The topic of waxing your snowboard is somewhat of a religion thing, some riders feel it’s a must while others don’t really care. You may have heard riders say you can ride without wax and that this won’t hurt your board over time.
Can you ride a snowboard without waxing it? If so, how long? How will this affect you board?
Depending on your snowboard base and the snow conditions, riding an unwaxed snowboard will slow it down especially on flats. It can also cause the base to suffer abrasion and dry out over time, and possibly crack. Waxing your snowboard at least once a season helps keep it in good condition.
Also, riding a freshly waxed board is a great feeling!
Will riding an unwaxed snowboard affect your riding?
If you don’t wax your board for a while, white spots will eventually appear on the base, which can make your snowboard a bit slower. An unwaxed base looks dry, a bit white and frosty.
Although waxing can help make you go faster, you may not notice the difference – unless you’re a professional snowboarder looking to maximize speed for a boardercross or freestyle run.
That said, some proficient riders do notice they get a smoother ride with a waxed board – including better glide, smoother turn initiation, and higher acceleration after turns. To these riders, the board feels somewhat smoother and faster after waxing vs not waxing after 4 or 5 riding sessions.
More advanced riders sometimes will feel that one side of their board base is getting stickier while riding. After checking, they often find that part of the base is indeed white, so they simply rewax it to fix the problem.
If you’re carving hard with your board at a 30º angle with the snow on the other hand, the lack of wax will likely go largely unnoticed.
Where you will notice the presence (of lack) of wax the most is when riding on long flats. You will more easily get stuck on flats with an unwaxed board and will need to work harder (or even unstrap) to get through them.
This is particularly true when riding in “mashed potato” slush e.g. in the spring. While a waxed board will give you a nice day of riding, if you don’t rewax at night, the next day your board will likely be super sticky in flatter areas (like riding on suction cups). This is the primary situation where experienced riders think about waxing their snowboard.
Another point to note is that a board with an unwaxed extruded base will run much faster than one with an unwaxed sintered base.
Can failing to wax damage your snowboard?
You may be afraid that the white spots that appear on an unwaxed base will do harm to the board. While you might go slightly slower and hit an occasional sticky spot, not waxing the board for a few days will typically not damage it.
Riders often go for weeks without waxing with no issues other than the board being a bit slower -although it will still slide down the hill just fine.
That said, over prolonged periods of time (e.g. months), the absence of wax may lead to greater base abrasion. This is especially true for sintered bases.
Most beginner snowboards, and some park boards, have extruded bases, which are stronger and require less waxing compared to costlier sintered bases. A sintered base may suffer from lack of wax over time, whereas most extruded bases won’t.
While both extruded and sintered bases are made using polyethylene pellets, in an extruded base the pellets are melted together during the manufacturing process, while in a sintered base, they are crushed together though pressing.
Pressing creates a more porous surface which requires more waxing as it absorbs more wax. In an extruded base, the melted pellets fill all the space, so the surface is naturally smoother even without wax.
As a result, waxing an extruded base won’t make as much difference to your riding compared to a sintered base. An extruded base will not hold much wax anyway due to the way it’s made.
A sintered base is designed to hold wax and will run significantly better when waxed. Also, a dry sintered base is more likely to get damaged from friction as it will make it harder for it to retain wax and surface it, potentially resulting in cracks.
Also, in an unwaxed sintered base, the water will more easily penetrate the porous material and damage it in the long run.
Note that some riders believe wax will protect their board against rocks, but it’s certainly not the case. Soft wax will not prevent the hard base from being scratched or dinged.
Do new boards come waxed?
While all boards ship factory waxed, some are better waxed than others. Generally, factory wax can last 2 days in good below zero snow conditions.
While a new board with an extruded base does not need waxing, new sintered base boards typically need waxing after 3 to 5 sessions.
Snowboards with good factory wax include Burtons – these can last you up to 2 weeks, Yes and K2 (typically 1 week with NotWax added). New Capita snowboards often need a lot more waxing sooner.
Some riders go a full week on factory wax but towards the end feel like they’re riding in mud and catch edges more often.
Depending on the new board, it can be a good idea to redo the wax using a base wax coat and subsequent layers. Adding more wax to a new board is never going to do harm to it.
How often should you wax your board?
How often you need to wax your board depends on how much your ride and the snow conditions. Many riders wax their board after 2 or 3 4-hour riding sessions. In natural powder, you can often ride for 5 days without rewaxing. On wet snow however, you may need to rewax every 2 days.
On man-made snow, on the other hand, a good rule of thumb 3 days (or less for ice pack) as this kind of snow is more abrasive and strips wax off your base faster than real snow.
Generally speaking, you should probably consider rewaxing your board when the base starts to look white and hairy and going across the flats requires more effort.
Some riders choose to only do a full rewax (with scraping) at the start of the season and perhaps one more time during the season, with quick wax retouches in between, which improves the board speed.
Hertel Hot Sauce wax is often recommended for any temperature and often lasts for 5 sessions. If you can’t rewax your board for any reason, you can use NotWAX for a quick slap on when your base gets sticky, although it won’t last very long.
Riding a snowboard that has been stored unwaxed
It’s usually recommended to coat your board edges with wax before storing it away after the season to protect it from moisture and help prevent rust.
That said, if your board has been stowed away (indoor) without wax for a long time (e.g. several years), all it will take before you start using it again is a good tune up.
Final thoughts
If you’ve spent hundreds of dollars on a decent snowboard, you might as well spend a bit of time to wax it once in a while to get optimal performance out of the board. One might compare this to changing the oil on a great car.
Many riders also enjoy waxing their board, like a ritual they do on the hotel or before going on a snowboard trip.
While the need for regular waxing may sometimes be subject to debate (except perhaps for a sintered base), sharpening dull edges is highly recommended after a few icy, hard pack, or rocky sessions.
If on the other hand, your edges are sharp, simple waxing can beneficially replace a costly base grind and edge sharpening job.