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I love the glide of a freshly waxed ski on a powder day! Unfortunately I only wax my skis a few times a season and my guess is that most of you wax even less.
This year DPS, best known for their skis, launched a Kickstarter campaign for Phantom, billed to be a new permanent base glide treatment for skis and snowboards. It was tested in the Southern Hemisphere this summer and the results were astounding. To date the Phantom campaign has raised $185,939 for a $35,000 goal with a Deadline of December 1, 2017.
Phantom is installed on the ski as it is actually in the base of the ski. Developed by a team of chemists and material engineers at the University of Utah and DPS, Phantom is a liquid compound that permeates your ski bases. This patent-pending, non-reactive chemical formula has been lab-tested, and it tested better over time than traditional ski wax across all temperatures and conditions. Activated by UV Light, Phantom is inert to both the environment and safe to those applying it, plus it makes ski bases harder and less likely to scratch.
This is what Kickstarter has to say:
Phantom is a permanent, one-time application base-coating that forever eliminates the need for waxing skis and snowboards. It’s a disruptive, truly innovative solution that ushers in a new era in snowsports.
Phantom’s patent-pending polymer technology offers ultimate convenience combined with great glide performance that never wanes across all snow temperatures, and for the life of a ski or board’s use.
Phantom eliminates the damage traditional wax does to watersheds, along with the health risks for people applying it.
Phantom can be applied to any new or used ski or snowboard at any point in a board’s life cycle, at a price that quickly delivers strong value.
When you wax a ski or snowboard, enhanced glide is evident for a few hours (soybased waxes) or a few days at best (hot-boxed temperature specific waxes). Wax is an inherently soft topical layer that quickly wears off of base material due to ongoing friction with the snow surface. If regular waxing routines are missed, performance and glide drops drastically. Because waxing is time consuming, it’s rarely done with regularity.
Phantom’s sophisticated, timed polymerization process permanently penetrates the entire thickness of the base material with powerful go-fast fluoro compositions designed to operate across all snow temperatures. When the ski or snowboard goes into a shop for stone grinding, the next fresh layer of Phantom is exposed – ready to glide.
As skiers and snowboarders who regularly ride at the resort or in the backcountry, we aren’t looking to win races. We desire reliable and predictable glide in all snow conditions and terrain.
Tested in different snow climates around the globe, and backed by extensive lab data, Phantom is noticeably faster than all-temperature wax in warm snow temperatures, and provides similar levels of glide in colder snow temperature ranges.
Phantom has a characteristic feel: when initially pushing off, or in a lift line, there is nothing distinctive or special. A Phantomed base doesn’t have the slippery feel of fresh wax when moving very slowly. However, after gaining just a little bit of speed, Phantom delivers significant acceleration and achieves strong top-end glide, run after run.
Phantom also permanently alters the shore hardness of the base material itself; durability and resilience against rock impact increase – permanently.
I’m anxious to try this product on my skis and boards, it ships this January! For more on the Kickstarter campaign click here.
