When you are looking for a ski and snowboard shop to get yourself kitted up for the season, you cannot do better than go online and find the equipment you are looking for at your own leisure. Any online ski shop can sell you skis, but not every store will provide you with information on how to tend for your skis and snowboards, how to get the best from them in terms of performance and life and offer you the marvelous choice that an online store can offer.
When you find a ski shop online then you will certainly expect to get, and mostly do get, a good selection of skis from you which you can choose the set that suits you best – but you will also expect more. Most people expect more from a website than from a mall snowboard shop in terms of choice of makes and models of skis and snowboards, and also more information on how to get the best performance from them.
Take ski waxing: do you know that you don’t need any special ski waxing iron, and that an old electric iron will do? Mind, once you use it for waxing skis and snowboards it won’t much use for clothes again, but this is just to let you know that you can use any old iron that has been scrapped in favor of a new one, and also that you can buy the cheapest electric iron you can find for waxing snowboards and skis.
You can use any hot wax or a fluorinated PTFE wax that melts at a specific temperature. Your plastic scraper (must be plastic) should be wider than the snowboard or ski width, and you will also need a brush – a nylon, brass or horsehair brush is fine, used to give some structure to the waxing.
Iron the wax onto the base of the ski or snowboard – it’s easier if you clamp it with a G-clamp or something similar. Let it harden and then scrape the excess wax off. Buff up the hardened wax to structure it – that’s what the brush is for – it should have fine scores that reduces the suction of the surface with the snow, and helps your skis & snowboards run faster on wetter snow.
Make sure you don’t overheat the wax or let it burn, and iron with short strokes – just enough to melt the wax onto the surface of the ski or snowboard. Let it cool and harden before applying another layer, and if you are using PTFE wax, use that as the final layer. It has a very low coefficient of friction and will give you significantly more speed.
Without waxing, the friction between your snowboard and skis will be higher than with it, and so you will move slower. Sure, expertise will gain a few extra MPH but that doesn’t help when you are against people of similar ability. You can get that extra inch or even centimeter that makes you the fastest though attention to detail, and the way you wax your skis is just of these details that make the difference.
That should be one of the advantages of an online ski shop or snowboard shop: it should offer online guidance to those that visit the website regularly, and the store could even offer a registration form to receive regular emails offering this and similar forms of guidance on how to get the best performance from your skis or snowboard.
By doing this, an online ski and snowboard shop can get a reputation for offering excellent advice, particularly if that is professional advice from skiers and snowboarders that have been there, done it and have the T-shirt to prove it. In other words, hardened professionals whose advice must be taken if you are to progress in your chosen sport or pastime.
So, if you are looking for an outlet for skis and snowboards, check out what is available online. You should particularly do so if you intend being good at what you do and perhaps even want to be competitive. There is a world of difference between skiing and snowboarding, and if you intend to participate competitively, most shopping malls cannot help you with advice – but if you go online looking for a good dedicated ski shop or snowboard shop then you are liable to find, not only a fabulous choice of equipment and accessories, but also all the advice, hints and tips needed for you to excel at this fabulous sport and pastime.
The reason why you should use an online ski and snowboard shop should be clear: not only should you have a larger choice of skis and snowboards from which to choose, but you should also be provided with good information from a ski shop about how to choose and use your skis and snowboard to get the best performance from them.