Structure

[Allee]

Okay, my fourth board arrived today so I guess that makes me an official board whore ... :o

It's going to get a little expensive to have all these boards shop tuned so I'm going to start doing it myself. Edges and wax, I can handle. What about structure?

Having ridden a board with a PTC tune I agree that it's amazing, but if I'm gonna try something simple at home, what do you suggest, or use yourself? Do I simply do as the Raceboarders guys say and take a Scotchbrite to the base? Or buy an expensive structure brush? Or give it up and have a pro do it?

Thoughts would be appreciated. :p

[Guest Randy S.]

I think that putting down structure is best left to the pros. Maintaining it is something I happily attack by myself.

That said, you can buy a structure bar. I have one but haven't used it much. I'm sure Race-Werks and/or Reliable Racing sell them. Can't recall where I got mine. Mike T has one also. He uses his more than I do.

Once you have structure, using various brushes will help maintain it. I really like the rotobrush I bought last year from Race-Werks. It saves a ton of time prepping boards. I also have hand brushes that I use.

If you haven't already, use the search feature to find some links to great tips and tricks web sites.

[Mike T]

Randy's right, I bought a brass riller bar from Tognar a couple of years ago. It "presses" the structire in more than it "cuts" so it needs to be redone, often. I tend to use it when a board's structure has flattened out but it doesn't need any base repair or edge work beyond what I can do myself. I own 7 (soon 8) boards, but try to limit myself to one or two shop tunes a year total; so yeah I do use the riller bar quite a bit. My Axis's base would be shiny as a mirror if it weren't for that thing. Like anything else, practice on your beater board and move onto your "A" board when you feel ready... the nice thing is, working on a beater board is harder and will train you well :)

[D-Sub]

hey mike...theres a shop in bend...do a pretty good job on base structure...just in case.

race place, its called

its on the corner of 97 and reed market...actually just east of 97, tucked away inside a patio furniture store.

fair prices, too

anyone else ever ride their boards with just edge tuning and wax? no real structure? I did for YEARS

sometimes I think we think too much about this stuff. unless youre racing...

[Mike T]

hey mike...theres a shop in bend...do a pretty good job on base structure...just in case.

race place, its called

its on the corner of 97 and reed market...actually just east of 97, tucked away inside a patio furniture store.

fair prices, too

anyone else ever ride their boards with just edge tuning and wax? no real structure? I did for YEARS

sometimes I think we think too much about this stuff. unless youre racing...

Thanks, I remembered that you had mentioned Race Place before. As far as riding w/o structure: It never bothered me until I started riding at Mount Hood, land of slush and flats.

[Hagen]

I would also leave that to the pros.

One thing you might want to check is if there are shops in your area that sell package deals. There is at least on place at Tahoe where you can prepay for services in the off season for half the price. I think (Randy correct me if I'm wrong) they offer $200 perpaid service for $100... ...good deal if you are planning to get a lot done over the season. But then there is also only one place at Tahoe that I know off that does it.

Hagen.

[Guest]

It's a really simple thing actually: sandpaper. The coarser the grit, the warmer the weather. 100 grit is used when it's really warm out and/or wet, or you need to take a lot of base off, i.e. base high. 150 grit will work well if the temps are in the 20's or higher. 180 is probably the most all-around grit, good for 10-32 degrees. Below 15 degrees, when it's dry, 220-320 will work. After sanding to the appropriate degree, take a brass brush to it. Sanding will leave plenty of microscopic fibers, which you need to brush out. After that, take some coarse Fibertex to it. Then, you're ready to wax.

Make sure and get a stearated (white) or silicon carbon sheet (gray) over your basic hardware store variety. The former two will be a much higher quality and the particles won't come off as easily. Also, make sure you have a sanding block to attach them to so you get even pressure throughout the board.

[philfell]

When it comes to structure, have a qualified shop do it. Don't try it at home, or even worse let just any old shop do it. Find a shop that does service work for local ski race teams.

This will put a dent in your wallet, but in most cases you only need to do it once a year, unless you are really hard on equipment or overly anal.

It's hard enough to get a snowboard flat with a $50,000 machine designed for it. To try it at home isn't worth it, if you want good results. The rest of the work you can and should do yourself, ie base prep, waxing, edges, etc.

[bobdea]

there are two types of structure the type that is part of your base from a grind and the type that you give post wax

the first one is very important and trust only the best with it, a good shop tech will ask you what you want and why

the second is only important for the first 20 or so runs of the day, if you race and in particular if the snow new and wet

when it comes to brushes there are a few factors the hardness of the wax, the type of base you have and the stage of the brushing you are at

basically all you are doing is trying to get all the wax off the base that did not actually get into the pores.

for me it goes like this, I prep before I wax with a fine brass brush to get some of the nasty old wax off and open the structure if I feel its needed, not sure this helps but a few people have told me it does and it seems to make sense

after I wax I scrape, then brush with a fine brass brush if I used a soft wax a coars nylon brush and if the wax is really hard I go with a coarse brass

the next step is somthing softer or if you are using a powder like flouro or something a cork does the trick

if I do use a powder I usually very lightly brush with nylon to knock off any clumps that might have been been made while corking

hope this helps

[bobdea]

some bases are really soft such as the Electra bases Burton was using on the longer primes in the late 90s as well as the on some Rossignol decks, Rossi called it something different but it was pretty much the same, it was black and soft as hell

anyway some very soft bases can be damaged by metal brushes if you are not careful

[philfell]

Bob make sure you use a horsehair brush after you use a nylon brush. The use of a nylon brush on your plastic base causes extra static that makes your board slow. A horsehair brush will reduce this built up static.