Oct. 26, 2011 - Issue #836: Winter Guide 2011
Making sure your gear is ready
Caring for your equipment
780.483.2005
One of the few, merciful perks of the extended winter season we trudge through every year is that the ski and snowboard calendar is a long and powdery one. Factor our own local hills in with Edmonton's proximity to the Rockies and the opportunities to chop up fresh powder are as plentiful as goatees at a jazz convention. With that in mind, a lot of people own their own gear, even if they aren't competitive racers. But just as many don't take good care of that gear. Joel Tiedemann, senior sales associate at Pacesetter Ski Shop—an Edmonton institution since 1973—notes that, aside from the racing community, those who own rarely take the time to properly care for their equipment.
"I would say probably 80 percent of people don't," he says, noting that proper care for your personal equipment should begin after your last run of the prior season with proper storage. Aside from simply finding a nice dry place to stash your skis or board, applying a coat of storage wax—a layer of wax put on the skis that's left thick rather than being treated—prevents the base from drying out. Before you take to the hills after the snow starts to fall, Tiedemann also notes the importance of a general tuning before hitting the slopes: a cleaner to strip any old wax, a new coat and treatment, a sharpening and polishing.
Proper storage is the essential rule of thumb here: during the actual season, how you stash your skis between weekend trips to the mountains is just as important as the offseason treatment. Making sure your equipment is dry before it gets stored after days on the hill—Tiedemann recommends toweling it down, to ensure that any wetness doesn't linger—can go far toward ensuring your equipment maintains pristine performance for plenty of seasons to come.
Sure, you can have any of this done on an actual ski hill rather than go to a shop. But waiting until you're actually out there wastes valuable time you could otherwise be using for skiing.
"For what it costs, it's not that expensive," Tiedemann says. "If you do it a couple times a season, your skis are going to last longer, [and] work better."
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