No wax/perfectly smooth base finishing

seems like a bad idea if the ptex is just gonna dry out anyway

i always thought it was like. the layer of wax stored in the p tex was melting the snow under you on a very fine level, so that instead of just sliding on some plastic with a bunch of friction happening, youre gliding on a thin layer of melted snow from the wax... which would be way faster

complete bull shit. waxing is used because the molecules in the base are attracted to the molecules in the snow. adding a layer of wax reduces this attraction. wax your skis

you kinda got the right idea, but it doesn't take wax to melt the snow. Just any old plastic or whatever will melt the snow and give you that water layer to glide on. The wax is hydrophobic though, like the guy above said, so it will help you glide better on that water.

i dont wanna hate on you cause you said you were a nood and im usually a nice guy but thats the stupidest fucking thing i've ever heard. having a perfectly smooth base would be terrible. the way a ski works is it melts the snow directly below it and your ski glides on the thin film of water underneath the ski. with a perfectly smooth base no air would be able to get under your ski and you would get suction to slow you down. you need those little ridges to break suction and for your skis to glide smoothly. and another thing. wax is made to be absorbed in the pores that are in your ski. ptex has many pores all over it. its kinda like your skin. wax fills in these pores and makes you go faster. depending on snow conditions and such you choose your wax. world cup ski teams dont spend over $100 for a gram of wax for nothing. that shit helps sooo much you have no idea. the first thing youre supposed to do after you get your skis stone ground is put as much warm wax you can into the bases to make them able to absorb as much wax as they can. and after a fresh stone grind your skis come back with millions and millions of micro hairs that slow you down. so these need to be cut off with a razor or scraped off after a very cold hard wax has been melted on there. there are thousands of reasons why i disagree with you more. so no wax your skis.

I could draw a diagram of the chemistry involved but I am not very good with computers so it would be futile.

Most importantly, where did you read this? I'm curious what mag is putting out this crap. Freeskier?

Haha... No need to hate... I just had read that some guy had done this to his skis. He said he loved it. It was on some other forum, and i wondered what people here thought about it.

Thanks for clearing it up.

there wasn't much hate given there..but definitely wax them.

If using no wax was a better option, these wax companies wouldn't drive such profitable businesses

on a normal day, you can have a smooth finish, but stone grinds usually only work on wet days when the snow is wet, it needs to go somewhere so the water goes in the grooves, thats why they sell rillers for when the snow is wet.  your base can be smooth, it doesnt really slow u down, just when the snow is wet and sticky.

are you thinbking of getting your bases stoneground to take out scratches and restore them to a factory finish, then thats a good thing, but you want to definitly use wax. its what gives you speed and keeps your bases fresh.