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Ski wax
Ski wax is a material applied to the bottom of skis or snowboards to improve the ski's performance on snow. It can also be applied to other devices that slide over snow and ice such as toboggans. When selecting a wax, one must consider a variety of factors including snow conditions, temperature, and whether one will be touring or racing. There are two types of wax:
- glide is designed to reduce resistance between the ski and snow, making the skis faster.
- kick, or grip wax is designed to be applied only at the waist of a cross country, or nordic ski, and provides grip when the skier is advancing.
Glide wax[edit]
The glide wax used by nordic and alpine skiers is essentially the same. Glide wax can be applied to alpine skis, snowboards, skating skis, and can be applied only to the tip and tail zones of nordic skis, including so-called waxless skis.[1] Glide wax is primarily for P-tex skis, not wooden skis. Waxes, usually synthetic, can be hard or soft:
- Harder waxes are for cold or dry or abrasive conditions. Waxes can contain additives such as graphite, teflon, silicon, fluorocarbons, and molybdenum to improve glide and/or reduce dirt accumulation. The harder waxes typically are composed of longer molecules and tend to wear off the base faster than softer waxes.[2]
- Softer waxes are for warm or wet conditions. Softer waxes are typically composed of short and ring molecules.
The hardness of the wax is controlled by the length of the carbon chains in the wax. Longer carbon chains create a harder wax while short carbon chains create softer waxes.
A variety of glide waxes exist, typical a manufacturer will offer a range of waxes, each optimized for a particular temperature range. Cheaper universal "one size fits all" waxes are also available.
Glide wax can be rubbed on or applied by melting.[1]
- In hot waxing: wax is heated up against an iron, melted, and dripped onto the base of a ski and then ironed into the base.
- Paste, liquid, spray-on, and rub-on waxes require no heating.
- Hotboxing, consists of applying a wax with an iron, then warming skis in a device called a hotbox. Hotboxes open up the pores in the ski, this allows the recently applied wax to penetrate the base of the ski deeper and more effectively, creating an even faster gliding surface.
- Infrared waxing uses infrared light to melt the wax.
Some authors question necessity to use any glide waxes on modern ski bass[3] [4][5][6][7] Other authors insist that the ski base material already has very good sliding properties and can only be improved by a small margin by glide waxes in defined snow conditions.
Grip wax[edit]
The purpose of grip wax is the opposite of glide wax. It provides a grip under the nordic skier's foot to provide forward motion. Some skis as are "waxless", having a fish-scale like texture to prevent back sliding. There are two kinds of wax:[8]
- Hard, for fresh, crystalline snow. Hard waxes are the most popular choice. They work best when temperatures are cold and snow crystals are sharp. Most are color-coded according to their optimal temperature range (from approximately -25 °F to +35 °F).
- Klister for old, rounded snow. These are for warmer conditions and/or on snow that has repeatedly melted and refrozen. Their gelatinous nature and stickiness makes them a bit tricky to work with.
Johannes Scheffer in Argentoratensis Lapponiæ (History of Lapland) in 1673 gave what is probably the first recorded instruction for ski wax application[3] He advised skiers to use pine tar pitch and rosin. Ski waxing was also documented in 1761.[9]
Beginning around 1854, California gold rush miners held organized downhill ski races (see History of ski racing). They also discovered that bases smeared with dopes brewed from vegetable and/or animal compound helped increase skiing speeds. This led to some of the first commercial ski wax (even though they contained no wax at all), such as Black Dope and Sierra Lighting; both were mainly composed of sperm oil, vegetable oil and pine pitch. However, some instead used paraffin candle wax that melted onto ski bases, and these worked better under colder conditions.
A significant advance for cross country racing was the introduction of klister, for good kick in warm snow; klister was invented and patented in 1913 by Peter Østbye.[10]
Surfactants were introduced in 1974 by Hertel Wax. Hertel also developed the first fluorocarbon product. This technology was introduced to the market in 1986 by Hertel Wax. Meanwhile, at Swix, chief chemist Leif Torgersen was also looking for something to repel dirt. A hard glide wax was essential to last throughout a 50 km race or a ski marathon, but the softer kick wax picked up pine pollen and other dirt, slowing the ski progressively through the course of the race. So he sought a form of fluorocarbon that could be ironed into the base. In Italy, he found it: Enrico Traverso at Enichem SpA, a state-owned industrial giant, had a fluorocarbon powder with a melting temperature just a few degrees below that that of sintered polyethylene. On March 2, 1990, Enichem applied for an Italian patent on a "ski lubricant comprising paraffinic wax and hydrocarbon compounds containing a perfluorocarbon segment".[11] The same day, Hertel filed for a U.S. patent on a "ski wax for use with sintered-base snow skis",[12] containing paraffin, a hardener wax, roughly 1% per-fluoroether diol, and 2% SDS surfactant". Enichem received a U.S. patent a year later. These are the two earliest patents for fluorocarbon ski waxes. Later patents have been granted to Dupont and to Athanasios Karydas, of Dominator Race Wax.
