TEAM SUPPORT FOR THE UNIVERSITY SKI COACH

Transcription

1 TEAM SUPPORT FOR THE UNIVERSITY SKI COACH This documents the personal preferences recalled by the author for race support used in the University athletics. It reflects a degree of economical and practical practices for this type of competition. Contents 1 Equipment 2 Weekend Competition Scheduling 3 Ski Selection 4 Test Protocols 5 Basic Waxing 6 Scenarios 1. Equipment 1.1 Tools Corks, good, binder, maybe klister Sandpaper 180 and 120 grit Random orbital sander Fibrelene, fibre paper Brass Klister Brushes (wood handles only) Paint Scrapers Torch Head & gas cylinder(s) Grip Iron Electric Heat Gun Torch heated iron Blue shop towels, and regular white paper towels Wax remover and applicator Hot melt glue sticks Large size Phillips screwdriver (for bindings) Multi/Tool, knife Hack saw Possibly small spatulas for glueing Container for open tubes of klister Plastic Scrapers/Sharpener Draft John Langstone 1 of 41 Printed 15/04/2011 4:29:55 PM

2 Groove Scrapers Clock Metal Scraper Diamond Hone (for metal scraper) Fluoro polisher Glide Iron Thermometers, Sharpie Erasable Marker Duct Tape Rilling Tools Roto cork and single handle Drill Brushes (brass, horsehair, polishing) Power Bar Wax Forms/Clamps Wax Table(s) Gloves Mask Mini screwdrivers Apron GFI Extension Cords (rolls keep cords out of the water/snow). Number 12 gauge wire if possible, # 14 is ok #16 is not (too much line loss). Small Propane heater & gas cylinder(s) Extra tables/wax benches for athletes to wax and clean skis. Wax test and schedule forms with clipboards. Two way radios (and a power bar to charge these in the hotel) Ski stand or straps to hold and organize team skis. 1.2 Grip Waxes These are personal preferences: Swix fluors Vauhti fluors Rode fluors Start fluors Rode line Old Starts if you have them Rex or Vauhti super binder Rode Black Base binder Rode Klisters Particularly Rossa Swix Universal Klister Draft John Langstone 2 of 41 Printed 15/04/2011 4:29:55 PM

3 Start Universal Silver Klister Vauhti Blue and Purple Klisters Toko Multigrade Orange 1.3 Glide Waxes: These are personal preferences: Greens: CH4 CH3 additive Rex Green Start Green Fastwax Others: CH6 (not often used) CH7 CH8 CH10 DiBloc Red Fluorocarbons: Cold Streamline Block Cold Streamline Powder Cera F Powder or block Glide Test Skis: Matched for flex (same brand, sequential numbers) Same structure (safest is a grind or flat scraped) Grip Test Skis: 1. These are best the personal skis of the tester. Very bizarre results come from people on skis that are not a good flex match to the skier. 2. Weekend Competition Preparation and Scheduling Draft John Langstone 3 of 41 Printed 15/04/2011 4:29:55 PM

4 2.1 Preparation for the Competition In terms of getting the team ready for competition, possibly sending out an e mail indicating the kind of preparation necessary, and the scheduling for the weekend will simplify things. See Appendix B & C. It should be understood that skis be cleaned of grip wax, with pockets well marked, names on the skis, and a good idea is a unique identifier marked on the tip of each ski (in case the athlete tests waxes during warm up). On race day at the race site, the skis should be scraped and brushed ready for competition prior to arrival. If athletes come unprepared, they often want to scrape glide on your clean wax table where you are preparing for grip. A mess all around. In addition, bindings should be checked, flexible parts are in good condition, and screws tight. De-lamination and other problems should be repaired before they get on site. Boots should be examined for tears, and functioning zippers and the like. Pole baskets should be tested, and tips should be tight. Handles should be tight, and straps examined for wear or tearing. Particularly for mass start or relay events, spare poles should be brought on the trip. If there is a long event, feeds have to be planned. Giving out good instructions on packing equipment can reduce catch up or repair work on site later. This is very disruptive if it occurs near race start time. If you give too much attention to the unprepared athlete at a race, the race support tends to revolve around the least prepared rather than the best prepared. Often long range forecasts for competition weekends are quite good these days. This allows some planning of quantities of waxes of different types to take, and preparation of test skis. You can plan for a run on (quantity of) a certain wax for grip and glide, and plan for extras of these waxes. In terms of grip, having several of certain common wax types allows the waxing operation on site to go more quickly. Also, take multiples of most common grip waxes; you don t want to be constrained by a lost wax on site. You can adapt wax plans like the attached. This is part of an old plan I did for a trip. The idea here is to list all the wax that might be needed, Draft John Langstone 4 of 41 Printed 15/04/2011 4:29:55 PM

5 decide on the quantity to take, and identify what each coach will bring. I have a column here for the shortfall, which has to be purchased. One thing that is really productive is to wax your glide test skis the day before. This allows you to just pull them out of the bag at a race site, and get your test results. An important point in glide testing is to have the wax as the only variable. Doing the waxing and brushing by one person with the same equipment in a controlled atmosphere ensures this is done as consistently as possible. Also, all the skis will be the same temperature which is not always the case on site when you are waxing there (warm skis generally run faster). Draft John Langstone 5 of 41 Printed 15/04/2011 4:29:55 PM

6 The glide test skis should be marked with codes. What is on the coded skis should be carefully marked on a wax testing sheet when done. This is easy to screw up, so do this carefully. The sheet I used looked like (an old example): What I did at the start of this at home, was wax the skis, and list at the bottom of the sheet what ski they were on. I also used to this to my gmail account in case this sheet were misplaced on the weekend. One feature you will notice on this is the four skis on the right (11-14). They are structure test skis, and we typically use our personal skis for this, definitely not the glide wax test skis. It is critically important that the glide Draft John Langstone 6 of 41 Printed 15/04/2011 4:29:55 PM

7 wax test skis have the same structure. I never played with structure on glide test skis. Notice for structure that we were using one pair of skis for one test (which started with a flat ski), and used one structure versus another on another pair of skis. So, to go to the site you have: 1. Grip test skis pre-waxed with the same glide wax (typically belonging to the test skier) 2. Matched glide test skis with the same structure, and the test glide waxes on them 3. Structure test skis with the same glide wax on them. Starting off flat scraped is a good starting point for all skis (but not the only one) Some Glide Wax Testing Strategies: Not all weekends are simple. Sometimes Friday is warm, Saturday is cold, and Sunday is really warm. Or some variation on this. So what to do in situations where a test day won t be the next day (but might be the day in two days). Or what to do when the weekend won t be like test day. Basically, in situations like this, I used to say to myself that some information is better than no information. You can t be sure of this, but often, in certain conditions, the waxes that work will be fairly consistent. So you can guess, or hope that if Friday is warm, and Sunday is warm, that the best wax on Friday will also be the best wax on Sunday. I typically made that assumption. Another I made was that the best out of temperature range wax on test day will probably be the best on the day it will be in range. This can be a bit of a leap of faith, but you either do this, or guess. In addition, when testing on a warm Friday for a very Cold Saturday and a warm Sunday, I occasionally found the cold wax was the best in both conditions (Rex Green has been very good in warmer conditions occasionally). This won t happen often, but it does happen. So looking at some scenarios. One scenario will be a weekend where all three days you expect to race at -10 or below: 1. Rex Green 2. CH4 Draft John Langstone 7 of 41 Printed 15/04/2011 4:29:55 PM

