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BNS News |
Dec 10, 2009
Vol 2 Issue 14 |
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As always, November and early December have been crazy at BNS. In the last three weeks we've stone ground over 1100 pairs of skis, set up a temporary shop 750 miles from base, moved a grinder to the Olympic venue, worked with athletes to test wax, skis and grinds while managing a week-long trade show.
Luckily, these have not only been incredibly busy times, but also incredibly valuable and productive weeks. Testing ideas on snow is always exciting and even more exhilirating when the real-world results show that we are continuing to raise the bar.
As the solstice approaches and we jump into the ski season, we hope you've been having as much fun as we are with the start to winter.
In this issue:
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Eldora On-Snow Demo Saturday, Dec 12 |
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 Test Out the Latest Gear for Free
 Uncertain of which skis, boots or poles you want or if the best stuff is really worth it? Come try out skis, boots, poles and bindings from Fischer, Salomon, Rossignol, Swix, Atomic, Madshus and Alpina for free. Zach Caldwell, Nathan Schultz and Fischer Race Director Chris Hall will be on hand to help with ski selection and explain differences between ski models. Try out different models and flexes to feel the corresponding changes on snow.
The Eldora demo will run from 9AM-2PM Saturday, Dec. 12. Trail passes will be required, bring a drivers license as collateral. |
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Fischer Race Director Chris Hall at BNS Saturday, Dec 12 7PM |
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Hall discusses his experience as US Ski Team World Cup Wax Tech and Race Service Director at Fischer.
Fischer USA Race Director Chris Hall will join us at our on-snow demo and then drop by BNS Saturday night at 7PM to give an informal presentation on his experience as a World Cup Wax Technician for the US Ski Team and working to support the Fischer USA racing programs in North America. |
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How to Stay Warm and Have Fun in Bitter Cold |
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Simple Preparation and the Right Gear Keeps it Fun in the Cold
A week of cold here in Colorado was highlighted with one of our morning training group sessions at -2F and 50MPH winds. It reminded us how to keep from freezing and still enjoy being outside in miserable weather.
- Start with the right cold weather gear. The invaluable stuff:
- Keep the core warm to keep your extremities warm. Your body diverts blood from the extremities to the core in cold weather, so keeping your core body warm will lessen this effect and keep your fingers and toes warmer. Start your workout with extra layers such as a down jacket or vest that you can peel off once you are warmed up.
- Stay hydrated. Use hot water in an insulated drink container to prevent freezing and to warm you up out on the trails. Mix a sport drink thicker in cold weather to deal with the extra metabolic demands your body makes when keeping warm in cold weather.
- Use chemical warmers to keep extremities protected. Core temperature is easily maintained with high-quality clothing and the activity of skiing. Toes, fingers and exposed skin are the problem areas that need to be protected. Chemical warmers can be placed inside gloves, boots and in between boots and boot covers to extend the safe exposure time significantly while making the whole experience much more pleasant.
- Minimize exposed skin using a balaclava under your normal ski hat and/or earmuffs and cover exposed skin with protection. Dermatone is commonly smeared on exposed skin to add some protection and a lovely greasy skin tone. Problem areas such as where the wind rolls off glasses onto your face can be covered with strips of athletic tape or moleskin.
Give us a call if you want some help figuring out how to stay comfy in the cold. We'll be glad to share our experience. We'd also love to hear your tips and tricks - send us your suggestions here. |
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BNS Contest - Next Drawing Dec 14 |
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Rossignol WCS Package Headlines December 14th Drawing!
Our fourth prize drawing of the season is impressive with over $2000 in gear to give away. The headliner is Rossignol with a full package of the new WCS skate ski, X-Ium Skate Boot, R4 Binding and OneWay DS10 Max Poles. As if that isn't enough, other prizes up for grabs are a pair of Fischer Carbonlite Skate Boots, Holmenkol Matrix Green & Blue Glide Waxes, Ski*Go C22 Powder, a Swix Oval Steel Brush and a Madshus Training Hat.
Six winners will be chosen at random from those who register before 8PM MST December 14th online at www.bouldernordicsport.com, in person at BNS stores in Boulder, CO or Portland, ME. No purchase is necessary. You need to register for each contest separately. If you registered before Dec 1, you will need to re-register to be eligible for this contest drawing. See bouldernordic.com for rules. The next prize drawing will be held December 28th.
December 14th Prizes: (6 winners will be selected)
Rossignol's new WCS skating ski reduces the weight of the tip for lower swing weight, but more importantly, continues the evolution of the NIS2 ski by softening the tip and smoothing the build to pressure in the forebody while creating a strong bridge to give an energetic, stable ski that handles soft and hard track conditions well. The Rossignol X-Ium Skate Boot has a carbon cuff for lateral stability and lacing that allows separate adjustment on the lower and upper portions of the boot. The Rossignol R4 NIS Skate Binding clicks onto the NIS plate to provide secure power transfer between the boot and ski, with the ability to adjust binding location to optimize ski performance in varying conditions. The OneWay DS10 Max Pole is extremely light.
