Gear maintenance

Once you have bought your clothing or equipment from us its good to know how to take good care of it and keep it performing at its optimum.

Maintaining Winter Clothing / Outdoor Equipment, Footwear and Clothing

Maintaining and looking after your clothing and equipment is of the utmost importance to keep their performance at its most effective. The market leading brand of maintenance products, Nikwax, has highly detailed information on how to best look after your prized possessions and which product is best used on which garment. The sections of the Nikwax site that are most relevant are linked below. As well as recommending which products are most suited to different purposes, they also give excellent all round information on how to look after all of your outdoor and winter clothing, equipment, footwear and accessories. In addition, all Nikwax products are water-based, environmentally safe and non-flammable.

The Nikwax FAQ section answers most of the questions that you are likely to need answering when it comes to caring for your gear.

Choosing the right treatment

On the right hand side of the Nikwax homepage you can select the item that needs cleaning and the material it is made from, from which Nikwax will recommend exactly what you need to both clean and reproof the item. This is an essential tool that simply defines exactly what you need.

Caring for outerwear

Caring for equipment

The Nikwax product range at Snow+Rock

Ski & Snowboard Equipment

Bases and Waxing

All of our Skis and Snowboards come ready for use with a good layer of wax. This is enough for a a few weeks of use, depending on conditions, after which you should consider either a basic or full serivice at one of our stores. Keep the bases from drying out by giving them a storage wax at the end of the season. Apply a thick layer of hot wax, iron it in, let it dry and don’t scrape them. It’ll prevent the bases from drying out and won’t allow rust to form on the edges. This service is also available in store.

Edges

In summer, a layer of rust can often build up on the edges of your board. If the edges are corroded, the bases probably need a grind and a good waxing. A full service starts at £25.00 and is available in most of our stores. To prevent the same thing from happening next summer, dry off your skis with an old towel before you put them back in the bag at the end of your holiday. Next winter, all you need to do is give them a good scraping and you’re ready to go.

When you take them in to the shop of your choice, ask about tuning products and how to use them. The staff in the equipment department will be happy to talk you through it. Our comprehensive range by Toko is a great place to look for essentials for tuning your equipment.

Boots

Ski and Snowboard boots need to be dried out thoroughly at the end each trip before they are put away for storage. In most boots you can take the liners out of the shells, and the footbeds out of the liners to let them dry out completely. Take a look at our boot dryer section for suggestions that may make this easier.

When putting your ski boots away it is best to do the buckles and straps up, roughly in a position used when skiing. This stops the buckles from bending outwards, away from the shell, making them easier to put on next time around. It’s also best to store your boots, once fully dry, in a decent boot bag to stop any dust or other debris getting into the boot when in storage.

You should also check the soles of your ski boots on a yearly basis for excessive signs of wear. Walking with them on tarmac, grit or other hard surface can quickly wear down the heel and toe pieces which can significantly affect the boots functionality and safety in the binding. Heel and toe pieces on some boots are replaceable- please give us a call or go into your local store for more information. To prevent excessive wear, consider using some Cat Tracks which slip on and off the bottoms of your boots easily.