8 3. Start Green 4. CH4 + CH3 5. CH4 + Streamline 6. CH4 + Arctic Powder 7. CH4 ski to apply another additive to later. Test 1 to 3 to find out which of the greens runs best. Then find out if CH4 + an additive is better than CH4. For cold additives: Try CH4 and CH3. o If CH3 is better, test CH3 against Arctic Powder. o If CH4 is better, try CH4 against Arctic Powder. o If one of the additives is better, try one against the other. I would save the Streamline for a race day morning test. You might well have a clean CH4 ski around to do this with. Dirt screws up a lot of wax tests. Keep clear of dirty snow as much as possible when testing. As a second scenario, assume you will be racing at -9 or warmer both days. An example list of waxes might be: 1. CH7 2. CH8 3. CH10 4. Dibloc Red 5. CH8 + Streamline 6. CH7 + Streamline 7. CH10 + Streamline 8. Dibloc Red + Streamline Find out which is the best from skis 1 to 4. If one of the non-fluor waxes is best, stay there. Save the Streamline test for the next morning. If Dibloc Red is best, take the best non-fluor with Streamline added, and test against DiBloc Red with Streamline added. This tells you whether a fluorinated Swix runs better than a Fluorinated fluor (dibloc Red). Then you get the scenario where the next day won t be the same as the test day. Although your choices may change a bit depending on whether the test day is the cold or the warm one, an example list of waxes might be: Draft John Langstone 8 of 41 Printed 15/04/2011 4:29:55 PM

9 1. CH4 2. Rex Green 3. Start Green 4. Dibloc Red 5. CH7 6. CH8 7. CH10 8. CH4 + CH3 9. CH8 + streamline 10. dibloc Red + streamline Say it is warm on test day, and the next day is cold. Test 1 to 3 against each other. If one race day will be warm, test 4 to 7 against one another. If dibloc red is good, try the fluorinated skis. I would try the fastest green against the fastest warm wax to see how different they are. I have been in situations where we chose the green for both days. Notice in the last scenario, we have used up a lot of test skis (Carleton had 10). In that case, you could prepare a cold test ski pair from a personal pair with something like CH4 on one, and CH4 + streamline on the other to do a fluor test on a cold race day. If your structure skis are flat, you might use a pair for a glide test on a cold day where you are unlikely to go too far with structure (one pair of skis may well do). If the practice (test) day is the cold day, you can try something like the above, but it probably won t work as well. I probably wouldn t bother with the fluor cover on skis for a test. Again, you can do this or guess. In the end, you will probably use some judgement (experience) along with the test results. If the Saturday is the same sort of day as the Sunday, I would test again on Saturday. If the weekend looks predictably cold, you can have the athletes travel wax their race skis with something like CH4. CH4 isn t too costly. This is often a good bet where fresh snow and cold weather is expected. Every now and then, this works, and this gives some athletes some time off, and generally is easier for everyone on waxing days. So these are some strategies you can prepare for the day before you leave. Having all the skis ready in advance can have you ready to wax Draft John Langstone 9 of 41 Printed 15/04/2011 4:29:55 PM

10 the team sooner on Friday. Typically you can get your testing done while the team is changing and skiing the course Other Preparation A non-wax issue that can come up in the preparation for an event can be feeds if the event is long enough. I recommend delegating this to athletes, but an insulated bag, and some garbage bags for used feed jars, and even a thermos to keep liquid warm can be useful. The reason for the garbage bags is that leftover feeds from the dirty bottles make a real mess of a backpack. Same thing happens to your pack as happens to a bottle that you haven t washed. I typically brought hand sanitizer for the bus, and the race site. A bag or a box for ski ties, and a garbage bag at the wax table is useful. You can consider feeds for recovery after day 1 events, and between events at the OUAs as well. 2.2 Practice Day Scheduling You have fairly strict bus driver hours these days. These often mean that from the time the driver opens up the bus and starts it, until he closes it up for the day, can t exceed 14 hours. This is more important on the way home usually, but can affect whether you get a ride to and from a restaurant on the Friday. On recent trips, the coaches took a cargo van as well as a small bus (which often won t hold the cargo). This cargo van allowed the bus driver to start his day an hour or so later on race days, with the coaches driving themselves. Typically, I always tried to get off as early as possible on a Friday for an event. We met the bus at 6:00 am and were usually on the road by 6:30. Often trips are between 4 and 5 hours, and there will probably be a stop along the way. It is a good idea for the athletes on the team to carry at least two bags. One is packed for the hotel, the other in the overhead bin of the bus. The in bus bag should have all the ski equipment for changing on site, as well as food and other needs on the bus. Most hotels don t check you in before mid-afternoon, and with any luck, you will arrive at the race site Draft John Langstone 10 of 41 Printed 15/04/2011 4:29:55 PM

11 around noon or before (note that any bad weather can really throw this schedule off). When you get to the race site area, you can shop and have lunch first, or go to the ski area to ski first. Most of the time, shopping and lunch will come first. A good solution here is often to bus near a grocery store, where there are often good sandwiches and other food available. If people bring their own food, often you can skip lunch, go straight to the race site, and shop on the way back to the hotel. Typically, race site visit will be a two hour affair by the time you unpack, wax skis, have the athletes ski and you test, and pack up. If you don t have a wax room at a hotel, often the best bet is to glide wax skis beforehand if there is good space on site. If you guessed right with travel wax, some people won t have much work to do. Glide waxing skis in the cold isn t optimal for absorption of wax. A suggestion is to try to get into a wax room at a hotel as soon as you arrive at the hotel in the afternoon. If you finish before dinner, everyone has the evening free. This is good for you, and good for the athletes. Also, if you wax both classic and free race skis, Saturday can be an easy day. Dragging waxing out until 10:00 pm or later (been there) is no fun for anyone. Try to get the whole team on the same page for waxing times. Stragglers mean the coaches have to set up and take down again and again. Complicating the schedule for the coaches is the team meeting. Trying to fit this among waxing, eating, and other preparation often leaves the eating part being left to last. Trying to fit in an evening meal and team meeting is a good reason getting the waxing done early. Not getting good food and sleep will eventually show up in decision making later in the weekend when serious fatigue sets in. Getting waxing done is good for everyone. To get ready for race day, assuming you have a start list (today as often as not it is on the internet), you should fill out several starting time schedules. Full forms are provided in the Appendix section, but typically a schedule could look a bit like: Draft John Langstone 11 of 41 Printed 15/04/2011 4:29:55 PM

