You probably think my question is about YOU: whether you are in good shape, fit and prepared for a season of pleasure rather than pain.

But it isn't about you. It's about your EQUIPMENT: your poles, boots, bindings, and skis.

Don't wait until the night before your first trip to the ski fields. You're going to be frantically looking for your goggles, your helmet, your gloves and all the rest of that paraphernalia. By then it's too late to check on whether your boots still fit, or to have your skis tuned and waxed.

Are you just going to bundle them up in the car and head off hoping for the best?

Not if you're wise. Much better to check things out while time is still a bit of a luxury.

Here are some of the checks you might want to perform NOW, well before the snow beckons even more urgently than it now does.

SKI POLES

Not much to worry about here. But now is the time to make sure that they aren't kinked as a result of that late-season fall. Kinked poles, as distinct from merely bent ones, have a nasty habit of snapping. So if they are kinked, buy new ones. And if they are bent, warm them up thoroughly with boiling water or a hair drier before even attempting to straighten them yourself.

Another check: take a look at the so-called "baskets". Do they need replacing? Or are you going to take the risk that one of them will come off just as you begin that vigorous thrust in the starting gate or at the initiation of a turn? Having your pole sink halfway down the shaft isn't nice. It can lose you seconds, if not the race itself.

BOOTS

Boots, remember, are the interface between your body and your skis. If they don't fit well your skis won't turn the way you want them to. And if they don't fit comfortably - perhaps because you've been bare footed during the summer - the pain will inhibit you from working your boots the way you want them to. Consequence? Once more, your skis won't turn the way you want them to.

Let's be systematic with these checks.

Start by pulling out your liners and removing any insoles or foot-beds. Make sure they are clean, not mouldy as a consequence of having stored them while still damp after the last day of last season. (Do this frequently throughout the season.)

Next, warm up your boot shells with a hair-drier so that it's easy to get the liners back in.

Now put them on, wearing your usual thin ski socks (thick ones don't perform as well when it comes to racing). Walk around with them for 20 minutes or so, on a carpet or other soft surface. Start with the buckles done up loosely, and only gradually increase the tightness to your preferred race setting. Do this several times before going skiing. If you find that you have developed pressure points, have your boots "blown out" in the hurtful spots by a good boot-fitter. After all, if you do have pressure points, they'll only get worse after an hour or two's skiing and may soon get to the point where you can't even finish your first day's skiing. And they will be worse still next day.

Check on the boot buckles. Most have threaded adjustments. And these can "freeze up" as a result of dirt or corrosion. Use some WD40 or a silicon spray to free them up. Otherwise, you won't be able to make the fine adjustments that you'll want on race day.

And while you've still got your can of silicon out, spray the boot soles liberally so that the snow won't stick so easily and make it difficult to get into your bindings. (You might want to do this, too, frequently during the season.)

BINDINGS

Some of us who remember the old days of bear-trap bindings and long-thongs can only marvel at the sophisticated hardware that now secures our boots to our skis. They are "safety-bindings" these days. But they'll only be safe if they're working properly. So what do we need to look for here?

First, make sure that they are totally clean, not coated with road dirt or dust that can impair their operation. If they are, wash them with hot soapy water, rinse, and dry. Then spray them thoroughly with that can of silicon.

Loosen off the DIN setting on your toe and heelpieces. Make sure they operate freely. Spray them thoroughly with that can of silicon. Then retighten them to the original settings. (Some racers like to release the toe and heelpieces completely at the end of the season so as to relieve the compression on the springs. If you do that, make sure you have a record of your preferred DIN settings. It's not fun to have a ski come off as you get on the chairlift that first day.)

An integral part of the safety binding these days is the ski brake. Check to see that it, too, is operating correctly and doesn't get stuck on the side of the ski when it should be going down into braking position.

SKIS

Here, at last, we come to our pride and joy: the tools with which we are going to carve our way precisely down the snow or ice with an exhilaration that we can hardly wait to experience again.

The carving of snow and ice, like the carving of wood or roast beef, is best done with carefully sharpened and well-honed tools.

In our case, the tools are our skis' edges. So make sure they are really sharp at the start of the season. And kept that way.

Sharpening edges is just part of what we refer to as "tuning" the ski. Other elements include texturing the base and applying the wax that will work best for the conditions on race day.

Many racers aren't confident about their ability to do their own ski tuning. If you are one of those, you would be well advised to find a ski shop where the tuners are real experts at their craft. Otherwise, it may turn out that your newly "tuned" skis are railed (edges left higher than the sole so that the ski has a concave base), or that the edge angles aren't quite what you desire (so that they don't hold well on icy courses). The same applies even to skis straight off the shelf. Don't just presume them to be well tuned. Have them checked or check them yourself.

