How often to wax and sharpen skis? How to tell your skis need a service

Why there is no single number

Ask three people how often skis should be serviced and you will probably get three different answers. And none of them has to be making things up. Skis wear depending on how many days you ski on them, how fast and hard you ski, whether you are mostly on hard groomed pistes or in soft spring snow, and whether you run over the odd stone.

To give you an idea of how much the advice varies: one Czech sports equipment retailer recommends in its guide that active skiers wax after every second or third day on the slopes and have the skis serviced after roughly five to seven days of skiing. For recreational skiers, it says, it is enough to wax the skis before the season and a few times during it, and to have a full service done before and after the season. The American ski portal OnTheSnow advises waxing roughly every four to six days of skiing.

So treat these numbers only as a rough guide. It is more useful to learn to recognise what the skis themselves are telling you.

Wax: when and why, and what to do when the base turns white

Wax protects the base from drying out and helps the ski glide. The bare minimum is to wax the skis before the season and put a storage wax on them for the summer. If you ski several days in a row, you wax more often. You can usually tell it is time for wax or some base care from these signs:

• The base looks dry and dull, with whitish patches here and there.
• The skis run slower on the flats and seem to stick to the snow.
• You can see grooves and scratches on the base.

If nobody looks after the base for a long time, in extreme cases it can turn completely white, feel fuzzy to the touch and really slow you down as you ski. In that state a quick coat of wax is usually not enough. The base first needs to be cleaned and only then properly waxed, and that is more of a job for a ski service.

How often to sharpen ski edges: you will notice it on hard snow

You need sharp edges mainly where the snow is hard: on firm groomed pistes, on hard-packed snow or on ice. In soft snow a dull edge does not matter so much, but on hard snow it shows much more. Sharpening is therefore called for mainly when the ski loses grip on a hard or icy surface. What to look out for:

• The ski slides out sideways in a turn instead of biting into the snow.
• On hard snow your turns skid more, and turning and braking get harder.
• If you carefully run a fingernail across the edge, a sharp edge scrapes a little off the nail, while a dull one just slides over it.
• There are burrs, nicks from stones or rust on the edge.

Edges are sharpened to a chosen angle. According to the Czech ski magazine SNOW, the side edge is usually sharpened to 89 degrees for beginners and to, for example, 87 degrees for racers. Which angle suits you depends on the skis and on how you ski. We are happy to advise you.

Every sharpening removes material

As SNOW magazine points out, every service removes a thin layer of material from the skis, and this cannot be repeated forever. The edges and the base have only a limited thickness, so sharpening more often does not automatically mean better skis. Skis that are sharpened more often than necessary reach that limit sooner.

The same magazine recommends one major service plus light maintenance through the season. For most recreational skiers, in practice that looks like this:

• Before the season, a major service: base, edges and wax.
• During the season, light maintenance. Usually it is enough to touch up the side edges and wax the base, depending on how much you ski and how the skis behave.
• After the season, cleaning, drying and a storage wax.

If you only ski a few days a year, one service before the season and a storage wax after it are often enough. If you spend whole weeks in the mountains, you will need wax and edges more often.

After the season: storage wax and dry storage

At the end of winter it pays to give your skis a few minutes before you put them away. It saves you the trouble of rusty edges and a dried-out base in the autumn.

• Clean the skis and let them dry thoroughly, edges included.
• Apply a protective layer of storage wax to the base to keep it safe over the summer.
• Store them in a dry, cool place where damp cannot get to them.
• Before your first run, the storage wax has to be scraped off and the base prepared for the snow. That fits in well with the major service before the season.

Ski service in Vrchlabí: what we do and how to hand over your skis

Here at our rental shop we service skis and snowboards by hand, and the service is done by Mr. Honců personally. We offer:

• Full service: base cleaning, edge sharpening to the chosen angle, waxing and polishing.
• Edge sharpening only, including setting the angle.
• Waxing and polishing only.
• Binding adjustment.

Skis up to 130 cm and snowboards up to 120 cm, which means mostly children’s gear, have their own items in the price list.

In season, just bring your skis to our rental shop in Vrchlabí; outside the season, please give us a call first. If you are driving to Špindlerův Mlýn from inland Czechia, your route leads through Vrchlabí, so you can stop by on the way. We will agree on when you can pick the skis up when you drop them off. If you are not sure whether your skis need a full service or just wax, bring them in and we will advise you on the spot.

Ski and snowboard service: what it includes and what it costs

Arrange a service by phone or e-mail