12 Take a scenario where the start time is 10:00, for an individual start classic race, the ready time would be 9:20, and decision time probably not much later than 9:10. In the scenario where you have a classic mass start event, depending on number of skis you have to get ready, decision time could be 9:00 or earlier (and this may vary depending on how much preparation can be done up front before decision time). Also, if you want to do splits, the night before is the time to prepare a split list or enter the start list into your computer for this. To illustrate how compressed this day can be, particularly if you don t get off early for the trip, the chart below is a sample schedule. Draft John Langstone 12 of 41 Printed 15/04/2011 4:29:55 PM

13 2.3 Race Day Scheduling There are different scenarios here depending on whether a free technique day or classic. Also, depending on weather, you may want to re-test glide on the first race day. The major difference between classic and free days will generally involve time of arrival and testing focus. Typically athletes will arrive perhaps ½ hour later on a free day (but not always), so you have more time to set up for a free day, and can arrive a bit later. I like to be on site early. The early bird gets the choice of parking places, waxing locations, and power outlets. It can require a bit better lighting, but often we used to set up, and then sit down for a coffee before getting started with the day. Having a few moments to gather your thoughts before a hectic morning is something I liked to do. So I typically like to arrive between 2-1/2 and 3 hours before the first starter, whether on your team or not. This generally allows you to set up and be in good position to do your work. If it is a University only event, arriving 2-1/2 hours before the first starter only allows you an hour to set up before your first athletes arrive. To set up, you often have to unload all the athlete race skis, all the athlete ski bags, set up the race skis in order, set up tables, forms, lights, shelters, position wax boxes, get paperwork out, mount the clock and get power. If you expect precipitation, this can be annoying to work in, so having a canopy, or working in shelter is good. I personally preferred to grip wax outdoors, and generally liked working outdoors. The atmosphere in many wax rooms is really foul to spend a day in. What I ll do here is cover a couple of pretty ideal situations for Classic and Free days. Draft John Langstone 13 of 41 Printed 15/04/2011 4:29:55 PM

14 2.3.1 Classic Day First you want to get your priorities straight. It takes a very small mistake in grip wax to overcome any glide wax perfection you might be trying to achieve. So, unless something is really seriously wrong with glide, getting the grip right is priority one. If you are going to get the grip right, you have to have grip. This may sound silly, but I can think of many times where the early focus on getting a fast grip wax led to problems later on. If you can t get dynamite grip with something in an early test, it is going to be a difficult day. Very few waxes, which often are race waxes, are fast at all when you are the first person on the track in the morning. What you want to find out early is which grip wax gives the grip you need, and choose among the fastest of those which give you the grip you need. This will often lead you down one brand of wax all day. Strongly recommended in this is to have the athletes test waxes when they arrive. Forms for this are in the Appendix. This means the coaches will have to recommend something when athletes arrive. Definitely have some people on race waxes, but don t hesitate to try warmer stuff. The data you gain from the too warm waxes is often used later in the day when you are reaching for a warmer wax. I recommend having athletes wax their own warm up skis. This shouldn t affect their warm up. But if you do this as coaches, you aren t concentrating on testing, preparation and adjusting. These are your high priorities. In terms of scheduling, I wanted to target getting skis ready 40 minutes before start. That didn t always work, but when you target that, you aren t often running around 10 minutes before the start and the athlete not having tested their skis. To make this work, on an individual start day, you typically have to make a decision 50 minutes before the athlete s start. On a mass start day, this will be earlier, depending on the number of skis to be done. Remember some key times in the day will be the time athletes arrive, and want some direction on what to put on their test skis, and decision time to select the wax for the first person off. Draft John Langstone 14 of 41 Printed 15/04/2011 4:29:55 PM

15 So say the race starts at 10:00 and you arrived at 7:00. Say decision time is 9:10, and the first bunch of athletes arrive at 8:30, some things that have to fall into this interval are: Get a handle on grip waxes Have some recommendations ready for athletes at 8:30 Test fluoro and apply Test structure and structure skis Apply base layers when you can do this One note about base layers is to be pretty sure of where you are going before you apply wax, in particular klisters. I don t recommend applying klister the night before; they are a lot of work to get off the next morning if you are wrong. Now it is possible to have one coach jump on some glide test skis early on while you are setting up, but make sure you have a good handle on where you are going with grip. Now on our 10:00 start day, not only will you be preparing skis, but you will be dealing with athlete complaints about the skis. So, you are both applying wax in an assembly line fashion, but you are dealing with distractions during this period. Note that I ve mentioned a clock in the list of equipment. I typically hang a large cheap wall clock somewhere obvious in the waxing area. My experience has been that I get off schedule when I don t have that clock in front of me. When you consider that you have only 40 minutes from athlete arrival to waxing decision, you don t have a lot of time. Your team may well have start times over an hour or two apart. Conditions can change a lot in that hour and a half. Sometimes if you have tested waxes warmer than race waxes, you can go to these. But otherwise, tests should be scheduled for the second group of skiers going out. Bear in mind, not only will the kick wax change, but the glide wax and structure may too. Feedback from athletes racing in the earlier races is important too. In a pinch, someone finishing an earlier race could test a wax for a later race when warming down. The fact that the coaches have a van means athletes can return to the hotel in a bus, and the coaches may be able to stay behind to test and clean up. This pretty much allows the athletes to decide when they leave, which is a convenience. Draft John Langstone 15 of 41 Printed 15/04/2011 4:29:55 PM

16 Think a bit about departures after racing in scheduling too. Often athletes expect to go back to the hotel when they aren t ready to stay on site for the end of the competition. You may want the team to be on site for medal presentations. Having the team plan in advance with a change of clothes, warm clothes, and particularly, something to eat and drink, will help with this. A strong recommendation is to have the team pack up at the hotel in the morning of departure day, and not return to the hotel. The athletes can pack a change of clothes and food in a bag in the bus, and get ready on site. A consideration here is that with your bus on a limited work day; adding a couple of hours back at the hotel (it usually turns into that), can cause trouble, particularly on long days and if the weather is bad. In addition, on a classic day, particularly a klister day, the team will be busy cleaning skis. Preparing for this makes your day easier. Extra tables and small bottles of wax remover and towels (and garbage bags) are a good idea. Extra scrapers too. You don t want to put your entire inventory of towels or wax remover out for team use, or you may well be caught short. Hide your own supply away somewhere. Bear in mind on a klister day, you personally may have to clean three or four pairs of test skis. To save wax remover, I often put some into mustard bottles with a pointed twist top, or a small ink jet printer cartridge filler. It is surprising how far wax remover will go when the dispenser only gives out very little. In the schedule for a Saturday will be waxing skis for the next day, and all the factors mentioned for Friday night preparation apply to Saturday. That also is a good reason for asking organizers to have a short meeting Draft John Langstone 16 of 41 Printed 15/04/2011 4:29:55 PM

