Cross country skiing

[lph]

I tried to find a link but it was a bit wonky. Anyway, the "scrape" (dammit, can't remember the word, works more like the thing you peel thin shavings off a piece of wood with, bevel?) is just a square piece of metal with four sharpened edges. Invented by Russian skier Leonid Kuzmin. He made 3, for cold, "medium" and warm temps, and they give slightly different textures in the base. The theory is that you scrape off the worn outer layer down to fresh base every now and then, but do not apply glider wax. You have to fix your skis in a clamp, then scrape the entire length with firm pressure, to avoid nicks or cuts. You apply kick wax as normal under the kick zone.

I doubt that really elite skiers use it, but the "Kuzmin scrape" has become very popular among both competitive and recreational skiers here, anyone interested enough to mess around with melting in different glider waxes in the first place. We just have the "medium" one, and so far the glide seems good.

And hey, it's a gizmo