Ski Wax

[n0xidee]

Well since in the search thingy the word has to be 4 or more letters long I couldn't see if there already was one.

 

So what kind of wax do you use to battle the Pa snow?

[Dan-]

OBJ all weather.

[AtomicSkier]

I use an assortment of Dr D's waxes. www.racewax.com

[Bobert540]

I use an assortment of Dr D's waxes. www.racewax.com

 

 

+1 Dr. D has great stuff!

[Ski]

Dr. D's wax blows away Toko and Swix and is much cheaper. I wouldn't use it if it wasn't the best. Just grab a brick of his hydrocarbon and cork it in.

[snorovr]

Kinda down with Purl Wax's environmentally conscious approach to things. They just released an All Natural line of waxes that I want to try this year. Here is a description from their Web site:

 

"Purl Wax is proud to introduce the new All Natural Wax line for the 07/08 season. All of the ingredients of these blends are exclusively obtained from natural and renewable resources. Performance and petroleum based waxes are no longer inseparable.

 

Whats Wax Got to Do with It?

In the face of the big environmental issues nowadays ski and snowboard wax might not seem to play such an important role, but a traditional stick of wax bears a lot more toxic potential than generally known. The large majority of ski and snowboard waxes are fluorinated waxes that consist of perflourocarbons or PFC. There are two major problems with the use of PFC. First of all, the production of PFC requires a highly toxic and nearly indestructible chemical called PFOA, or perfluorooctanoic acid. Once PFCs start degrading they break back down to PFOAs and are eventually shed into our water streams. PFOA is a known carcinogen that has not only been linked to cancer, but also to birth defects and liver damage. Secondly, PFCs are extremely potent greenhouse gases with a lifetime of up to 50,000 years. In fact, PFCs are known to have about 6500 times the greenhouse warming potential of carbon dioxide. An industry so directly affected and threatened by climate change cannot afford to close its eyes to these facts. For more information on PFOA refer to: http://www.motherjones.com/news/feature/20...is_forever.html

 

Not Just Faster, (Eco) Friendlier Too Purl Wax is equally committed to performance and the environment. Purls All Natural Wax is 100% biodegradable and non toxic. We use wind energy to power all of our WMDs (Wax Melting Devices), and instead of thick plastic packaging, Purl delivers its wax in small velvet bags. In order to minimize waste, Purl Wax has challenged its customers to find creative ways to re-use the velvet wax bags with a 1,000 ways to use your sack section on this site. Alternatively, customers can exchange twelve bags for a free puck of wax

[Ski]

Interesting...

 

Pure fluoro powders/overlays are in the Teflon family, which is what makes them fast...but I'm really suspicious when someone is selling something as an alternative. How much is bullshit and how much is real? All the racers in my league combine to leave about 30 grams of Teflon on Sno's 209 acres. How does that compare to what pollutants are left by a groomer in one pass?

 

 

I don't know...but it's interesting.

[Glenn]

How much is bullshit and how much is real? All the racers in my league combine to leave about 30 grams of Teflon on Sno's 209 acres. How does that compare to what pollutants are left by a groomer in one pass?

 

Our (over)use of technology and especially the need to get the next new thing is a huge problem for the environment. The pollution created during the making and use of the product aside. We discard massive amounts of circuit boards which are non-biodegradable and which contain mercury, lead and other nasties. Our current solution to the problem is to send our technology trash over to china where they have primitive methods of extraction the usable metals to resell. The end result is horrible exposure for the workers (skin/eye/lung damange) and ground which will be contaminated for hundreds of years.

 

So while I'm all for being green, I'm not going to feel guilty about using flouro wax in such small amounts, when I live a lifestyle effected so heavily (both directly and indirectly) by technology.

[snorovr]

One of their customers says he recycled their velvet bag they shipping everything in by nailing it to the wall next to his bed as a condom holder. Gotta love that.

