I work in a ski shop as a tech. I see a lot of skis all winter and summer (at hood shop). In the freeride world, quite often, wax and care are an afterthought. Like, someone comes up short 4 or 5 times before they start thinking they should put down a layer. Just as a public service anouncement being new to the site thought I would share some info and tips. If you like, great. If you don't care that's cool as well.
First thing to understand about a ski base is that it has pores that open and shut with heat. Like a car tire left in the sun without amorall, it will dry up (god knows we have all seen an old ski that is all white on the bottom where it should be black) and start to actually peal up little fine hairs. This is not good as it slows you down and deteriates the ski in a hury. So, think of wax kinda like sunblock. It's as much about protection as it is about performance. Keeping your base protected will keep the ski running fast and last longer. The wax is a shield to keep dirt and smudge out of the pores while keeping the p-tex resilient.
With race customers, this time of year is about filling those pores with wax, building up a good conditioned base. I recomend following the racers lead on this front. Pull out that iron and some wax. If you already take care of your skis well, you would have to scrape off the layer of storage wax you put on after you called it a season.
Take a warm weather wax and hot scrape it a couple times to clean out the pores. Then take a couple days to cycle your skis from warm weather waxes to cold weather waxes with cool time between (ohhh, and even though you de-tuned your edges, might want to clean them up a bit before you start. If you don't want to sharpen them, then get a $0.79 green scotch pad from hardware store and use that to clean them. Be carefull with that with your hands, edges will cut your fingers if you grind thru the pad)
Hot Scrape-- Best way to clean your bases. Iron in a warm weather soft wax, scrape as soon as you set the iron down. The heat will open pores of ski up and suck out dirt and grime. You scrape right away as the dirt and grime will settle back in if you allow to cool. I hot scrape with Swix ch 10, or an SVST base condition clean wax. Use anything designed for snow temps above 32 F. This is not a step that you need to worry about using expensive wax, just use entry level stuff as you are just cleaning the base, not waxing for conditions.
Waxing -- Use wax iron to drip wax on to the base from tip to tip in little drops. Iron drops in and create even crust on your skis of the wax. Let cool to at least room temp (longer is better, with race skis, we plan on at least 4 hours of cool time for best absorbtion). Scrape and brush to nice finish (PS. wax it's self is slow, it's what gets in the pores that is fast. So don't neglect the scrape and brush if you want speed)
Cycling -- Start with warm weather wax. Put a layer on of the warm stuff, let it cool, scrape and brush. Repeat with next colder weather wax until you are at the coldest weather wax you have as the last cycle. This is really important to riders in areas that ski in cold temps. When you are cycling, you are building up the wax in the base first off, but you are also conditioning the ski to accept the harder cold weather waxes. I am a Swix brand wax believer, so it's what I use. Cycling for me on a set of race skis would be Swix 10, then 8, then 6, and finally 4.
This was just a quick info share.... If you want more in depth info, send me a message and I will go deeper on it. I am a nut about wax, had three daughters that raced where we would kill for a tenth of a second. Park and Freeride isn't as demanding except in comps. At x-games, trust there is a swix tent (my buddy ran the tent) and those guys are getting same as world cup ski racer.
Shep
