Early Season Glide Waxing- Keep It Simple

NOTICE OF COPYRIGHT: This technical tip is copyrighted 2007 by Gary Schmitt, with all rights reserved, and may not be copied, reproduced or electronically stored, duplicated or transmitted, in whole or in part, without written permission; however, for personal non-commercial use by individual consumers, it may be copied or electronically stored, duplicated or transmitted provided this copyright notice is retained with the copy, duplication or transmission.  However, the copyright notice itself, having not been copyrighted, was stolen directly from Andrew Hall.  I just changed the date and name.  It’s all in the fine print Mate!

Early in the season it seems that I’m not as organized as I’d like to be.  Everything takes a little longer than it will later in the year.  Ever heard of the plumber whose pipes leak?  The mechanic whose car knocks?  That’s me, the ski tech with neglected skis.  I usually have little time to work on my own skis.  In fact, it seems sometimes that the choice I have is whether to wax, or ski.  And while that is an easy choice, I don’t like slow skis!

So, I’ve figured out a few strategies that save me time and give me good gliding.  They work well in the Sierra and may work in your area too.  These ideas are for training and fun skiing.  They are especially useful if you only have one good pair of skis, or if the coverage is poor and you only have one pair of rock skis! 

These strategies are also useful if you ski through the part of the day when the snow may change and warm up.  This may be 11:AM in December, but 8:AM in March.

I always try to have a little more structure than I think I’ll need.  A little extra structure won’t kill the glide if it stays cold.  If it surprises you and warms up a bit, the extra structure will help you out.  Over the course of a few waxings the structure will diminish anyway and by the first race you’ll have the option of leaving it pretty flat or making it more aggressive.  I feel that the Toko structure tool leaves a structure that irons out rather quickly, so I like it this time of year.

I like to train on low flouro wax in the Sierra’s.  If it’s very dry the little bit of flouro won’t slow you down, you’ll just have spent a few cents more.  If applied by crayoning then ironing, it’s very cheap to use.  If it does warm up to freezing or above the flouro will help you out.

Wax a bit cold at this time of year.  It’s better to be waxed too cold than too warm in terms of speed.  Cold wax is hard wax and so, more durable.  I can wax less often, and my bases suffer less from a bit of neglect than if I were using softer wax.  It’s been known for some time that to make your skis fast, you need to get very hard waxes into the base.  What better time to do this than in November and December?  The sun is very weak at this time of year, so it’s affect on the snow is negligible.

So, what I’m suggesting is hedging your bets.  A little bit of structure and low flouro wax in case it warms up and the snow gets moist.  Using a colder wax in case it doesn’t warm up, for durability and just to get some cold stuff in your bases.  I spend more time skiing and less time waxing, and my skis seem to run pretty well.

See you out there!