Wax solvents[edit]
Wax can be dissolved by nonpolar solvents like gasoline, benzene (carcinogenic) or mineral spirits. However commercial wax solvents are made from citrus oil, which is less toxic, harder to ignite, and least damaging (if at all) to the ski base.
Health and environmental impacts[edit]
Health impacts[edit]
Ski wax can contain toxic chemicals including perfluorinated chemicals. Levels of perfluorinated carboxylates, especially perfluorooctanoic acid, are known to increase dramatically in ski wax technicians during the ski season.[13] PFOA, in particular, is known to be stable in the environment and to cause cancer, birth defects, thyroid dysfunction,[14] increased cardiovascular risk,[15] hormone and immune system disruption, birth and developmental defects and liver toxicity [16]
Environmental Impacts[edit]
When skiing, the friction between the snow and skis will cause the wax to rub off on the snow and sorb to the snow grain surface and particles in the bulk snow. The wax is released in the snowmelt in pulses depending on the hydrophobicity of the chemicals in the wax and the age of the snowpack, ending up on the soil surface.[17] This snowmelt drains into watersheds, streams, lakes and rivers, with the potential to contaminate and harm both the environment and its inhabitants. PFCs in ski wax are extremely heat resistant, chemically and biologically stable, and thus environmentally persistent.[18] A University of New Hampshire undergraduate named Evelyn French estimates of the amount of PFOA in ski wax released to the environment at a ski resort approximates that 1 million skiers visit the resort in a year, each using ¾ of an ounce of wax, resulting in 46,875 pounds of PFOA deposited in the surrounding soil and water systems. To extrapolate to the US as a whole, the ~60 million ski visits each year result in ~2.8 million pounds of PFOA being released to the environment.[19] French's arithmetic, however, has been challenged. Because of its expense, no wax company uses more than a 1% concentration of FHCs in any bulk wax, so even if all American skiers used FHC wax every day, the total FHC burden would be on the order of 28,000 pounds (about 13 metric tonnes). Moreover, the bulk of those FHC materials go not into the watershed, but onto the waxing room floor in the form of scrapings, to be bagged as landfill trash or recycling.[20]
- ^ a b "Glide Waxing Your Skis or Snowboard". REI. Retrieved 11 October 2014.
- ^ "Glide Wax". skiwax.ca. Retrieved 11 October 2014.
- ^ a b Kuzmin, Leonid (2006). Investigation of the most essential factors influencing ski glide (Licentiate). Luleå University of Technology. Retrieved 2012-10-20.
- ^ Kuzmin, Leonid; Tinnsten, Mats (2006). "Dirt absorption on the ski running surface - quantification and influence on the gliding ability". Sports Engineering 9 (13): 137–146. doi:10.1007/BF02844115. Retrieved 2012-10-20.
- ^ Coupe, Richard (2008). "An Investigation Comparing the Efficacy of Different Lubricants for Skis on Artificial Snow". ENQUIRY: The ACES Journal of Undergraduate Research (Sheffield Hallam University) 1 (1). Retrieved 2012-10-20.
- ^ Giesbrecht, Jan Lukas (2010). Polymers on snow: Towards skiing faster (Doctoral). Swiss Federal Institute of Technology. Retrieved 2012-10-20.
- ^ Kuzmin, Leonid (2010). Interfacial kinetic ski friction (Doctoral). Mid Sweden University. Retrieved 2012-10-20.
- ^ "Grip Waxing Your Cross-Country Skis". REI. Retrieved 11 October 2014.
- ^ Oberleutnant Hals. Om Skismøring. Vaage: Skienes Verden. p. 254.
- ^ Masia, Seth. "GRIP AND GLIDE: A SHORT HISTORY OF SKI WAX". Retrieved 11 October 2014.
- ^ US patent 5202041, "Ski lubricant comprising paraffinic wax and a hydrocarbon compound", issued Apr 13, 1993, assigned to Enichem Synthesis S.p.A.
- ^ US patent 5114482, Terry J. Hertel, "Ski wax for use with sintered base snow skis", issued May 19, 1992
- ^ A time trend study of significantly elevated perfluorocarboxylate levels in humans after using fluorinated ski wax., Nilsson H, Kärrman A, Westberg H, Rotander A, van Bavel B, Lindström G. Environ Sci Technol. 2010 Mar 15;44(6):2150-5.
