Boulder Nordic Sport Announces New Stone Grinding Menu, Minnesota Ski Drop-off Location, West Yellowstone Ski Festival Grind Service and 2009-2010 Prize Giveaways.
![BNS Grind Simple Menu](http://images.fasterskier.com/2009/11/simplemenu.jpg" "BNS Grind Simple Menu")
Full-service mobile ski shop to provide stone grinding, waxing and ski flex testing during fall camp with skis shipped to BNS Boulder for grinding by Nov 13 will be available for pickup in West Yellowstone Nov 21.
Boulder Nordic Sport (BNS) has launched a new stone grinding menu for 2009-2010 highlighting new grinds developed by Zach Caldwell over the course of two years of full-time development and testing. The new menu adds grinds that improve upon BNS’s industry-leading structures while offering a dramatically simplified way to choose the appropriate grind. BNS’s core, broad-range grinds are listed on the Simple Menu of three grinds each for classical and skating techniques. TheExpanded Racing Menu groups the top 19 BNS structures racers are using frequently, and the full menu details 35 structures and includes an expansive structure primer. The new menus are available for download at www.bouldernordicsport.com
BNS has also just launched $10 round-trip shipping at two new ski drop-off points in Minnesota and Maine. BNS will pack and ship skis dropped off at these locations to the grinding service center and back, saving clients time and money and making high-quality grinding more accessible. Details about these drop-off locations can be found at www.bouldernordicsport.com or by calling 720.227.9400.
BNS will once again bring a full-service stone-grinding ski shop to the West Yellowstone Ski Festival November 21-28, 2009. BNS will be located at 415 Yellowstone Avenue, in the Rendezvous Snowmobile Rentals Garage across the street from the trailhead. Services available during the festival include expert stone grinding, waxing, heat box treatments, ski flex testing and fleet evaluations with BNS’s proprietary testing equipment.
Skis shipped to BNS Boulder for grinding or hand-selected skis purchased from Boulder Nordic Sport before Nov 13 will be available for pickup Nov 21-28 in West Yellowstone, waxed and ready to ski. Skiers can drop off skis to be ground during the Festival Nov 21-Nov 28 at 415 Yellowstone Avenue or at the Holiday Inn Expo Tuesday, Wednesday and Friday evenings from 7-9PM. Turnaround time at the Festival will be 1-3 days.
Stone grinding is a process where a ski is passed through a machine that peels a very thin layer of base material off and carves micro-structure into the ski. It improves ski performance by flattening the base, removing scratches and burned, dried base material while etching appropriate structure into the base. Skis that are stone ground generally absorb more wax and perform better.
BNS Contest – $12,000 in prizes
![BNS Contest](http://images.fasterskier.com/2009/11/091106contest.jpg" "BNS Contest")
Boulder Nordic Sport launches its season-long series of prize giveaways with over $12,000 of skis, boots, poles, wax and clothing up for grabs. The first drawing takes place Nov 8th for a pair of Fischer Carbonlite Classic Boots, Toko Nanna Pants & Swift Jacket, a Holmenkol Wax kit, SkiGo Graphite Glide Waxes, as well as a Madshus Ski Bag and Training Hat. Six winners will be chosen at random from those who register before 8PM MST November 8 online at www.bouldernordicsport.com or in person at BNS stores in Boulder, CO and Portland, ME. No purchase is necessary. See bouldernordic.com for rules. The next prize drawing will be held November 16th and will include a pair of Madshus Nanosonic skis.
November 8th Prizes: (6 winners)
The Fischer Carbonlite Classic Boot is the lightest classic boot at 370g (size 42). It has an extremely supple F5 NNN sole that gives incredible feel for the ski at the ball of the foot while maintaining lateral and torsional stiffness for control. Fischer’s innovative snake lacing concept provides powerful and quick closure making the boot feel like a second skin.
The Toko Nanna Pant & Swift Jacket are highly water and wind resistant, yet amazingly breathable. They incorporate laser-cut and welded seams for a beautifully composed soft shell warm-up set for women. The Nanna pant has a fleece lining in front for extra cold days and full side zips for easy removal without having to take off skis.
The Holmenkol wax kit highlights Holmenkol’s legendary service/training waxes and two of our favorite tools. Holmenkol Beta Mix Red is one of the world’s most popular waxes and is legendary as a high-quality, inexpensive base prep, travel and training wax due to its easy application and broad range of performance (All snow types -4 to -14C). Ultramix Blue (Cold & Aggressive snow -8 to -20C) is an excellent base hardener for cold and aggressive snow, and Alphamix Yellow (Soft, New & Fine-Grained Snow 0 to -4C) works as a training and base saturation wax. The Holmenkol Pro Groove Scraper is a huge upgrade to any wax kit and uses Aluminum instead of plastic to make scraping skis a pleasure and maintain sharpness. Combine this with the Holmenkol Steel Microfinish Base Brush for quick work prepping skis, especially for cold, dry waxes.
SkiGo Graphite waxes replenish bases while adding dry lubrication and durability for race waxes. Use XC hydrocarbon graphite for base prep and added durability in training, and the LF Low Fluoro graphite for base prep, and as a base layer to add durability for races longer than 2.5km, especially in aggressive snow.
Boulder Nordic Sport brings World Cup Service to everyone with full-service ski shops in Boulder, CO; Portland, Maine and web site at bouldernordic.com. BNS specializes in professional ski service using Tazzari stone-grinding equipment as well as sales and advanced fit of cross-country skis, equipment and technical apparel. BNS imports Holmenkol and SkiGo wax lines and carries a full line of wax and professional tuning equipment from over ten wax brands. Information about Boulder Nordic Sport and the new BNS Magazine are available at:
BOULDER NORDIC SPORT
www.bouldernordic.com · 877.BNS.SKIS (877.267.7547)
BNS HQ · Boulder, CO · 1717 15th St · 80302 · 720.227.9400 · info@bouldernordic.com
BNS East · Portland, Maine · 200 Anderson St, Suite 5 · 04101 · 207.541.7438 · bnseast@bouldernordic.com
2 comments
timg
November 7, 2009 at 10:01 am
For most citizen racers stone grinding is over rated. Just scrape brush and rill.
OldManWinter
November 7, 2009 at 4:12 pm
My response to that would be ‘it depends’. Some of the new
machines are really slick, and can take off fractions of a millimeter repeatedly and scientifically. If you are rejuvenating old boards, ‘specializing’ skis or taking care of superficial base damage, nothing tops a good stone grind…you simply can’t reproduce the finish any other way, and trust me I have tried.
That said, I will agree that some of this ‘angels-dancing-on-a-pin’ stuff is pure b.s. and that the subtle differences in performance are noticeable to maybe a few dozen people in the world, but not to the rest of us. I think that linear grinds have a lot of merit, and perhaps there may be something to the reticulated patterns in dryer snow, but some of the diagonal structures make no sense to me at all. Given that all of the cleaning, scraping and brushing tools on the planet are linear devices, no one on or off skis has ever convinced me that those patterns are faster. I am paying more attention to some of the neat ‘imprint’ tools coming out, and given the opportunity I’ll give them a try. However, it is going to take a lot of convincing to get me to permanently cut a pair of skis in this fashion.