Wax Poetic: Start Oslo Kick Wax

5 Things You need to know about one of the most popular waxes from Start. By Jacob Huseby, Chief wax nerd at Enjoywinter.com

Start Oslo is our unique mixture of hard wax raw materials, klister, tar, and molybdenum disulfide. In everything from racing to rec skiing, Oslo is a wax box must-have for coarse grained, aggressive, or artificial snow.

1.Start Oslo does not say Oslo anywhere on the packaging! This can be confusing for new skiers. Despite the packaging saying purple special, blue extra, green super, the wax is colloquially known as Oslo because it was developed specifically for the coarse and varied snow while climbing the Fjords in Norway. The Fjords offer salty snow at the bottom, and powdery snow at the top, making waxing tricky. When Oslo was developed, it was discovered that it also works exceptionally well on artificial snow, icy snow, coarse snow, and varied snow conditions.

2.The wax does NOT contain fluorocarbons. Oslo will be good to use in racing regardless of where you are competing.

3.The best way to apply Oslo is what I call the “push, twist, pull” technique. This will apply a light spot of wax on the ski and make it easy to cork out. Rubbing the can on the ski as you would a synthetic or tar-based wax could result in a mess as the wax does contain klister.

4.The Strength of Oslo comes from its variety of ingredients. This mix contains pine tar which you will find in nearly every Start kick wax. Pine tar naturally repels water and prevents icing, while also acting as a thermoplastic to change the physical characteristics of the wax with temperature changes. In addition, the mix contains molybdenum disulfide which acts as a solid lubricant. In the absence of moisture, the solid lubricant puts some glide in your stride. Molybdenum repels dirt which in turn keeps your kick zone clean.

5.We have recommended Oslo every year for the past few years for the North American Birkebeiner.The nature of the North American Birkebeiner makes Oslo a great pick, as it is a point to point race with changing conditions. This past year I had a few friends on the classic podium, one of which informed me that he killed it with a combination of Oslo and a Start FHF cover. The strength of the wax is its versatility as it adapts to the conditions that you are skiing in.

I hope you are more informed about Start Oslo than before you started reading. It doesn’t count as clickbait if it’s actually informative right?

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Enjoy Winter

Jacob Huseby

US Sales Manager

Start Ski Wax, Bliz Eyewear, Swenor Rollerskis, Bioline Shoes, Abilica Training Equipment, Anti-Freeze