For those who like to do their own thing, here are a few reminders.

Edge-sharpening:

Some ski shops have edge-sharpening gadgets for sale over the counter. They can be expensive. But, then, so can repeated visits to the shop to have the sharpening done for you.

To what angles should your edges be sharpened? Opinions vary, especially when it comes to matters of the type of course to be skied and the snow conditions on that course.

But a good standby for Masters racers is to have the base angle at about half a degree and the side angle at about two degrees. That way, you end up with an angle a good bit less than 90 degrees - a more acute angle, which will help hold on hard, snow and ice.

So let's suppose you've filed the edges really sharp. Next you need to polish them with a good stone to ensure that the filing hasn't left any burrs.

You'll need a stone, anyway, to remove burs and to get rid of that nasty "case- hardening" that occurs when your edges hit a stone or rock and, by virtue of the instantaneous heat produced by the friction, become so hardened at that spot that your file simply can't get a bite.

Keep in mind that the new shaped skis, unlike the old straight ones, tend to perform better if their edges are sharpened over the whole of the running surface. That is to say, you won't want to detune the tips and tails in the way you once would. In any case, if you carry a "gummy stone" of piece of fine emery paper with you, you can always detune as the occasion demands.

Base-texturing: Ideally, the base texture you choose should be a function of the type of snow you are racing on: fairly coarse for wet snow, finer for dry snow. But few Masters racers can draw on a wide range of differently textured skis suited to the particular conditions on a given day. So compromise. For the average cold snows condition in the South Island, where the snow crystals are usually fairly sharp and aggressive, a fairly fine texture will usually work best. In the North Island you may want a slightly coarser texture. But, as I say, you're going to have to compromise. Unless, of course, you want to be taking your skis in to be retextured every time the conditions change.

But that is something you really should NOT do. World Cup coaches to whom I've talked about this issue have advised that having your skis ground or textured the day before a race can be counter-productive. Your times are likely to be slower, not faster, than if you'd just left them as they were.

Why? The answer has to do with the final element in ski tuning, namely . . .

Waxing:

As all racers know a well-waxed ski will run faster than a poorly waxed one, let alone one that isn't waxed at all. And the problem with having your skis ground and textured is that it inevitably removes the layer of the base that is (or should be) impregnated by wax.

"But," you might say, "the ski shop will give them a wax job when they've finished the texturing."

Yes, that's true. However, the wax job they'll give your skis will usually amount to just running them over a hot-wax roller which applies a thin layer of wax that will last only a run or two. Only if they'll give you a proper iron-on job, should you be happy.

There are two lessons to learn from this fact. First, if your skis are going to need a base-grind, have it done well before the season starts so that you'll have time to get the bases thoroughly conditioned and impregnated with wax. Second, waxing is something you really should learn to do for yourself: having the shop do it for you before each race will not only be inordinately expensive, it is unlikely to produce the wax-durability and ski performance that you are looking for.

Ergo: do the waxing yourself. Especially, the preseason "conditioning" of your skis.

Equip yourself, then, with an iron (but not the one used for your clothes). A waxing iron purchased from your specialty ski shop would be great, of course. But an ordinary old iron from a second-hand store will work just about as well.

Next, get yourself some bulk wax. In general, wax comes in two varieties: ordinary hydrocarbon, and specialty fluorocarbon. Your bulk wax should be hydrocarbon. You'll want some soft wax (wax with a fairly low melting point), and some harder wax (with a higher melting point).

Here's how you can condition your skis so as to achieve optimal performance not only before, but throughout, the season. (At least, this is the way I do it).

First, put each ski base up in a vice or some other holding device with the ski brakes retracted (perhaps by means of a rubber band).

Second, rub the soft wax over the base of the inverted ski. This, I find, enables the wax that you will subsequently drip on to spread more easily.

Third, set the waxing iron to a temperature that will cause the block of wax to melt, without smoking. Hold the iron above the ski base, bring the block of wax into contact with it, and let the wax drip onto the base. IMPORTANT! Do not set the temperature so high that the melting wax produces smoke! Not only is the smoke - especially that from fluorocarbon waxes - injurious to your health. The heat that produces it can burn - even destroy - the base of your ski.

