Wednesday, January 25, 2012

The Jolly Rogers

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A couple of years ago, we started to take a hard look at who the "typical" Hertel customer is. What we found out, is that the "typical" Hertel customer is hardly "typical" at all...

These are, by and far, people that truly appreciate high performance. These are skiers and snowboarders that are highly knowledgeable about the importance of regular maintenance and tuning (and oftentimes, know full well how to do it themselves). These are smart, inquisitive, and articulate people. These are people that understand what "structure", "beveling", and "overlays" are, and how they work (or don't work). And, they enjoy riding the very best that money can buy.

In this regard, we might consider the "average" Hertel customer a pretty typical "tech nerd".

The problem is, the average Hertel customer isn't quite that one-dimensional...

Truth is, there's another side to all of this. Once you get them out of the tuning room, and onto the mountain, you'll find that the "average" Hertel customer isn't quite your "average" snowboarder or skier, either. The average Hertel customer is the guy (or gal) that's up at 4 am, hiking into the backcountry, and getting their first drop on a fresh powder day before most "average" skiers and boarders have even had their first cup of coffee. These are people that are out hiking the terrain park in the driving rain, just to get those last hits in before the season ends. These are people that live to out-run the Ski Patrol at every available opportunity (until Ski Patrol gets their hands on some Hertel of their own, and evens up those odds... at which point, all bets are off). These are people that are passionate about what they do, and are dedicated to the art of having fun. And they don't mind breaking "the rules", or stirring up a little bit of trouble along the way. They're the black sheep, the rogues, and the badasses. But they're also some of the most capable, most competent, most experienced, and the most knowledgeable skiers and snowboarders on the entire mountain. This puts them right up there with "the best".

What we have here, is basically a smart and savvy group of outlaws. In a word, "pirates".



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This was our first concept for a "Team Hertel". Definitely "cool enough". But still, not really what we had in mind. This graphic did make it to the fronts of the "Team" shirts, though. Just so everybody knows exactly who you are, and what you represent, from every possible angle. Stand tall, y'all.



This realization was the starting point of The Jolly Roger Project. Part "community outreach", part "research and development team", part "promotional and sales force", part "ski and snowboard club", and part "customer rewards"... The Jolly Rogers takes the old idea of what a "factory team" should be, and brings it fast-forward into a 2012 world.



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Now, this is more like it...! This is the back-graphic of the "Team" tees. So, so boss.



In the past few weeks, there's been an intense interest in who The Jolly Rogers are, and what we're doing. Lots of people have signed up to be a part of the winning program. Before we start getting overwhelmed with requests, we wanted to point out that being a Jolly Roger is a pretty big responsibility. But, it's a responsibility that also comes with some pretty cool rewards.

Let's start with the "average" ski and snowboard team. These are basically people that get free gear, to ultimately do very little for their community. They essentially "promote a brand on the mountain", and that's about it. Which is cool, if you're the "average" company, with "average" customers, that wants to build an "average" team. Hertel, though, is none of these things.



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We have several shirt designs for The Jolly Rogers. All badass, all distinctive, and all slightly different from each other. We'll probably use them all eventually, just to change things up from year to year.




The first and foremost goal of The Jolly Rogers, is to do "community outreach". These are the people that will put themselves out there, to make the world of skiing and snowboarding a better place for everybody. We're the guys and gals that will lend a hand to a newbie, and show them the ropes of making it down the mountain in one piece. We're the guys that will happily offer you a snack from our tailgating stash of cheeseburgers, brats, and pork chops in the parking lot. We're the ones that'll thank a Ski Patroller for their years of dedication and hard work, and give them a block of Racing FC739 as a "token of appreciation" present. We're the ones that'll give good gear advice to people that are doing the shopping, but not quite sure what they're looking for. It's all about spreading good vibes, sharing the know-how, giving back to the community that gave us so much, and promoting "the way it should be". Specifically, The Jolly Rogers are also huge proponents of wax use, in general. We know that something like 95% of the ski and snowboard universe just doesn't bother to wax their gear, and that's a travesty. Getting these people onto a wax- any wax- is a great start. Many of us will spend hours waxing people's gear in the parking lot, just to get them onto something that'll make their day more fun, more enjoyable, safer, and easier. It's just another way that we give back to the community around us.


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As we mentioned earlier, The Jolly Rogers also help with the research and development of new products. One of the best perks that I've ever had as a Roger, was getting my first blocks of the "experimental", reformulated Racing FC739 in the mail last season, with a note from Terry that simply said, "Hey, try this!". For two solid months, I simply out-ran and out-shredded everything that my home resort could throw at me. And that's a great, great feeling. Being part of a group of people that are collectively responsible for fine-tuning a brand-new product is an experience beyond comparison.



