As many of you may know the 2020-2021 international racing circuit is a go and with Covid-19 comes a lot of new challenges. Many of you know me for my reporting with Rex on the world cup or have stopped in the shop and met me in person. This year things change but some things stay the same. I will no longer be with Rex Ski Wax on the world cup; however, I will be representing the US Ski Team as a wax tech for Scott Patterson and Katharine Ogden. I couldn’t be more excited to help these two get some fast skis under their feet and shoot for new personal bests. I have had a lot of questions over the last few months and I wanted to share some of the answers because I know many of you are curious about what might change and what might stay the same.
How are you flying to Europe and what precautions do you have to take in order to travel internationally as a US citizen? Being with the US Ski Team, head coaches Chris Grover, Matt Whitcomb, and Jason Cork along with the rest of the staff at US Ski and Snowboard have been laying the groundwork of how and when we can travel. According to EU regulations we have to have a negative covid test within 48 hours of our flight with printed proof in hand. Not only do we need a negative covid but we need invitations from countries (ours are from Finland for the world cup opener) and we will need to quarantine upon arrival. We will be flying directly to Ruka where the first set of races will be taking place on November 26th.
What waxes will you be using? Earlier this month the fluoro ban was lifted for FIS competition so for this season we will be using fluoros. That doesn’t mean we won’t be testing non-fluoro waxes though. We will be building up our baseline for these fluoro alternatives and some of these waxes have already been used on a world cup level. The future is looking bright with these waxes and I cannot wait to see what else will come out in the future.
Where do you stay and how long will you be over in Europe? We will officially leave November 18th to head over and start our quarantining process. We will have an opportunity to come home for a couple weeks in December and February on the current world schedule; however, if things need to be rescheduled or Covid hits the world cup hard these are our back-up weekends and our main goal is to make fast skis for races so it’s hard to say when or if we will be able to return this winter. Typically we jump from hotel to hotel as we change venues, the first few weekends it is kind of fun but it gets to a point where you forget that you have changed hotels and you just get used to everyday life and constantly moving.
If you have any more questions or think I missed some FAQs let me know and I would love to add a future question to the next article! [email protected]
About the Author
Chris Hecker, New Moon Ski and Wax Tech, has worked on the Rex Ski Wax world cup staff and has recently joined the US Ski Team as a wax tech and will travel with them on the world cup circuit to multiple race venues.