- ^ Association between Serum Perfluorooctanoic Acid (PFOA) and Thyroid Disease in the U.S. National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey., David Melzer, Neil Rice, Michael H. Depledge, William E. Henley, Tamara S. Galloway Environ Health Perspect 118:686-692. doi:10.1289/ehp.0901584.
- ^ Ski wax chemicals build up in people's blood, pose risks., Cherly Katz Environmental Health News, December 19, 2010.
- ^ Lau C, Anitole K, Hodes C, Lai D, Pfahles-Hutchens A, Seed J (October 2007). "Perfluoroalkyl acids: a review of monitoring and toxicological findings". Toxicol. Sci. 99 (2): 366–94. doi:10.1093/toxsci/kfm128. PMID 17519394.
- ^ Plassmann, Merle M. "Environmental Occurrence and Fate of Semifluorinated N-alkanes and Perfluorinated Alkyl Acids Present in Ski Waxes." Doctoral Thesis in Applied Environmental Science at Stockholm University (2011).
- ^ Bull, S. "PFOS + PFOA Toxicological Overview." Health Protection Agency. 2009. Web. 25 Mar. 2012. <http://www.hpa.org.uk/webc/HPAwebFile/HPAweb_C/1246260032570>.
- ^ French, Evelyn. "Waxing for a Greener Tomorrow." Ski Wax and Snowboard Wax. 2010. Web. 28 Mar. 2012. <http://www.purlwax.com/home-page/waxing-in-environmental-news/>.
- ^ Masia, Seth. "History of Ski Wax" http://skiinghistory.org/history/grip-and-glide-short-history-ski-wax


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January 26, 2015
(CBS News) Concept cars never really reflect the vehicles that end up driving on the road. They overreach. They show us what cars could, conceivably, be one day. So don't get too excited about this Hover car Concept from Volkswagen. Well, maybe get a little excited. It is a hover car, after all.
Volkswagen, which translates to "people's car" in English, challenged China residents to submit their ideas of what the car of the future should look like. The company sifted through more than 119,000 ideas submitted to the project website and compiled three concepts, including the Hover Car.
The Hover Car is a two-seater zero emissions vehicle that hovers above ground and travels along electromagnetic road networks. It can detect other vehicles on the road while navigating China's congested traffic centers, and its small footprint makes it easy to park.
It is farfetched, sure. But maybe not as much as you'd think. Automotive designers around the world have pushed for electromagnetic highways. A group at Stanford University has been working on the design of a true electric highway. A true hover car may be far away, but maybe not that far.
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Pixar's Up Gallery
From Disney•Pixar comes Up, an animated comedy in which
78-year-old Carl Fredricksen fulfills his dream of a great adventure when he ties thousands of balloons to his house and flies away to the wilds of South America, only to discover that his biggest nightmare has stowed away on the trip: an overly optimistic eight-year-old Wilderness Explorer named Russell. The film is released in DVD & Blu-ray on February 15, 2010.
Roll your mouse over the left and right-hand sides of the image and then click to view more pictures.
6 of 6
Read our review of Up or our interview with co-director Pete Docter and producer Jonas Rivera
Recent Galleries:
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a paver of driveways.
That gypsy dropped out of school to pave driveways.
by bangkillz
July 12, 2008
great people who get underestimated and talked about over things that are stereo typical!
Gypsy-they respect their women and never hurt or abuse them and if they do there parents will hurt them! they respect others and will not burn down your house coz they feel like it! the girls arnt slag who get knocked up coz their not allowed until their married! they also love their children and look out for each other, they only fight for their rights that have been taken away from them because certain people didnt agree with their cultural background! how would you like it if WE called you?! you wouldnt, so dont call US!
by PrincessPaige-Emily
April 03, 2012
Gypsy's are regular people just like you and me, they have good people and bad people just like every single other race out there. They come from some part of India but aren't exactly Indian, not sure what they are? all I know is that they're very sexy and exotic people. Many were killed in the holocaust along with the Jews
Those Gypsy's sure can dance
by qtp
December 26, 2003
A girl that does something stupid or slutty
wow she is a complete Gypsy
by Borat1
September 02, 2010
A girl that even though no one has a direct problem with is still a slut that no one particularly enjoys having around. Usually are homie-hoppers.
"That girl Beth always has a new man she is hanging all over."
"That's why everyone calls her a gypsy"
"That's why everyone calls her a gypsy"
by Peregrine801
October 11, 2011
Someone who hoards money or doesn't pay their way. Polictically correct way to call out someone for being a Jew about money.
"No gas money? Your such a gypsy."
by kdrrrgs
February 09, 2009
Klan of scumbags that don't go 2 school, and hang at dever school, some don't live with their family and some where a black hat with the brim pointed upwards
i walked to dever and saw the band of gypsy's
by maroons33
May 18, 2008


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