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RSS/XMLWaxing about Wax (Updated) - Mother Nature Likes it Natural
2008-05-08 09:01:42
Another winter has come and gone. A fact that sunk in recently as I was disassembling my snowboards and waxing them up to store them for the summer. This got me thinking about the ecology of snowboard wax and what impact it has on my health and on the health of the mountains that bring me so much joy.
The purpose of waxing your snowboard is to optimize the thickness of the film of water between your board and the snow. If this film is too thick, you will suffer from "wet drag" or suction. Something I'm sure many of you have experienced while charging down a sunny aspect in the spring and encountering a wet patch of snow that made you feel as though you were going to take a nose dive. On the other hand, if the film of water is too thin, you will suffer from "dry drag" caused by the friction of the base of your snowboard. The key to waxing is to choose the wax which will minimize both friction and suction as much as possible.
The practice of waxing skis, and later snowboards, is said to have started in America during the California gold rush in the 1860s. Gold miners held impromptu downhill ski races and discovered that by smearing their skis in dopes brewed from vegetable or animal compounds, they could increase the speeds achieved with their equipment. Some then started using paraffin candle wax which was found to work better in cold temperatures. Modern wax, however, is much more complex and will now often include surfactants and fluorocarbons to help increase glide by repelling dirt and water.
In order to keep costs low, many ski wax manufacturers use a low-grade paraffin that is a petroleum refinement waste by-product, thus making it non-renewable. This seems like a reasonable source of material, it's recycling right? Besides oil and gas refineries are not about to stop refining just because we're not using their garbage to make snowboard wax. However, these hydrocarbon waxes will emit nasty chemicals, including the carcinogens toluene and benzene, when burned; by an iron when dripping it onto a snowboard for example. To make matters worse, in the eighties, there was a shift toward "fluorocarbon" waxes which break down into toxins with chemical lives ranging from 3,200 to 50,000 years. These are some of the most persistent synthetic chemicals ever created and they're toxic. Not exactly something I want to be throwing out into the environment, or worse, into my lungs.
So my search for a more earth and lung friendly alternative was on. Here's what I've found so far (for an overview on how to wax your board, check out the Fembot's how-to):
- Hillbilly Wax-Works: This is a family owned business that develops, manufactures, and wholesales ski and snowboard wax that is environmentally friendly, socially conscious, and is in accord with the 12 Principles of Green Chemistry. For snowboards they have four types of waxes: Frost Biter for cold weather, Swamp Bastard for the spring, Coffin Polish which is an all-terrain wax, and Devil's Pact which is meant for hard pack and park riding. In addition they also sell an environmentally friendly base cleaner, Green Acres Base Cleaner, which is also quite nice of them.
- Beaver Wax: These guys are based out of Vancouver, British Columbia and boast a hand poured manufacturing process that uses only environmentally friendly additives. The type of paraffin used, however, is not mentioned on their website. The hand poured process ensures that each stick of wax has a uniform amount of slip additives that repel water and reduce friction. They only offer one type of wax, however, so one would hope that it's suitable for all temperatures and snow conditions.
- Magical Go-Go: This company specialises in skate and snowboard wax. In addition to more "traditional" wax products, they also offer a soy based wax that does not contain petroleum based products or paraffin. There are two Go-Go Eco options: 1) Gofu which is a rub on/hot wax for warm temperatures, and 2) Bean Machine which is an all temperature wax.
Unfortunately all the snow has melted around here so I may not get a chance to test these out. I will be ordering some for next season, however, when I hope to be able to do a head to head comparison. In the meantime, here's what I've learned so far about wax:
- Snowboard wax is often made out of the by-product of oil and gas refineries. Maybe Andrew Hardingham was right, the oil companies DID invent snowboarding.
- Wax on, wax off! You apply wax which comes off when you ride and ends up leaching into the environment. If it's bad for your lungs, it can't be good for the earth's lungs either.
- In a single blog post, I've mentioned wax, friction and suction. Taken out of context this sounds like porn and although the purpose of this article was to talk about green wax; baby wax is dir-ty!
Well I'm off to put an order in for some more earth friendly wax for my boards. My list of candidates is certainly not exhaustive so please let me know if you know of any other environmentally friendly snowboard waxes. In the meantime I'll be counting the days down until I can put p-tex to snow...
Keep Shreddin' the GNAR!
Received 1 Comment:
Comment posted by Anonymous on 2008-05-12 11:17:11
Keep on waxing!