The Fischer Carbonlite Skate Boot brings some interesting new technologies and and adjusted fit to Fischer's complete re-design of their skate boot. Taking what Fischer learned from it early successes and failures with the S9000 boot, the new boot incorporates a revolutionary "Snake Lacing" concept that locks the foot into the anatomically-shaped last for precise control and powerful push off.
Holmenkol Matrix Green and Matrix Blue highlight two of the strengths of the Holmenkol racing wax line. Matrix Green and Blue paraffins excel in colder, dryer snow, especially in fine-grained, aggressive and artificial snow. The fluorination is adjusted for optimal performance in the temperature ranges, and, unlike other wax brands, the cost is adjusted accordingly, adding additional value to one of the best performing paraffin wax lines available. Available in 2x35g, 150g and 3x150g packages.
Ski*Go C22 Fluoro Powder is often the winning wax in wet snow, especially dirty snow. Used in temps above freezing and high humidity, C22 forms an extremely hard layer, resisting dirt and sometimes can be quite good in extreme cold. C22 performs best with an underlayer of Ski*Go HF Yellow (formerly C242).
The Swix T188B Pro Oval Fine Steel Brush is a great all-purpose brush for cleaning out structure before waxing and as a first brush for paraffin waxes, especially colder, harder waxes. De-tune it on sandpaper or have BNS de-tune it on the stone grinder for best performance.
The final prize for the Dec 14th drawing is a Madshus training hat. |
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What We Learned at the West Yellowstone Fall Festival |
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Lessons Learned and Results from On-Snow Testing 
Aside from learning how to cope with a full schedule and lack of sleep, West Yellowstone was a very productive week. We ground about 330 pairs of skis, but also had the chance to get out on snow with many of the elite athletes who we work with on ski selection and stone grinds. The three Supertour races also gave us the opportunity to test waxes and make some fast skis for racers.
We had several goals for testing:
- Test grinds and our new grind menu
- Zero out our new test fleet skis
- Test waxes for the races and provide ski service
- Test Madshus, Fischer and Atomic skis for model and flex differences
- Help athletes test their skis and decide on optimal grind choices
This was an aggressive agenda given that we had full-time work grinding skis and running the Ski*Go and Holmenkol clinics at the Expo. Luckily we had some great help from Patrick Moore who came down to help us out and tirelessly set up test skis and run them through speed traps and other tests.
The first order of business was zeroing out our new Madshus test fleet. We got a matched fleet of 8 pairs of skate skis when we visited the Madshus factory this summer to use for wax and grind testing. Because of the way Madshus makes skis, they tend to have the most consistent production, and so they make excellent test fleets with skis that came out of the same production run being nearly identical. We set up the fleet of eight pairs by putting CV0 grinds on each pair, waxing them up in the hot box and then prepping everything with the same wax and brushing sequence. Patrick hauled the skis out to the speed trap and ran all of the pairs through 5 runs each, giving us a zero test so that we would know how closely the skis were performing. As expected, the skis showed nearly identical performance and so we could feel confident that when we used the skis later in the week for wax and grind testing, that we would be testing the variables on the skis, not the skis themselves.
The next step was grind testing. We had four test fleets from various sources that we had put about 30 different grinds on before we came to Yellowstone. We hauled those fleets out to the speed trap and ran grind tests in groups through the speed trap to test different grinds against each other. We then took the 3-4 best winners in the speed trap out for "feel" testing. Feel testing was done by skiing with one ski of each grind on each foot, directly comparing the feel of one ski to the other as we skied around the race courses and the Yellowstone outer loops.
It quickly became obvious, especially as the week progressed and the snow transformed, that the snow was widely variable depending on how much sun had hit it. Shaded areas had dry, new snow, with sunny spots much wetter and coarser. While this made choosing a "winner" difficult, it was excellent for determining which of those 30 grinds had the broadest ranges, where each excelled, and what weaknesses each had. This made for great testing of skis, grinds and wax, but made it challenging as we started trying to make decisions surrounding the Supertour races.
We helped several athletes test out their skis as well. We set up the new skis from several skiers fleet with the same grind in order to zero out the skis and highlight the differences between the skis. With the same base prep and structure, we skied the skis with the athletes to get a feel for what conditions each pair handles best. We had flex-tested many of these skis and so we matched the real-world characteristics of the skis on snow to how we expected the skis to react based on the flex tests. As always, we learned more about how skis work and the new tweaks that ski manufacturers are constantly developing. We were also able to help athletes decide which grinds would optimize the performance of each pair of skis. We were then running the skis straight into the grind batches so the skiers could race on them that week.
As the races approached, we continued our grind testing and began to focus on testing waxes. We tested paraffins and powders in the days leading up to the races. We waited to test top coats (fluoro blocks & liquids) and hand structure until race morning, as those tests are easy to perform and best to do right before the races. We were pleasantly surprised with our first tests as Holmenkol and SkiGo were winning most of the tests over all of the brands we were testing.
