I've been watching this thread for a while because I love skiing & I find developments in materials science interesting. I *think* hydrophobic materials have been discussed in this thread (I haven't re-read all the posts). Anyway...
Super-hydrophobic surface materials have always faced a durability challenge. But there's been a lot of R&D in hydrophobics for a while to address this. Ironically, a big driver for the research is the shipping industry. Lower the drag on tanker/cargo hulls and save big on fuel costs (which currently can be immense). From what I understand, hydrophobic paints typically don't have the durability to be fiscally practical for the big ships. But that is changing. One lab/company seems to have achieved a breakthrough with hydrophobics. Article here:
https://phys.org/news/2017-04-self-healing-water-repellant-coating-ultra-durable.html
Synopsis: the material can be painted or engineered into sheets. It's super-hydrophobic and "icephobic" (their words). It's durable & self-healing. Abrasion does not impair it's properties. Temperature range its properties support: -50C to 250C. It apparently starts as a liquid suspension and then goes through a curing phase after application/deposition. Suitable for coating ship hulls and other surfaces requiring durable hydrophobic surfaces.
The stuff is being commercialized by Hygratek:
http://hygratek.com/
I'd love to play with this stuff. I could envision a ski base using the sheet form of a material like this for the base at manufacture. Then, perhaps, a skier/tech could "refresh" the base (if needed) with a spray-on version of the material (like after a damage repair or prior to re-grinding the bases of well-worn skis).