Wax My Bottom

No, I’m not talking about my rump thank you very much.  I’m talking about your board, this is a boarding blog afterall isn’t it?  Well anyways this time around I’m devoting a whole blog post to the stuff that makes your board glide atop of the snow effortlessly, almost like hovering because let me tell you, there’s nothing worse than having a board the doesn’t glide nicely down the hill.  So strap in kiddos and let’s learn a thing or two about wax!

Before board wax was even thought of people, boarders used to use candle wax on the edges and the bottom of their snowboards to make them go faster.  But with the lovely technology available to us in today’s society there are a plethora of waxes to choose from, and we determine this by what conditions you’re going to be boarding in.

A cold wax would be used for snow temperatures (not air temperatures) that are usually 10 degrees farenheit and lower and the wax is a hard wax made of paraffin and synthetic parffins which are hardening addivites and make your wax more durable and virtually impenetrable by those pesky snow crystals.

 

A midrange wax is for between 10 and 28 degrees farenheit and is used to combat moderate dry and wet friction.  Because when that sun starts belting down on the snow you’re in for one hell of a ride, and with the wax, you’ll just amp it up that much more.

Finally a warm wax would be used for anything above 28 degrees farenheit and is made of hydrophobic (yes the wax is afraid of water) additive, making your board water-repellent because anything over 28 degrees makes for a sloppy ride down the hill, what are you doing on the slopes anyways, it’s probably spring.

Those are your basic waxes and you don’t necessarily need to wax your board but it’s recommended every now and then because minor knicks and scrapes in the bottom of your board could cause it to drag down the hill and make for an unpleasant day boarding.  Well I hope that helped, you guys all keep it real.