# Board is sticky when it shouldn't be..



## makenewusername (Jan 25, 2012)

Sorry if this seems cluttered, I didn't really take the time to organize it all and make it neat, so just deal with it 

Okay guys.. I live in Minnesota and love to snowboard on the local hill.. It's small compared to a mountain but bear with me.......

A bit about my style of snowboarding: I snowboard in park only, (just for reference i'm male and 17 years old- weigh 130 pounds.. 5'6" tall), I ride a forum scallywag board (2011).

Okay.. I think that covers the basic information. Now onto my problem!


Alright, I know you guys are gonna say it's "just" the slush but I'm seriously pissed right now.. It's 40-45 degrees out here still (just cooling down to start winter) and i'm RIDING ON ARTIFICIAL snow currently.

Okay, so regardless, here is the problem: I'm getting stuck on the snow a ridiculous amount. More than I should be Every time I get off the rope tow I start sticking to the snow like crazy on the flat at the top.. It's so bad that all of the other snowboarders glide right past me. 

I doubt it's the wax.. Last night I applied a coat of all temp wax on my board and when I got to the hill today it stuck badly. I couldn't go as fast as the others and it felt like i was on sandpaper. The other people around me just boarded right past me while i had to jump my board (from nose to tail) to move anywhere.
Even when downhill I couldn't get enough speed for any features. it was super bad.. So mid afternoon I asked the guy in the shop for his input and had him put some warm weather wax on thinking that would solve the problem. When I came back he said he removed loads of dirt from my base so that made me feel better. I thought the problem would be resolved but when I got back on the slopes, IT WAS STILL STICKING THE SAME AMOUNT!
It absolutely ruined my day on the hill.


Okay here is how I wax my board:
I use an all purpose wax because that's the only one I own 
I have two sawhorses to hold my board on. It works alright, gets the job done.
1. I make sure my board is room temperature
2. Make sure iron isn't smoking when I apply wax on ( I use an old household iron)
3. Apply a smooth layer onto the board and wait for a half an hour before I scrape
4. I scrape in a back and fourth motion (pushing and pulling) making sure not to gouge my board
5. YES, I scrape off all of the wax and then buff it..
6. I buff using steel wool/scotchbrite pad in a crosshatch manner.
7. I clean up the mess I made scraping 



Some other information:
- Normally with the all temp wax my board works just fine in cold/icy conditions (any time that the snow is less than 25 degrees.)
- I am absolutely TICKED off that we're going to get 3-4 inches of snow over the weekend and my board won't be ready.. I'm willing to go to some severe extents to get it to work
- I snowboard for around 5 hours per day every day (the season just started one week ago though- i've gotten in a good 30 hours of boarding so far)


Please help me figure out what's going on!


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## ThunderChunky (Oct 1, 2011)

Does the base have a black smudge color?


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## makenewusername (Jan 25, 2012)

No the base does not have a black smudge color to it. What would that mean if it did? Just like pollutants. And if so how much might that slow my board down?


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## poutanen (Dec 22, 2011)

None of that really makes sense... I was going to say it was the snow at first but if everyone's gliding by you something's wrong.

When I scrape I tend to only scrape in one direction. And when you buff, you don't need to go crazy on it with steel wool, just a bathroom pad run from tip to tail works best, and a nylon brush if you've got it.

Again though, if they did a wax job for you on the hill and you're still "sticking" I have no idea what's going on. Were you riding through a puddle?!? :icon_scratch:


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## wrathfuldeity (Oct 5, 2007)

perhaps you should base clean by stripping all the wax off, let it dry and then re-wax with warm temp wax


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## linvillegorge (Jul 6, 2009)

Those slushy mashed potatoes can be pretty damn sticky. Here in CO in those conditions, we just find steeper terrain.


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## lonerider (Apr 10, 2009)

Have you ever gotten a base grind on your board? A smoothf/fine structure base is going to suction onto warm/wet snow typically people have a medium structure in their base, but maybe the manufacturer or the previous owner changed the base structure (actually even my Never Summer stuck to spring snow a lot more than I thought it should - and then I gave it a base grind).

Here is a link to learn more:
Base Structure Tips for ski and snowboard


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## makenewusername (Jan 25, 2012)

lonerider said:


> Have you ever gotten a base grind on your board? A smoothf/fine structure base is going to suction onto warm/wet snow typically people have a medium structure in their base, but maybe the manufacturer or the previous owner changed the base structure (actually even my Never Summer stuck to spring snow a lot more than I thought it should - and then I gave it a base grind).
> 
> Here is a link to learn more:
> Base Structure Tips for ski and snowboard





Hmm maybe that would be a good idea. Thanks for the tip, i'll give it a shot.


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## ShredLife (Feb 6, 2010)

base grind isn't a bad idea - but when i ride slush/spring conditions i go faster if i strip absolutely as much wax from the base as possible and ride it bare. get a base grind and don't wax it.


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## AWNOW (Sep 12, 2009)

It's your wax.

Use warm wax, not all weather wax.


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## poutanen (Dec 22, 2011)

lonerider said:


> Here is a link to learn more:
> Base Structure Tips for ski and snowboard


Good link! :bowdown: I learned something for sure!


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## makenewusername (Jan 25, 2012)

Thanks for the replies guys. My board is only a year old but i think i figured out why it has no base anymore. I just got into waxing my own board and i realized i was scraping off some colored wax (the base of my board) that's bad right?


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## snowklinger (Aug 30, 2011)

This happened to my buddy when someone gave him a random bar of wax that we discovered getting off the lift turned out to be cross country wax.:yahoo:


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## AWNOW (Sep 12, 2009)

snowklinger said:


> This happened to my buddy when someone gave him a random bar of wax that we discovered getting off the lift turned out to be cross country wax.:yahoo:


ahaha that is awesome. Wonder if the guy that gave him the wrong wax did it on purpose


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## snowklinger (Aug 30, 2011)

AWNOW said:


> ahaha that is awesome. Wonder if the guy that gave him the wrong wax did it on purpose


That would be funny but the culprit I think is just an older lady roommie and she is pretty chill. Letting us use her truck/camper for a little trip or 2 if we have to go search for snow this year.


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## triumph.man (Feb 3, 2012)

how is the snow condition? if the snow is slush and translucent, your are pretty much not riding in any snow, and will cause that sticky effect.


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