How Often Should You Wax Your Skis?

If you want your skis to retain optimum performance while lasting longer, then you need to regularly wax them. But how often should you wax them? This is a question that comes to the mind of most people, especially, people who have just bought their new skis.

There is no absolute answer to this question. It depends upon many factors like the material of your skis, what type of skiing you do, how hard you ski, and how often you ski. But generally, it is recommended that you should wax them every 5 to 6 days.

Many people ask what happens if they don’t wax their skis. Well, if you don’t wax, the first thing you will come to notice is that your ski experience would be terrible. Secondly, your skis might not last as long as they should.

What is meant by a terrible ski experience? You see, wax is required for the skis to smoothly glide on the snow. Without the wax, you will notice more friction making your slide quality worse. With time, you will also start to notice that your skis are getting damaged due to the increased friction.

If you ski a lot, then they need to be waxed fairly often. For the record, there is no such thing as over-waxing your skis. You can either have your skis waxed from a sports shop or do it yourself. If you are getting them waxed from a sports shop, do yourself a favor and get them waxed from the guys who do waxing for competitive racers.

Waxing skis at home is not difficult. Besides, it is a more economical option and you don’t have to go to a sports shop and wait for them to do it. Waxing at home would require a few tools. All you need is an iron to melt the wax, a scraper, and a buffer to polish the wax out after it’s applied. Wax, of course, is obvious.

Taking a closer look at your skis will let you know if you need to wax or not. The most prominent sign is discoloration. If you start seeing discoloration, wax them immediately. If you see chalky, white spots, then you should have waxed your skis some time ago; wax them immediately.

As the wax fades, so does the waterproofing, thus, water will start to damage the skis. At first, you will only notice a color fade at the edges. As the wax gets drier, it will creep in from the edges towards the middle. Another way is to run your nail on the ski. If it does not slide like on a slick, waxy surface, you should wax it.