Bulgaria Ski discussion board

It is true that manufacturers do not wax skis to the ski conditions but that is to be expected as how are they to know where you are going skiing and therefore what the snow conditions and temperatures are going to be?

However, new skis will always come pre-waxed (basic) and are fine for the first few days before needing to be re-waxed. What I always do is take a zardoz-not-wax puck which is basically liguid teflon and treat my bases every day after skiing. In that way my ski was lasts longer and my skis are faster!!

As for where to get your skis waxed and edges sharpened, bindings safety checked etc, I can recommend the ski service workshop in the bottom gondola station.

Good luck.

When I had my skis fully serviced there they used modern machinery and the workmanship was very good i found. Just let them know what angle you want your edges to be set to and they will do it. However, unless you are into ski racing etc I doubt that you will need to worry about that sort of thing.

PS: waxing your own skis is actually really straightforward and is also really quite quick. All you need is a waxing iron or even, like in my case, an old household iron and some general purpose ski wax which you can buy from most ski shops and online. I wax my own skis all season and then just get my edges sharpened at the shop twice per season. Oh, and you will also need a wax scraper to scrape the wax off your skis once you have waxed them. Again, these cost about £2 and can be bought from most ski shops.

I wax my skis before every ski trip and the wax lasts the duration of my week long ski trips. That is, of course, as long as you don't go skiing over any gravel or grassy patches that will strip your skis of their wax much quicker.

How to wax your own skis:

1) buy yourself a waxing iron or use a small household iron.

2) Buy yourself a block of general purpose wax. By general purpose wax I am referring to a wax that will suffice on most snow types and at varying snow temperatures. You can buy a range of specific waxes that will perform much better than a general purpose wax but that will mean having to take your waxing equipment out to the resort with you and then use the appropriate wax depending on the temperature on the snow when you get there. Unless you are a ski racer I wouldn't bother to be honest.

3) Using a strong rubber band, tie back your ski binding brakes (the two pointy things under your skis when your ski boot isn't clipped into the binding)

4) Clamp your skis into a workbench. You can one of those small fold away workbenches from Wickes or B&Q for about £20.

5) Set your iron to a medium temperature. By that I mean a temperature that is just hot enough to melt the wax off the block of wax and allows the wax to drip oto your skis.

6) Ensure a good covering of melted wax on your ski base before gently running the iron over the new wax on ski base. The wax will become very liguid and you just need to ensure that the wax is spread on the entire base of the ski from edge to edge and tip to tail.

7) Turn off the iron, wait about 15min before scraping the wax off the ski base.

Always scrape using a smooth and even motion and concentrate on keeping the scraper flat against the ski base.

And the woooohoooo....it's all done in about 25min from start to finish and would have saved you about £15.