As a kid I joined a little giant slalom race at my home hill. I spent the morning by preparing for the race. I was eager to win, but I felt like my skis just didn’t glide well. I noticed that Atomic had a ski test event going on, and I wanted to test the latest models. I took brand new skis and went testing. I noticed that the skis performed much better than my own skis (no wonder because they had been pretty much destroyed in the backcountry).

I was supposed to bring the test skis back in one hour, but I “borrowed” them for another hour more because I wanted to ski the race with those brand new Atomic skis. Finally I brought the skis back, and the dude asked me “so, how did you like these skis“? I replied “yeah, pretty good. I won the race. Thanks“.

That day I realized the meaning of ski maintenance . Keep your skis in good condition and you can take the best out of your hobby. If you want maximum performance, wax your skis regularly.

Basic waxing is pretty easy and it doesn’t take much time. Waxing decreases the friction between the ski and snow, and therefore provides better gliding. Before talking about waxing, let’s find out what is needed when waxing your skis.

If you are not a race skier, basic knowledge of waxing should be enough. If you are a race skier, then you need to develop your waxing skills much further. Anyhow, at this post we discuss about the basics of waxing, which is enough for most skiers.

Start by waxing your skis with a hard base wax in order to create a water resisting hard base. For this purpose you can use the cold weather wax from known wax makers, such as Swix, Betamix and Start. The cold weather wax is then scraped warm to the ski, after which the extra wax is brushed away. Start brushing with the copper or steel brush, and brush only from tip towards tail, not in the opposite direction! Finally by using the nylon brush you brush the ski slippery. You can test how slippery the ski is by letting the brush move on the ski. If it moves easily, brushing is done well. If it gets stuck, there is still some wax to be brushed away.

Many people are satisfied already in this phase, but if you wish to have your ski even more slippery, continue waxing with the wax designed for the current weather. After you have spread the wax on the ski, wait until it becomes cooler and harder. After that scrape the extra wax away, just like said above.

To get the best out of your hobby, wax your skis regularly. Personally I recommend waxing your skis at least once a week if you ski every weekend.

If you need ski wax, you can find many different brands in Amazon.