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#1
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What I (think I) learned about kick waxing this weekend
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Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Hi All- I guess I'm doing a lot of posts today-- see what happens when I finally get to go skiing? Anyway, I did a 10K classic race this weekend at Soldier Hollow, and I think I learned something about kick waxing. I just wanted to run it out there and get some feed back before I delude myself further. The snow at Soldier hollow is a firm base of man-made snow, however, they got about 1/2 inch of fresh snow on top of that overnight before the race. I waxed perfectly for the conditions at 9:00 AM: a _thin_ layer of Toko multi-viola klister, bases cooled, then a layer of Toko dark red hard wax applied over the top (to protect the klister from those pesky snow crystals). And the skis went great. Until the sun came out just before the start at 11:00. That, and I realized that 150 racers doing 4 laps around the course were going to pretty quickly take the snow crystals out of the equation, and make it a pure klister skiing experience. So, the usual pre-race wax changing panic ensued. I quickly borrowed a tube of Swix universal klister, and put it on for a length of about 8-9" , centered on the binding. And had NO kick, but a little bit of grab on the glide. On the bright side, I had a great arm workout dragging my sorry butt around the course 4 times. So here's what I think happened: I applied the klister too far forward. That 8-9" should have been right under my foot, running from heel to toe. I noticed that the only way I could get any kick (off of what seemed to be the ball of my foot), was by extending my arms (and the rest of my body) waaaaay forward (almost a frankenstein walk, if you're looking for a mental picture). So, lesson #1: Think about the effects of time, temperature, and hundreds of feet on that layer of snow over the ice. Lesson #2: your kick zone is centered under your FOOT, not your BINDING (which is actually a little forward of your toe). anyone care to comment? Chris SLC, UT --------------------------------- Do you Yahoo!? New Yahoo! Photos - easier uploading and sharing --0-1132015205-1071516910=:37490 Content-Type: text/html; charset=us-ascii DIVHi All-/DIV DIVI guess I'm doing a lot of posts today-- see what happens when I finally get to go skiing?/DIV DIVAnyway, I did a 10K classic race this weekend at Soldier Hollow, and I think I learned something about kick waxing. I just wanted to run it out there and get some feed back before I delude myself further./DIV DIV /DIV DIVThe snow at Soldier hollow is a firm base of man-made snow, however, they got about 1/2 inch of fresh snow on top of that overnight before the race. I waxed perfectly for the conditions at 9:00 AM: a _thin_ layer of Toko multi-viola klister, bases cooled, then a layer of Toko dark red hard wax applied over the top (to protect the klister from those pesky snow crystals). And the skis went great. Until the sun came out just before the start at 11:00. That, and I realized that 150 racers doing 4 laps around the course were going to pretty quickly take the snow crystals out of the equation, and make it a pure klister skiing experience./DIV DIV /DIV DIVSo, the usual pre-race wax changing panic ensued. I quickly borrowed a tube of Swix universal klister, and put it on for a length of about 8-9" , centered on the binding./DIV DIV /DIV DIVAnd had NO kick, but a little bit of grab on the glide. On the bright side, I had a great arm workout dragging my sorry butt around the course 4 times./DIV DIV /DIV DIVSo here's what I think happened: I applied the klister too far forward. That 8-9" should have been right under my foot, running from heel to toe. I noticed that the only way I could get any kick (off of what seemed to be the ball of my foot), was by extending my arms (and the rest of my body) waaaaay forward (almost a frankenstein walk, if you're looking for a mental picture)./DIV DIV /DIV DIVSo, lesson #1: Think about the effects of time, temperature, and hundreds of feet on that layer of snow over the ice. Lesson #2: your kick zone is centered under your FOOT, not your BINDING (which is actually a little forward of your toe)./DIV DIV /DIV DIVanyone care to comment?/DIV DIV /DIV DIVChris/DIV DIVSLC, UT/DIVphr SIZE=1 Do you Yahoo!?br a href="http://pa.yahoo.com/*http://us.rd.yahoo.com/evt=21260/*http://photos.yahoo.com"New Yahoo! Photos - easier uploading and sharing/a --0-1132015205-1071516910=:37490-- |
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#2
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What I (think I) learned about kick waxing this weekend
So, lesson #1: Think about the effects of time, temperature, and hundreds of feet on that layer of snow over the ice. Lesson #2: your kick zone is centered under your FOOT, not your BINDING (which is actually a little forward of your toe). anyone care to comment? Lesson 1 sounds good. Lesson 2 sounds wrong. Perhaps on the pair of skis that you have this is true, but on most skis the balance point is at the front of the binding and that's usually the center (thereabouts) of the wax pocket. A more likely explanation might be that the wax was not thick enough for the conditions. Or you had the wrong temperature range for the wax. Rob Bradlee |
#3
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What I (think I) learned about kick waxing this weekend
It surprised me to find out where the kick-grip zone was on my classic
striding skis. Chris Cline wrote your kick zone is centered under your FOOT, not your BINDING (which is actually a little forward of your toe). On any pair of classic skis I've checked, the kick zone is centered with neither the foot nor the binding. The double-camber "wax pocket" for kick grip is centered somewhere around like the toe-bar of the binding. So more than half of the grip-wax zone is in _front_ of my toe. This contradicted my understanding, since like Chris, I had the not unreasonable expectation that it was centered under my foot. Where the grip-wax zone is has big implications for waxing. Any serious classic skier should find out where the actual wax pocket really is on each of their skis, and mark the two ends with waterproof ink. One possible procedure for doing that is on the web at: http://roberts-1.com/xcski/classic/secrets/fit I'd be glad to hear about other written wax-pocket-measuring or detailed ski-fitting procedures on the web. Knowing the actual location of the wax pocket is also important for striding technique. Because it makes a big difference whether I focus my pressure on the center of the grip wax zone, versus the rear of that zone. Definitely worth experimenting with. Ken |
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What I (think I) learned about kick waxing this weekend
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