When To Wax Your Snowboard; Keep Your Board Tuned

Knowing when to wax your snowboard can be a difficult task. I used to struggle with knowing when to wax and now I go by how many times I’ve snowboarded on that particular snowboard.

For example, my Burton Custom X needs to be waxed every 10 shred sessions (more or less). On the flip side, My GNU Riders Choice will go without wax for 15-20 shred sessions. (I probably should wax that board more)

A good rule of thumb for when to wax a snowboard is every 15 times you go out, and you’ll always want to wax/sharpen for the start of the season.

For a snowboard with a Sintered base you’ll want to wax more often.

Wax Your Snowboard; Why Are Snowboards Different?

Snowboards can be finicky because they have a different base construction. Generally speaking, there are two different types of snowboard bases and they both have their strengths and weaknesses. The first kind we’ll talk about are extruded bases, and the second type will be sintered bases.

Extruded Snowboard Bases:

An extruded snowboard base is usually cheaper, and they’re made from polyethylene pellets. They’re melted together and pressed into a sheet. Because of how the sheet is formed, these snowboards will hold wax longer.

As a general rule of thumb, these are the snowboards that run cheaper or are made for different types of shredding.

In my experience, they’re more associated with beginner snowboards, but that’s been my experience I can’t state that for a fact.

Sintered Snowboard Bases:

Sintered bases are what my Burton Custom X has, and during the peak of my riding on it. I’d wax it every 5 times I went riding. It seemed like the board couldn’t hold a wax.

Sintered bases are made from the same materials as the extruded bases. However, instead of using high heat to melt the beads, they are forced together under high pressure. This causes the board to be less smooth and needing more wax.

These are the snowboards that accelerate faster and have a higher top speed.

However you pay the price when you have to wax your snowboard constantly.

Let me know what you think of my latest post, did I get anything wrong? Let me know in the comments.