How To Maintain And Take Care Of Your Ski Gear

Here are the most important things for any ski trip.


Tune Up:
Before your skis are going to be ready for this ski season you need to blow the dust off your skis and get them back into shape. During a day of skiing you can get scratches and gouges in the bottom of your skis. These scratches and gouges cause surface friction and will actually reduce your speeds and your control over the skis. It won't affect you that much unless you are a professional racer, but by taking care of your skis they will last you longer. Skis come with sharp metal edges and every year if not every week during ski season these edges need to be sharpened with a file. This edge is for cutting into the ice incase you hit a slick spot on the slope during a turn. A sharp edge will help keep you in control.

Footwear:
Special hard shell boots are used in skiing. The boots snap into the bindings that are mounted to the skis. These boots have foam inserts to provide great comfort to the skier to prevent things like blisters from destroying your ski trip. The hard outer shell keeps you from twisting your ankle if you should fall by keeping your foot and ankle totally immobilized in the boot.

Ski Polls:
It is also very important to make sure that the bottoms of your ski polls are sharp so they can cut thru a thin layer of ice if needed. It is also good to make sure that you have the right size polls. Take the poll and turn it upside down, then place your fist around the end of the poll. Your arm should now be parallel to the ground of it is not you should get new polls. The purpose for polls is to help along with balance and ice. If you are trying to turn and start to slide on a patch of ice you can jam one side into the ice to help you complete your turn or to help stop.

Hand Protection:
Just keeping your hands in your pockets when you are on the lift is not enough to keep your hands warm. When you are skiing it is a must to have a good pair of gloves. The gloves must be insulated to keep your hands warm and be water resistant, to keep your hands dry.

Long Johns:
Long Johns are insulated tops and bottoms designed to keep your body heat close to your body and the cold winds out, and are not only good for skiing but any activity that puts you out in the cold for several hours.

Ski Pants:
Ski pants have not changed much in the last 20 years. They are made from insulated material designed to keep the wind away from the body, but the newer pants have fleece linings and pocket linings to warm up cold hands. The newest features I have seen on ski pants is actually a throwback from the 20's it’s the bomb drop butt flap, and if you are not sure what that means it is a flap in the back of the pants to make going to the bathroom easy without having to undo all the buckles and straps.

By: Janice Windsor 2

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Janice Windsor has two loves in her life. The first is online casino gambling and the other is skiing. In the casino she likes roulette and on the slops she loves the expert trails to get her blood pumping.

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