Snowboard / Ski - Can base edge tuning be actually omitted? people, videos, about

ah3

It makes sense that a clean well maintained base edge should increase the performance. There are tools out there for base edging, and there are videos about it, so there should be an advantage of doing so or people will not even bother, even though they say base edging should not be performed too often, once a year would be sufficient.

I was going to get an edge tuner that can do both the side edge and the base edge. All the tuners that I could see at the shops on the entire street were for side edge only, I believe those were models from this year too. Although I am sure if I keep on searching then I’ll find one for both, I find it strange that only side edge tuners can be found at where the customers have easy access to.

As for the side edge tuner, the ones that I saw were all with preset angles; logically a reason would be for the convenience for the average (or experienced) customers who want to sharpen their own board / ski edges without to worry that the angle might be inconsistent. If that is the case, I’m surprised that I could find no edge tuners for both edges. That’s not very convenient if I’ll need a separate file for the base edge. From the manufacturing perspective, it would seem that it is a matter of creating another slot for the file to fit into for base edging while making the mould. So does that suggest that sharpening only the side edges would be sufficient for leisure riding? Perhaps the base edge of the skis/boards nowadays don’t really need to be sharpened?

I’ve seen videos of how people use a flat file with duck tape looped to create an angle for base edging, which is definitely not preferred for an average customer like myself. I’d not want to screw up the edge angle.

I actually talked to a guy at a ski shop and was told that base edging is not necessary. He doesn’t even do it himself. I also read comments like that online. Again, I do think there should be some boost of performance by doing the base edge. So the question is, is base edging really THAT important? Can it be omitted without affecting the level of leisure riding? Of course for the folks who need the push the speed to the limit would definitely do it.