I've been skiing 5-6 years in/near Tahoe.. Pretty much the sterotypical weekend/holiday warrior getting maybe a dozen days a year.
Can now ski most of the mountain and can go stupid scary (to me) fast on groomers. [The racers on the hill still blow by though.:-]
I've been waxing n-1 of those years. Have only tried 2 waxes. One generic shop wax and Hertel Hot Sauce.
The generic shop wax was soft, easy to put on but wore off after a handful of runs. The difference in the runs was noticibly slow, more difficult to slide. It was more a feeling than than a visual/scraping inspection of things.
The Hot Sauce seemed harder than the generic shop junk and gets me through my 2-3 day trips. Except for late in the day spring like melting snow conditions, my ski slide well. I think I got some Swix yellow for warm spring situation, but can't remember if I used it or if it worked well enough.
Anyways, the $20 block (20oz?) of Hot Sauce is probably still at 80%. I always wax all the (used) skis between trips. I crayon to hot wax, so not much waste. This block will probably last another 5 years or more at this rate. But I find myself wanting to explore.
For me, it was durability and a decent enough slide that determined the selection of Hertel. I don't want to go flurocarbon. Got ample ventilation just don't need the risk.
So what wax should I consider? What would it bring to the table? Go temperature specific? What be noticed?
Weekend warriors: How do you choose a wax?
Discussion in 'Tuning Techniques and Tool Information' started by Plai, Dec 5, 2018.
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Keep it simple. Loose the "H" wax and try the Dominator Zoom Series of waxes.
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Jersey Skier aka RatherPlayThanWork or Gary Skier
Then after what he said, go back to the hot sauce and see if you can tell the difference. As a WW having wax is good. Not having wax is bad. I have a hard time telling the difference other than spring conditions.
OldJeep, Mister Mann and bbinder like this. -
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Hot sauce is good but doesn't hold up well. Swix universal is better and more durable but costs more. At the beginning of the season i go with one or two cycles of swix CH4 to get the bases in shape for northeast man made snow, ice, and cold weather. I ordered some hard and soft blocks racewax house brand on sale so will report back later. Haven't tried dominator yet in a blind test I doubt I could ever tell the difference with swix.
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Anybody know how to get a list of our wax selling pug sponsors? I'd like to do the "right thing".
[I'd rather not drive from my memory/guesses right now.] -
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Dwight Practitioner of skiing, solid and liquid Admin Moderator
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Near Nyquist At the edge of instability Skier
For Tahoe super hot sauce is perfect, it will last 3 days with the op's lifestyle and work in all conditions Tahoe will throw at it.
In the spring I like the spring solution but have also toyed with swix fx universal too
Best of all hertel is a Bay Area business
So support the local economy
And yeah dominator is pretty good too
But hertel is a lot more cost effective for me -
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Hertel hot sauce is currently on sale for $19.99 for a brick.
However, also note, the FC739 is also on sale for $29.99 a brick,
At that pricing over your time/labor; you can use FC739 as bulk/commodity wax as well (and hotsauce becomes hotscrape/baseprep saturuation wax and lower on the wax totem pole).
For those worried about health/safety or environment, I think I remember from one of their blog posts that FC739 was reformulated a couple seasons back; so it only has very low amount of flouro, or maybe none; even though it still uses FC in the name. It feels/works as slightly harder than hot sauce.
[edit: here is the blog link where they talk about greatly reducing or eliminating Flouro in FC739 for health/enviro concerns: http://hertelwax.blogspot.com/2012_01_01_archive.html]
I also got a brick of holmenkol blue that i mix in along the edges..
I think the wax technique is a issue more than the wax, as long as you use some decent wax. The rumination over wax choice has diminishing returns, if rest of the ski and process isn't also taken care of. The base structure; having ptex hairs/dirt; wax cycles, then all the scraping brushing to get the excess wax out of structure has a lot of effect on the result; over the specific wax choice for us rec skiers.Last edited: Dec 5, 2018 -
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Like @Wilhelmson I include CH4 in my seasonal prep to underlay the later waxes. Then I use either Racewax red or green during the season depending on the upcoming temps when I wax. For here it is mostly green until spring. I own HHW, just like I own lots of others. But I'm not a fan, I reserve it for spring when things are getting tricky. And then I might be crayoning a bit of fluoro in as well. Normally I wax about every 60,000 feet. That might vary with snow conditions - powder I frequently go longer, spring crust, more frequently. I've also found that the longer you own your skis (and don't grind the bases), the longer you can go between waxings. New skis need lots more care.
BC. likes this. -
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Raytseng: I have an email from Terry Hertel that FC739 has at most 2% Fluoro. I consider that pretty much none and have added HF wax on slushy days.
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https://www.3m.com/3M/en_US/company...ts/?N=5002385+8711017+3294857497&Ntt=fc&rt=rsraytseng likes this. -
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I use Swix CH waxes and own them all. Use whatever the weather demands for the next week.
I was my skis every 3 times skiing and my sons every 3 times skiing as well. Typcially do a baseprep (BP88) and then the swix.
I just had my daily drivers stone ground last year and needed to wax them a ton of times to get them back to how they felt before the grind. I think I did 10 cycles of wax before they actually felt 'good' again.cantunamunch likes this. -
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To summarize so far for my a check of my understanding. Use lots of cold prep layers (e.g. CH4) and then any universal or temp specific as I like. Some brands may be a little more durable. Performance-wise the difference isn't worth talking about. Spring specific is important in the spring.
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Actually, don't start with the CH4. Start with soft wax for penetration. The Ch4 needs something to bind to. Follow the ch4 with your wax for the day.
Everyone has their theory.
Mine is three hot scrapes or so with soft wax for cleaning and penetration. Then the CH4. Then the right hydrocarbon for the day. I'm sure ultimately they are all blending together in one mess, but that's my routine.Plai likes this. -
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In the Swix Range BP77 is the "cold" prep. Sure, do lots of layers that's fine.
If you really want to punch up the abrasion resistance of your wax of the day, sprinkle some powdered hard wax like the CH4 into it.
Some brands are a *lot* more durable - especially the ones that supply nordic glide wax because having your wax be gone 15-20km into a Birkie means no more customers. Durable in this context is similar to but not the same as abrasion resistance.
Performance wise, you will notice the difference on the flats, on traverses and runouts.Plai likes this. -
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For Tahoe, doing any layers of ch4 is a masochistic exercise... lol.
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Near Nyquist At the edge of instability Skier
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CH4 is a total pain in the ass IMO but it does last a long time. I only use it when it going to be really really cold for many days in a row and I'm going to be skiing a long time on a lot of those days..
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ScotsSkier USSA Coach Industry Insider Pugski Ski Tester
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