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Hot weather wax

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cubber
Posts: 1933 - Karma: 638
my hill is saving snow for a jam in april, when it will be 80F+ outside...
i'm scared of not being able to move, being that 40 degrees out means i'm pretty much walking down the hill.
Will any warm weather wax work out and let me slide? or is there other tricks anyone knows about?

I've heard of putting soap or oil on the bases, but that seems more for on grass/carpet
Mar 18 2012 6:06PM
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Tucks
Posts: 2120 - Karma: 161
Yep any wax with high fluoro will work well provided it is in the right temperature range. Swix is my go to and you will even see good results with Ch10 or even CH 12 combi will be your best bet...these wax don't have fluoro but they will make a good difference and really lf/hf which are there fluoro waxes aren't needed for a rail jam. I would recommend that if you don't know how to wax that you just go to a shop and ask for a high temperature wax...If it were me I wouldn't even worry about it because they will probably be salting the hell out of it and it should be hard enough so that speed will not be a huge issue
Mar 18 2012 6:16PM
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MWwarrior
Posts: 244 - Karma: 53
What I have found helps a lot is to use a cheap base cleaner (lighter fluid works well) when you start to feel your self slow down. this cleans off all the chemicals and other junk that is in the snow at the end of the season.
Mar 18 2012 6:22PM
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tomPietrowski
Posts: 7130 - Karma: 17,359
What will really help in warm conditions is a good stone grind. A reasonably deep, linear grind will help so much. Add a decent warm weather wax and you should be good.

If you have not had a stone grind in a while you will be amazed the difference it makes.
Mar 18 2012 6:26PM
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cubber
Posts: 1933 - Karma: 638
at first i thought troll, but then whoa.. can you or someone explain briefly what a stone grind is? is just it texturing the base?
I don't know what kind of salting they are going to do, because during the spring they are so stingy they barely put ANY down, and when they do its in a strip 1 foot wide, like 10 feet long, leading up to a feature.
Mar 18 2012 10:19PM
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Sklar
Posts: 8864 - Karma: 31,612
disclaimer: im not expert but i think i have a decent handle on this stuff, someone correct me if im wrong

a grind structures your base, the structure pretty much reduces friction/suction, in order to do this, they grind off some base material. removing base material will take off the top layer, including little scratches, dried out base, etc,
there are different types of structure, basically different patterns, for different snow conditions/temp
im going to go ahead and guess most shops run a pretty solid structure for all conditions, not very specialized, or something that fits the current conditions
if you go to a good shop, or race shope they could tell you a lot more/accurate version of this and help you get what you want/need
Mar 18 2012 10:32PM
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tomPietrowski
Posts: 7130 - Karma: 17,359
Yeah pretty much what the guy said above.

The skis will be ground, any gouges filled, ground again around 2-3 times on decreasingly less course belts. Then the bases will be stone ground next. The stone is dressed with a diamond to give the structure pattern. Generally for warmer wetter snow you will have quite a deep liner structure, to aid in water being passed down the base. In colder dryer conditions, a less deep cross hatch pattern might work better, as there is less suction on the base. Basically you try to get the least suction on the base, so for wet snow, the deeper the structure the better.

Shops will generally have a lot of predefined settings for the stone structure, as well as some custom ones, if the techs like to experiment. Most shops will be happy to dress the stone for you if you request a certain structure.

You will want to detune your edges again after, as they will become sharper, but detuning a sharp edge is better then trying to deburr then detune an old beat up edge.

One thing to note, if you have really beat up bases and edges, shops may not grind your skis, as they could end up damaging the very expensive machine.
Mar 18 2012 11:06PM
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cubber
Posts: 1933 - Karma: 638
my skis only have 2 weeks on them, so they're not to bad yet, i'm gonna ask my area shop what they charge, if it's outrageous i may just find the highest temp wax then... thanks for all the help good sirs! couldn't have done it without you, etc
Mar 18 2012 11:15PM
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GypsyLovin
Posts: 656 - Karma: 109
I pee all over mine...mist weird and it doesn't really work... But yet I still try
Mar 26 2012 11:24PM
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.RYAN66
Posts: 5381 - Karma: 235
cheap green toko wax that you can get for a dollar works best in heavy wet snow.

dont go spending money on wax if you are going to bash your skis on rails all day long.
Mar 27 2012 11:16AM
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rozboon
Posts: 1642 - Karma: 868
As above, a really aggressive base structure will give you the best results, but it'll chew up a lot of base material and when you go to ski the fresh next season it'll probably suck balls... so if you only have a single pair of skis, rather than a quiver, think carefully before you go and get your bases set up like that.
Mar 27 2012 7:12PM
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