How to wax this Winter
To start the new year we thought we’d begin with a seasonally relevant topic and drop some of our recently acquired knowledge.
For those of you planning on hitting the slopes this Winter here are a few interesting facts about Ski and Snowboard waxes for you.
Anyone who has been skiing before will know that waxing your gear is an essential part of the activity and crucial to maintaining your equipment.
So what actually happens after you drop off your board at the shop?
As the waxing fairies, AKA ski wax technicians, toil overnight, they will typically apply a base cleaner to de-grease and pull out any leftover wax, impurities and grime from the pores of your base. Then by applying a block of snowboard/ski wax to a hot iron they will drip hot wax onto the base which can then be spread out evenly, like ironing your boxers, and left to dry for a minimum of an hour. Once the wax has had time to dry, a Plexi scraper is pulled along the length of the base to remove any excess wax and ensure a smooth, uniform finish. At this point the buffing begins where many different techniques exist using either Brillo pads, copper brushes, horse hair brushes, nylon brushes or common paper towels.
So, what’s the big deal you might ask?
Well, whilst admirable progress has been made as most base cleaner manufacturers jump onto the Green bandwagon and produce non-toxic, 100% natural, citrus-extract and biodegradable base cleaners they do still come in plastic bottles with PET nozzles and laminated labels. But that’s okay, we can make our own base cleaners with lemon, hot water and soap. We can re-use the spray bottles and we can send back our bottles to the manufacturers. Some will probably be cool with it. Yes we’re looking at you Purl.
The real issue lies with the wax and more specifically Fluoro waxes, those containing Perfluorochemicals (PFCs) and more specifically Perfluorooctanoic acid, or PFOA.
Since the 80’s, Fluoro wax has been hailed as a miracle product which provides unmatched speed on the slopes compared to traditional waxes. Its main compound is, yup you guessed it, fluorine, and it is able to form an extremely tight chemical bond with carbon therefore creating a highly effective hydrophobic barrier in between the base of your skis/snowboard and the snow, thus decreasing friction and increasing speed.
Fluoro waxes are more commonly used, and in higher concentrations, by the pros where every milli-second counts, cross-country skiers, but also, and nevertheless, by recreational skiers and snowboarders alike.
The downside is that these PFCs pose serious health issues. Because PFC’s are so chemically stable they are able to persist for extremely long periods of time within the environment.
Studies on ski technicians in Sweden have shown that PFC’s remained in their blood and organs long after they had been inhaled and in levels 45 times higher than the normal population.
Fluorocarbons, have been linked to cancer, liver damage, birth defects, hypertension, and strokes with laboratory tests on rats showing severe changes to vital organ composition along with development issues in their offspring.
As a response, regulatory and environmental bodies in Europe and North America have been putting pressure on wax manufacturers to produce waxes with lower Fluoro concentrations. The European Chemical Agency is set to ban PFOA’s by the end of 2020 but allow the slightly less toxic C6 Fluorocarbons, until 2022.
Swix single handedly produces 60% of the world’s Fluoro waxes and whilst the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has been investigating wax purveyors in the US and found certain waxes in violation of the Toxic Substances Control Act, Fluoro waxes are still being sold online and through brick and mortar shops.
When we ride down the slopes our wax wears off onto the snow which means the fluorocarbons end up in the snow. At the end of the season, or every few weeks as it seems to be happening this year, when the snows melt these PFCs enter the water cycle, free to then enter plants and animal bodies to cause the above mentioned damaging effects.
Whilst traditional petroleum-based hydrocarbon waxes and paraffins are a step up, for obvious reasons they are still far from ideal.
The good news is that this is not “new news” and many manufacturers have already been developing fully natural alternatives based on vegetable extracts such as Purl with its hydrocarbon wax derived from vegetables, Green Ice Wax with it renewable power and Beaverwax to name but a few.
So far we have only had the pleasure of reviewing Vola’s E-Wax which you can find on our website but stay tuned for more reviews shortly.
So next time, why not ask your bright eyed, possibly high on PFC’s, waxing technician what base cleaner and wax they use and maybe make a suggestion or put in a request.
GreenDB assumes no responsibility or liability for any errors or omissions in the content of this article. The information contained is provided on an “as is” basis with no guarantees of completeness, accuracy, usefulness or timeliness. If you have any questions, suggestions or additional information you would like to share we would be more than happy to consider them.
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