Thursday, May 17, 2012

Wax & Race Service

Stone Grinding & Waxing Services

Boulder Nordic Sport is a full-service ski shop offering premium stone grinding, ski and waxing services at our retail locations in Boulder, CO and Portland, Maine and now at events with our traveling race service shop, BNS Mobile. Top racers from across North America send their skis to us because we do the best quality work in the country. Have your skis prepared by the pros and see how much better they go!

BNS Mobile

The BNS wax crew hits the road in our new rig, BNS Mobile, pushing our goal of providing World Cup Service for Everyone at events across the country. BNS Mobile travels to races offering professional race waxing services and a mini-BNS store. It serves as a base for our testing and waxing operations and is a great resource wherever you are headed. Visit the BNS Mobile page for more information, including event schedules and the latest test results and wax recommendations.

Stone Grinding

Stone grinding flattens the ski base, removes burnt and damaged base material and provides important micro-structure. Bottom line, it makes your skis faster and easier to wax. We have advanced Tazzari stone grinding machines set up in our Boulder shop. Skis can be dropped off at our Boulder, CO or Portland, Maine stores. If you are shipping skis to us, please ship directly to our Boulder store. Click this link to see our Stone Grinding Menu and Service Schedule/Lead Time.

Hot Box Wax Treatments

Saturate your base with wax for durability and glide.

Basic Saturation $19: Basic Saturation involves applying a very soft paraffin wax to the ski and placing it in the heat box for 90-120 minutes at a temperature of about 55 degrees Celsius (131F). This ensures excellent saturation of the base. The skis will need to be hardened with colder wax for the appropriate conditions. This hardening can be done with 2-3 layers of ironed-in wax or hot box treatment.

Extreme Saturation $29 (Recommended): This is a two-step process with the first step being application of a very soft paraffin which is placed in the heat box at low temperature (50-55C) for a long time (6-12 hours). The skis are scraped and a harder paraffin wax is applied followed by the heat box at 60C for approximately one hour. This second step is still very safe for the skis, but the temperature but may hasten any inevitable movement of the base away from dead flat. We notice that some skis, especially older models, tend to get concave tips and tails after heat boxing, even after grinding. The same thing will happen over time and with ironing, but the heat box may accelerate the process.

This treatment will saturate the base and then harden it to a level where it can be race-waxed with high-temperature fluoros and cold waxes.

Race Ready $49: Extreme Saturation plus finish with the specified Swix race wax (LF, HF or HFBD). The skis are saturated, hardened and then two layers of LF/HF are applied, scraped and brushed, leaving the skis ready to race or for application of Swix Cera F pure fluoro. Cera F treatment can be added for $20.

Race Wax Services

BNS wax techs offer race waxing services out of the shop and on-site at several events each winter. We can prepare your skis for any race, just bring them in and we'll get them ready to go. $39 for High-Fluoro (LF & HF Layers) and $85 for pure fluoro (LF, HF + Pure Fluoro).

Weekly Nighthawks race special: $15 for a race prep LF wax. Drop your skis off any day by 3PM and pick them up the next day after 2.

Wax Recommendations

Lake Placid SuperTour and SLU Carnival Wax Rec

Categories: Wax Reports | Author: Eric Pepper | Posted: 1/13/2011 | Views: 1150

Coaches,

We are getting absolutely pounded with snow here in Portland, with at least ten inches already on the ground it looks like we will be in good shape for a bit. With the races at Lake Placid coming up we thought we would get a recommendation out for the races this weekend. Below is the current weather forecast for the area for race days:

Thursday Night: Mostly cloudy, with a low around -1. North wind around 5 mph becoming calm.

Friday: Mostly cloudy, with a high near 17. Calm wind becoming west around 6 mph.

Friday Night: Cloudy, with a low around -4.

Saturday: A chance of snow showers after 1pm. Mostly cloudy, with a high near 19. Chance of precipitation is 30%.

With a mix of man made and natural snow likely, along with some dirt underneath durability and keeping the skis as clean as possible will be very important. For this we will recommend a very hard layer of Graphite as a base. SkiGo LF Graphite is the best in our opinion, and with over half the podiums at Rumford last week having used this as a first layer it has proven results in manmade dirty mixed snow. Another good choice would be Rex Graphite or Start Graphite as they are both very hard waxes that will harden the base and pick up minimal dirt. We suggest avoiding Moly as a first layer in these conditions as it is simply not hard enough.

For Friday Classic Races:

Glide:

1st Layer: Start with a layer of SkiGo LF Graphite. The snow should be fairly abrasive with the mixed new and manmade.

2nd Layer: We have found in these colder conditions that Holmenkol Matrix Black/Blue runs very well. Also in the mix should be SkiGo HF Violet, SkiGo HF Violet mixed with SkiGo C380, and Swix HF6 and HF6BD.

3rd Layer: There should be a bunch of things that run well, certainly look at SkiGo C105 Powder and Solid, SkiGo C55/99 Fluid, Holmenkol Cold Powder and Block, SkiGo C22 Solid(Yes this is normally for warmer, but it often wins our tests in cold weather as well!), Swix FC7 Powder and Block, and the older Swix FC1 could be good.

Kick: The thought here is it should not be too hard, but that is always easier to say a few days before the event! The likelihood of a klister binder covered with hard wax or klister covered with hardwax is likely. Obviously test on race day to make sure things are working well.

1st Layer: Iron in a thin layer of Rode Skare Special or Toko Green Base Klister

2nd Layer: Depending on whether it is klister or hard wax conditions, try either Rex Blue Klister, or Rode Blue Klister. If it looks like hard wax will be better, try the covers listed in the third layer.

3rd Layer: Cover with SkiGo HF Violet or HF Blue kickwax, Rode Green or Blue Multigrade, Guru Blue or Swix VR40. If you have plenty of kick with a combo but need a touch more speed look at a thin shell of Rode Alaska or SkiGo Green on the top.

Grind: The best choices will be fine grinds such as Xti2.

For Saturday Skate Races:

Durability will be the main concern with 10K and 15K distances. Wax will be a key in this race as missing it by a little in slower colder conditions could mean major results differences.

1st Layer: SkiGo LF Graphite.

2nd Layer: Holmenkol Matrix Black/Blue or Blue, SkiGo HF Violet mixed with SkiGo C380 Powder, Swix HF6 or HF6BD, or even straight Rex Blue.

Topcoat: Some people may not go to this step, but putting a cold application on top of the heated in pure fluoro layer will provide initial speed for the early part of the race. Look at SkiGo C105 or C22 solid, Holmenkol Cold Block, Swix FC7, or again the older Swix FC1.

Best of luck to all, and please let us know if you have any questions. Send wax questions to bnseast@bouldernordic.com

The crew at BNS East.

207-541-7438

note: BNS imports Holmenkol and SkiGo waxes, and also sells waxes from Swix, Toko, Rode, Solda, Rex, Guru, Innovax, Magnar and others. We search for the fastest waxes for our customers and our testing is professional, objective and transparent. We make our best effort to test what we think is the best from each brand. However, given that we are testing more options from Holmenkol and SkiGo, there is a bias toward those brands. With this full disclosure, you can assess the legitimacy of our testing yourself. Visit Swix and Toko for their official recommendations. If you have any questions please contact us.

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