Note: This article represents the viewpoints of the importer/distributor of one particular glide wax.
At the TorbjornSport (www.torbjornsport.com ) office we often smile, laugh, curse, shrug, sight, nod, point, etc. when we read claims, wax reports and press releases from various wax companies, importers and distributors. I’m sure there is a good chance that the companies we as SOLDA importers compete against have the same reactions to our claims.
Statements and claims like these are common:
– Blistering fast skis, world’s fastest wax
– the World’s best skiers are using our wax
– 4 of the top 6 men and 3 of the top 5 women were on “our” wax winning last weekend’s Super Duper Tour or the Mid West Marathon
www.torbjornsport.com Check it out!
Who knows about Rode kick wax?
It always amazes me that so few “average skiers” have never heard about Rode kick wax, but the answer is obviously the same as above- small company and tiny advertising budget. Rode kick wax (hard wax and klister) have for decades been used to win Olympic medals. The “inner circles” of coaches and wax technicians knows this, but not the general public. You might have thought that company A or B was used since the brand is hard to find and glossy ads from other company’s “dwarfs” the little or minimum advertising produced by Rode It’s still hard to find and virtually unknown to the general public. Why? Small company with tiny or no advertising budget. Same as above.
How can you find out what’s fastest?
Forget about claims; find out for yourself. Here are a few ways to test more or less accurately:
– Team up with a friend of equal weight and with the same boot/binding system. Give one of your skis to him and get one if his skis. You now have a matched pair. Wax one of the “new” pairs with wax from company “A” and the other with wax from company “C”. Make sure to compare apples to apples, by for example testing Fluorocarbon against fluorocarbon or cold powder against cold powder, orange high flour against orange high flour. Ski side by side and grab each other’s poles on top of a long downhill. Say 3, 2, 1, tuck and let go of each other’s poles. Go into a 90-degree in the knee, upper body and poles parallel to the ground, hands toward your face downhill position and glide as well as you can. Switch skis at the bottom, go back up and repeat. At this point you should know what the fastest wax was. Was it SOLDA? Now ski 10-15 kilometer together let the get some wear and pick up some dirt. Test in the downhills as described above. What is fastest after skiing?
– If you don’t have a partner but two pairs of about equally matched skis, wax one pair with wax from one company and the other ski with a similar wax from another company. Start from a set point and glide down a hill on pair one, and mark off where you stopped. Repeat the glide test on pair 2. Now mix the pairs and ski 5-kilometer or so with one ski from each pair. Which skis feels faster during the workout?
Check out SOLDA Glide wax at www.torbjornsport.com Go to www.torbjornsport.com/SOLDA/waxTips.html for application guidelines and wax recommendations. We’ll be happy to recommend SOLDA waxes that will work well in your area and fit your budget.
SOLDA’s Wax Maestro is AMAZING: www.torbjornsport.com/waxmaestro.html
