Bode at Beaver Creek

Bode Miller on SkiSpace.com

Funny!

Industry Pioneer and Reliable Racing Supply Founder Tom Jacobs Elected to National Ski & Snowboard Hall of Fame

Ishpeming, Michigan

The U.S. National Ski and Snowboard Hall of Fame announces its Class of 2007. The inductees represent a very diverse group of snow sport pioneers, athletes and developers, including Reliable Racing Supply founder Tom Jacobs.

"Tommy" Jacobs competed in cross-country and Nordic combined at the Oslo Olympic Games in 1952 and went on to a successful career as coach for Colorado University's ski team. He served as the Executive Director of the National Ski Association, today the U.S. Ski and Snowboard Association, in 1956-1957.

After moving back to the East in the 60's, Jacobs and his wife started Reliable Racing Supply thus founding the first mail order ski race equipment distributor of its kind. The company became an international supplier of cutting-edge race products that raised the level of the racing environment for thousands of competitive skiers and organizations.

Tom is universally known as a ski industry pioneer and visionary. Through his company, he presented many "firsts" to the industry, including: The development of an articulating slalom pole that was the first to be used in World Cup racing in 1980 (Break-A-Way slalom poles); the first nordic ski boot & binding system with a heel locator (branded as Sixtens); the first
to the market of an insulated alpine boot cover (called Panaja boot muffs); the first in the USA to manufacture and sell nordic roller skis (called Road Ski); and the first to offer automatic timing systems to the resort industry for recreational racing. Reliable Racing was also a major force in
the popularization of ski and snowboard helmets to the general wintersports public during the 1990's, through the distribution of Swedish-made Jofa helmets. Helmets today are a major product category in the industry, with over 50 brands represented in the USA.

Winter Action Sports Photography

Hi all,

I just wanted to share some work that has been recently published online.

I have been super fortunate to have hooked up with the right people this
year, and it's proving it's self more than ever. Most of the season's
events have been explosive and have brought me close to some very talented
athletes. This week I spent five days behind the camera, three of which
were at Snowbird watching the best freeskiing athletes take to the hill for
the 10th annual US Freeskiing Nationals. The other two days I observed the
most rediculous acrobatics you've seen on snow as the worlds best
snowboarders and skiers hucked themselves out of Park City's superpipe at
the World Superpipe Championships.

I've always had a passion for skiing and photography. This year a stroke of
good fortune, and bit of hard work, have allowed me to travel and ski while
capturing it all behind the lens. With this has come a little bit of
exposure and I'm stoked to share with you some recent spotlights...More
photos of this years action will be posted to my website in the following
month, check back as I update my site.

http://www.doglotion.com/featured-photographer-jonathan-cracroft
http://www.snowbird.com/events/competitions/freeskiingnationals.html
http:www.alta.com (featured photographer - lower right corner)


I hope you're doing well. Thanks for your support, for which I'm extremely
grateful.

Cheers!

Jonathan
801.631.5635
www.JonathanCracroft.com

USASA Boarder cross at Mt. Hood Meadows 02/25/07

Wax Manuals Available for Download

Do you need a wax manual? We have the following wax manuals in PDF format
available for download on our website:

Vola Tech Manual (2.2MB)
Toko Wax Manual (Alpine/Nordic/Snowboard) (2.7MB)
Toko Alpine Tech Manual (375k)
Toko Nordic Tech Manual (429k)
Toko Snowboard Tech Manual (230k)
Ski Visions Base Flattener (390k)
Ski Visions Ski Sharp (488k)
Swix Nordic Ski Prep Racing (9.8MB)
Swix Nordic Ski Prep Performance (3.6MB)
Swix Nordic Ski Prep Active (998k)
Swix Ski/Snowboard Prep Racing (8.7MB)
Swix Ski/Snowboard Prep Performance (2.3MB)
Swix Ski/Snowboard Prep Active (1.3MB)

Download here: http://www.reliableracing.com/downloads.cfm

Do the bases of waxable cross country skis need preparation? If so, how do you do it and what do you need?

All of the cross country racing skis catalogued come directly from the factory with stone ground bases. Here is some instruction on base preparation of new skis. All of the race skis from Atomic, Fischer, and Madshus have stone ground bases that should require no more than some light base scraping and hot waxing before being "put to the snow." Follow the steps outlined below and your new skis should be fast!

1. Gently scrape the top surface with a steel scraper. You are only doing this to remove some of the rough hairs from the stone grinding. By no means do you actually need to scrape material off the base, and there is no need for sanding glide surfaces. "Peeling" of the base is not necessary on new skis that have a quality stone grind. Just gently scrape a few strokes and have confidence in the flatness and finish of the new ski bases.

2. Iron on a layer of soft paraffin wax made for warm temperatures such as Fast Wax Base Prep, Swix Base Prep, or Toko Yellow. Next, scrape off the wax with a plastic scraper before it has a chance to dry. Rub the base with clean fiberlene to get off all of the wet wax. Repeat. Because new bases are usually dirty from handling, this is the best way to clean the base, so be
sure to perform this step at least twice (the more the better). Soft, wet wax will not cause the bases to oxidize the way wax remover will. It's important that the bases be clean before you apply the base wax.

3. Iron on a layer of paraffin wax that falls in the middle of that company's temperature range (Fast Wax Red, Toko Red, Swix CH8). Let the wax cool into the base for at least 40 minutes. Scrape with a plastic scraper and then brush with a brass brush, then with a plastic nylon brush, and last with a horsehair brush. For the fastest and easiest mode of brushing get the swix roto brush kit - fitted to a drill, the brushing process is quickened and your arms will stay strong for skiing. As before, repeat this waxing/scraping step twice.

4. Iron on the next cooler/harder wax in the company's range of waxes (Fast Wax Blue, Swix CH6). Again, let it soak in and penetrate the bases for at least 40 minutes, then scrape and brush as above.

5. The final step is to iron one of the really hard cold waxes on your bases. This will allow the base to resist oxidation and give it durability.
Good cold waxes are Start Green, Swix CH4, or Fast Wax Green. Again, let the
bases cool and then thoroughly scrape and brush.

6. The base prep is now done. The final step for new skis is to apply the right wax and structure for the specific conditions at hand. Why? Because after Step #5 your skis are waxed for very cold snow conditions which may not be the case on the day you decide to ski. Check the temperature, choose your glide wax, drip the melted wax onto your ski's bases with the wax iron, let the skis cool, scrape and brush as described previously.

The steps listed above are for skating skis. For waxing the tip and tail glide zones of classic skis just follow the same steps. Be sure you "rough up" the kick zone of your classic skis with some medium grit (150 or 180) sandpaper, as this will help the grip wax bond better to the base. Place some packing or duct tape over the ski's kick zone when applying glide wax to the tips and tails. You don't want any glide wax getting into the ski's
kick or grip zone because it will prevent kick wax from bonding or staying
firm to the base.

If you follow the steps above, then wax correctly for the day's conditions, you should have fast skis that hold their wax. Finally, be encouraged because the more your skis are glide waxed over the winter and the bases become saturated with wax, the faster they'll become!!

Visit http://www.reliableracing.com for more wax information and the products used in this article.

NEW ARRIVAL! -Spyder Ball Cap

• Cotton Twill cap with Pre-curved bill
• Embroidered Bug and Spyder Logo.
• Adult sizes: S/M, L/XL

http://www.reliableracing.com/detail.cfm?edp=11010493&category=3240