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Waxing 101 for Classic & Skate

Where to Get Waxing Equipment:

Our friends at Ski Rack in Burlington usually have a great supply of wax & waxing tools. Remember that MNC members get 15% off all Nordic items at Ski Rack!

Ski Touring Centers that have a ski shop usually sell wax as well.

MNC is doing a team TOKO order- we get a great discount and it’s a great time to get everything you need including wax benches and irons. TOKO ORDERS ARE DUE DEC.3, 2021! Get the order form & info HERE.

There are lots of online shops. Just make sure you know what you are looking for because it can be overwhelming! (Feel free to email a coach for help!)

Classic Skis

For Waxable Classic Skis You Need:

1) Kick or “grip” waxes in a range of temperatures. I suggest getting Toko Red, Toko Yellow & Toko Blue “Grip” wax.  Toko waxes have been working really well at Bolton and their 3 wax system is probably the simplest out of all the wax companies.

2)  A cork. These come in natural cork and synthetic. I like the synthetic better because they create more friction and heat and since we are waxing outside, this is helpful.

3) A putty knife or a plastic scraper. You will use this to scrape off the old wax.

4) Wax remover & paper towels. You will use this when you really want to clean your skis well, when we use sticky warmer waxes or if we ever use klister.

Here is a really good video that shows you how to kick wax skis & how to clean the wax off them after you ski:

Kick Waxing Basics

*Note: You do not have to clean your skis with wax remover every time you ski. If we have only used waxes for below 30 F, you will be fine if you just scrape off most of the old wax with your scraper.

For No-wax Fish-scale skis:

Universal Spray or Liquid Rub-on

No grip wax needed. It’s great to have a universal spray or liquid rub-on for no-wax skis: Maxi-glide, TOKO Easy Grip & Glide, SWIX F-4. Apply this every couple of weeks or more often and your skis will just glide and work better. It is especially good when the temperatures get to 32F and the snow gets sticky. You can apply to the entire length of the ski.

For Skin Skis: 

Skin Cleaner- This will just keep your skins working better. Use about every fourth time you ski.

Universal Spray or Liquid Rub-on (see above). For the tips & tails only (not the skins)

SKATE SKIS & Tips & Tails of Waxable Classic Skis

The bases of your skis get dried out and that makes your skis S-L-O-W, especially in cold weather. The bases need to be waxed routinely. Either when the temperatures change or about every other time you ski on those skis.

There are now two ways of waxing: hot wax and liquid paraffin.  Hot waxing needs to be done at least annually, more often if your child skis a lot and even more often if your child is racing. If you rented skis, they come hot waxed and you can get by with just Liquid Paraffins that are easier to apply and require less equipment. So here is how to do both:

Liquid Paraffins-

Like kick wax, they come in different colors for different temperatures. New this year (2021), they also come in different degrees of price/performance.  For BKL, we only use Base Performance waxes for BKL (they are the cheapest).  Again, TOKO has the simplest system with just three different waxes. They are a little more expensive than hot waxes, but you don’t need all the equipment that it takes to apply hot wax. The temperatures that they are good for are printed on the wax can.

What you will need:

  1. Liquid Paraffin: TOKO Base Performance- Start with Blue, then add Red and then Yellow to your kit
  2. A soft nylon wax brush for brushing out the wax.

Here’s a How To: Liquid Paraffin Application

You can set your ski up on the backs of two chairs to apply the paraffin.

Hot Wax

If your child races or really skis a lot, you will want to hot wax their skis to help maintain the bases and keep them running fast. It’s a bit of an investment in all the equipment but well worth it if your family has a lot of skis and racing in high school is on the horizon.

You will need:

  1. A wax bench to secure the ski while you work on it.
  2. A waxing iron. These irons don’t have holes and most now have temperature settings.
  3. A plastic scraper.
  4. A groove scraper
  5. 2 brushes. A copper brush and a nylon or horsehair finishing brush.
  6. Hot Wax in a range of temperature. For BKL, we only use non-fluro waxes. Start by getting blue, then red, then yellow (TOKO). The TOKO Base Performance Paraffin is what you need. New this year, TOKO has a Universal Base Performance wax which is also an option.

Here is a great how-to video from our friends in Craftsbury: Hot Waxing Basics

Still have questions? Ask a coach or email Coach Rosemary: sheacobb19@gmail.com

BKL Practice: 3/02-3/07

Thanks to everyone for coming out, skiing & volunteering for our Sweetheart Sprints last Friday night. Special thanks to Nancy Davis for making all those lovely hearts which we hung in the trees! They looked great! Check out the photos on the BKL Blog!

 NWVT BKL Mini-Festival 3/06: There is still time to register for this and it is open to all our BKL members. I think it’s going to be a lot of fun! There are races in the morning and a self-guided mini-marathon to do in the afternoon, which parents can do with their kids.  If it were a normal year, many of us would be traveling to the New England Festival which would have been held in Waterville, ME  (the Festival is in a different northern New England state every year). Because of COVID, most of the BKL clubs in New England are having smaller mini- festivals.  Our NWVT Festival for the four clubs in our district is at Sleepy Hollow in Huntington on Saturday, March 6. This is a great opportunity to check out the scene. There is a mini-marathon only option and a non-competitive, “try it out” race in addition to the age group races. Deadline for registration is this Wednesday (3/03) at 5 PM. If you have any questions, feel free to email Coach Rosemary: sheacobb19@gmail.com. Registration link HERE.

Reminder:  Our last practice this year will be March 16. We’ll do something special and have a little awards ceremony.

Tuesday Practice 3/02:  Classic for Everyone

Weather: Cold temps return with a high of 17 today! 2-4″ of snow are forecasted to fall on Monday.

