by James Streater @maverixsnow
What is P-tex?
P-tex is the abbreviated name for Polyethylene. There are 10 major classifications of Polyethylene. For snowboards and skis the form used is UHMWPE or Ultra-high-molecular-weight polyethylene. It’s the same material used to make bullet proof jackets as well as hip and knee replacements. The main reason for its choice for skis and snowboards is it’s low moisture absorption, very low coefficient of friction and being resistant to abrasion.
There are two different forms of bases that you may have heard about. They are extruded and sintered. You can find out more about them here. The key thing is that extruded is cheaper and slower yet easier to bond p-tex to (repair). Sintered is expensive, faster, and less easy to bond p-tex to. You often hear about grades of base (1300 extruded, 2000, 4000 sintered). This relates to the molecular weight of the Polyethylene used. The higher the number the more resistant the base is to friction heating, losing wax and becoming slow.
Prepare that hole
Once you have selected what you want to repair you need to clean the gouge out, making sure it has a little bit of depth or the p-tex will not bind to the base. I aim to have the gouge around 1–2 mm deep. I use the corner of a metal…
