SUMMER STORAGE

SUMMER STORAGE

Just because the winter is over, it doesn't mean you can leave the skis or snowboard in the corner of the garage, or tucked away in their travel bags.

If your equipment is not prepared for storage, and then stored correctly, you are running the risk of reducing the useful life of your equipment, and creating extra work before you depart for your next trip.

This guide shows you how to prepare your skis or snowboard for summer storage, and then some handy storage tips.



PREPARING FOR STORAGE

PREPARING FOR STORAGE

Assuming you have waxed and structured your equipment as shown in our guides, or are planning to do so before you next travel, we need to protect the bases from heat and damp, and make sure those edges don't rust. The best way to do this is to liberally coat the bases and edges with wax.

Use a quality ski wax to do this. If you use the wax you intend to ski on next season, this will actually give your equipment an extra layer of waxing, making for better performance, as well as protecting throughout the summer. If in doubt, use a good universal wax such as Holmenkol World Cup Universal Wax.


To wax for summer storage, set your iron at the indicated temperature on the wax packaging. Then apply liberal drops of wax to the base and work over the ski as if you were waxing as normal (i.e. take the time to allow the wax to penetrate the base still) but use more wax than you normally would, to create a thicker protective layer. Allow the wax to pour over the edges as this will prevent them rusting.

When completed, allow to fully cool (At least an hour) and then finally store correctly. We offer some tips below on storage.


NOTE! BEFORE YOU HIT THE SLOPES

To ready your equipment for your trip, simply take a Perspex scraper, and scrape the excess wax off the base as much as possible. Use the little notch in the scraper to scrape the wax off the edges, otherwise they will not grip! Then take a nylon brush and brush any remaining wax out of the bases working from tip to tail. You are now ready to hit the slopes!



STORING SAFELY

STORING SAFELY

Storing your snowboard or skis correctly when not in use not only makes the best of any money you have invested in tuning your skis or board, but also prolongs the life of your winter sports equipment. Two key things that snow sports equipment do not need while resting are heat variances and/or damp.

All too often equipment will arrive at our workshop with rusty edges, or whitened bases. It is so easy to come back from a holiday, put the skis in the cupboard still in their bag, and switch the kettle on. And then 12 months later pull the skis out before your next trip and find a few 'issues'! We would be telling fibs if we denied doing this ourselves once. But with the few tips below (An addition to the storage waxing shown above) you should be able to avoid this, and prolong the life of your equipment (And reduce pre-holiday stress!)

Keeping Skis Together?

Skis are nice and easy to carry when clipped together base-to-base by their brake arms, more so when strapped together with Velcro. However, skis have a natural shape to their base, they are not intended to be dead flat, especially in the case of modern carvers. If skis are kept together by tight Velcro strap, they can lose this shape. So if you are storing this way, just make sure that you put your Velcro strap (and ideally you need two for this) at the two points where the skis naturally touch bases, towards the tip, and towards the tail. the gap between the bases under the bindings should be left to 'express itself'

Store Them In The Living Room!

Well, maybe not the living room, but skis and boards like to be stored at around room temperature. Too hot and the bases can dry out, and cold areas are usually associated with damp areas. So find somewhere where the temperature remains fairly constant and ambient. This is where storage racks like the BOARDZ-UP snowboard rack and ski hooks can not only protect your gear, but make a statement in your living room or office about your winter sports addiction!

Haven't Your Bases Seen Enough Rock Already?

Storing a board or pair of skis leaning up against a wall on a concrete floor is not a good idea. Things can and do get knocked around, and concrete is great at delaminating ski tails and boards too.

We recommend storing your winter-sports equipment off the ground.

If you want to display your equipment rather than hide it, then the excellent BORDZ-UP snowboard and ski brackets are an excellent solution, available in our online store.

Alternatively, grab a couple of long (12") shelf brackets from a local DIY store, wrap in a bit of insulating foam or bicycle inner tube and you have yourself a makeshift snowboard or ski storage system keeping your equipment safely away from hazards if kept at floor level.

This isn't a definitive guide, there are many variations which you can find on Goggle, but based on our workshop experiences, these tips are the ones we use on our own equipment, and therefore recommend to our customers.