Tune Up Your Skis

Hot waxing skate skis (Nexcski.com)

These skinny sticks require more frequent waxing than alpine or telly boards. When you first buy them, have them hot waxed every five to eight uses to build up a wax base that won't get skied off during the season. Hot waxing is simply applying a warm, soft wax to the base of the ski with an iron set at a low temperature (if the wax smokes, then the iron is too hot and may damage the ski's base). Let each ski sit a half-hour before scraping the wax off. Repeat the procedure three or four times.

At the start of each season, clean the bases with a warm scrape — applying a layer of wax and scraping it off just before it turns from liquid to solid. Remove any gouges by having the bases stone-ground flat. Then apply four or five coats of a warm wax, which penetrates the base more thoroughly than a universal wax. Hot wax as often as you can during the season.

For best results, apply wax each time you ski, either choosing between two or three different glide waxes based on air temperature, or using a universal wax. Become familiar with one wax or one manufacturer's waxes and you'll soon become adept at picking the right one for any given conditions and temperature.