How often should you wax your skis?

Waxing skis is a something that should be done regularly. Racers - Will wax daily to get the most performance out of their skis.  They will wax the night before and then add overlays the day of the race to improve their time.  Some WorldCup events are decided by the 0.01 of a second, it matters. Instructor - Some will wax skis fairly regularly, some will store them in their locker the whole season and forget about it.  Many times it's based on what lesson you might be teaching - if you know you're on the magic carpet you might want a ski that is slow and sticky. If you're going to rip around the mountain you'll probably make sure you've taken it home an tuned it up. Rental Shop - Most rental shops have a hot wax machine and will have some semblance of a maintenance schedule, where the performance skis get more love than the recreation skis. Individuals - Most people don't know how and lack the equipment to wax their skis.  So, they only think about it when they're sticking on the snow or maybe if it's spring conditions and they're trying to avoid being vacuumed stopped in wet snow. Ideally you're waxing your skis every day, this provides the best protection to the bases and keeps them from drying out and running fast.  If you're skiing on sharp snow you should make sure you're either using a harder wax (lower temperature) or waxing more frequently.  If you're on top of things you're waxing once a week (~5 days) just to keep things running well.  You should also be doing a touchup on your edges based on your wax schedule or skiing conditions - on the west coast I've sometimes gone well over 30 days of skiing on a pair of skis before they've gotten wax or edging done. Nothing beats a freshly tuned pair of skis on a nice morning. Storage (Mandatory) - End of season storage wax.  It's a thick layer that you don't scrape off that protects the skis for the 8 months that you're not using them.  This protection preserves the ptex and will prevent the edges from rusting.  Sometimes if you're traveling with the skis it's good to put on before you leave and scrape when you get to your destination.

Normally you should reapply wax before each training session taking into account current temperature and snow condition. Even if you are going to use the same wax on the next session it's better to redo waxing just to be sure that the wax is evenly spread and fully covers the required surface.