Toko: 2012 US Nationals 10.15k Skate Report Nordic

Yesterday we tested a whole lot.  It was really cold (below 0f overnight) and it stayed pretty cold during the day.  The course received a whole lot of freshly shot and freshly distributed manmade.  This was mixed in with old snow, but was still pretty dominant on the distance part of the loop.  Freshly shot manmade is slower than manmade snow that has been around for a while.  The best wax that I know of in freshly shot manmade is XCold powder (normally mixed with something).  We tested a ton of paraffins yesterday and ended up with HF Blue/XCold mix 1:1 being the fastest. This was no surprise at all (totally predictable), but it was nice to have an extensive test confirm what we were pretty sure of.  For topcoats, we tested many varieties including something less traditional.  The less traditional won – our winner was a mix of JS Blue and XCold powder (for the topcoat!).  This combination is something that I have never recommended before, although tested very many time.  It is always in there in cold snow, but I’ve never found it to be better than straight JetStream blue applied properly.  Yesterday and today it was though.  It won our topcoat test yesterday twice and then won again this morning and again later this morning despite the far warmer temperatures today.  So, our recommendation for today was LF Blue followed by HF Moly/XCold Powder 1:1 followed by JetStream Blue powder mixed with XCold powder 1:1.  (Shake the JS Blue on the ski, then shake the XCold powder on the ski and heat them in together like a hot wax – 3 passes with high heat like 300f – let cool completely, lightly scrape, brush out well with Horsehair and then Nylon Polishing.  It was great!

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