Protecting your gear Once you have your gear, you need to take some steps to protect it. TUNING For best performance, your board should be tuned and waxed periodically. If you rent your board, you won't worry about this. If you have your own board, welcome to the responsibilities of ownership. The management of Grays On Trays relies on the local ski shop; other members of the discussion board do their own maintenance. If you want to learn how it's done, check out these articles from Snowboarding magazine. PROTECT YOUR GEAR One primitive anti-theft measure available to skiers is to store one ski on one side of the day lodge and another on the other side. Obviously that's not available to snowboard riders. So what should you do? Buy a lock. It's not foolproof, but it's better than nothing. Or you can use an equipment check facility on the mountain. You may also wish to enter your snowboard in the Snowboard Registry, a free on-line service to help stop snowboard theft and to prevent stolen boards from being stolen. It requires a serial number, so it may not be useful to you. But if your board has one, consider using it. It's an indirect method of dealing with theft, but one that may be worth using. DISCUSSION Stop by the GraysOnTrays discussion board to add your comments or questions relating to snowboarding lessons. Return to the home page.