17 on site before departure rather than a formal coaches meeting on Saturday evening if there is a choice. I personally always liked to go to the race site with skis not fluorinated. One exception was using DiBloc Red, which I just had a lot of luck with. But if you have a fluorinated ski, and it isn t the wax for the day, the only way out is to re-wax. Having said this, if we saw a complicated grip waxing day coming up, or a day where we were almost positive we d be putting a fluor on, we would sometimes do this the night before a classic day Free Technique Day Most free technique days are a bit easier for the coaching team. But there is a focus on glide, which is important. There are four factors you may play with on these days, skis, structure, fluoro cover and the wax Skis If you have the luxury of multiple pairs of skis, the selection of the right ski for the day is the most important consideration for the athlete (this is true on classic days too). Often the athlete will want to test more than one ski the morning of the event. Be careful that both pairs of skis are prepared the same (although you may not have much choice with structure). This means often at some point in the morning you will have to decide whether to add fluor to both skis on none prior to the race. This will have a bit to do with how rushed you might be later. As often as not, I would fully prepare skis beforehand for the top athletes on the team. You may find your top athlete will change their mind right before the event, and your team results may hinge on the performance of that athlete. University racing scores your top 3 or 4 athletes. In terms of general properties of skis for certain situations, see the section on ski selection Structure Draft John Langstone 17 of 41 Printed 15/04/2011 4:29:55 PM

18 It is nice to start a race day with two pairs of free technique skis with the same wax and flat structure, that hopefully you have been able to hot scrape out from previous tests. Typically you start with a small structure, and compare it to flat. Most of the time, the small structure will be better. From that point you can put a deeper structure in the flat ski. Sometimes this will be better. If it is, it is a good idea to put the larger structure you tested on one of the second pair of skis, and then a larger structure on the remaining flat ski in that pair. Continue with this until you find a structure that is either too big, or you haven t got a larger rilling tool. In colder conditions in particular, a gentle hand with the rilling tool is often a good thing, where little structure may be wanted. In this situation, it is best to have all the structure applied by the same person who did the test structure. It is a good idea to test fluor and structure together, and do a structure and fluor at the same time. But you continue to test structure, and you may have to add more as the day moves on. Try not to miss the change. The rule is, If in doubt, do. In a long event, particular if the track is abrasive, consider largish structure to account for wear Fluoro First some explanation regarding fluoros. We used to heat these in when we first started over 20 years ago. With this application, it was more common to have really bad fluorocarboned skis when you missed it than we typically do today. Part of the reason for this stems from the heating. A heated fluorocarbon wax (powder generally) is more durable than roto corked (or light heat and corking with powders) but generally is less flexible in low temperature and humidity conditions. So, the higher heat, the better the durability, but it may well not work well in cooler or dryer conditions. And it can be quite bad. Today I tend to only heat powders in at hotter temperatures for 30k and 50 k races, but you can look up other technicians rules for this. Draft John Langstone 18 of 41 Printed 15/04/2011 4:29:55 PM

19 So back in the day when you heated powders in seriously, you could brew up a really bad combination when you missed it. Like really really bad. You can still do this, but it doesn t happen as often with blocks and corks. (and in addition, a fluor wax like DiBloc Red will usually work the next day after a test as long as the conditions are in range). So I always tested fluors before applying them (with the occasional exception of a classic day that was probably going to be complicated and you were pretty sure that fluoros would work). We often started testing first thing in the morning, and if it worked, we would go ahead and apply. Just be a little careful of how early; testing before dawn can be a sketchy business with humidity changes. But on very cold days, apply very little for the test (and replicate the test quantity for the race skis), and be careful doing this too early in case it changes. If the day is warming significantly, you are probably pretty safe going ahead. As with structure, if in doubt, do it. A second advantage of a fluor layer is it may stay cleaner during the event Wax I don t often re-test wax, particularly if there isn t time to do anything about it but worry about it. Another consideration wax testing on race days is testing brand new skis against tested skis. A tested ski is often a bit dirty. A new ski is clean, and may be warmer than other skis unless you are really careful. Be careful running around glide wax testing on race day; you can spend a lot of time working on a mistake if you aren t careful. It is never a smart idea to change a cold wax on a very cold day (-15 or lower) unless you really made a big mistake. Often in these situations you may be waiting for the temperature to climb over -20. A good cold wax application is done at least the day before the event, and the skis left out in the cold overnight. This process allows the wax to squeeze itself out of the pores in the base and cover the base again. Quantity of wax on the ski on a cold day is a pretty significant parameter. You want the ski really well scraped and brushed. So these skis should be scraped and brushed again the morning of the event. It is surprising how much wax often comes off during this process. Draft John Langstone 19 of 41 Printed 15/04/2011 4:29:55 PM

20 If you re-wax the morning of the event, the ski won t have gone through this process that went on overnight, and you will probably be skiing with more than an ideal amount of wax on the surface of the ski. This may well negate the benefit of a small wax change. Some people advise skiing on the ski the day before to wear it in for very cold days (careful to keep the ski clean though). If you plan to put a cold additive on a ski, like CH3 or Arctic Powder, I personally like to mix these with the wax. One issue is applying a lot of heat to a ski with very little additive on it exposes the base to a lot of heat which is undesirable. Another complication is, some CH3 is manufactured as little balls, and they tend to roll off the ski before you can heat them in. Really annoying. 3 Ski Selection In practice, with University skiing, not many of your athletes will have multiple pairs of skis. But whether they do or not can affect the approach you take to try to prepare a decent ski for a situation the ski won t be too good in generally. As a general rule though, you aren t likely to be happy with the results of taking either a good classic or skating ski for powder/soft or cold snow into a wet klister day. Too much surface contact, and the ski is slow. Too gradual a wax pocket that isn t high enough often leads to a slow ski with klister. And in your effort to keep it fast, as often as not, you don t put enough klister on, and it slips. It is really nice to have the right ski for the right day. So in terms of glide, let s look at a general rule for the flex of a good ski for cold and warm conditions. If you have the tools, you can measure basic ski flex characteristics two ways: 1. Clamp the skis together at roughly ½ body weight roughly 8 cm behind the balance point and run material such as an overhead projector slide cut to perhaps 4 cm or so width down the ski clamped together. 2. Do a paper test (with material such as an overhead projector slide). Draft John Langstone 20 of 41 Printed 15/04/2011 4:29:55 PM

21 Doing this you can feel parts of the ski that apply force. You will feel a variety of force profiles, two reasonably nice ones are shown below. A ski with the upper kind of flex; smoother longer contact, will generally be good in cold dry conditions. The ski with the lower flex; shorter higher pressure contact areas, will often be the better ski in warmer wetter conditions. An extreme version of the latter flex is a ski with perhaps only a few cm of contact front and back, but very high force. This generally is a ski with really bad performance in snow above zero, but often is just great in rain and slush. Some people call this a floppy ski, since the tip and tail often seem to flop in a straight line about the small contact point. Now in terms of grip, there are many different pocket shapes. You can measure these with a flat surface, a pressure gage and feeler gage, or have them measured with sophisticated equipment. This can be done locally at Gatineau Nordique Sport. Two different pockets are shown below. What you will be dealt with in practice is any number of variations of these. These just illustrate some general properties. Draft John Langstone 21 of 41 Printed 15/04/2011 4:29:55 PM

