Waxing your skis before and during each season is an annoying yet necessary evil to ensure your skis perform to their best ability. What may be seen as a simple inconvenience to us, turns out to be pretty harmful to the environment as well — all those toxic chemicals in ski wax leach out into the snow every run we take. DPS hopes to solve all these problems with a new wax-like substance that is not only more environmentally friendly, but also requires only a single application for the life of your skis.
Unlike wax, DPS Phantom is only applied once, and permanently alters the entire thickness of your bases to make them both faster and harder. Performance never drops off, regardless of days ridden or stone grinds. Phantom is fast across a broad range of conditions and temperatures — it mirrors the glide of all-temperature wax in most mid-winter snow conditions, and exceeds it in warmer snow temperatures.
Traditional waxes are composed of unstable chlorofluorocarbon functional groups that leach PFC chemicals into the watershed. In contrast, Phantom is engineered to feature the fastest components of traditional waxes but in functional groups that are both inert to the environment and safe to those applying it.
After applying Phantom, you will still need occasionally stone grind your skis to be stone to establish an appropriate structure for specific snow conditions and temperatures while removing “hair” from abraded bases. Edges still need to be deburred and sharpened. Base damage still needs to be repaired and maintained.
Unless you are an ultra competitive racer, you will be perfectly happy with using only a one-time Phantom application on your skis for as long as you own them without ever having to apply wax.
DPS is currently running a Kickstarter campaign to take pre-order on Phantom. A package of two pouches (good enough for a pair of skis or a snowboard) retails for $99. Phantom can be applied at home or by a ski or snowboard shop — the process takes about 20 minutes, with 6 hours of additional drying time for the substance to fully penetrate the base.
Who else is super curious to try this? Bring on ski season.