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Ski Waxing in August
Ski Waxing in August
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\r\nBy Chris Hall
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\r\n For the past 3 summers, the US X-C Ski team has spent the month of August training on snow in New Zealand. During this time, the wax team has used this opportunity to test new skis, waxes and grinds. Here is a look at the methods we use to test new materials.
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\r\nSince the 2002-03 season, the service team has adopted the following strategy,
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\r\n1.Visit ski factories to select the best possible skis for our athletes.
\r\n2.Work with the best ski grinders to use the best possible grinds for our athletes.
\r\n3.Pursue relationships with wax companies to use the best possible waxes for our athletes
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\r\nDuring this past training camp, our goal was to test and develop new grinds that would give our racers an advantage over our competition.
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\r\nTesting in New Zealand in August is an ideal time and place to get a head start on the season. First, the conditions are great for testing. The snow is very similar to either the US or Europe in December, January or February. In contrast, the snow on glaciers during our summers does not come close to simulating the majority of snow conditions we usually see in the race season. Second, the facilities at the Wairou Snowfarm are excellent. The grooming is of the highest quality and the waxing facilities are some of the best I have seen anywhere.
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\r\nWe brought a total of 28 pairs of test skis to this camp. Each ski had a different grind. Some grinds were brand new and some were older “proven” grinds. To test these skis, we used a system that includes both absolute speed and ski feeling, while taking note of climatic factors such as air temperature, snow temperature, air humidity, snow humidity, snow grain size and type, wind and solar effect.
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\r\nTo test this large amount of skis, we first split the skis up into 3groups. We had test grinds from 3 different grinders one from Sweden, one from Norway and one from the US; so we split the skis into groups according to who ground them. This breakdown gave us 2 groups with 8 pairs and 1 group with 12 pairs. Most importantly, it gave us a way to manage a large group of skis.
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\r\nFor the next 2 days, we ran a total of 12 tests with the 3 groups testing each group 4 times. The testing was conducted with a speed trap and test track. The test track was approximately 10 seconds long located on a gradual decline and protected from the wind. From this, we were able to achieve 2 goals. One, begin to determine snow conditions optimal for each grind and two, weed out any grinds that were continually at the bottom during these 2 days of testing. At the end of these 2 days, we were able to eliminate 6 grinds out of 28 in the group. We eliminated them because they never ranked higher than 6th in the speed trap tests.
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.JPG) \n
Chris Hall, Head USST wax tech, testing skis in New Zealand.
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\r\nNow, with the 22 grinds left, we mixed the groups up again into 3 new groups, but this time we split the groups into cold, medium and warm. This was also the first time we mixed grinds from the different grinders.
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\r\nWe began testing the cold and medium groups, since the weather conditions we encountered at this time favored these types of grinds. The groups were smaller in size, averaging 4 to 5 pairs in each group. Testing included the same speed and test trap, but we also included testing the feeling of each grind when skiing. We tested 2 groups at a time. First, we ran one group through the speed trap, with each ski getting 4 runs through the trap. Then, we ran the other group through, following the same protocol. From this, we selected the 4 or 5 best skis from both groups based on time and tested them in the trap again. This gave us an overall ranking of which grinds were fastest. Next, we took these 5 fast pairs and skied on each pair for about 3 kms to get a feel for them. We ranked the skis on how each pair felt. The criteria we looked at for feeling are as follows. First is freeness under foot, which can be explained as how smooth does the ski feel when it is skied. Second is breaking speed, or how and if the ski will release when skiing at high speeds. A good grind should have both of these characteristics, as well as testing fast in a trap.
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\r\nFor the next 3 days, we tested these cold and medium groups. Snow conditions and temperatures ranged from new snow and -8c to new snow and -1c. We found 3 grinds that continually ran well throughout the 3 day testing period. Also, each of these 3 grinds were done by a different grinder, so clearly our US grinder, Zach Caldwell of Engineered Tuning, is on par with some of the best in the world.
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\r\nOn our final days testing, we moved over to the alpine/snowboard area located at the Snowfarm, which is called the Snowpark. It is a snowboarders and slopeside skiers dream, but for us it was a chance to test these grinds on some older manmade snow. The testing procedure was the same, testing skis in groups of 4-5 in the speed trap. The track was slightly longer and faster than the one we used at the Snowfarm. Our testing results at this location were a little different, with only 1 of the grinds that tested well at the Snowfarm in natural snow carried over to test well in manmade snow at the Snowpark.
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\r\nUnfortunately, we were never able to test the warm structures due to the conditions. However, we made considerable progress on testing and developing new cold and medium structures for the upcoming season. The snow conditions we tested in could be very close to the conditions we will see at the World Championships in February in Obersdorf, Germany.
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Written By: CHallDate Posted: 9/2/2004Number of Views: 291
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