22 General wisdom is that 2 layers of grip wax go to the.1 mm marks, and 4 to the.2 mm marks. Generally thin klister goes at the.3 mm marks, and if you want to cushion, this goes between the.5 mm marks. In terms of using these guidelines, wax is not usually applied rearwards of the front of the heel of the foot. Now this looks quite precise. However, if you generally follow this marked pattern on the sides of skis, the results are usually good. Some people like a relatively soft classic ski around zero degrees and hard wax. Chances of icing are reduced if you can ski on a harder wax. Something to be really careful of is trying to klister the cold snow ski. If you try to go light on klister, make sure the athlete tests them well. You tend to find the athlete complains of no grip, or the skis are slow. Rarely does this work out well. If you have a soft cold snow ski in really wet conditions, I would try to get the athlete to trade for a heavier skier s pair they aren t using. If you have Draft John Langstone 22 of 41 Printed 15/04/2011 4:29:55 PM

23 too much contact area in water or slush, the skis won t work well no matter what you do. There is a great deal more to this than is included here. A couple of good references are: 1. The Complete Guide to Cross-Country Ski Preparation by Nat Brown (usually available at Mountain Equipment Co-op) 2. Various web postings by Zach Caldwell: a. b Testing Protocols Generally there are three test protocols you could use to make decisions; two glide protocols, and one grip protocol. 4.1 Glide/Structure Testing The two glide protocols are basically timing test ski pairs, or feel testing. I haven t timed a set of skis in over 10 years now. Timing can be done with magnetic pickups and a slightly modified stopwatch very effectively. But timing is very time consuming, and you can t test as many waxes as quickly as with feel tests. There are all kinds of factors that lead to problems with timing, among them; Wind Changes in sun on the tracks Damaged tracks (people skiing in and out of them) Dirt Changing temperatures In addition, few ski competitions offer test tracks any more. So we feel test skis. The thing we found over the years was that if a tester just tried to tell you whether the ski on the left or right foot was better, this was often very reliably done. But typically, a tester can t reliably rank 3 skis in order. A very important point here is that the wax or preparation of the ski should be anonymous to the tester. If the tester figures things out, you can put tape over the label on the ski. Draft John Langstone 23 of 41 Printed 15/04/2011 4:29:55 PM

24 But again, the person on the test ski just chooses one ski over the other. The person on the team doing the recording does the ranking. These roles have to be separated. If you carefully keep track of individual preferences, you usually come up with good ski selections. A very good idea here is to note whether the difference is clear, or close. As an example of how this is done, let s look at the glide test form from a previous section. Draft John Langstone 24 of 41 Printed 15/04/2011 4:29:55 PM

25 So for the process: 1. First test is CH6 vs CH7. CH7 was preferred. 2. Second test CH8 was preferred over CH7. 3. Third test was Rode Purple vs CH7. From this both CH7 and CH8 will be preferred to Rode Purple. 4. Next is a test of CH8 and LF8. There are some extra notes here indicating they are pretty close, but CH8 was better in the shade and LF8 in the sun. Draft John Langstone 25 of 41 Printed 15/04/2011 4:29:55 PM

26 5. Fifth test is LF8 vs Dibloc Red. In this test, the LF8 was preferred. 6. Now life starts to get interesting where we test LF8 and Streamline against Dibloc Red and Streamline. Here the preference was Dibloc Red and Streamline. Not what I would have expected. 7. Next we tested LF8 and Streamline against CH8 and Streamline, and preferred the CH8 and Streamline. Not what I would have expected, but perhaps the day is a low fluor day. 8. Here we test DiBloc Red and Streamline against CH8 and Streamline and preferred the Diblod Red and Streamline. Again a bit of a surprise considering test Repeated test 3 with another tester, and had a conflicting answer, but only in the sun. 10. We then checked CH8 against CH8 + Streamline, and preferred the CH8, which was not expected. 11. We went back a bit and checked CH8 against Dibloc Red, preferring Dibloc Red. 12. As a last test, we compared DiBloc Red against DiBloc Red and Streamline. The DiBloc Red and Streamline was preferred slightly, but only in the sun. Now, as often happens, there was a conflict in one test here which probably means LF8 and DiBloc Red were pretty close. Also, from the fluorocarbon tests, the tests seemed a bit sensitive to the amount of fluor, and the improvements were largely in the sun. With fluor, more of a good thing isn t always a good thing. So an important point here is the sensitivity to the amount of fluor here. This happens. What we chose to do here was use Dibloc Red, and test fluor cover the next day. We did this because the test was at least equal to LF8, and our experience was that DiBloc was a very reliable wax with a wide temperature range where it was effective. So there was the test result, where very good results probably would have come from two combinations, but we used experience with one wax which tends to have a large temperature range where it is good to make the decision. Draft John Langstone 26 of 41 Printed 15/04/2011 4:29:55 PM

27 4.2 Grip The Grip protocol is different, in that we ask a tester to give a score on a scale of 0 to 5 with 5 best for both kick and glide. Different testers use different scores, but you can get used to this. Generally with us, someone would race on a 4, and would be really really happy with a 4.5. I ve only had a couple of 5s in my day, so you don t always get roller ski kick, and skating rink glide to race on. Be sure testing is out of the stadium, and be careful of test tracks. Stadiums are generally well skied in, and the snow will generally be older, possibly requiring a softer wax than might be needed elsewhere. You will notice the lines through tests here. These represent the skis that have been re-waxed for another test. You don t want to obliterate the previous test with this notation; keep all your data. So we ll go through this with an example: Draft John Langstone 27 of 41 Printed 15/04/2011 4:29:55 PM

28 Subsequent to this test session, where the team did fairly well, I was asked by another coach what we had done. The following is the e mail I sent him. I should add, the day was older snow, on a track that hadn t been skied in a lot, and I thought there was a risk it would be a bit granular since the temperature had been over zero the previous day. The track was relatively gentle terrain, and the races were 6 & 9 km. So the In all honesty, although I did have a thermometer out, I never looked at it. I think it was around -1/2 after the race when I picked it up though. This is hardly the definitive way of getting there, but our testing went like: 1. Rode Purple hard wax, poor grip and not very fast. 2. Rex Base binder straight up. Not enough grip but faster than Rode Purple. This probably tells you that if you can make the distance on binder, it won't slow the skis much (but I was looking at using it as a race wax and it wasn't fast enough to consider for that). One additional point, although not much of a surprise, was that this wasn't wearing badly, where the other waxes we put on were showing wear. 3. Rode Violet X, not enough grip, and not very fast 4. Swix V55 (a slightly cooler version of the Special Red). Almost race grip, and pretty good glide. This test pretty much told me where we would go. Swix stuff had grip and good glide, and we had warmer (and hopefully faster) options. 5. Vauhti Super Pink, Race grip but slow. We kept that ski for a later test if we needed grip, but didn't use it. 6. Vauhti Carrot Fluor, not enough grip, and slow 7. Swix VR 60, race grip and glide 8. Rode Special Red Fluor, excellent grip (like the Vauhti Super Pink) but slower. 9. Rode Purple Klister, not enough grip, and as I recall a bit slow. 10. We base bindered all the skis with Rode Black Base binder. It is one of the easiest binders to put on, is very fast, and very durable. My personal favourite. That is almost always my go to binder. 11. Colin and Matthias came in. They wanted to try a klister because they heard you were using it. Colin put VR60 on one ski, VR65 on the other ski, and Matthias was given the Rode Purple Klister ski. 12. The boys skied around, and wanted VR65, so that was the race wax. 13. So we finished this with Rode Black Base binder + 2 layers of Swix V55 or V60 (we used both because we had three cans on the go and it didn't seem to matter) + 2 layers of Swix VR65. The reason for Draft John Langstone 28 of 41 Printed 15/04/2011 4:29:55 PM

