Pretty new to snowboarding, well... recently anyways.  I started snowboarding in elementary school/middle school but quit in high school due to the fact that South Dakota doesn't have very many hills, much less mountains!  The largest vertical near me was 150 feet... to get any higher than that I would have to travel 8 hours.  I now live on the east coast, and want to get back in the swing of things!  Obviously when I was younger I didn't really care about waxing a board, or any of that jazz.  But the board I just got has a sintered base, which has to be waxed right?

Anywho, on to the potential problem.  When I was done waxing my board, the face (topside) of the board was quite warm.  It wasn't hot enough to flinch or anything of that sort, but any hotter and it would probably be at that point.  Thankfully, I don't think I did any damage to the board (that would be the pits!) but I just wanted to know... how can you tell if you burned the base of your board?  Would there be physical blemishes or anything?

Lastly, to prevent this problem in the future... I should probably state I was using the iron much like I would wax a car.  Small circles, always moving the iron.  I have to wonder if the heat was still too centralized, should I iron in straight lines next time or what?  In conjunction with a lower temp of course!

Second lastly, I guess ;)... Unrelated to waxing a board, which mountain would you recommend for being new to the area?  Roundtop, Whitetail, or Liberty?  Which one has a young college type of crowd?  I'm leaning towards liberty, as I heard it has more of a college vibe to it... but I wanted some recent updates ^^

Thanks a bunch!

Buy a wax iron.  http://www.tognar.com/  Stay away from WV and visit the Snowtime resorts.

Newber wrote:

Pretty new to snowboarding, well... recently anyways.  I started snowboarding in elementary school/middle school but quit in high school due to the fact that South Dakota doesn't have very many hills, much less mountains!  The largest vertical near me was 150 feet... to get any higher than that I would have to travel 8 hours.  I now live on the east coast, and want to get back in the swing of things!  Obviously when I was younger I didn't really care about waxing a board, or any of that jazz.  But the board I just got has a sintered base, which has to be waxed right?

 

Anywho, on to the potential problem.  When I was done waxing my board, the face (topside) of the board was quite warm.  It wasn't hot enough to flinch or anything of that sort, but any hotter and it would probably be at that point.  Thankfully, I don't think I did any damage to the board (that would be the pits!) but I just wanted to know... how can you tell if you burned the base of your board?  Would there be physical blemishes or anything?

 

Lastly, to prevent this problem in the future... I should probably state I was using the iron much like I would wax a car.  Small circles, always moving the iron.  I have to wonder if the heat was still too centralized, should I iron in straight lines next time or what?  In conjunction with a lower temp of course!

 

Second lastly, I guess ;)... Unrelated to waxing a board, which mountain would you recommend for being new to the area?  Roundtop, Whitetail, or Liberty?  Which one has a young college type of crowd?  I'm leaning towards liberty, as I heard it has more of a college vibe to it... but I wanted some recent updates ^^

 

Thanks a bunch!

Wax from tip to tail.  No circles.  Timberline and Canaan Valley are nice.

I've never noticed my topsheet become hot.  Otoh, if your wax was not smoking you did nothing bad.  As stated above, just go front to back and don't over do it on heat or wax.  Tognar does have good tools and also good advice.  I consider this to be part of the fun of skiing.  (Not full enough to say craft).

A new base (sintered or extruded) doesn't have to waxed, but it's a good idea since the factory wax is very thin.

IF you don't notice any physical marks on the base you're probably safe.  Probably good idea to check your mounting inserts/track closely for burns, topsheet delamination, etc.  The metal components focus the heat due to high conduction.

Lots of good youtube videos to learn from. Yes, slowly glide the iron front to back, let cool a while, then scrape the same with a full width plexi scraper (you are scraping right?). 

Newber wrote:

 Roundtop, Whitetail, or Liberty?  Which one has a young college type of crowd?  I'm leaning towards liberty, as I heard it has more of a college vibe to it...

Yes, Liberty. It's not usually a high performance skiing college vibe. More of a tavern vibe.

A great day on the slopes is when and where you find it.  Met Crush at Liberty one day, purely by coincidence, about 5 years ago.  We had a heck of a good time.

camp wrote:

Newber wrote:

 Roundtop, Whitetail, or Liberty?  Which one has a young college type of crowd?  I'm leaning towards liberty, as I heard it has more of a college vibe to it...

Yes, Liberty. It's not usually a high performance skiing college vibe. More of a tavern vibe.

Precisely what I'd be looking for.  Don't need any of that high performance ^^ lol

Appreciate the answers guys, took the board out at Roundtop as it was the only one open... had a blast.  Nothing seemed too wonky, so that's good!

I probably should have watched a few videos before waxing the board, considering I only watched one.

Also, what cleaner should I be looking for in order to wash the board before waxing again?