At the end of the season, it is so tempting to just leave the skis the way they are and walk away. There is a price to pay for this though: slow skis that need to be stoneground. Here are some basic wax tips to take at the end of the season that you will be grateful for come early winter. It’s a good practice to give your bases a good cleaning after skiing in dirty spring snow before storage and waxing them so when you take your equipment out in the early winter, it performs the way you want it to.
Clean Your Base With Wax
The best way do clean your bases well is to brush your skis out with a copper or steel brush, wipe off the dust, and then apply HC3 Waxremover to the entire base. Then brush through the wax remover with a copper or steel brush aggressively. Then let the bases sit for a few minutes before aggressively rubbing the bases clean with fiberlene/Base Tex or a paper towel. The friction from the force and you are doing this with will play a role in cleaning your bases, so use a lot of “elbow grease”.
Then after any remaining wax remover has completely evaporated, storage wax your skis by following the steps below.
1. Clean and copper brush your bases very well so the bases are clean. Quite often in the spring, the snow is very dirty. You want to remove any dirt you might have picked up. See above for exact steps on how to do this. Powder snow, which is what is commonly skied on in the fall is extremely sensitive to dirt. Dirty skis will be especially slow in early season snow.
3. Hot wax the bases with Base Performance Red. Red is the perfect consistency for storage waxing. A harder wax can yield air pockets and a softer wax can get “eaten up” over the summer. Make sure to use a lot of wax for maximum protection.
4. Store the skis in a place or fashion where they will not get very dirty or dusty. If they do get dirty during storage, be sure to scrape the ski bases before heating wax in (do not reheat the dirty summer storage wax!). Ideally, store the skis in a cool dry place for the offseason.