29 the V55 or V60 (essentially Swix Special Red non fluor) is that it is perhaps a bit more durable, was a good performer, but putting four layers of a mushy wax like the VRs is messy and often lumpy (and as such often a bit slow to apply). So to make the job neater and hopefully more durable, we like to put a non-fluor wax under the fluor if we have one we would use. I never tried the V60 on its own, and it might have had race grip, but probably would have been slower. That is close to a combination we have used often in the past. We used VR60 or VR65 at the OUA Championships last year, and twice in University competition the year before (although in one, I think we would have been better off on Vauhti Super Pink). We raced the Easterns that warm day two years ago on Swix Special Red as I recall. End of . Now in terms of protocols, I strongly recommend having a sheet on a wax table for the athletes to fill out. Notice the final answer here was a decision by two of the top skiers on the team, and they made a good decision. Something you can do is have the athletes go out on waxes you think are too warm in this process. This can often give some data for a quick wax change if there isn t time for a test. I have often referred to athlete tests. Having more data is often useful to speed skis up as well as get grip. 5 Basic Waxing 5.1 Grip There are lots of great waxes and additives out there. I m not the bible on this, and what I did wasn t the only approach to life. But I tried to simplify things as a University coach. 1. First thing is, as a general rule, if you have more than three waxes on a ski, you probably were correcting a mistake. In almost all grip waxing, you may put something on for durability, something on to get you the grip you want, and you may cover it with something to speed it up a bit. In some instances that second layer may be to firm up a mushy or not too durable wax. Draft John Langstone 29 of 41 Printed 15/04/2011 4:29:55 PM

30 2. If the cover (wax 3) gives you more grip, it might be due to the thicker layer, or perhaps you should have used wax 3 alone and not used wax Covering a grip wax to speed it up, generally takes a way some grip. 4. Although things are better in recent years, fluorinated waxes (and tars) are generally not as durable as non-fluors. In warmer weather, fluorinated waxes can be a bit mushy, and lumpy to layer many times. In these cases, putting a fluor over a non-fluor (as in our example test) is something I often did. Some covers smear down the tail of a ski if too much is used. 5. Generally the non fluor version of a grip wax will have more grip than the fluor (this is not universally the case though). This has been my experience with klisters too. 6. I tend to look at klisters as hard and runny klisters. The greens, blues and purples are the hards, the universals and reds etc. are the runny klisters. a. In most situations, at least a thin layer of a hard klister (usually purple) should be used full klister pocket length, with the covering universal or red perhaps 2 3 cm shorter at each end. This keeps the runny klister from running over the sides and down the back of the ski to some degree. b. Often in granular, or boilerplate, you need some thickness to get grip. The thickness should be done with a hard klister, and a relatively thin layer of the runny klister on top. If you try to thicken with a runny klister, it is often grabby, may be slow, and can run all over the ski. 7. Be careful covering grip wax for speed when you first prepare the skis. In the 40 minutes or so between you handing a ski off to an athlete, and race time, you very often find that the grip wax has become faster, and people generally come back complaining about grip rather than glide. If you cover a wax, say a fluor over a non-fluor for speed, and the athlete comes back for grip, you end up putting a non-fluor over a fluor, and possibly a bit of a thick brew. I never feel good about adding grip to a ski I covered to speed it up. 8. In terms of testing, test waxes straight up. You can combine them for a race based on their individual tests, but what you know about a wax is compromised by testing a combo. Draft John Langstone 30 of 41 Printed 15/04/2011 4:29:55 PM

31 9. I always heat in the first layer of a grip wax. 10. You can thin out a wax, particularly a base binder you think is too thick, with fiberlene under an iron on the wax, and wiping it off. Smooths things out nicely too. You might want the binder thin if you had prepared it and it starts to snow. 11. If you are having trouble getting a layer of wax on (often in a stadium situation), you can crayon the wax on across the ski rather than along the length of the ski as is most often done. 12. Glide waxing a classic ski should be done in one pass from the pocket back, and then from the front of the pocket towards the tip. Other methods risk overheating the glide area, usually close to the pocket. 5.2 Glide 1. For test situations, some people clean skis with wax remover, and there are some expensive solutions out there for the purpose. At the very least the ski should be brushed out really well between tests. I usually used a brass brush. If you don t get all the previous wax off, you are testing some combination of the wax you are testing, and what was there before. And the ski could be a bit dirty too. 2. There are a variety of ways of applying glide waxes, but no matter how you do it, there should be a layer of wax on the ski such that it is protected from the hot iron during ironing. 3. Glide wax ironing a free technique ski should be tip to tail (or the other way) in one pass. Back and forth with an iron can create hot spots on the ski, and potentially damage it. The hotter the iron, the greater the concern. Particular care is required heating in green waxes. 4. Glide waxing test skis in cold situations can be very sensitive to preparation. To aid in scraping, I used to clean the groove while the ski was warm, and pre-scrape the ski lightly, so it doesn t chip off as much later. It is best to have the same person scrape and brush the test skis, with the same equipment and the same way. I often used a roto brush for test skis. A further note on this, is if you plan to test a new wax in a cold situation, I would recommend re-waxing all the skis you plan to test. Tests are often seriously affected by preparation. Draft John Langstone 31 of 41 Printed 15/04/2011 4:29:55 PM

