Waxing your kiteboard

[windhorny]

Last year, when snowboarding I started to wonder what wax really does to a board. It is not really a slippery surface. I was talking to a buddy and we both concluded that there is something chemical that beads the water molecules off instead of attracting them. So if this was,theoretically, the case...would waxing your kiteboard work as well?

[panzerfaust]

or ahem maybe due to the friction between the snow and the layer of wax, enough heat is generated to slowly melt off a layer of wax, creating a hydroplane effect. Since planing on your board already interacts with water, waxing would have no effect. But I'm just really full of it :).

[windhorny]

Sounds good but i am pretty sure that is not what going on there. Any chemists out there have an idea on whats happening? (kitechick?) Of course if this works, i am not telling anyone and heading straight for the races! I can say this though. I sprayed the bottom of one of my boards with automotive laquer and it seems to have a very slippery feel to it in comparison to my other board that is just a smooth resin finish.

[Endlestorm]

Official chemist's response: I'm pretty sure the idea with waxing skiis/snowboards is that the friction/pressure melts the snow (not the wax) to make a microlayer of water which is super slick. Additionally, and maybe more importantly, the wax is hydrophopic which makes the interaction between the board and the snow even less.

Yuri is talking about this hydrophobic interaction, which sounds at first like it would also make your kiteboard faster, but I think it would be a very small effect. Of all the things slowing you down, friction between the board and the water is probably the least significant.

[windhorny]

thanks. that makes sense. I am sure if it worked someone would have done it by now, but hey you never know. I found out last year that you can use rain-x on your snowboard for a one day quick wax job. Wears off quickly though.

[fearlu]

They used to offer a product called Maxi-Glide that was promoted as a "speed trick" for sailboards. It was also hydrophobic and lasted a short while. I don't think that I really noticed any performance differences though. We also used to wet-sand the fins and the board's wetted surface (tail area) with the idea that the increased boundary layer of water made the hulls faster. Given the small surface area of a kiteboard (and the skimming effect while on a broad reach) I doubt that this would be noticeable for us. And, if it's true that the boundary layer of water is less drag than on the polished hull with more surface tension, I think the same idea would apply to a "waxed" finish. Plus, wax attracts debris and may actually increase drag? I know, TMI!

[AntiJF]

Fearlu: Dennis Conner tried using wax on his americas cup boats and found that wax mostly picked up fine particles, causing drag like you said.
Some people believe a really hard, mirror finish is fastest,
Some say a slightly textured finish, which will pull a fine layer of water with it, theory being that water slippin against water is best. People that debunk that theory say you're not getting water to slide against water, you're trying to pull the entire sea along with you.

General consensus in boating circles is to get a really hard smooth finish, as mirrored as you can, and do the last couple of sanding scratches along the direction of water flow.

[jono]

Rain-X windshield stuff has silicone or something in it that actually (from what I've heard from people who drive a lot) fills pitting in glass and surfaces for a little while making the surface smoother and more polished looking.

The shit sure does make water slide right off like the glass is super slick. So if you want to reduce drag or friction, this stuff might be worth trying. Also, I don't really think it would mess the surface up too much -- but be sure to apply to a small, inconspicuous spot before slapping all over the underside of the board ;).

Let us know what you find out if you try it -- I tend to think trying stuff like this can be snakeoil, but you never know...Besides the placebo effect is well researched and accepted so there must be something to it...If you think you will go faster because of whatever, you probably will but not for the reason you thought.

Read about what Olympic swimmers do (besides shaving/waxing their entire body), they try to squeeze every last bit out and I heard their new suits are superfast.

[windhorny]

Im not really a speed demon at all, just curious if it worked so I could implement that on my boards. I Jono's alternate idea of just taking a big shit and shaving your legs if you want to go fast! :)