Just wanted to highlight a few excellent resources of information for all of you skiers out there. As we all know waxing and ski maintenance is a huge part of ski performance whether your skis have scales on the bottom, are 130mm under foot, have a hole in the tip for lighter swing weight, or if you’re rocking one plank; keeping your equipment tuned will make you faster, more efficient, and having more fun, not to mention increase the longevity of your gear.
You may already know that all of the ski wax manufacturers normally send out a wax recommendation a few days before the nordic ski races happen. We normally try to post links to these as a heads up in case you need some tips for what should be sliding the fastest. Swix, Toko, and Fast Wax seem to be the most common. However those same companies aren’t out there just to help out the nordic racers. Here are a few more services they provide.
One thing most companies provide is a wax calculator which is great for all disciplines. They are obviously going to be based on their waxes so choose which company you prefer and see what they have to say. Here are a few links for you to check out.
Fast Wax’s Alpine, Nordic, and Snowboard Wax Master Chart
A great resource to find out conditions in Lake Tahoe is Tahoe XC’s weather station/conditions page. Obviously this is geared for the nordic skiers so if you are going to higher elevations maybe check out on mountain conditions with the resorts or the Sierra Avalanche Center’s advisory.
Something else these same companies provide are tutorials on YouTube. You’ll find info on all disciplines and also not just basic waxing information. They’ve got edge and base tuning, ski flex information, high fluoro application, grip wax application, and many other options to keep your choice of sliding on snow performing at it’s best.
Check out Fast Wax’s YouTube Channel and also Toko’s YouTube Channel for tutorials on using their products and more. Swix has it’s own deal going on that they call Swix School.
So whether you are new to waxing your own gear or a seasoned veteran all of these resources should be quite helpful to get you started or add to your quiver of knowledge to keep you moving along.
One last little plug for the Nordic folks; if you’ve yet to listen to Fasterskier.com’s podcasts they’ve got some great stuff going on over there. Obviously race stuff but also some killer tech info as well from some huge names. Check them out on iTunes. Or go to their website and search for “podcasts” in their search bar. Here’s what you get so far.
Thanks for the links, they seem very useful! I hope more companies will see the benefits on tutorials on YouTube like Fast Wax.
Very true, what excellent resources for learning! YouTube has many gems hiding in it’s pile of videos.