32 5. Be careful of a new wax you might test that outperforms everything the day before (or when conditions are a bit unusual). You want to be sure the new wax on the block outperforms your favourites in that situation many times before trusting it. In the University environment, a good reliable performer with a wide temperature range is usually the best route. 6. Careful with a newly waxed ski on race day. They often are faster than the ski you liked and tested the day before, often just because they are clean. Also, be very careful that both skis are the same temperature. If you have time, it is best to re-wax both the test skis for a pre-race test. Another way out is to have the tester ski a long way ( 3 5 km) on the new ski and then test it. I have seen a lot of pre-race panic and disruption over bad tests. 7. On milder days in particular, skis can get dirty in a big hurry. Dirt will be a more important factor than differences in skis, so this has to be taken into careful account in testing. Try your best to keep the test skis clean. 8. Replicate the test application of fluor and structure for race skis. This is often best done by having the same person apply both test and race applications. 6 Scenarios This section is mostly a collection of random events that come up, and some possible solutions that have been tried. In many purple klister conditions, some hard waxes will work well. One thing we always tried was Rex Base Binder straight up(when ice and snow have been mixed, the base binder should be tested). Vauhti Super Base Binder is a good substitute. It can be covered with waxes like Start Red to give it better grip. It can also be combined in a mush (which used to be called Kemppi Combo), with Chola and covered with something like Start Red. In warmer conditions, Pekka sometimes combined this with Swix Universal klister rather than Chola. This is the kind of test you can do early in the morning. If it isn t fairly fast, I d drop the idea. In some conditions with a lot of granular snow well below zero, often with a bit of fresh snow mixed in, you can iron on Start Yellow and have great skis. Sometimes this works, and sometimes it doesn t. It should be fast, or drop the idea. Remember though, if this is an early test, few waxes are fast at all when you are the first person on the track. Draft John Langstone 32 of 41 Printed 15/04/2011 4:29:55 PM

33 Recently we have used the V60 V70 Swix fluors a lot. You can use the non-fluor versions of this with the fluor on top. Often the nonfluor versions are excellent on their own. From time to time, one tends to grip better than the other. There is one notable brand which has three versions of the same colour grip wax. One is non fluor, one is fluor, and one a pretty expensive fluor. Short experience with these is the cheaper ones give grip, and the more expensive you go, the less grip and better glide. The Start M series fluors can often be very fast, and give good grip. The downside of these waxes from my experience, is they can run all down the ski. They in texture are similar to the old Black Magic; and we were always told to put just a little Black Magic on. With the new Start Fluors, just put a little on the top. I have used four sets of fluor hard waxes in warmer conditions. The Starts are only for cover. Between the Swix and Vauhti, generally you will get more grip from the Vauhti waxes, but they often aren t as fast as the Swix. With the Rode, just every now and then they perform well. Most of the time I run on Swix or Vauhti. Fairly infrequently on Rode. And occasionally I will cover with a Start. Be careful with race site disruptions for waxing perfection. I have been around a lot of race wins, where I knew the skis could have been better prepared. There are instances where it isn t a bad decision to let a confident and happy athlete go out there in that frame of mind, than totally disrupt things with a very small (and often ineffective) change. There are LF and HF applications of a block, or powder, when corking. Often on a cold relatively dry day, just scraping a little block on the pressure zones (like just a quick line) can be effective. Just be sure in practice you don t put any more on. In wet conditions, it usually is hard to overdo the amount of fluor cover, but in dryer situations, be sure to duplicate the test. In terms of fluorinating or structuring skis, be a bit careful of missing the change. If the results of a test indicate that either structure or fluor are close, and the day is warming, it is probably time for some judgement. More often than I would like to admit, I ve tested in a race that I should have made an adjustment on the skis that haven t got the adjustment and are being raced on at the time. Again, if a fluorinated ski is close, I would do it. Fluorinated skis often stay cleaner and faster throughout the race. Also, if you have trouble telling a difference in a structure test, structure the ski. In terms of glide waxing strategy, if I think we will race under -10, I prepare with a green glide wax. If the day gets a bit warmer, you usually have a really good wax with some fluor, and getting the Draft John Langstone 33 of 41 Printed 15/04/2011 4:29:55 PM

34 structure right. And you are never sure how warm the snow will become in all this. If DiBloc Red is working in tests, it often is a very good wax through a wide range of temperatures, even over zero. Having a wax that works over a wide range is a real benefit when you have a large team. Personally I use Rode klisters a lot in runny situations, and either Vauhti or Rode Blues or Purples in colder ones. I don t use fluor klisters much, but they can be good covers. You can also effectively cover with Start silver universal, or a silver (which I don t often do). The best wax in the box is Rossa; don t leave home without it. Rossa is the best red out there, no exceptions. If you need more grip than Rossa, often a universal like Rode Multigrade or Swix will give you some. If it needs to be sped up, use the Start Silver Universal. If you still don t have enough grip, like in serious rain and the like, you can use Toko Multigrade Orange (careful, this stuff is sticky), or even Rex red. You can mix or cover klisters. I mostly try to cover, and typically do it with light heat and a brass brush. Mixing is done to mix properties of the wax and layering usually to try to speed things up. A mixing combination could be Toko Orange Klister and Toko Multigrade Klister. The orange is a really sticky wax, and you tend to mix them in varying quantity to get the grip you want. I don t usually hard wax over a runny klister. Generally I have found it slow. Occasionally you might be able to counter some icing around zero. A popular way of doing this used to be with Black Magic, but very little is used. I have run on Rode Rossa Klister covered with Start Black Magic klister in fresh wet snow, but I wouldn t count on that one working too often. In terms of applying a klister, I like to iron in the first layer with my grip iron. If done outside, it cools quickly. Other application alternatives include o Thumb or side of the hand o Brass brush (the kind used for stripping furniture) o Heat gun, or torch if you are brave. o Corking, which can work nicely in warm weather If using a heat gun on the race site, be careful how many people are doing the same thing on the same circuit. This is a great way to lose all power to your work area, particularly if you don t have access to breakers. In abrasive granular conditions, a relatively sloppy klister job skis in in a hurry. The granular abrasive track will smooth everything out quite quickly. I like to keep the groove clean, but klister on the side of the ski chips off pretty quickly. Draft John Langstone 34 of 41 Printed 15/04/2011 4:29:55 PM

35 In abrasive klister conditions, be sure the grip zone is well sanded and the klister well heated in (I think an iron is best for this). If a blue, or even a purple isn t properly heated, it tends to chip off. Try to give klister time to cool before skiing on it. Particularly on a sunny day, placing the ski on the snow can help this. When a klistered ski is icing, or in icing conditions, torching the surface sometimes helps. Don t get too clever with klisters. If you can hard wax out of a situation, it is usually faster. In testing grip waxes, I almost never change wax on a ski using wax remover. Just scrape the old wax off, or wipe it with fibrelene and an iron. You typically want to re-wax in a hurry. Old Start Green (or blue) fluor, or Vauhti green fluor can be effective in speeding up waxes in cold weather. The Vauhti will give better grip; never count on the Starts for any grip. Swix Extra Blue can be an excellent wax in a lot of situations, even very cold. You can sometimes speed it up with a cold fluor. Similarly, old Start Blue and old (white) Start Red can be used in a lot of colder situations if you have them around. There are a lot of solutions to icing hard waxes out there; fluor gels, Black Magic and a variety of other solutions. Swix Extra Blue is often a really good cover in this kind of trouble. It is a good wax to have in the stadium at the start. For impossible grip waxing days, the best way to sand is with 120 or 100 grit paper with a random orbital sander. A small orbital sander does a good job too. The texture of the wax pocket is a fine uniform fuzz, and doesn t require a lot of sanding. It is best done with a softer pair of skis for the athlete. As with all no wax skis, the pocket is covered with fluor, silicone, or even hair spray to prevent icing. Appendix. A. Test Forms Grip Test Form: Athlete Grip Test Form: Draft John Langstone 35 of 41 Printed 15/04/2011 4:29:55 PM