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Being part of the Racing FC739 Project was definitely the high point for most of The Rogers through the 2010/2011 season. Lots of good times, and good memories were had by everyone that took part. There's a lot to be said for knowing that you have the best-performing wax on the mountain on any given day, and this stuff sets the benchmark. You just can't put a price on that kind of confidence.



Members of The Jolly Rogers also get the added perk of having their own "members" password for the Hertel website. Which essentially allows them to buy all the wax they want, at wholesale prices. This allows many of The Jolly Rogers to become independent Hertel dealers. The truth is, several of The Jolly Rogers are long-time Hertel supporters and loyalists that have been spreading the word for many, many years anyway. This program allows them to profit a bit off of their hard work and promotional skills. Some re-sell their wax stockpiles at retail, which makes them a dandy profit, while others have gone on to become outside sales reps that sell Hertel waxes to their local ski and snowboard shops on a commission basis. Either way, they're spreading the good word about Hertel, and making a few bucks from their efforts.



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We even developed a "racer-specific" logo, for all you racers out there. Let the competition know right away that there's just no competing with the best.



Then there's the "club t-shirts". Which are totally badass, super cheap, and even available in big and tall sizes to boot. There's been a lot of interest in making these available to the general public of Hertel loyalists, on a limited basis. We might just have to do that. We do, after all, consider all Hertel customers "part of the crew". Just by being Hertel customers, they've already taken that step that makes them legit.

Being a Jolly Roger means being part of a select club of like-minded skiers, snowboarders, and Hertel enthusiasts. Any time you see somebody rocking The Jolly Roger skull-and-crossbones on the mountain, you'll know that person is "one of us". Somebody that shares the same values, passions, and outlook on what it truly means to be a snowboarder or a skier. Somebody that'll buy you a cold one in the lodge, share a tuning tip, toss you a smoked sausage, or barge that next chair to some secret, hidden run somewhere. It's becoming a very effective network, and a great way of making new friends in faraway places.

Being a Jolly Roger is good work, and fun times. If you want to get on board, send an e-mail our way. It may take us a few weeks to wade through all of the responses, but trust us: we will get back to you.

Monday, January 23, 2012

Product Development: Reformulated Racing FC739

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The secret's out of the bag now...!



Although this photo looks like a regular, ho-hum, run-of-the-mill block of "stock" Hertel wax... it isn't. What this is, is a block of a highly experimental version of our Racing FC739 that was left over from the 2010/11 season.


"This stuff is awesome!!! What is it...?!?!"


"This wax kicks ass...!"


"Breakneck acceleration, effortless response, extremely nimble maneuvering, and brutal stopping power. I'm having the time of my life out here...!"


Last winter, the Hertel R&D team, in conjunction with The Jolly Rogers (aka, "Team Hertel"... we'll get to that next week or so), and a selected panel of long-time Hertel customers and loyalists, launched an effort to bring an upgraded and reformulated Racing FC739 to market for the 2011/12 snow season. These "experimental" blocks (cooked up by Terry, himself) were in the hands of The Jolly Rogers, and being tested on the slopes, by last January (or so), and remained in "testing" mode throughout the spring, and into the beginning weeks of the current season.



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Put together as a "parallel project" to complement the Racing FC739 project, the members of Team Hertel (aka, "The Jolly Rogers") were extremely critical to developing the reformulated FC739, and exploring the entire performance envelope. We'd like to thank everybody that was involved in making an already dominating product, even better.



"Ski Patrol doesn't stand an icicle's chance in hell of keeping up with us! Thanks, Terry...!"


"Speed, control, performance... perfect."


"Turns my board into a Ginsu knife. Slices 'n dices through the trees 'n steeps. Chop-chop!"


What's the difference? While the "old" Racing FC739 was specifically tuned for a very narrow set of fairly uniform snow conditions (namely relatively dry, well-groomed, and highly predictable race courses)... the "new" race improved acceleration and response over a wider array of snow temperatures and conditions, which made it much more practical for the "everyday" snowboarder and skier that might not have any interest at all in racing.


"Like a hot knife through butter, baby!"


"There's nothing else like it. Simply incredible."


"If you thought Hot Sauce was 'the shit', wait until you try this stuff...!"




The advantages of the "new" Racing FC739 become readily apparent, as soon as you hit the snow. The difference is immediately noticable: This new wax is fast. The biggest change, though, is what happens once you really start exploring the entire performance envelope, and take Racing FC739 "off the groomers", onto the rest of the mountain, and into the backcountry. As one tester remarked, "Racing FC739 isn't just for racing anymore, buddy! Anytime, anywhere, anything, and in any conditions... this stuff fully dominates...!"


