New Solda waxes this season

Mon, Nov  29, 2010 - By Bert Kinkley

Luciano Andreatta is the owner of Solda Ski wax in Montebelluna, Italy. Last summer Luciano came to Bend, Oregon to visit with us, WebSkis.com since we are the USA distributors for Solda. We had informative meeting, learned a lot about new products, testing and  what the European market is like. Seems that most sales in Europe go to alpine skiers. Remember that glide wax works on all skis, nordic or alpine.

Here are some notes I took while we were meeting with Luciano. There are a few waxing tips and a bit on some new waxes. You can see the waxes at www.webskis.com.

NEW SOLDA PRODUCTS and testing:

F40 Carbon (new) waxes will replace F40 Top Race. (We still have some F40 Top Race waxes) The F40 Carbon has a carbon additive. It works well on old, transformed, aggressive snow.  F40 Specials remain  as they were last year.

F40 Carbon Powder 30g: Seems to be embraced by Alpine coaches in Europe; good on downhills and doesn’t climb as well as F40 or F40 Special or F40 Carbon in block form. This powder is applied like Fluor powders and seems to improve downhill glide performance over the block of the same wax.

F40 Carbon in block or powder. Replaces F40 Top Race. Is better in dirty snow and just as good on normal snow. The carbon is like the graphite in FC27.

F15 Green replaces F15 Blue. They are just going with consistent colors for cold snow wax.

F40 Special Orange is what a few select people tried last year. It was called Prima. This is the first year of an F40 Orange.

Fluor Plus dice; to enrich fluor surface of many different base layers. Even F15 in medium to low humidity. Fluor Plus is the UF7 of fluor dices.  Good for a family, maybe a low budget HS coach.  It is a simple way to have fast skis for a short race.

When checking snow temps and trying to figure the snow keep in mind the following. Testing of snow: on a cold cloudy day snow will be, and remain, colder than it does on a warmer cloudy day.  The thermal mass of the snow on a cold cloudy day is greater than it would seem.  Keep in mind also that on a cloudy day the temp of the snow will remain more the same and the snow will not transform as fast.

Powders are testing better than hybrid blocks applied in traditional way. A 30g container of F40 powders just over ½ price of  a 60g block of same wax. Solda will also supply F40 Carbons, F40 Specials, F31 and F15  in 180g blocks. Coaches are target to save some $ on high end bases.

Solda testing is finding that S30 (cold powder) under many waxes improves the performance, even with warm temp waxes. Apply by ironing and scraping; lightly brush up with a soft or medium nylon brush using a rotary motion, but do not brush hard; wax over the S30 base. This tested very well on artificial snow.

F31 Violet, in high humidity, will perform better than F40 Green in medium to cold conditions.

F40 waxes are similar or just above HF Swix in fluorination. F40 actually has 18 different compounds in it.

F31 waxes have high Fluor, about same as HF Swix, but only one type Fluor compound. This is why it is cheaper.

F15 is about same as LF Swix.

HP06 works best when there is little movement in snow temp. Use on Cloudy day, cold snow. It also runs well on a cold day when it is snowing and there is little snow or air temp change.

Use HP05 when the temps and snow are changing, warming. Snow is releasing heat, temps moving at a time when ski is not creating friction, but snow is releasing and transforming during the race.

Use HP04 when the day is cloudy, maybe fog and there is a constant temp. It runs well in new snow, but not in falling snow. Snow -2 to -8C.

Use the Fluor 100 powder on race day for falling snow and  high humidity,  +1 to -4C.

S30 as underlayer on almost all temps improves the wax at -5C and colder.

That a good start for now.  It is time to look in the wax box and check with us if you have needs.

Happy waxing,

Bert