Sunday 28 September 2008

Get The Iron Out

It's only two months until ski areas start opening around Europe, and the Northern Hemisphere. If you want to make it feel a little bit closer and you have a bit of free time, why not get out your skis and give them some TLC. Not only will it make you feel better while you are missing the snow, it will make them faster as well. If you serviced the skis well at the end of the season, there is no need to sharpen the edges, and no need to scrape the wax off either. Just iron in a new layer of wax, leave them somewhere warm for a couple of hours, then put them away again. Use a mid-range wax for this, not an expensive high-fluoro wax which is not long lasting enough. The idea is that each time you apply wax it will impregnate itself deeper into the base, lasting longer and making the base faster.

Friday 19 September 2008

I'm Back

Well after not managing to post for nearly six weeks it's about time I wrote something again. Not that I've really got a lot to tell. It's been a lot of work and not much play, saving up for the autumn training courses. My French is improving though, and I'm in a pretty nice place so no complaints. Winter is definitely approaching however, so more ski related posts will be appearing soon. In the meantime, thought I'd give a mention to a couple of my favourite skiing blogs.

Firstly, the friendly people at the Nutcracker Ski Club in Mt Buller, Australia have a nice site with good photos and lots of info and their season is in full swing whilst up north we are just counting down the days until the snow comes back.

Secondly, Homeboy's Ski Blog is written by a couple of Finns and covers all sorts of skiing topics as well as mountain biking over the summer months. Unlike me they generally manage a post every couple of days or so.

Both these are well worth a visit, so take a look and I'll be back in a couple of days with some more skiing stuff to get in the autumn (i.e. nearly winter) mood.