DPS Phantom Glide

[Best Mexican Skier from Da South]

I would be willing to try this new stuff if I didn’t like waxing so much. Light some candles. Put on some Barry White in the RV... Get the iron nice and toasty... I’m getting a half chub just thinking about it.

[alfajores]

Just had a week on some newly Phantomed skis and can say that it is about as fast as my amateur, at home or hotel balcony ski waxes. Compared to naked bases, it is much faster for me. I am now considering grinding my older skis and applying Phantom to those. Fortunately, I am not a ski racer and don’t need speed at WC levels.

[skifishbum]

I never waxed my skis, the only time they saw wax is when SFB would kidnap them about once a year and tune them. This year they were phantomed and there is a definite difference, my skis are quite a bit quicker than my usual no tune self. I usually have ski tracks running, I've picked up 3 mph on flats I go through often.

youre a great test subject
you haz no real skin in the game
and it aint gonna hurt my feelings if you say its bunk
and you never wax to begin with so
yours are one of the few pairs ive done that werent base/stone grinded 1st
get em to me sunday ill grind and see how that refreshes
i dont see ya gettin correctly applied part b off without metal brushes or roto advantages
part a for that matters too

[lrn2swim]

I wonder how much of the Phantom success stories is just people wanting to believe that "this has to be working" because I just spent $99 on it. There's a sucker born every minute, and this time I was one of that crowd.

Yeah, sorry dude. That shop must have screwed the process up and hosed you for sure. This stuff is the real deal, about 10 days now on one of my pairs and they're running real fast, no decrease in glide

[waxman]

Time to chime in on this thread. I watched all of the Phantom hoopla for year 1 to see what real people were saying and results seemed encouraging. This year Phantom 2.0 came out and I decided that it was time to give it a go. It's been a bit of an ordeal. Initially, I planned on the DIY route and ordered some from a popular online retailer. Being December, I was finding it hard to find enough bluebird days to get the correct amount of UV light to cure the two parts.

So in looking for alternatives to natural UV cures, I discovered the video that introduced that cure stations were now available in some local shops. So off I went to the one local shop that has the station, and laid down another $99 for the product and $50 for application. The results were less than encouraging for sure. The shop had warned that it might take a few runs for excess product to wear off and that may cause initially slow skis. Five days and approximately 100K vertical feet later, things were going really bad. It was a real drag in just about all conditions and my ski buddies had resorted to calling me Pokey. I contacted DPS and product manager Nick did his best to discover a solution. His first suggestion was to ask the shop to do a base grind to "refresh" the surface. He arranged for that to happen.

A few days later, I retrieved my skis from the Phantom capable shop and found that they did not have a base grinder, so they simply reapplied the Phantom treatment. That shop also blamed everyone in the world except for themselves for the trouble. Took the skis out for a day and it was a "no go", literally. Gave it about five runs, one being a straight-line in Alpine Bowl at a speed of 16 mph. This time I took the skis to my regular shop and had a base grind done (but no additional wax applied).

The first few days, everything seemed pretty normal and life was good. But by about day 7 and another 100K feet, life is a drag again and my name reverted from Snake Oil to Pokey. This morning I went ahead and hot waxed again. Thank god.

I wonder how much of the Phantom success stories is just people wanting to believe that "this has to be working" because I just spent $99 on it. There's a sucker born every minute, and this time I was one of that crowd.

FWIW, I have the original kit for DIY application (sans box) available if a Tahoe mag wants to claim it, free, at Alpine Meadows. The weather conditions for DIY application look primo for the next two weeks.

I read this with interest, as a lifelong tech and wax weanie I'm sitting on some Phantom that I can't seem to pull the trigger on. Of note my bold, what shop in the world doesn't have a stone grinder?

[Calbearskis]

Yeah, sorry dude. That shop must have screwed the process up and hosed you for sure. This stuff is the real deal, about 10 days now on one of my pairs and they're running real fast, no decrease in glide

Was it applied to a new pair of skis with a fresh grind and no wax? Trying to determine if there is a pattern as to why some get good glide and others get crap.

[lrn2swim]

Was it applied to a new pair of skis with a fresh grind and no wax? Trying to determine if there is a pattern as to why some get good glide and others get crap.

2 of the pairs I had Phantom applied to were brand new skis out of the plastic, the other I had the bases freshly ground. All three were done with a curing station at the shop using 2.0. All 3 of my skis are gliding really fast, no additional wax used.

[NorCalNomad]

Was it applied to a new pair of skis with a fresh grind and no wax? Trying to determine if there is a pattern as to why some get good glide and others get crap.

Mine was an already used pair of skis. Used a citrus base cleaner + 2 in 1 nylon/brass brush to clean it. Kept cleaning the base until a white paper towel with the base cleaner on it stayed white.

