Waxing and Care of Skis and Snowboards

By: Michael Brady and Leif Torgersen
Suggested Retail: $11.95
ISBN# 0-8997-303-5
Publisher: Wilderness Press
www.wildernesspress.com

For years the art of waxing skis has carried with it a pseudo-scientific mystique. To be sure, that mystique was promulgated by a handful of people who staked their reputations on knowing the inner secrets of this arcane pursuit. Some have tried to dispel those myths, such as authors Michael Brady and Leif Torgerson.

Now comes the second edition of Brady and Torgerson’s “Waxing and Care of Skis and Snowboards,” a book that garnered little attention when it first debuted in 1996. The new edition sticks with the first edition’s simplified approach and clear details in both text and photographs. In doing so, the book becomes the ultimate weapon in dispelling the pontifications of self-proclaimed waxing gurus everywhere.

The authors have, as they say in the music circle, “their chops.” Torgersen is known fondly by members of the Nordic racing fraternity as “Doctor Wax.” When he’s not working creating new formulas for Swix, he’s tinkering on his own trying to make ski and snowboard bases perform optimally.

Brady is an American ex-pat who’s been living in Norway since the 1960s. His books on cross-country skiing were among the first to introduce that sport to the U.S. masses in the early 1970s. A meticulous researcher and writer, Brady makes the technical simple, and waxing something that even the occasional skier or snowboarder can understand.

There’s something for every slider on snow in this book, and for the Nordic enthusiast in particular, including a concise history of waxing that makes for a fun read and a new appreciation of the word “fart.”