On race days, we once again reinforced our belief that getting in the ballpark with the paraffin and fluoro powder and then nailing the top coat is the best way to make fast skis. The top coats seem to overwhelm everything else, and as long as the underlayers are relatively close to the "best" options, the only thing that really matters is the final coat. We tested top coats using two pair of test skis, and the best top coat application was turning the worst of the fluoro powder applications from our tests into the fastest skis in the test. See our BNS Magazine for further discussion on this.
Many people raced on the CV0 and XTi2 grinds that week, and the Holmenkol Mid Powder and block were excellent choices and used on a lot of the skis that landed on top of the podium. The following weekend, Kris Freeman placed 4th in the 15km Classic at the Kuusamo World Cup on a pair of skis Zach picked for him in Austria this summer. We ended the week exhausted but exhilirated and looking forward to more testing and development in the months ahead.
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BNS Boulder Training Group |
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Winter Session Workouts Tuesday and Wednesday Mornings
The Team BNS Training Group provides expert coaching at Eldora Mountain Resort two days per week through March. Workouts include technique coaching, video analysis, and fitness components to provide you with the tools to master technique, get fit, and learn how to train at the same time. Video and technique drills are used extensively. The Training Group will also travel to several races in Colorado where athletes will be supported with wax service and advice.
All Winter Session participants must have an Eldora Season Pass.
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Thursday Night Wax Clinics |
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Get Help Waxing December-March
Boulder Nordic Sport (BNS) offers a varied schedule of presentations about cross-country skiing every Thursday night from 6-8PM beginning in December. Each clinic will include a short presentation followed by an open wax night where BNS will provide benches and tools for waxing. Bring your skis and wax and our experts will help you figure it all out. Each week will have a special sale related to the clinic.. |
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Get the New 09-10 BNS Magazine |
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Download Now Available 
When we set out writing our new magazine this summer, the goal was to share some of what we've learned doing high-level race service and try to show how to apply the most important information to real-world waxing. It has been out for just over a month and we're pretty impressed with ourselves, especially since it seems to have caused one of our competitors to go insane with envy.
But don't trust us, because we could be pretending. Check it out for yourself: download it, request a mailed copy, or pick one up at our shops or at the Yellowstone Fall Festival. We're excited to hear what you think: bad and good. Give it a read and let us know what we missed or how we could clarify things. We are working on videos and articles to further develop these ideas and feedback and suggestions will help us focus on what we've missed. |
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New Ski Drop-Off Location in Minnesota |
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Drop off skis and receive $10 round-trip shipping
Boulder Nordic Sport has a new drop-off point for stone grinding in the Midwest. Drop off skis for stone grinding and take advantage of $10 round-trip shipping to get skis tuned by the North American leaders in stone grinding and structure. Skis can also be dropped off at BNS East in Portland, Maine for the same deal. If you are shipping skis, ship directly to our Boulder Location, not to the drop-off locations.
DROP OFF LOCATION
The UPS Store
5021 Vernon Avenue S.
Edina, MN 55436
Hours:
M-F 8am - 8pm
Sat 9am- 6pm
Sun Noon- 5pm
Please contact BNS with questions or assistance choosing grinds. We have a full grind menu and detailed description of our unique stone grinding process at www.bouldernordicsport.com.
INSTRUCTIONS FOR PREPARING SKIS
- Download a work order form from the service page of www.bouldernordic.com. Please use the team work order form for 5+ pairs, or the individual work order form for less than 5 pairs. Fill out the form(s) and print a copy to go with the skis.
- Scrape and clean the skis or include a $10 ski cleaning charge per pair. No kick wax, no glide wax please.
- Tape each pair together with masking tape base-to-base. Label the skis with the name on the work order form and write a number on each pair so we can connect skis to the forms.
Drop them off at the UPS Store above and we'll do the rest.
You will receive an email notification when the skis ship from Boulder giving the date they will be available for pick up. Please help us out by picking up skis as quickly as possible when they arrive in Minneapolis. Expect turnaround time to be 3 weeks from drop-off. If you need skis faster, ship them directly to us at our Boulder store and we can ship them usually within a week of receipt, saving significant time. |
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New Stone Grinds & Menus |
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Simplified Grind Menus and Expanded Information
Zach has spent the last two years focused on grind development and testing, and we are reaping the benefits of all of this work with some great new grinds. We've also completely re-worked our grind menus to provide three levels of information: SIMPLE, expanded racing menu, and full details on grinds along with a structure primer.
Check it out:
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Contact BNS | |
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Contact Information
Boulder Headquarters: 720.227.9400
1717 15th St; Boulder, CO 80302
BNS East: 207.541.7438
200 Anderson St, Suite 5; Portland, ME 04101
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Join our mailing list!
(877.267.7453)
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| Act Fast,
Save 15% |
Get 15% off of Holmenkol Matrix Waxes and SkiGo C22 Powder. Use web code CON091214 or bring this coupon into the store.
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| Offer Expires: Dec 18, 2009. While supplies last. | |
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