[skifishbum]

woah woah were on to v.3.0
or curing station formula A+B
less labor intensity is always smiled upon in the tech o skis world

2 weeks on the road no waxin and my shit was still fast
sfotex's not additional waxed skis in -19 c bc chill
not so much
why in gods green earth would you name your base cleaner "agent orange" after a forest defoliation cancer causing weed be gone chemical?
that shit sucks I like wend

[XXX-er]

I did my lotus 120's about a month ago, its an 8 yr old ski but the bases are still really good, I did the application with supervision

since they were mine I roto-brushed them pretty good, also polished them really good at the end

So a month out i am looking to see if the white bases happen especily along the edges but they aren't

I ski a lot with local bro's so I get to compare them on the long cat track out of the O-zone they aren't super fast but they aren't slow either

I could wax them i supose but I kinda want to leave them at least till end of season just to see how it goes

[markcp]

saw this as well. have not tested it but i think i will. look up faststik another product different than hot wax.

[Jim S]

Are used Phantom 1.0 and two pair of skis and have been please.
I brought two other pair of skis for a stone grind and after I applied and cured each phantom layer, each had a milky white color, A and, B which was not present with the 1.0 version. Cured in bright sunlight temps 50 or higher.
Did anybody experience this? Plan on skiing them tomorrow.

[XXX-er]

I was told the milky white layer after applying A and/or B was good, I think that is just dried product , rotobrush hard to get it all out of the rilling and then buff it real good

[Jim S]

I was told the milky white layer after applying A and/or B was good, I think that is just dried product , rotobrush hard to get it all out of the rilling and then buff it real good

Yep. I called DPS yesterday just after they closed and received a phone call back first thing this morning.


MILKY finish is a visual cue that the UV has cured the applied product.



So all is well. Will take a few runs on my AT BC skis at resort this morning per instructions and then trek out tomorrow,

[XXX-er]

I didnt get much white after the part A envelope but I did after the part B envelope

we wondered if it was becuz the sksi were 7 yrs old

seem to remember being told to ski them before putiing skins on

[swissiphic]

Hey XXX'er...since we have the uber warm temps and some transitiony kinda snow from schmoo to corn...how's the p.g. doing in this stuff?

[XXX-er]

Its +8C so the skiing sucked from about lunchtime on sunday & I haven't been out skiing since

[swissiphic]

Its +8C so the skiing sucked from about lunchtime on sunday & I haven't been out skiing since

Can't be that bad. It was plus 15 at shames and though the snow was schmooey water saturated not yet corn, with graphite rub on wax the glide was as good as it gets right to the closing bell. Everyone else seemed to be suffering a bit with the trad yellow wax though and I was handing out the black bar for quick rub on wax jobs to share the good glide love...considering the kinda uniqueness of these snow conditions, it's why i'm REALLY curious if the P.G. works in this stuff.

The skiing was great though, slurpy bumps and super fast trench carving groomers.

[TG]

Can't be that bad. It was plus 15 at shames and though the snow was schmooey water saturated not yet corn, with graphite rub on wax the glide was as good as it gets right to the closing bell. Everyone else seemed to be suffering a bit with the trad yellow wax though and I was handing out the black bar for quick rub on wax jobs to share the good glide love...considering the kinda uniqueness of these snow conditions, it's why i'm REALLY curious if the P.G. works in this stuff.

The skiing was great though, slurpy bumps and super fast trench carving groomers.

which brand of graphite rub-on are you using?

[swissiphic]

which brand of graphite rub-on are you using?

It's not technically a rub on. This spate of hot weather's only supposed to last a few days so didn't want to alter the fundamental green/red wax hot ironed in base properties just yet.

Brand is Kuusport from Canada but the website seems to be down or else i'd post a link.

[XXX-er]

Hey XXX'er...since we have the uber warm temps and some transitiony kinda snow from schmoo to corn...how's the p.g. doing in this stuff?

I was skiing today with a buddy who was on atomic redster double deck womens GS skis in 8 degree C snow and the Lotus 120 were keeping up fine in fact he was impressed

[swissiphic]

I was skiing today with a buddy who was on atomic redster double deck womens GS skis in 8 degree C snow and the Lotus 120 were keeping up fine in fact he was impressed

nice, thnx for the data point. Do u know if the atomics were waxed for the conditions? And how was low angle cat track glide ... any hint of that herky jerky or bogged down feeling?

[XXX-er]

well his ^^ kid used to race and he has wax and irons so I imagine he had some decent wax

glide was good, no jerkyness or bogging

Phantomized lotus 120 on slush seemed pretty good so gona run them again today

[NorCalNomad]

nice, thnx for the data point. Do u know if the atomics were waxed for the conditions? And how was low angle cat track glide ... any hint of that herky jerky or bogged down feeling?

Same sort of experience with me last late spring on my 116 Helios that have Phantom. Zero jerkyness. Only time I notice they aren't fast is shuffling in line.

[swissiphic]

well his ^^ kid used to race and he has wax and irons so I imagine he had some decent wax

glide was good, no jerkyness or bogging

Phantomized lotus 120 on slush seemed pretty good so gona run them again today

Nice!