Last updated: January 11, 2024
How you store your skis when the season ends makes all the difference in how well they perform next year, and how long they last in general. Putting storage wax on your skis before storing them for the summer is critical, and it’s a simple process that can be done at home in just a few minutes if you have a basic wax station.
The goal of storage wax is to limit contact between your skis’ bases and oxygen. Polyethylene—what your bases are made of—is susceptible to oxidation over long periods of oxygen exposure. And so while one summer without storage wax isn’t going to ruin your skis, it will start a slow process of base-degradation. If you were to look closely at a pair of improperly stored skis, you would see what look like tiny hairs as the polyethylene starts to breakdown or “peel,” and the telltale chalky appearance of dried-out bases. If this process is too far along, your skis will need a fresh base grind before ever fully accepting wax again.
While the skis below are suffering from far more issues than a little oxidation, they are a good, albeit exaggerated, example of the chalky appearance of dried-out bases:
In the name of preventing any pair of skis from ever looking this neglected, here are our steps to storage waxing skis:
To make sure you don’t start next season with an unexpected and ill-timed pre-release, cover your DIN indicators with pieces of tape reminding yourself to turn them back up to their original settings.
Next, you’ll want to remove as much old wax as possible by gently scraping your skis using a plastic scraper. This gets rid of any unwanted wax build-up, especially on the tip and tail of your skis, while smoothing down hairs that may have developed on your bases from contact with rough late-season snow. Then, use a nylon brush to pull any leftover wax out of the structure of your skis. Make a few passes tip-to-tail to make sure you get as much of the old wax out as you can.
Using a clean waxing iron, drip the wax you’ve selected onto the bases. You’ll want to make sure that you double check the recommended iron-temperature for your wax, and set your iron accordingly. Since your bases will absorb quite a bit of the wax over the course of the summer, don’t be afraid to be liberal with the application.
Once you’ve dripped on your wax, you’ll use your iron to make 3-4 slow passes from tip-to-tail, melting the wax as evenly as possible. Keep the iron moving at all times—moving too fast prevents even distribution of the wax and limits absorption, while moving too slowly can burn your bases. A good indicator for the right iron speed is to keep a 3-4 inch trail of wet wax behind your iron.
After ironing, take a step back to let the wax cool and fully solidify, while making sure that you covered the entirety of both bases.
If you don’t have access to ski wax and an iron, don’t let that keep you from properly prepping your skis for summer storage. Bring them to a reputable tune shop—having your skis storage waxed is a quick and inexpensive process. And remember, if you’re in Park City, UT, bring your skis to Rennstall to make sure that they get the proper treatment.
Nate Tomlinson, Senior Content Writer
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