Here is something I’ve just started doing with Toko Base Green. I did this twice last year with huge success – both for kick and glide. I decide on the kick wax of the day for kick, let’s say blue to make it easy. Then I’ll put on a coat of the base green and heat it with a heat gun and then cork it in real good. Then I add another coat of the...
Toko will award $2000 of waxes and tools to the Junior National division that gets the most votes on this poll located on the
Wax report from CXC Team This year in Yellowstone, we brought a relatively small group (seven) of skiers and only one coach, so waxing had the potential to get hairy if conditions got completely sketchy. Luckily, we had awesome snow and weather for the four races, so we managed (with help from James Kyes and Bill Pierce from FAST Racing) to produce great skis with minimal drama. Toko/Ian does a great job of producing race...
Saturday SuperTour Classic Race At 7am, it was -17f. Yes, the remnants of the tropical storm were gone! Today was a delight. West Yellowstone was back to its wonderful normal self. For glide, we went with LF Moly/Blue mix (mix the LF Blue in to harden the Moly up), HF Blue, and covered by JS Blue. We verified the glide wax tip in the morning and it was great. For kick, we ended up on...
Know your products to be able to predict what is going to run – then figure out what the weather is going to do! The forecast for last night was predictably off. They had called for the temperatures to sink dramatically and for a bunch of snow to fall. It has been my experience that when the weather is warm and a front is supposed to come and kick it out, it generally takes longer...
I (Ian Harvey) have had some nasty injuries for 3 years now as a result of having taken some medication that didn’t agree with my tendons. I have 5 chronically strained/torned tendons in my body which keeps me from testing skis (no skiing, hiking, swimming, running, strength work, etc). This sure is frustrating especially after 3 years of patience, but life goes on. So, I have Toko Tech Teamers testing for me as well as...
TokoVideos.com – Toko has developed 35 ski preparation and tuning online videos for cross country skis, alpine skis, and snowboards. They can be accessed at Now’s The Time to Get your Skis Ready! If your anything like me you’ve been planing to prep your skis for the season for some time now, and maybe like me you’ve gotten less done than you hoped. A quick glance at the calender should help all of the Royal We realize...
When the parade of brightly-colored spandex suits heats up the domestic circuit this year, competitors and spectators will see a new squad: Stella Racing. And while America’s first elite women-only team in more than a decade might be small, it will definitely be fast. Morgan Smyth, Evelyn Dong, and Zoe Roy decided to start a team based out of Salt Lake City, Utah, and have spent the spring and summer making it happen. Their rationale...
Some Good Stuff on the Way in a Couple of Years I just returned from product development meetings in Switzerland. As a company, we meet a few times each year to look at opportunities to go in new directions and take advantage of opportunities. The World Cup race service team is there as well as the team of scientists. Additionally there are representatives from the major markets. There is always a great synergy and passion. ...
Garrott Kuzzy Checks in from Switzerland’s Engadin Ski Marathon and comments on the Importance of Structure I just returned home to Hayward after a week long adventure in St Moritz, Switzerland for the 2011 Engadin Ski Marathon. The crust cruising is at its finest right now and, after skiing all day, I am finally able to sit down and recap the events from Switzerland. The 2011 Engadin was the inaugural CXC Masters...
Although ski wax is designed for skiing, there are some who use it for activities that are completely different. Here are the steps for our waxing process: 1. Bring canoe indoors and let warm up 2. Brush to clean off dirt and leftover wax 3. Crayon on an antistatic base layer 4. Hand cork with a synthetic cork 5. Crayon on HF Yellow 6. Heat in with a torch 7. Crayon JetStream Yellow 8. Hand...
Field Report from the Birkie – CXC All winter long, we’ve been testing and finding HF Blue with Jetstream Blue over the top to run extremely well in cold weather, and at the 2011 Birkie, this was proven once again – We went with HF Blue covered by JetStream Blue and had fantastic skis. Looking at forecasts a few days out, we knew that the weather was going to take a dive from Thursday night...
Race Wax Recommendations for the Masters Cross Country Ski World Cup 2011 will be posted on www.TokoUS.com. Here is a direct link to the page. They will also be tweeted (TokoUS) and posted to the Toko US Facebook page. American Birkebeiner Wax Tip 2011 Here it is Sorry! Not going to make it! On a personal note, I am really sick. For this reason, I will not be able to make it out to the Birkie...
Masters World Cup 2011 Race Wax Recommendations for the Masters World Cup 2011 will be posted on www.TokoUS.com. Here is a direct link to the page. They will also be tweeted (TokoUS) and posted to the Toko US Facebook page. Field Report from the Winner – Boulder MT Tour The 2011 Boulder Mountain Tour was my fifth year doing this race, which I can hardly believe. 2007 was my first BMT and I’d like to say that...
Additionally, the respective lengths of the hydrocarbon part and the fluorocarbon part can be varied which changes the properties of the resulting fluorinated hydrocarbon wax. Fluorinated hydrocarbons with longer fluorocarbon parts are more expensive and also more “potent” than those with shorter fluorocarbon parts. This is illustrated in the graphic below on the left. The upper type shown has a long fluorocarbon chain on the left coupled with a shorter hydrocarbon chain on the right forming a fluorinated hydrocarbon molecule...
Driving up to test air temps at the finish were 25f (18f in Ketchum and 12f in Hailey) and at Prarie Creek (10k into the race) air temp was 37f. This was a super strong inversion. There was a warm shinook type wind coming down from Galena summit which was pushing the colder air lower and lower down the Wood River Valley. When we arrived at Prarie Creek, I was shocked at how warm the...
Applying JetStream There are various ways to apply JetStream (or any other fluorocarbon). Sometimes the end result is the same and sometimes one method of application yields an advantage over another. Here are 3 main options and their merits: 1. Rub on and rotocork. Overall, this is probably the most effective method of applying JetStream. It is certainly best in cold conditions (which we have a lot of in the US). It is also the most economical. Finish by brushing out...
The Mayor’s Challenge SuperTour at Wirth Park (Minneapolis) was this last weekend, and we (CXC) were pretty excited with our results in both the classic and skate: In four races, we had four 1sts, two 2nds, and two 3rds — plus a few more finishes in the top-six, which pay out prize money. Races were held in frigid conditions, with a mix of man-made and natural snow, including a small amount which fell Friday night....
The most important thing that we do at Toko regarding the Nordic market are our Race Wax Tips. We recognize that a very large number of people depend on them and make our tips only after researching the conditions, having first hand knowledge of the course and its intricacies, and often times even speaking with the groomers (should the timing of the grooming be a factor as it sometimes is). We devote a large portion...