"Everything else is just a bunch of fun and games, but this shit's serious. The real deal."


"It feels like I'm cheating. And that feels good...!"


"The Swiss-Army-Knife of waxes. Excels everywhere."


Terry accomplished this by reducing the fluorocarbon content of the wax, and bumping up the surfectant content, to make Racing FC739 much more "user friendly" and versatile, while also improving acceleration times and top-end speeds. A positive knock-on effect is that the new Racing FC739 is a much "greener", environmentally friendly wax than the old Racing FC739 was. Fluorocarbons, after all, are not widely known for their "earth-friendly" attributes.



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By drawing down the fluoro content, and ramping up the sds proportions, we made a faster, more durable wax that's also a lot more "earth friendly". It truly is the best of both worlds.



"This stuff slays. Draws and quarters everything else on the market."


"Simply walks away from the competition, and never looks back. Wins by default."


"There are no words that'll ever do it justice."



While he was in the lab, Terry also made a few other small tweaks 'n tunes to further fine-tune the formula... but we can't really let the whole cat out of the bag. "The Competition", after all, does tend to watch us like hawks.


"This is a whole new level. Nothing else like it."


"There's no going back to 'regular wax' now! I'm an addict...!"


"By far, the best Race ever."



The boldface quotes in this article are some of the things that The Rogers fed back to us, as well as things that we overheard them telling other skiers and boarders on the mountain. Obviously, the feedback was enormously positive. So much so, that Terry decided to put the reformulated Racing FC739 immediately into production for the current season.


"Shut up, and try it for yourself. You'll see...!"


"If you're not riding this wax, you're beyond stupid."


"I don't even remember how I got through life, until this wax came along. All I know is, it must've really sucked...! This wax is a total game-changer...!"



Racing FC739 is best suited for highly aggressive, and highly experienced skiers and snowboarders that are looking for the maximum possible performance across the entire temperature, condition, and terrain spectrum- but without White Gold's $99-an-ounce price tag. The importance of a properly tuned base and sharp, smooth, and competently beveled edges just goes without saying. When you have that much "Giddy up!" on your board, you'll also want a whole lotta "Whoa!" leverage. Properly tuned equipment is the key to keeping things under control, and in check, at all times. And as always: Safety ultimately begins, and ends, with you.

Thursday, January 19, 2012

Let's get serious...

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The Waxman Presents: In-Frequently Asked Questions

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Here at Hertel, we get a lot of technical questions about not only our waxes... but also, about general tuning techniques as well. We decided that it might be time to start answering these questions in a more "public" format, since we get these "in-frequently asked questions" so frequently.


This week's letter came to us from Jeff in Montana, who asked us several questions about wax and tuning, in one e-mail. So, let's get started:


Hello Waxman,

I have your Super Hot sauce, and have been using it for the last year. My question is, it seems to work well on the groomers at normal temps... i.e., in the 20 degree F range. But yesterday, we had fresh snow and low temps in the single digits to teens, and our skis seemed to be sticking. My kids skis had two days on their most recent waxes, and I had just one on mine. I was faster than them, but out-weighed them but a 150 lbs. My skis were definitely not as fast as they had been when the temps were in the 20's.

We live in Montana, and I always hot wax... then, scrape and buff with a brillo pad. I've watched your videos, and do my best to duplicate the application.

Should I have a Cold weather wax on top of, or below, the Hot Sauce...?


The premise of all waxes, is that we don't actually ride on "snow" at all... but rather, a thin sheen of water that forms when a ski (or a snowboard) glides over the snow... and the friction of that glide, plus the weight of your body mass, melts the snow slightly, forming a thin water layer. This is what we are actually riding on, when we do snow sports. Waxes, in turn, repel water. Which is what creates the "glide" that we all know, and love.

In extreme cold, however, this effect is less pronounced. The snow simply melts less underfoot, resulting in less water to glide on. The snow that does melt, re-freezes very quickly... usually, to your board. Which creates the drag that you experienced. And when the snow melts less, it becomes less lubricated by water, causing a much more abrasive running surface.

A Brillo pad (or, any other highly abrasive buffing agent) will leave a surface that is essentially millions of little grooves, that will hold and trap water, and create undue drag on cold snow. When you are gliding over a "warmer" snow, these grooves help to move water along, and away from, the base... which creates a fast glide. But on "cold" snow, they actually trap water in the base, where it then re-freezes itself to your skis. Which is a perfect recipie for sticking.

