: The Wax and Tune Ya Goon Thread
Posted: Wed Oct 04, 2023 1:19 am
by Vanni
C.Fuzzy wrote: ↑Tue Oct 03, 2023 2:17 pm
I thought we had one of these but I can't seem to find it.
Looking for beta on base grinding from y'all. I have a brand new board that I rode twice last season. Clear base, Waxed prior to riding, took 2 runs on it and it felt slow AF. Same conditions, other boards were fine. Came back and waxed again with a better wax, took it out a 2nd time. Still felt slow AF. Same conditions, other boards were fine.
Now, I like the shape, I want to keep it...but due to how the base felt I'm on the fence between just offloading it or alternately (here comes the question) would a base grind help at all, considering it's basically brand new?
I've only ever done base grinds on boards that needed it due to wear/damage/repair. But since this thing has like 4 runs on it... it's hard for me to imagine a base grind will do much besides put me out $50 and give me the same result. I'm leaning towards doing it just to do it.
But, Anyone have insight or knowledge to my situation?
I have two different experiences with two boards.
I had a brand new Mullair that kept wax only for 1 day and half on the slopes, then became slow AF.
The base grind definitely fixed the issue, then it was able to retain wax for few days.
The second board is the Squash. The base is quite fast, but after 1 day, the base near the edges is dry.
I did a base grind, last year, but didn't help with this issue, I think this base is cheap and/or not good for snow condition I face (I had a buddy that had a Nitro with the same level sintered base, he had the same issue. In another 3d, another guy had the same issue with nitro boards also with better quality base)
My suggestion is to go ahead with the base grind, if you like the board.
What board is it?
Re: The Wax and Tune Ya Goon Thread
Posted: Wed Oct 04, 2023 7:50 am
by benjinyc
I recall two seasons ago Burton recalled their Double Dog (or Daily Driver) because the factory in china did the base grind the wrong way
also not sure what Gentemsticks deal is with recommending every new board to have a factory tune when purchased
Re: The Wax and Tune Ya Goon Thread
Posted: Wed Oct 04, 2023 8:45 am
by C.Fuzzy
Thanks for all the feedback y'all.
Since a few of you asked, it's the Ride Psychocandy (listed with Sintered, Stone Ground Base – High-end sintered 4000 Ptex base material that is more durable, harder and faster than extruded). I started out waxing with a general purpose all temp shop wax (which I do with all new boards) and then the second wax I did with a better "race" wax.
And because I wasn't having the same glide issue with my other boards which I wax and tune the same, I figure it had to be a base issue. Now the other boards I ran those days (Yes & Salomon) both had black sintered bases and the Ride has clear, and to me that's the 'clear' (heh) difference since otherwise they're all a sintered type.
To me it wasn't really that close of a comparison. The Ride had noticeably less glide and felt grabby both on fresh cord groomers and in fresh glade pow. So noticeable that after two runs each time I gave up and thought I'd just sell it.
As a few of you have indicated, Maybe it just started out with a subpar structure / it's a finishing issue from the factory. I'm leaning towards getting the base grind just to scratch my own itch with this question. Because specs wise, it's still pretty close to what I think I want for certain conditions.
Re: The Wax and Tune Ya Goon Thread
Posted: Wed Oct 04, 2023 10:14 am
by eleveneightnate
C.Fuzzy wrote: ↑Wed Oct 04, 2023 8:45 am
Thanks for all the feedback y'all.
Since a few of you asked, it's the Ride Psychocandy (listed with Sintered, Stone Ground Base – High-end sintered 4000 Ptex base material that is more durable, harder and faster than extruded). I started out waxing with a general purpose all temp shop wax (which I do with all new boards) and then the second wax I did with a better "race" wax.
And because I wasn't having the same glide issue with my other boards which I wax and tune the same, I figure it had to be a base issue. Now the other boards I ran those days (Yes & Salomon) both had black sintered bases and the Ride has clear, and to me that's the 'clear' (heh) difference since otherwise they're all a sintered type.
To me it wasn't really that close of a comparison. The Ride had noticeably less glide and felt grabby both on fresh cord groomers and in fresh glade pow. So noticeable that after two runs each time I gave up and thought I'd just sell it.
As a few of you have indicated, Maybe it just started out with a subpar structure / it's a finishing issue from the factory. I'm leaning towards getting the base grind just to scratch my own itch with this question. Because specs wise, it's still pretty close to what I think I want for certain conditions.
That does sound like something funky with the factory structure. I had a Super Pig and it was one of the fastest bases I've ever owned.
Re: The Wax and Tune Ya Goon Thread
Posted: Wed Oct 04, 2023 10:37 am
by kimchi
FWIW I owned a Warpig and didn't much care for it, but had no problems with speed in Tahoe and Mammoth.
Could be a dud, or could be that that whatever structure they set in doesn't agree with local snow conditions.
Re: The Wax and Tune Ya Goon Thread
Posted: Wed Oct 04, 2023 11:22 pm
by McK21
About some board base being not good as are meant to be, I know that factories buy the base in rolls, those rolls are not the same on the entire quality, maybe at the beginning it's l little bit worse and in the middle it's way better, there'isnt a repeating scheme, so sometimes it can be the whole roll that it's not good enough, it's kind of luck.....I know that because I know a guy that works in the ski word cup as a skiman for the Italian team and told me that a famous Racer ( maybe Miller) when he switched from a ski sponsor to another in the contract he asked for the base from the ski he used because was one of the fastest base in the world cup.
Re: The Wax and Tune Ya Goon Thread
Posted: Thu Oct 05, 2023 9:36 pm
by Bad Larry
this week's b-hole group chat pretty topical, listen to j-stone (any relation? ha) break down the tech on bases (+ a lot more good stuff)
Re: The Wax and Tune Ya Goon Thread
Posted: Thu Oct 05, 2023 9:37 pm
by Bad Larry
1:25 or so in
Re: The Wax and Tune Ya Goon Thread
Posted: Thu Oct 05, 2023 11:41 pm
by Spenser
I'm stoked he made the point about structure, and explained that it's not "pores." I've been annoying the same 20 people for 15 years about that, hah