So I’ve had Phantom on my daily driver Sheeva 9 for probably 4 seasons now and have been skiing them for 5. In the beginning I still waxed them a bit at home too, but eventually I took to just leaving them alone beyond bringing them to the shop when needing work on my edges or a base grind etc. This was admittedly in contrast to what the person who tunes my skis recommended, he is not as into the whole Phantom product as others I’ve spoken to. I’m in MA and take my skis to SkiMD which I know some others on this site also do. Mike is awesome and does a great job tuning, obviously.
Yesterday I took my skis in and he asked me again if I was also interested in waxing at home. And I again said that I do for my other skis, but don’t on those since they have Phantom applied. For the first time he broke it down further and specifically said that while having Phantom might keep them gliding, it doesn’t offer any protection to the bases at all. He said that I’m wearing out my bases, especially nearest my edges from the abrasion of manmade snow, and that it would be much more protected if I waxed them regularly.
So this is the first I’ve ever been told that.. Is that true? Have others experienced damage to their bases if you are foregoing waxing with Phantom and ski on manmade snow most of the time? Should I be waxing with Phantom or instead of using Phantom at all then? It seemed like such a nice set it and forget it maintenance free type of thing, but perhaps that was too good to be true without some sort of caveat.. I’m not overly concerned about the current skis I’m talking about as they have a ton of days on them overall from 5 seasons and are likely to hit rock ski status by next year.. but just wondering what to do with a future daily driver and whether Phantom is actually worth it or not. Or if I do Phantom if I should still wax as usual..