 

Ski,

 

Even though they do make note of the whole pollutants in watershed thing, articles I've read on Purl spend more time describing the manufacturing process than to the actual residual effects of wax on snow. This is where they argue that most of the environmental damage happens. They make a little light of this in their second point in this particular paragraph.

 

Knowing the manufacturing process of our goods is pretty interesting and I would be interested in knowing more about it. On newschoolers today Line Skis posted a big update about their company mission, something about being the best and most progressive freeride/freestyle company. Someone responded by saying someting along the lines of "You'd be the most progressive if you brought production back to the states, stopped using materials illegal in the States, and paid fare wages. You're argument for shipping production overseas was cost, but I didn't see prices go down at all as a result. In fact, they went up!"

 

Even though the whole outsourcing debate is hot in that comment, the part about using materials illegal in the states caught my eye. I wonder what is going into their skis.... (and other companies for that matter) I'm visiting China in late February, I'm really hoping to study more about manufacturing there after the whole toy and lead paint debacle, as well as these recent concerns in the ski industry.

[RACEWAXdotCOM]

One of their customers says he recycled their velvet bag they shipping everything in by nailing it to the wall next to his bed as a condom holder. Gotta love that.

 

Ski,

 

Even though they do make note of the whole pollutants in watershed thing, articles I've read on Purl spend more time describing the manufacturing process than to the actual residual effects of wax on snow. This is where they argue that most of the environmental damage happens. They make a little light of this in their second point in this particular paragraph.

 

Knowing the manufacturing process of our goods is pretty interesting and I would be interested in knowing more about it. On newschoolers today Line Skis posted a big update about their company mission, something about being the best and most progressive freeride/freestyle company. Someone responded by saying someting along the lines of "You'd be the most progressive if you brought production back to the states, stopped using materials illegal in the States, and paid fare wages. You're argument for shipping production overseas was cost, but I didn't see prices go down at all as a result. In fact, they went up!"

 

Even though the whole outsourcing debate is hot in that comment, the part about using materials illegal in the states caught my eye. I wonder what is going into their skis.... (and other companies for that matter) I'm visiting China in late February, I'm really hoping to study more about manufacturing there after the whole toy and lead paint debacle, as well as these recent concerns in the ski industry.

 

I'm not totally green but I do have a shade of green. The fluoros I use (most not all) are actually made from recycled teflon that is subjected to a non-chemical physical process to transform them. So no chemical by-products and we are re-using already-made materials. These fluoros are totally inert and pose no danger to the environment off your ski base. I don't buy any arguments that ski wax hurts the mountain environment.

 

I try to use minimal paper by being Internet only. I recycle packing materials. I use old 35-mm film cans for my powder containers, and I use minimal packaging.

 

We try to be environmentally friendly while still making good products.

[n0xidee]

Can anyone tell me the difference between the warm temp/cold temp/universal hydrocarbon wax?

[Schif]

Can anyone tell me the difference between the warm temp/cold temp/universal hydrocarbon wax?

Pretty simple, Warm temp is for warm days, cold temp is for cold days, universal is for whenever. It will usually say on the packaging what temps the wax is good for. If you use cold wax when its 40 out, you're going to go slower. In the same regard if you use warm wax when its below zero it will again affect your speed.

[adrian]

http://www.google.com/custom?domains=paski...askiandride.com

 

optimum wax needs to be harder than the snow of the day. warm temperatures means softer snow and softer wax. cold temperatures means cold, hard snow and harder (read: cold temperature) wax. soft warm temperature wax gets sopped up more readily by the base and can enjoy a performance boost (albeit expensive) from fluoro and other additives. its more difficult to impregnate bases with harder wax, but hard cold temperature wax will not be penetrated by warm, soft or cold, hard snow crystals and keep you moving fast. also, fluoro additives become less effective and a waste of money in the cold. universal wax, if not just rebranded cold wax, is likely some happy medium, leaning cold. remember to keep your thirsty bases waxed up, scrape all your extra wax off, and dont get me started on structure. hey, have you guys heard of whacks wax...

Edited December 16, 2007 by adrian

[n0xidee]

Thanks for all the info.