I've only ever used hard wax, and it's a process, but it's not too bad.

I follow the method demonstrated in this video here:

I do my board(s), my oldest daughter's skis, and my 3 other daughter's boards. The edges are the more annoying part, honestly. With the number of kits I have to maintain, the tools to do it myself were actually cheaper than getting it done at the shop. Plus, I can I do it every ~5-10 riding days.

EDIT: I should probably mention that I don't go as intense in brushing as he does; I'm more interested in longevity than absolute speed so I do leave a bit more wax than he does.

I'm not that concerned with the effort, it's more of a space thing for me to be honest. I live in a 65 sqm apartment and I can't scrape wax in living room.. That won't go over well with the missus... or myself for that matter, I don't want wax on my floor 😀 

Some people say that a sintered base is slightly porous, but I doubt that, because I assume they actually press the base with heat to melt the pellets to produce a uniform and solid structure. So the only purpose of the wax is to apply a hydrophobic layer on top of the plastic so that you don't get suction forces acting on the board as you ride on the snow which causes it to melt. That also matches with what he says in the video about it not making any sense to have the wax "soak into" the base. 

So basically, my realistic options are letting a shop do the waxing or going with liquid wax.. Or I guess a third option which would be to let a shop do a first base coat of a durable hard wax and then apply a liquid wax for an appropriate temperature per day...

@superfelix Hi, Have a look at Faststik. Check out their site and some youtube videos that are out. It seems pretty effective and could be a good solution to quickly do all of the skis/snowboards you have to keep up with. I ordered some and will be using it on my wife and My equipment this coming season. Still haven't tried it out yet because the season has not started yet. You can ask questions directly to the owner at the email on their site. Cheers!

There's so much misinformation and folklore around waxing.  That was a good video.  I usually find Tommie's energy a bit much, but it made a half hour of waxing watchable (with some dual screening).

You're right, the base is not porous. K2's head engineer J-Stone said a bit about this on one of the bomb hole episodes as well. 

Another thing to mention is that it doesn't get "dry"... it's plastic.  Sometimes what you're seeing is micro-abrasions leaving little hairs of plastic.  You may not see these little hairs themselves, but they change how the light reflects off the surface and it's readily noticable.  One thing Tommie's vid didn't mention was that a steel brush can remove some of those little hairs (there weren't any on that perfect base).  Simply waxing over those hairs is just a bandaide (and a liquid wax may not even cover it).  It isn't going to last.  When it gets really bad, a base grind is certainly beneficial.

Now how much do I wax?  Very rarely.  I don't think it's a good idea to heat cycle the resins all the time.  For a while, when I had the whole family's gear to contend with, I actually quit doing it myself.  But I'm typically riding cold temps that aren't sticky.  Last spring I finally broke down and bought a decent iron.  Get one one with a thick base.  It's SOOOO much better than the old household iron that I use to use. 

Decades ago when I was in an appartment, I'd use the crayon method and just try not to get too much on.  Yeah, no-scrape.  More recently I've seen the "paper towel method" online, but never tried it.

For anyone on facebook, this guy made a great little waxing station.  I might actually do this myself for next year as the strata's waxing station really sucks.