This "sticking" will usually happen at slower speeds, and especially when you're standing still. Getting off the chair lift, waiting for your buds (or kids) to drop in, or standing in a lift line will be prime times for "sticking" to happen. Generally speaking: The faster you're moving, the more friction you'll cause, the more water you'll create, and the faster you'll go. But at slow speeds, in cold conditions, all bets are off the table.

The answer is to use a less abrasive buffing pad, combined with a harder wax. In your case, on that day, Racing 739 would have been a better choice. As for buffing... I personally use the "non-scratch" Scotch-Brite that's available at any grocery store. You'll know it, because it will be blue, instead of the usual "Scotch-Brite" green. Cork would have also been an excellent choice, under those conditions.

My recommendation? Try both, and see for yourself.



We also each have a set of powder skis, which we use in fresh snow conditions. What's your recommendation for wax on those skis?


I use Race most often, as a hot-waxing "base prep"... as it's hardness allows me to scrape off, and brush out, the loose base "hairs", which leaves a smoother, cleaner structure. Then, I'll rub-on and buff whatever my "daily" wax is going to be, based on snow conditions. Hotsauce and Race do bond well together, and both bond extremely well to bases... but Race is better in terms of base-bonding, which lends itself extremely well to a "base prep" use.

As far as choosing my "daily" wax goes: I choose the ideal wax, based on likely snow condtions that day, using the predicted air-temperature and humidity levels as my guide. Nobody can know what those conditions might be will be until either the day of your skiing trip... or, a few days beforehand (based on upcoming weather forecasts).

So: If the weather forecast says that it's going to be over, say, 20 degrees, and sunny... or maybe even warm, cloudy, and a bit humid... then, I'll run a little Hotsauce over the Race base layer, using green Scotch-Brite to buff it out. This is essentially the warmer-condition, "moving water" recipe.

If it's predicted to be cooler, windy, and drier? Then, I'll leave the Race as-is, and buff with blue non-scratch. This is the cold-condition, "polished base" treatment. I might even rub-on a little extra Race wax, if I'm using a board with deep structure... as a deep base structure will also tend to hold and trap water. A thicker wax application will "fill" the structure more, creating an even slipperier surface.

What if I'm facing highly variable, unknown, or unpredictable conditions? In that case, I'll still run the Hotsauce over Race combo, but buff with the blue non-scratch. This will cover most of the "unknowns" that I might face on any given day. On a warm day, the base will glide all day long on the Hotsauce, and the snow itself will "structure" the wax. On a cold day, the smooth-buffed Hotsauce will work off fairly quickly, revealing the harder Race underneath. In either case, your base will feel noticably faster in just a couple of runs as the wax adjusts itself to whatever condition is prevalent.

One thing that you didn't address in your letter, was what sort of structure you have in your skis. Structure and wax work together- and as such, having the "right structure" is just as important as choosing the "right wax". In Montana- where conditions get extremely cold and dry, I presume- you'll probably want a very shallow, fine-grained, tip-to-tip structure. In the spring- when conditions warm up- re-structure with a deep, coarse structure- preferably, with a cross-hatch pattern- to move water out from under the base more effectively. Cross-hatching is especially useful on snowboards, given their ample surface area.


Finally: If the hot sauce is all temp... why the Spring Solution wax...?

Spring Solution is different altogether. It is tailored to fit a snow condition, not a "temperature" per se. This condition being: Old, dirty, extremely wet (maybe even slushy), and pollen-crusted snow. Spring rejects water (just like Hotsauce does, but even moreso), but also goes a step further and rejects contaminants as well. Use Spring with a deep, well-defined base structure (to move all that water efficiently). And use it sparingly, as too much wax will actually clog the structure, which is self-defeating. You want an open, well-defined structure to move all that water. Brushing wax out with a brass brush is ideal in these conditions, to keep that structure open, and well-defined.


Thanks, Jeff, for your letter! Here at Hertel, we love answering technical questions. If you've got a question that you'd like answered, send it in to waxman@pacbell.net, and we'll get right on it...! 

Wednesday, January 18, 2012

Finally! We're blogging...!

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It took us a while, but we at Hertel Ski Wax finally decided that it was time to join the blogosphere, and have a blog of our own.

The rationale was simple: Changing the Hertel website (www.hertelskiwax.com) every time we had something to say started to become pretty tedious. And Facebook only conveys a few sentences of information at a time. So, a blog became the most sensible outlet for us to communicate with our customers on a mass scale, quickly and efficiently.

So stop in from time to time, catch up on the news, get a few waxing tips, and share your thoughts and feelings with us on "all things snow".

Until then, have fun out there! Because winter is finally here...!

From The Archives:

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