I really wish the sports science guys would scientifically test all these waxing methods and various waxes. Something tells me that we are all over-thinking this whole wax thing. Who wants to write them a letter?
I clean my base with citrus cleaner... don't buy into the myth about base cleaners being bad. I forgot what site it was, but they debunked that myth due to the nature of snowboard bases.
After my base is completely dry, I drip wax thoroughly on my base taking extra care to cover my edges nose to tail (you don't need to wax tips, its just something I do because I press a ton). I then spread the wax nose to tail. I don't do it in sections because although it takes longer for me to spread the wax, I know that I'm warming my base up good while the iron is re-melting the wax to spread.
I let it cool, then get scrape happy. Do a light nylon brushing and then scotch brite it. Boom, I'm done.
Oh, and I do use rub on method for touch-ups. No point in rewaxing the whole base when it's still mostly covered. If you use the rub on method, you need to cork it. I even used an old wine bottle cork to do this. Rub on waxing gets a bad rep. It's not terrible for touch-ups when you cork it after.