Applying DPS Phantom one-part

With a new pair of skis for the 2020-2021 season ready to go I wanted to try the DPS Phantom permanent base treatment on them but could not get behind paying a shop $150 to do it for me.

I had heard the Phantom treatment went from being a ‘complicated mess’ from its post-Kickstarter days, to ‘better’ in version 2.0 – but wasn’t aware of the latest change which moved the whole thing to a one-part process (still involving a few steps, of course).

One thing to note – it’s very hard to tell exactly what you are getting when it comes to ordering DPS Phantom online since there are a wide variety of versions of Phantom out there. I ordered from this link at Amazon and got the very latest, one-part treatment here – you need to be careful here since the other, cheapest options may not be the newest version of Phantom.

After letting the skis warm up in the sun for about a half-hour, I got started.

The first thing I did after cleaning the bases was set up a clean area in the garage, out of the sun but well ventilated, to apply the treatment.

Truth is, reading reviews I was expecting this to be a complete mess, with chemical goop everywhere!

But in reality, the newest generation of Phantom was not like what I read in reviews at all of the previous ones – each packet was just enough for one ski and there wasn’t much, if anything, left to wipe up or drip on to the top sheets at all.

I had timed this to be done on a beautiful fall day with 100% sunshine in the SLC valley and temperatures in the 40s and the Phantom treatment cured up beautifully in about 75 minutes, with no wet areas or anything.

After following the directions for post-application treatment everything is looking good – I’ll update this after I can get out on the snow this season.