Ridgeline Snowboard & Ski Tune

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RIDGELINE

Snowboard & Ski Tune
Hot wax · Full tunes · Base repair · Binding mounts · Used gear
On the mountain road in Halvorsen, two miles below the Mount Halvorsen lifts

1999-2000 PRE-SEASON SPECIAL
Full tune, $25 (regularly $35) on any snowboard or pair of skis dropped off through October 31, 1999.
Beat the rush. In December there's a three-day wait. Right now it's overnight.

Welcome to the Ridgeline web page. I'm Jesse, I own the shop, and I ride 80-some days a year, which is why I opened a tune shop instead of getting a real job. Ridgeline is a small place: one bench, one grinder, a wax iron that's older than some of my customers, and a rack of used gear. What we do, we do right. Your board or skis come back sharp, flat, waxed for the conditions, and ready to go.

We tune snowboards and alpine skis. We do not do cross-country skis (the wax is a whole different world) and we don't rent gear; the mountain does that.

Services & Prices
Hot Wax $15	Base cleaned, hot wax ironed in (temperature-matched to the conditions or all-temp if you ask), scraped and brushed. Same-day if you drop it off in the morning. Should be done every 3 to 5 days on snow. Most people do it once a year, if that. Don't be most people.
Full Tune $35 $25 through Oct. 31	The works: base ground flat on the stone grinder, structure put in, minor base scratches filled with P-Tex, edges sharpened with a proper side and base bevel (we'll ask how you ride and set it accordingly), edges detuned at the tip and tail so you don't catch, then a hot wax. This is what a board needs at the start of every season and after every rock you find.
Edge & Wax $22	Edges sharpened and a hot wax, no grind. Good mid-season maintenance if the base is still in good shape.
Base Repair by quote	Gouges, core shots, delaminated edges, blown-out edges. Bring it in and we'll look at it. Small gouges start around $10 and get folded into a full tune. A core shot (the gouge goes all the way through to the wood) is more work and we'll quote it. Some things aren't worth fixing and we'll tell you.
Binding Mount $25	Ski bindings mounted and adjusted to your boot, or snowboard bindings mounted and set to your stance (we'll help you figure out your stance width and angles if you're new). Ski binding release settings are adjusted to your height, weight, age and ability using the manufacturer's chart. Bring your boots. You must bring your boots.
Binding Adjust $10	Already mounted, just need it set to a different boot or stance. Bring your boots.
Storage Wax $12	At the end of the season: a thick coat of wax, not scraped, to keep the base from drying out over the summer. We scrape it off for free when you bring it back in the fall.
Prices for the 1999-2000 season. Cash or check. Turnaround is overnight in the pre-season, 2-3 days once the mountain opens, and longer over the holidays. Leave a phone number or e-mail when you drop off and we'll let you know when it's ready.

Why Tune Before the Season?
Every fall somebody comes in in December, on the first powder day, with a board that's been in the garage since March, and wants it done in an hour. Here's why you should do it now instead.

The base dried out over the summer. The plastic on the bottom of your board (P-Tex, polyethylene) is porous. Wax soaks into it and makes it glide. Over a summer in the garage the wax dries out and the base turns chalky white along the edges, and a dry base is slow and it's more likely to get gouged. A fresh hot wax fixes it.

Your edges are rusty and dull. If you put it away wet in March, there's rust on the edges. Dull edges don't hold on hardpack, and early season is nothing but hardpack and man-made snow, which is icy and abrasive. Sharp edges on opening day are the difference between carving and sliding.

The base probably isn't flat anymore. Boards and skis get "railed" (edges higher than the base) or "concave" from use and from being ground badly. A railed base is catchy and turns when you don't want it to. The stone grinder makes it flat again and puts a fine structure (a pattern of tiny grooves) into the base that breaks the suction between the base and the wet snow. Flat and structured is fast.

Early-season snow is hard on gear. Thin cover, rocks, man-made snow. You'll want to bring it in again by January anyway. Start the season with it right so you're not compounding the damage.

We have time now. In October you get the board back the next day, and we can spend a little longer on it. In December you're in line behind everyone else. That's the honest reason for the special.

Hours
Pre-season (now through opening day):
Tuesday - Friday	Noon - 6:00 p.m.
Saturday	10:00 a.m. - 5:00 p.m.
Sunday & Monday	Closed (I'm hiking to find the snow)
Once the mountain opens (Mount Halvorsen is expecting to open Thanksgiving weekend, snow permitting):
Every day	7:00 a.m. - 7:00 p.m.
Drop-off box by the front door for after-hours drop-offs. Put a tag on it with your name and what you want done. Don't leave skis in the box unstrapped; they walk. Telephone (555) 555-0163. Or e-mail the shop.

Used Boards & Skis: Consignment
We sell used snowboards, skis, boots and bindings on consignment. It's a good deal both ways: you clear out the garage and get some money for it, and somebody's kid gets a decent first board for a hundred bucks instead of four hundred.

Selling: Bring it in. We'll look it over and agree on a price with you. We take 25 percent when it sells; you get the rest. We'll only take gear that's safe and in reasonable shape: no cracked boards, no ski bindings that are too old to be adjusted (we have a list), no boots with broken buckles. If it needs a tune to sell, we'll do it at cost and take it out of the sale. Gear that hasn't sold by the end of March goes home with you or gets donated to the mountain's kids' program, your call.

Buying: The rack changes every week. Right now (late September) we've got about a dozen snowboards from 130 to 160 cm, a few sets of skis, and a bunch of kids' stuff. Every used board on the rack has had a fresh tune. Come in and look; we don't post a list here because it'd be out of date by Tuesday.

Lift Ticket Vouchers
We sell discounted Mount Halvorsen lift ticket vouchers at the counter, good any non-holiday day of the 1999-2000 season. You buy the voucher here and trade it for a ticket at the mountain's window, and you save a few dollars and skip the long line at the ticket booth on a powder morning. The price is set by the mountain and we'll post it when they send us this season's vouchers, which is usually early November. Cash only on vouchers.

About the Shop
I started riding in 1988 on a board with no metal edges and a rope you held with one hand, and I never really stopped. I tuned gear for a big shop down in the city for five winters, learned everything I could about grinders and bevels and wax, and in the fall of 1996 I signed a lease on this building, which used to be a gas station, because it's two miles from the lifts and I could ride before work. I ride 80-some days a year, mostly first chair to about 10:30 and then I come down and open up. If you see a guy in a faded orange jacket at the top of the main lift on a Wednesday morning, that's me, and yes, I'll be at the shop by noon.

Riding that much means I test every wax and every edge bevel on my own boards before I put it on yours. If I tell you a certain base structure is faster in cold dry snow, it's because I tried it Tuesday.

The shop is one room, a wood stove, a bench, a dog named Bindy who is not for sale, and a coffee pot. Come in, hang out, tell me about your season. Half the point of running a tune shop is the stories.

Neighbors on the Pipeline: Dawn Patrol (surfing the Central Coast) · Kickflip Kyle's Skate Page
Peakbagging in the summer: Sierra Peaks Log

Riders through the door since we put up the page in August 1999:

[email protected]
E-mail is checked every evening. Snow reports are checked every hour.

Last updated September 25, 1999 · © 1999 Ridgeline Snowboard & Ski Tune, Halvorsen
Think snow.