Hey everyone-
I thought I would help clear something up on this whole Birkie
thing.....

1. Swix does test wax during the Birkie week, although how valuable
tests are when it is 40F the day before are debateable. We work very
closely with Zack, and the Subaru Factory Team. I have been personally
at the Birkie the last four years and we have nailed the wax every
year...that may be lucky, but we'll take it!

2. We do not update our recommendation on the sheets we print up, as
we print them up ahead of time and there is nowhere in the Hayward
area that is affordable to print these up. We DO tell everyone who
comes by New Moon or the Expo what the weather is currently(within the
hour), and what that does to our recommendation. This year, the change
in weather did not change our rec, as it was still on the money. Our
guys had great skis, and I heard from a bunch of people after the race
that they used our wax rec and loved their skis....so that always
makes us feel good. We actually recommended more structure than other
companies, just a fine structure, but not super fine. This was
actually key, as the snow felt drier than it was. Skis with a fine
structure ran much faster than skis with a very fine structure, just
ask Pat Weaver. He and Justin Wadsworth waxed with the exact same
thing, and at the finish Pat told me his skis were the worst of the
lead group, and Justin told me his skis were unbelievable. They had
waxed the same wax (Solda actually), but Pat had a much finer
structure....so it was obvious the difference.

3. The best way at the Birkie to get the most up to date results is to
come see us at the booth. I don't have time to update the websites
because we work from 6 am until 11 pm those few days....I apologize.

4. Guess what the Italians had on their skis? They come talk to me
every year at the Birkie, partly because we usually have a guy with us
who can speak Italian, but partly because they use mostly Swix
powders. They actually used FC040 on their skis. This is the old
version of FC7.....they tested FC040 vs. FC8 the day of the race and
found that FC040 was better for what it is worth. I had the
opportunity to talk to their coach/wax tech both before and after the
race....they were very pleased with their skis....

5. Thank you to everyone who supported us this year, both at the
Birkie and throughout the rest of the season. We will continue to
recommend wax based on what runs fastest, not what we have in our
warehouse. For those of you who don't know, we were almost sold out of
FC7 and FC1S going into the Birkie....but we recommended it
anyway...it probably cost us thousands of dollars, but our
recommendation was fast.

Thanks again.

Roger Knight
Nordic Operations Manager Swis Sport USA