36 Glide Test Form: Large Ski Preparation Scheduling Form: ScheduleSheet.pdf OUA Ski Preparation Scheduling Form: nschedulesheet.pdf B. A Sample Competition Check List Night Before: Ski wax pocket marked Name on skis Bindings tight Pole Baskets and Handles/Straps in good condition Race Day Departure Time: Skis, warm up and race Boots (correct technique Poles (correct technique) Ski suit Wind briefs Hat Gloves Warm Ups Dry clothes and underwear Draft John Langstone 36 of 41 Printed 15/04/2011 4:29:55 PM

37 Rain Gear (if necessary) Sunscreen Sunglasses Drink C. Sample Travel and Race Protocol Gas masks are recommended for all waxing. This is is partially because we have no idea what chemicals are being released, particularly from overheated irons, and because the dust from brushing waxes, particularly from roto brushes, may not be good for you. The coaches typically have acid gas and organic vapour masks with a particulate filter. Colour code is yellow and purple for this cartridge. There is a reasonably inexpensive 3M mask, although the coaches who may have them on all the day, usually spend more. Cartridges should be replaced annually, and the mask and filters should be stored in a Ziplock bag after they have dried out. On trips, the coaches equipment should be respected. The coaches wax and tool boxes are not meant for general team use. The coaches want to be sure a tool is clean and usable, and easily found. Anything else can negatively affect good race support. If you do borrow from coaches, the equipment should be asked for, and faithfully replaced by the borrower as soon as possible. The really basic stuff everyone should have on a trip includes: Plastic scraper Groove Scraper Scraper for edges of skis Glide Wax Iron Nylon Brush Cork Metal scraper for removing grip wax (putty knife) Small quantity of wax remover (unless travelling by air) Enough glide wax to travel wax your skis at least. You can team up with a buddy on this, but be sure you have some equipment that facilitates quick preparation and cleaning of equipment. Most of this stuff can be held in a large Ziploc bag, so shouldn't be a major packing problem. Draft John Langstone 37 of 41 Printed 15/04/2011 4:29:55 PM

38 If you have wax benches and forms, and perhaps an extension cord, this is an advantage for getting things done. It is recommended to coordinate with the coach to bring some of this equipment. The more work stations we have for glide waxing, and cleaning up skis on a messy day, the faster it goes. Good ski equipment should be carefully handled on trips. Skis are best travel waxed. That means a thick layer of usually a harder wax is ironed over the bases to protect them. Your bases should generally be covered by wax, but it is important for physical protection during travel and handling. You should have your skis individually packaged in a bag. They should be held by ski holders that protect the bases from touching, and keep the skis positioned rigidly relatively to one another. For travel, the tips should be very well protected. If a load is placed directly on them, the tips shouldn't have to take the force by themselves. (Some people stuff clothes in the ski tips). Skis should be individually wrapped for travel. The poles should be wrapped separately in the ski bag. Wrapping individual skis in an old blanket is something I have done. If you can sew, you can crudely sew a blanket or sheet into individual pockets to hold your equipment. Poles should be protected in a cardboard or PVC like tube. Modern fibre poles can be nicked, which can lead to unexpected breakage. They are also very strong with force applied in some planes, and quite weak in others. Check your skis, bindings, poles, pole straps and handles, baskets etc. so you won't be fixing stuff on the road. It isn t the best scenario for a quality repair, and can be very disruptive on the race site. You should bring at least two pairs of skis of each type. Even if you don't plan to race on the second skis, you can warm up on them. You may find your coaches for classic events have to freeze klister and do other things with your classic skis, so you may not see your race skis until they are done for the event. All your equipment should have your name on it. Because coaches will be busy waxing many pairs of skis, your skis should be clearly identified with your NAME, and WAX POCKET marked on classic skis. You should also Draft John Langstone 38 of 41 Printed 15/04/2011 4:29:55 PM

39 identify special waxing preferences to the coaches. In case you test a grip or glide combination, it is often a good idea to have a different number on the tip of your ski so you can tell them apart. When you leave for an event, please make sure you have everything! A check list is a good idea. When possible, make every effort to help coaches move equipment around, this is much appreciated. Having an athlete get the bibs when they arrive allows the coaches to proceed with testing and technical preparation. Some athletes have prepared and posted start lists and times for coaches when they first arrive. This is very helpful for the team. Give coaches feedback on conditions around the course as you see them in practice and before races. If you tested a wax for warm up, let the coaches know what you thought. If you go out early, wax information feedback to coaches is extremely valuable. If you think of it yell something to the coach as you go by, you could be the beneficiary of this sort of information in another race. At classic events, we tend to use a 5 best rating system for grip and glide. If you told a coach for instance your skis were a 4.5 and 3 you are telling us you had great grip (4.5) and not very good glide (3). When the going gets tough, we don't want an essay from you, just the numbers! If we are in a raging snowstorm at zero degrees with little time left to wax, we often don't want numbers in the rush, just which you would race on would do. On the race site, usually the coaches are testing things. Generally on a classic day, the most important thing is getting grip right. Having some athletes try different combinations as long as possible up until race time is helpful for the team. You shouldn't get upset about different things going on before a race. We are trying to optimize team results with what we do, and it may not appear to be the same all the time. In the end, we are never sure whether we got the skis right until after the race. The conditions we test in often change for the race. The most important factor in having fast skis is the appropriateness of the ski itself for the conditions. Often, the tuning is almost insignificant. Don t be distracted by this. The test skis are carefully matched skis for stiffness, flex, performance and feel. They are really hard to find, and any changes due to wear and tear destroys them for future testing. We try to take really good care of the test skis and they are never used in competition. Draft John Langstone 39 of 41 Printed 15/04/2011 4:29:55 PM

40 D. Tools/Wax Boxes These are pictures of the primary boxes I carried. I took glide waxes typically in a small plastic box. The box I took to the wax room was usually quite small, but I kept a larger inventory in the van. Grip Box is generally wax and a few tools specific to grip waxing, including: Grip iron Putty knives Klister brushes Heat Gun Torch Heads Sandpaper Torch Lighter Draft John Langstone 40 of 41 Printed 15/04/2011 4:29:55 PM

41 Tool Box started off life as a glide wax box, but carries tools used for both techniques now, including: Scrapers, polishers, theromoeters, pens, misc. tools, scraper sharpeners etc. Glide Iron Drill Rilling Tools Roto cork Wax Brushes Mask, gloves, wax remover dispenser, power bar, GFI, clamps etc. Refer to Section 1.1 for a complete listing of equipment. Draft John Langstone 41 of 41 Printed 15/04/2011 4:29:55 PM