Unfortunately there comes at the end of the season when we have put our snowboards away for summer. Storing your snowboard properly will keep your base and edges in good condition, and prolong the life of your snowboard. The best thing you can do for your snowboard is give it a proper storage wax. A storage wax is similar to the way you would normally wax your snowboard (waxing guide), however there are subtle differences. Your local snowboard shop will be able to do this for you. If you want to learn how to do it yourself, follow this guide.

• Unscrew the bindings and remove them completely from the snowboard. This alleviates the pressure of the screws pulling the base up towards the topsheet.


• Make sure the snowboard is completely dry. Set the snowboard on something stable with the base facing upwards. If you are going to do a lot of tuning yourself, I would recommend investing in a set of tuning vices.


• If your edges are rusted, burred, or damaged, now would be a good time to give them attention.


• Clean the base thoroughly with base cleaner. Dab base cleaner onto a clean rag, and using firm pressure clean all the dirt and grime out of the base. At the end of this process the base should look clean and fresh.


• Storage waxing uses a lot more wax than usual. For this reason it is more cost effective to use a cheaper hydrocarbon wax instead of a high speed fluoro wax for storage; that decision is up to you.


• Heat up the iron. Touch the block of wax onto the base of the iron. Adjust the temperature so the iron is hot enough to melt the wax.


• The wax is going to melt and start dripping. If there is any smoke coming off the iron, the temperature is too high and needs to be turned down.


• Drip the melted wax onto the base. Use a lot of wax; you want a fairly thick layer on the base. This will prevent your base from drying out and getting damaged over the summer. Try to get even coverage over the whole board; cover all areas, including the edges.


• Take the hot iron and place it directly onto the base of the snowboard. Keeping the iron moving at all times, slowly melt all the wax on the snowboard. Melt one area at a time, and spread the wax evenly. Make sure all areas are covered. The wax will drip over the edges. It is important to have melted wax over the entire surface of the base edge; this will prevent the edges from rusting over the summer.


• Let the board cool for a few minutes until the wax hardens a bit. Now we need to cover the side part of the edge with wax. Some wax would have already melted onto the side edge from the waxing process before, but we still need to cover the areas that got missed. Touch the block of wax onto the hot iron for a second; this will melt a thin layer on the block of wax. Take the block of wax and wipe the melted side across the side edge. This will leave a thin layer of wax on the side edge. Cover all the areas which don’t already have wax on it.


• Take the hot iron and touch it on the side edge just briefly so the wax can melt and adhere properly to the edge. Cover all areas of the side edge. Leave the snowboard to cool for at least an hour. Do not scrape the wax off the snowboard. The thick layer of wax will prevent the base from drying out over summer.


• Your snowboard is now ready to be stored for summer - in a cool, dry area, where it won’t get damaged. Two things you want to avoid are heat (or big variations in temperature) and moisture. When winter finally rolls around again, scrape off the wax and buff up the base as described in the waxing guide.

If you have any questions, ask one of our tuning technicians on the Boardworld Forums.