Announcement
- Through a special arrangement with the Sundown Ski Team, you are now able to get a discount on fluoro overlays through RaceWax.com. Go to http://www.racewax.com to make your purchase. Refer to bottom of this article for details on the discount. For race day, remember to select the appropriate wax for the temperature.
- The most important aspect to turning in a fast time is technique. So, if you want to go fast, work hard on your drills. That said, equipment does play an important role.
- The next most important thing you can do is to be sure your edges are really sharp. A local ski shop should be able to apply a good race tune to your skis. In general, we suggest staying with the factory recommended base bevel and side angles. Our team has close relationships with two ski shops - Sport House in Canton, CT and Competitive Edge in Mass. While discounts are not available, our team members have had good results from tunes at both locations.
- Now we have come to waxing. You can get a good amount of speed on race day by using a high quality hydrocarbon wax for the appropriate temperature. This wax is inexpensive, running about $15-20 for a 180 gram bar and can be purchased at a local ski shop or racewax.com. We suggest you get bars for the temperature ranges between 10 degrees F to over 32 degrees F, which is most typical for weather in CT. For most major brands, like Swix and Toko, this temperature range can be covered with three bars, at most. So, there's lots of benefit to be had -- at a low cost -- by simply waxing your skis after Saturday's practice in preparation for the next day's race.
- The next step up, which may make a few tenths of a second difference, is to wax with a fluoro wax when the humidity is high. As the temperature rises towards and over freezing, the benefit from fluoro increases. This is because in warmer conditions the friction between your skis and the snow tends to melt the snow and form a thin layer of water under your skis. The water against your ski bottoms can form a vacuum and create additional drag. You need a substance, like fluoro, to make the water bead up and not cause your skis to stick. Fluoro wax purchased in a ski shop is pretty expensive. Fluoro overlays, which can give you another tenth or so, are even more expensive.
- When working with fluoro waxes, remember to keep it safe. Wax your skis only in well-ventilated areas and wear a respirator. Watch the temperature of your iron closely. If the iron is too hot, the wax will start to smoke. The smoke from fluoro wax can make you sick.
Now, a bit of background.
To help our older racers experiment with waxes and overlays, we've worked out a discount with racewax.com. The agreement is that you will get double the quantity of overlay, if you let them know you race for the Sundown Ski Team when you place your order. Because the fluoro wax is already significantly discounted, no additional discount on wax is available. Still, you will find that these waxes are significantly cheaper than what you will pay elsewhere for "name brand" ski wax.
A final tip - teflon fibers (which is what the "fluoro" stands for) in your skis can build up and cause your skis to become slower. So, after each race, we suggest that you do a "hot scrape" with a hydrocarbon wax to clean the teflon fibers out of your bases. Then, wax with the appropriate hydrocarbon wax for the Wednesday night practice. Those two waxings will ensure that your bases are ready to accept the fluoro wax for the following week's race.
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