Maintenance of ski equipment

Whether you are a Sunday skier, or a hungry skier, the maintenance is the same.

Ski maintenance

Throughout the season

After each ski outing, we have only one desire, returned to our vehicle, or to us. We remove the excess snow on our skis, and hop in the cover. But this action causes too much moisture in the cover, and causes the appearance of rust on your edges.

To avoid this, let your skis dry after each ride, once dry, put a cloth on the edges to clean them.

Remember to wax your skis regularly, these are needed. To check, flip your ski and scratch with your nail the sole. If a small deposit is removed it is good, however, if the ski is smooth the wax. The wax has for goal, yes to get a better glide, but also to protect your ski and feed the sole.

At the end of the season

At the end of each season, a small technical check and an upgrade is required. You can do it yourself or just wear your skis at a sports shop that has a skiman.

Repair the sole

It is never pleasant to return your skis to the bottom of a track and to discover there stripes and / or holes caused by stones stealthily hidden under the snow.

Here's how to simply fix the sole of your skis or snowboard.

First of all, the sole must be cleaned to remove dust and dirt. For this, I recommend a brush wire copper, bronze or steel.

As for all operations to be performed on the sole, it is always necessary to proceed in the same direction, that of sliding, from the spatula of the ski to the heel.

Once clean, we can go to the repair phase of the sole. For this step, you need to buy repair sticks, a metal lighter and a scraper.

The sticks are black or transparent to make the repair less visible next. For my part, I recommend the black, which will resist better in time.

Using the lighter, ignite one end of the stick until the first drops begin to flow, then bring the stick to the area to repair, let a few drops fill the damaged part.


Let cool for a few seconds then scrape the excess with the scraper to obtain a smooth and even surface with the rest of the ski sole.

Sharpen his edges

The easiest way to maintain your edges is to use a sharpener. It allows you to use several files (more or less aggressive) and to choose the angle of sharpening of the edge.

For a square to hang on snow, always keep an angle of 90 ° or less.

As one sharpens the two sides of the edge, side insole (it is said to fall the edge) and side edge, one can vary the inclinations of each side. So much opportunity to vary the angle of the edge.

Sharpening is done along the entire length of the edge for uniform wear of it because on modern skis, the entire length of the edge is used for cornering. There is no need for sharpening and there is no need to press hard on the file.

Farter her skis

Last step, but how important, the waxing of your skis. This serves to improve the glide on the snow and protects the sole of your skis.

As for a repair, it is necessary to thoroughly clean the sole before starting and working in the direction of sliding. (Spatula> heel)

There are several methods for waxing (hot, liquid, powder, pencil) but I recommend using a hot wax that is applied with an iron (there are waxing irons but an old iron makes perfectly the case). This type of wax is much more effective and durable.

You will see that there is also a multitude of wax depending on the temperature (cold snow, spring ...) and practices (leisure or competition), but you can always opt for a universal wax for simplicity.

Put your skis on trestles with the sole up, use big rubber bands to clear the ski stops and work more freely.

Melt the wax into droplets by putting it in contact with the sole of the iron.
Spread the wax slowly with the iron over the entire surface of the sole (from the spatula to the heel). You should never leave the iron too long in the same place, or worse, completely immobile on your skis because you may damage the sole of your skis.

Once finished, it is important to wait for the wax to permeate the soleplate and cool down. For this to be effective, I recommend waiting an hour before starting to scrape.

Finally, scrape the entire wax, then brush vigorously with a nylon brush for a good finish. If you do not scrape, the snow will do it for you after one or two tracks, your skis will be smooth.


Your skis are now ready to hit the slopes!

The maintenance of ski boots.

After a long day of skiing, many people are in a hurry to go home and rest. But for the glide always gives you the same pleasure, it is important to take care of the material and in particular shoes.

- Take off your ski boots and remove the snow on it, avoiding bumping against each other. A soft bristled brush to avoid scratching the plastic will do the trick.

- Once you have returned home, first remove the slippers from the plastic hulls.

- With condensation, the hulls fill with water. Then you just empty them and put them to dry. If the slippers are wet, make them dry without putting them next to a heat source.

- Once everything has dried, carefully put the slippers back in the hull. Then, close all the hooks at the first notch and replace the velcro to prevent the plastic from deforming.

- If possible, store your shoes in a dust-free house and away from mice, if possible in a dry room.