After 'making due' for years and wasting time and effort with typical shop vises and pony clamps on my family's array of different ski flavors, variable lengths & widths, along with their variously sloped sidewalls, I decided to get a 'real vise' and found the Tools4Boards products after a lot of research. I never liked the idea of grabbing the ski with the jaws of a vise, always a little concerned of damaging the sides while trying to achieve a could grip and usually ended up with vise blowouts, slippage, and movement. The lasso cinch clamp eliminated that concern and tell tale ski abuse, is highly versatile, and fast. The clamping system works great to easily shift vise and lasso cinch clamp positions.

Looking for a vise to work on Tele, AT, XC, skate, & alpine skis, I settled on the Retractor, but now liking the Cinch a tad better for my purposes, as it is a bit more versatile and can rotate (ie, p-texing or waxing 2 fat boards-6 skate skis @ once). The Pro500 works on many AT bindings, including my Silvretta EasyGo's. The scrapers are very nice and expedite base repair and wax scraping as does the secure clamping and no skid pads.

It seems to me that the level of understanding of basic base, tuning, and waxing is under discussed, considered unimportant, intimidating to some, and seen as undesireable or too much work. Knowing some basics can help you get more mileage and enjoyment out of your equipment and save time and money. Not to mention saving some energy while sliding and getting in a few more turns. If you spend time researching products and money to save weight, optimizing slide and simply taking care of your edges and bases is equally important in my view. For some, taking care of your edges and bases is also a form of satisfaction.The web site is in flux and we will be adding more and more tuning, waxing, and other tips, along and dealer links and other good information as it evolves and time allows. In the mean time, I'm hoping to get some tips and techniques discussions going on this and other venues, while also being available to help in any way I can, while improving my own knowledge base.