What do dish soap, Lemon Pledge, and Rain-X have in common?

Waxing secrets from the Nordic Fest

Tue, Oct  25, 2011 - By Mike Muha

Some of us use Toko waxes. Some use Swix. Or Solda or Fast Wax or any of a number of commercially available cross country ski waxes.

But innovators eschew the ways followed by the masses and chose more radically base treatments: dish soap, Lemon Pledge, and Rain-X.

Glenn Goodman and Robin Luce experimented with non-traditional "waxes" in the days leading up to the Nordic Fest Season Opener Race on Saturday, October 22. Conditions included saturated snow with warm air temperatures, along with rain, and seasonable dry but cool conditions.

Yes, that's Glenn Goodman prepping his racing skis with Lemon Pledge

Glenn and Robin discovered that, although not durable, dish soap, Lemon Pledge, and Rain-X all made their skis much faster in high moisture conditions. But it was durable enough to last a couple laps around the course as required for the race.

Dish soap and Lemon Pledge were both easy to apply and easy to remove; Rain-X was very difficult to remove from the skis, according to Goodman.

Race day was a bit colder than previous test conditions but Glenn and Robin felt Lemon Pledge was still the "wax of the day".