Wax: Clean the warm wax off your skis! We will hold off applying wax until practice because depending on how much snow we get, we might need a little klister or binder. Bring cold waxes and klisters if you have them.

Thursday  Practice 3/04: Skate

Get ready for some fun, It’s Bolton Scavenger Hunt Day!

Weather: A little more moderate, might get up to 20F today.

Racers & NWVT Mini-Festival Participants:

Saturday, March 6. Costumes & glitter encouraged!  We will have our MNC Tent set up in Molly’s Meadow so that kids can use it as their base. Weather looks good for the day! Coach Rosemary & some of the other coaches will be present to help kids warm up and get to the start. We will also have our wax bench, structure kit & some wax ready in case there is anything we need to do to your child’s skis to make them fast!

Wax Recommendation:  Will be posted here on Thursday night (I hope). The race is Skate.

Meeting Times: Plan to arrive about an hour before your age group start time. Pick up your bib and goody bag, and come check in with the coaches at our tent which will be up in Molly’s Meadow.

 

BKL Craftsbury Skate Race

Crafts bury will hold a BKL Skate race on Sunday afternoon beginning at 1:30pm. Similar deal to last time’s classic race with online pre-registration, health screens, and self-serve bib pick-up.

If you are coming, Let me know by signing up HERE.

Hot Wax Recommendation: Toko Blue, CH 6 or 5 or an equivalent cold wax.

More Info & Registration links from the Craftsbury Coaches:

You can find more information about Sunday’s BKL race here. We’ll post course maps when we’ve gotten around to making them, but everything will be in Murphy’s Field and we’ll be incorporating some of the twisty, bumpy sections that Keith made recently. If you know already that you want to race, it’s helpful for our planning purposes if you register sooner rather than later. It’s very easy to take you off the start list if you decide you don’t want to join in, but it’s impossible to add people at the last minute with all the COVID health screen rules.
Parents: please (1) pay attention to the spectating rules (not allowed—you’re only allowed to get the younger ones off and rolling) and (2) remember to schedule your own trail use for that day. We reeeaaalllly don’t like telling parents to stop watching their kids race, but we don’t have a choice at the moment, so please help us out and make yourselves scarce. If you need to accompany your child to the start, you’ll need to ski or snowshoe out there or take a quick walk down the road to get there—all of this will be clear once we pull together some maps.
Also: our local stores have noted that they’ve been getting crowded recently on weekends. We love that folks are patronizing these businesses and hope you continue to do so, but please remember to be safe about it: only one person per party going inside if at all possible, and calling ahead for pickup helps a lot too.
Thanks and hope to see a bunch of you Sunday! 

– the Craftsbury coaches

BKL Practice 1/07 (& 1/09 for Racers)

Thursday 1/07: Jack Rabbits, Arctic Foxes & Racers

Everyone will Classic! Weather: High: 26, Low: 21.

Wax of the Day: Toko Red, Swix V40 (Extra Blue)

Coaches will be out with signs for Meet-up. Look for them in the Meeting Places.

Meeting Places Map

Find Your Coach and Group Here

Don’t Forget to do your MNC Health Screen  before coming to practice

Racers 1/09: Saturday, Bogburn Virtual Time-Trial at Bolton

Meeting Time: 9:30 AM – We will meet to wax, get warmed up & organized, then do our time trial on Picnic. Individual starts, timed. It will just be us!

Distances: 4th grade: 2 km, 5 & 6 grade: 3km, 7&8 grade: 4 km.

CLASSIC TECHNIQUE

Sign-Up Sheet: I need to know who is coming & who is racing so I can set up timing!

Register on Ski Reg! Free for NENSA Members, $5 for non-NENSA Members. I will submit all our BKL results to the Bogburn officials. If you do not want to register, you can still race but I will not submit your time to Bogburn.

WAX: Hot wax tips & tails with Toko Blue, Swix CH6 or equivalent. No big deal if you don’t have time for hot waxing. 

Kick Wax:  TOKO RED or Swix v-40 (Blue Extra).

Questions?  Email Rosemary: sheacobb19@gmail.com

 

BKL Program Start-up: 1/07/2020

Good News! With the recent changes in VT COVID restrictions, we are able to start up our BKL programs at Bolton, as long as we have enough snow there to spread ourselves out.

Jack Rabbits, Arctic Foxes & Racers will start on 1/07/20, 4- 5:30, Bolton Valley Nordic

Penguins will start the following Tuesday, 1/12/2020, 4- 5:30, Bolton Valley Nordic

Parent ZOOM meeting on 1/05/2020 at 7:30 for all groups.  Info and Zoom link HERE.

Update 1/04/2020: FIND YOUR CHILD’s SUBGROUP

Meeting Places:  

Penguins:  By the Sports Center Main Entrance

Jack Rabbits 1 & 2: By the Swing Set

Arctic Foxes 1, 2 & 3: By the Row of Fruit Trees in front of the Sports Center

Racers 1, 2, & 3: By the Woods between Parking lot and entrance to Picnic Loop.

We will be operating a little differently this year, so please attend the meeting to get all the details.

The Basics:

  1. You will need to fill out a health screening form for each child before you come to each practice. Bookmark this link:  MNC Health Screen Form.
  2. Ski from your car. Kids should change and put boots on in your car and use it as a base.
  3. There will be a meeting place set-up for each small group to meet their coach.
  4. We will wear masks in the parking lot and while skiing. The only time we will take them off is when we are going really hard and we are 6 ft. or more apart.
  5. Don’t congregate in the parking lot when picking up or dropping off kids and remember that there is no place to wait inside (i.e. be on-time for pick-up).

 

 

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