Fourth, run the iron back and forth repeatedly across the dripped-on wax at a fairly rapid speed (roughly about 100mm per second) until the whole of the ski base is glistening with melted wax. Continue this until you can sense warmth on the other side of the ski near the tip (where it is thinnest). Keep the iron moving and well lubricated with wax so that it can't burn the base.

Let the ski cool, but not get cold. Now use a sharpened plastic ski scraper (from your ski shop) to scrape the wax off as much as possible.

Then using a brass or other stiff brush (from your knowledgeable ski shop) brush, and brush, and brush, from tip to tail until no wax is perceptible.

Repeat the whole of the above performance at least 3 or 4 times. I say "at least" because some racers I know will do it up to 10 times as part of their pre-season ski-conditioning.

Why so much wax? Why so much time and effort brushing?

The answer has to do with the microscopic structure of your ski base. At a casual glance, your bases are some type of plastic and seemingly impervious to water and other substances. But at a microscopic level, they turn out to be full of pores. And your bases will run with less friction the more these pores are filled with wax and the more the molecules in your ski base become aligned by repeatedly brushing from tip to tail.

So fill them! And brush them!

And keep them filled and brushed. For my own part, there are few skiing days - whether race days or otherwise - that haven't been preceded by a good wax and brush job the night before.

One more point of caution about waxing: If you take your health seriously, as any athlete should, then wear a MASK or RESPIRATOR when ironing the wax on to your ski bases, or at least do it in a well ventilated area. Otherwise your lungs can be injured by the fumes, let alone any smoke. Swedish studies have shown that ski technicians when waxing can lose a significant proportion of their lung capacity if they don't take these precautions.


Hydrocarbon waxes are relatively inexpensive. Some of the race-day waxes are much more expensive.
These are the fluorocarbon ones. So why use them?

Well, look at it this way. Suppose you're going to a major race - one that really matters to you. You are racing to do the best you can. Otherwise you wouldn't be competing at all. So even if you don't stand a chance of winning, or even placing in the first three, you want to be as high up on the finish list as you can manage.

O.K.? So now do some simple arithmetic. Write down the cost of transport, accommodation, living costs while away, lift tickets, and race fees.
Now suppose you are tossing up whether or not to invest in some really expensive fluorocarbon waxes. If using them is going to give you an advantage of even a second or so over your competitors, you may well conclude that it is worth it.

When to use fluorocarbons:

Humidity factors.
In general, you shouldn't use a fluorocarbon wax unless the snow is fairly wet. As a rule of thumb, try this: If you try to make a snowball and the snow doesn't adhere to itself so as to form a solid ball, then DON'T use a fluorocarbon; stick with a hydrocarbon instead.
If it does form a ball, but is still a bit powdery, use a low percentage fluorocarbon or a mix of hydrocarbon and high percentage fluorocarbon (which yields the same effect).
If you want to be more precise, measure the humidity with a hydrometer.
If the reading is between 50 and 65, use a low fluoro. If it is above 65, use a high fluoro.
Once you've determined that parameter, a lot of other factors need to be taken in to account: temperature, the "aggressiveness" of the snow crystals, and whether you are preparing for a technical event or a speed event.

This is when things get a bit more difficult, more like an art than a science.
So what I'm going to tell you is just the broad basis on which to build up your own experience.

Temperature factors.
Fluorocarbons, like hydrocarbons, come in varying degrees of hardness, with the softer ones being suited to warm snow conditions and the harder ones to colder conditions.
Check on the wax manufacturer's box to find out which is which and take your pick, perhaps buying one of each as they can always be mixed for in-between temperatures.
Keep in mind that snow temperatures - as opposed to air temperatures, let alone wind-chill - in New Zealand are usually fairly warm, unlike in North America where you are often skiing at temperatures in the range of minus 10 to minus 25 Celsius.
To be really accurate in your estimate of snow temperature, you'll need to use a snow thermometer. But as a rough guide to snow temperature, you can take a note of the air temperature instead, bearing in mind that there can be quite a disparity between the two unless the weather and temperature has been fairly stable for the past couple of days.
Of course, snow temperatures can vary considerably between the top of the course and the finish line. So you might want to measure snow temperature at various points down the course and try to strike a happy medium in your choice of wax.
This becomes more difficult with a really long course like a Downhill, where the temperature variation is likely to be even greater and you need to consider which part of the course to try to optimise - usually the gliding sections where wax counts most.

