Product Development: Reformulated Racing FC739

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.





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.





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.

Let's get serious...

The Waxman Presents: In-Frequently Asked Questions

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...! 

Finally! We're blogging...!

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...!

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