Five Steps to Top-Notch Snowboard Maintenance
The five-step snowboard maintenance 'tune-up'
Snowboard maintenance is a 'fact of life' for every rider, and even though we know it's an essential element of the snowboarding experience, we'd much rather be boarding than maintaining! Having nice sharp edges and a waxed base will improve your turning abilities and edge-to-edge transitions, and increase your glides across flat areas. But snowboard maintenance will also increase the life of your board by making it more resistant to long-term damage.
So here is a 5-step snowboard maintenance tune-up that's designed to be as quick and painless as possible.
1. After every single ride, check your board for nicks and scratches on the running surfaces, and do the required repairs immediately. This will do more than any other snowboard maintenance chore to increase the life of your board, by preventing further damage from moisture or from delamination. Check with your local retailer for snowboard maintenance repair kits that should include everything you need for the job.
If a ding or nick in your board appears to penetrate it to the core area, it's best to take your board in to a snowboard shop for a 'base grind,' which is inexpensive but uses a special tool that you don't need to own!
2. Use a polishing stone and/or sharpening tools on the snowboard edges whenever problems develop that affect your turning abilities. If you are filing the edge of your board, make sure you hold the file flat, and clean the file with a wire brush frequently. A sharp edge makes a happy boarder!
3. Use a heat cleaning method to clean your board frequently. Scrape off old wax first, clean and then clean and dry the surfaces.
4. Regular snowboard maintenance includes waxing your board. There are two different kinds of snowboard wax -- cold and hot. Melt the wax with an iron while holding it over the board, and smooth it over the iron. Scrape the excess off with a plastic scraper.
5. Get geared up to go riding again!