Technical versus Speed events.
Suppose you have a fluoro wax that is described as being right for temperatures in the minus 4 to minus 8 ranges. The presumption of the manufacturer will usually be that you are racing in one the technical events: Slalom or GS.
Now suppose you are in fact going to be competing in one of the speed events: a Super G or a DH. Then the wax that would have been ideal for the minus 4 to minus 8 range will now be ideal for temperatures 2 degrees colder than that, i.e., for the minus 6 to minus 8 range.
What this means is that, all other things being equal, if you are competing in a speed event you should wax your skis for temperatures that are 2 degrees warmer than those on the hill. Why? It all has to do with friction.
Speed events are faster than technical events. Faster speeds produce more friction than technical ones. More friction produces more heat. So you need a softer wax - a wax suitable for snow temperatures that are about 2 degrees warmer than they are in fact.
One more point about friction. Friction produces static electricity. Static electricity produces a "clinging" effect, often observed in your clothes drier.
And a clinging effect can slow you down. In order to ensure that your skis don't build up too much static electricity in the first place you can impregnate your ski soles with a graphite wax.
A hydrocarbon graphite wax will do the trick fairly well. But you may also want to use a fluorinated graphite wax as a base application for special speed events.
In any case, its a good thing to iron in some graphite wax from time to time during the season so as to replenish the graphite that is one of the constituents of most ski bases these days. Snow crystals. I said "all other things being equal".
What makes the science of waxing so technical is that things are seldom equal in all respects.
The quality of the snow crystals also needs to be taken into account. I've known some Masters racers who inspect the snow crystals on the course with a magnifying glass! They know that fresh cold snow produces "aggressive" crystals, thereby calling for a harder wax. They know, too, that if the snow has undergone some sort of transformation since it fell, or if it was fairly wet when falling, then the crystals will be relatively rounded.
Since few of us want to get as technical as this, I offer the following rules of thumb: * For new or freshly manmade snow, wax colder. * For wet snow or ice, wax warmer. * For old and transformed snow, wax in between.

Overlays.
So far the fluoros I've been talking about have been the ones you will do best to iron in - perhaps very early morning - before venturing up the hill.
But there are also fluorinated waxes that can be applied on the hill during the half hour or so before race start.
These can take different forms: rub-on waxes; powder waxes; and even spray-on waxes.
All these overlays function as accelerants, allowing your skis to run faster for the first few hundred meters of the course before wearing off.
How you apply them varies with the type of overlay and the manufacturer's instructions. I've used all three types and have given up on the powder accelerants, as they really are difficult to apply correctly. So I'd recommend sticking with rub-ons or spray-ons.
Whichever overlay you choose, one thing remains constant.
Before putting the skis on after applying the overlay, give them a light brush from tip to tail. You might even want to spray the soles with clean water from a spray bottle before brushing as that can help minimize the static electricity generated by the very act of brushing!
But if you do that, make sure the temperature isn't so low that the water freezes into hard droplets. That would be truly counterproductive.

Final points.
I've been presuming, so far, that you have done most of your waxing (prior to the overlays) well before venturing up the slopes for course inspection. And I'm presuming that ideally you will want to carry you race skis up the hill and do your course inspection on another pair of skis (the ones you have for a different event, perhaps).
If that is the case, then you'll want to put your skis base-down near the start so that the whole ski has time to reach the same temperature as the snow.
All that will then be needed is to give them that final brush, step into the bindings, and wait for your turn in the starting gate.
But not all of us have a second - let alone a third or fourth - pair of skis available on race day. What to do?
All is not lost. Iron on your chosen waxes, hydrocarbon and/or fluorocarbon as the case may be.
Don't worry if you have to do your course inspection on your race skis. You'll just need to get to the start area a bit sooner so as get them ready for the start.
Take your plastic scraper and brush with you. Scrape and brush. Scrape and brush. Until there's no visible wax left on the base. Then do it again. And again. Then, and only then, apply your overlay - as above - if conditions call for it: that is, if humidity and temperature, etc., make a choice of fluoro a sensible one.


For the present, we are talking only about matters you should be attending to BEFORE the skiing and the racing starts.

As to that, there are just a couple more points you might want to think about.

Use ski straps to hold the tips and tails together in such a way that the bases don't scuff one another. Alternatively, tape them together with paper in between the bases at tip and tail.

Don't carry your skis on an ordinary ski-rack or anywhere that they can become soiled with road grime and dirt. Either put them inside your vehicle or in a ski box (it can be used for other luggage as well: boots and poles in winter, camping gear in summer).

And when you do finish a day of skiing, remember to dry the skis' edges so they don't get rusty by the time you get home.

P.S. Comments and questions are welcome. Maybe some of them can be discussed in future newsletters. You can contact me at: raybradley@xtra.co.nz