Solda Wax Recommendations

Welcome to the SOLDA wax blog and the first entry of the 09/10 ski waxing season. Apologies for the long silence. We have had some issues with the server and passwords, but all is working now.

Over the summer the owner of Webskis and the official boss here in the shop, Kevin Groman, took a trip to Italy for bike touring and he got a chance to stop off at the SOLDA plant in Monte Belluna. After touring the facility he asked some questions that SOLDA users might find interesting. What follows is my recreation (not made up) of the interview.

Kevin: Salve, Luciano. It is good of you to take some time and answer a few questions for Bert and me. We were wondering how skis are used in the testing of SOLDA waxs when you are refining current products or developing new products.

Luciano: For each on snow test we use six pairs of skis and six skiers. The skis are matched as well as possible for flex and grind and for each test we use only one brand of skis. We have a fleet of many brands, but we do not test Fischer skis against Madshus skis. We first establish the speed of each ski by waxing all the skis the same and running tests in a speed trap. That way we develop a handicap number for each pair of skis because some skis are just always fast.

Kevin: When you have a new wax to test, who is doing the on-snow testing?

Luciano: We use skiers and wax techs from the Italian National ski team. We also have skiers from two clubs that feed skiers to the National team.

Kevin: Once you have decided to test a product, what is the procedure you use for on-snow testing?

Luciano: We start by waxing with SOLDA and two other brands of wax. Our techs try to prepare the skis in the best possible manner for the conditions of testing. If other brands of wax are faster, we need to know that. We then use electronic speed trap data, glide out tests and subjective tests as the skiers take the skis out for a few kilometers of skiing. The testers do not know which skis have SOLDA and which have the other waxes. We know each ski well and use the handicap numbers already established to see how the waxes run against each other.

Kevin: It sounds like a lot of work.

Luciano: It is great work. Some times we are waxing skis for 3 or 4 sessions a day. We really learn what is fast and that makes us always faster.

Kevin: I know that the chemistry of ski waxes is getting more complex. Do you have chemists here in the factory who work on laboratory testing?

Luciano: We have the cooperation of chemists and mathematicians from the University of Venice and University of Padua. They do some work here and some work at the university labs. There are times when they make a discovery in the lab that prompts us to begin development of a new wax, or to make an improvement on an established wax.

Kevin: I was wondering about new product development. Is that initiated by the company, the university or by racers?

Luciano: It is a little of all of the above. Sometimes the coaches come and ask for waxes for certain kinds of snow. New wax formulations are being developed for Vancouver, but they are not yet ready for public release. We want to be sure we have a superior product before we release it. That takes time. Sometimes it is the chemists who come to me and show me the results of observations in the lab. Then we start to see how best to apply that data. Sometimes we observe something ourselves about the wax and begin here in the plant. Gino Solda's son, Manlio, works here and is often mixing up something the has been thinking about. It is great to have members of the Solda family still involved. We are now working on liquid waxes and trying to find ways to have them bond better to the ski bases. Look for better liquid flouro waxes in the future.

Kevin: Thanks for the insights. We are pleased and proud to be the SOLDA distributor in the USA. It is terrific to get a chance to see the wax production and find out what makes SOLDA wax the fast wax that it is.

We at SOLDA hope you have a good season. Call us with waxing questions.

Bert