Splitboard.com Forums

Forget trying to shave a half pound off your deck, how about just keeping snow off

http://www.neverwet.com/anti-icing.php

Exactly.

All the weight shaving in the world won't make a huge difference till we get the snow off. Hopefully these guys are going to market soon.

Well, your still saving weight

Has anybody found that different types of top sheets stick less? I have a mat finish top, seems it doesn't stick anymore than a glossy one to me, but I am not too sure.

http://www.zardoznotwax.com/what-is-notwax/faqs.php

I read that stuff can help, or rubbing wax on the top sheet. Any thoughts?

Anyone ever tried RainX? Was thinking of giving that a go on both the top sheet & Sparks.

Today at the resort I noticed the only place that the snow was sticking to my topsheet was where it was black. I was very defined and obvious that the black surface was able to collect/transfer enough heat to create an icy spot for snow to collect. Long story short, black top sheet=more snow sticking.

I RainX'd half of my Hovercraft split a few months ago (and left the other half untreated)... Did not notice any difference at all, the snow seemed to stick equally (in large amounts) on both sides.

Disclaimer: I only used a very minimal amount of RainX on the above mentioned first try. I plan to try it again with lots of RainX and see if it helps at all. (infact, maybe I will do that now, since I am going touring tomorrow).

I also read that Pledge, or any sort of wood treatment/dust remover can help... was thinking to try that next.

-hps

Remember when applying any sort of repellent wax or formula the board has to be superclean before you apply. I have some nanotech stuff that I use on my car glass. I may try that.

I've been using liquid car wax and have had pretty good luck keeping the snow from sticking.

Liquid wax - good tip. Anyone ever try simply rubbing wax onto a top sheet?

Chimera topsheets are p-tex to shed snow... http://www.chimerasnowboards.com/nonsticktopsheet.html ...Seems like it'd work without sacrificing too much durability (if tough enough for the bottom of a board, should be tough enough for the top).

I put a nice coat of RainX on the right side of my board (so the left ski while touring) on Thursday night and then went out on Friday for some laps.

After the first skin up (on the S.W. side, where there was more sun hitting the board & snow), I noticed no difference at all between the 2 halves.


After the second skin up (on the shady N.E. side), I was surprised to see that the RainX'd ski (on the left in the below photo) actually had MORE snow stuck to it.


There might be certain conditions where the RainX works... But personally I'm going to try other things in search of better results.

-hps

Noting that snow almost never sticks to the base of my board, I think that Chimera's ptex topsheets may be a great approach. Just hot wax the topsheet, perhaps with high silicone content spring snow wax, scrape and buff it out, and I believe there would be much less snow sticking. I also have it on good authority that the ptex topsheet offers very good durability, and additional damping vs traditional topsheet materials.
I do not have a Chimera (yet) to test this theorizing on, anyone with a Chimera care to comment?

I think so too! This is the reason, why I ordered my next year's Prior Spearhead XTC with P-Tex as a topsheet. Hope that this will keep the snow off better.

It would be absurd to pay an upcharge for carbon contruction to save weight first, and then carry around 0,5-2kg of snow...

P-tex top sheet +1, I'm going to use some rub on wax on the top sheet for a trip into some spring pow hopefully this weekend. Will report back...