Hand Tune

New Ski Prep-Hand Tune: $80 value, included with purchase for $50 additional. About: most, if not all skis, come from the factory significantly off out of tune. Simply put, the finishing process at the factory is designed to get the skis out the door in a ski-able condition, and not to put a beautiful tune on the skis. A good tune is always done by hand, and this adds significantly to the final cost of the product. Therefore, we only see solid to exceptionally tuned skis in a few brands. The exception would be some very high-end skis (such as Kastle and Stockli, which are essentially race-room skis and see much more attention from practiced hands than the typicaly big-brand ski), or other race-room skis. Have you ever wondered why skis demoed at a rep's event often will ski incredibly well, but when you purchase the ski at the shop later that season, it just doesn't seem quite as good? Perhaps a little grabby, not as stable, a smaller sweet spot? A good rep keeps their skis dialed and throws a good tune on them before every show, and it is obvious on the hill. Skis “out of the wrapper” aren't going to ski nearly as well Common issues that need to be addressed on nearly every new ski coming out of the wrapper: 1) Bases are not flat. Often, we see a convex or concave base, especially at the tip and tail of the ski. A concave base is going to make the ski feel railed and grabby. A convex base will feel unstable and not want to ride flat. 2) Base edge bevels are unpredictable or inconsistent. Most skis out of the wrapper, at a minimum, will have a tip and tail with less bevel than underneath the ski. This will make the ski feel more aggressive than it should be, as the ski is engaging quicker and releasing later at the tip and tail, than underfoot. Obviously, this isn't ideal. Also, many skis we see have a bevel that is all over the place: say 1 degree at the tip, 2 degrees underfoot, then going flat, then back to 1 degree. A ski will not ski well without a consistent and well-chosen (based on the ski's designed purpose and the skill of the skier) base bevel. To fix the common problems of most mass-produced skis, we offer a full hand-tune service, which will run anywhere from $80 to $150 at your local shop. It is offered at Dawgcatching.com for the discounted price of $50 with the purchase of any ski. This service includes the following: 1) Base grind, set to a typical structure based on where you ski and the time of year. This does 2 things:1)exposes fresh base (base material oxidizes over time, and should be light grind each fall before ski season, as well as every 7-12 days on the snow), and 2) flattens the base from either being concave or convex, as described above. A flat base is key to a ski performing as designed. 2) Base edge bevel: we take the base edge down to zero, or as close as possible in the event that the ski is massively over-beveled. We then re-set the base bevel to an appropriate angle, typically 1 degree for most all-mountain skis, 2 degrees for deeper snow skis. Custom bevel also available. 3) Side edge bevel: this angle is not quite as key to skiing characteristics; it should be sharp enough to create a 90 degree or sharper edge, though, and is often inconsistent from the factory. Many East Coast skiers perfer a sharper angle for bite on hard snow. Most West Coast skiers would not require a steep edge bevel. 4) Iron-on hot wax; scrape, and brush. We give the full length of the ski a traditional hot-wax with warm base-prep wax. An iron is key to get the base warm enough to absorb wax, and not just create a surface coat. We then let it cool, scrape off the surface wax, and brush away to reveal the structure. This is a good time to upgrade to the hot-scrape ski prep; high-end skis will hold a lot of wax, and by hot-scraping them, we get the ski warm, apply wax, and scrape while the wax is still soft. This does 2 things: the pores of the base are filled with more and more wax, and the wax that is melting and then pushed out of the base is removing impurities, similar to how squeezing a sponge pulls in water and ejects dirt. Once we have completed the hot wax and prep process, your skis will be dialed and ski immeasurably better than if you had just skied the stock tune, out of the wrapper. Having spent several hundred dollars on a new ski, it is well worth it to spend a bit more and get them to perform as they were designed to perform. After all, most of us only get a limited number of days on the hill; having skis that are performing at their peak each and every day is worth the cost of a good hand tune.