Snowboard tuning and ski tuning are not aligned. Skis benefit greatly from edge tuning; snowboards benefit greatly from base flattening.
Why? Because of the position of feet on the board, two feet perpendicular to the edge, gives snowboarders powerful control over their edges. Unlike a skier who has one foot aligned with a parallel edge. So, snowboard edge tuning does not require the precision of ski edge tuning.
Snowboards, however, suffer from the plague of bases that are not flat.
First, we never see a new snowboard that is not concave somewhere. Concave boards have very sticky edges, they catch, they grab, they require exceptional skill and power to ride. The only effective way to flatten a concave snowboard by hand is with our File Base Flattener.
Conversely, we see snowboards that are a year or so old with
bases so rounded from wear it is hard to imagine what kind of distortions the
rider has to achieve to get the edge down on the snow. As bases get more rounded, the board has to
be tipped higher and higher on edge to make edge contact with the snow. And as the hill gets steeper, the problem
grows progressively worse. The only
effective way to flatten a convex snowboard by hand is with our Snowboard Base
Flattener with the stone blade.
So we don’t concentrate so much on making snowboards sharp,
we concentrate on making them flat.
Sharpening them is easy, flattening them by hand is incredibly difficult
with anything other than SkiVisions tools.
All the videos for each SkiVisions tool shows its use on
skis, but snowboards are the same application, why be redundant?
Bottom line, tuning snowboards is really easy with
SkiVisions tools, because we have the only efficient methods to make and keep
them flat by hand, and snowboards want to be flat.
In addition, edge tuning with the SkiVisions Ski Sharp is a no brainer.
File Base Flattener:
The File Base Flattener is used on concave snowboards.
The File Base Flattener is used on snowboards one edge at a
time in a rotating manner. Please review
the section regarding File Base Flattener.
Also, review the videos, although they show the tool on skis, all
the same principals apply to snowboards.
You want to track your progress with a true bar to make sure
you stop when the concavity is removed.
You can use a $2 ruler if you don’t have a true bar, just make sure it
is not flexible, flexing distorts the analysis.
Snowboard Base Flattener:
This is the bread and butter tool for maintaining a flat
base; it removes the convexity that quickly develops on snowboard bases. You can view the videos for the ski version;
everything is identical for snowboards.
Please review the section Ski Base Flattener.
Ski Sharp:
The Ski Sharp is truly the easiest way to tune edges, and,
the tuning stick that comes with the tool allows the beginning tuner the
ability to analyze the progress. The
Ski Sharp videos apply equally to snowboards.
Please review the section Ski Sharp Edge Tuning Tool.