Heart rate monitors are a nearly universal tool in endurance athletics. I’ve owned more of them than I can recall, and have been all over the spectrum of adherence, from religiously following training zones, to ditching the monitor for years at a time. On balance I’ve come down on the side of training by feel, […]

When somebody you love dies it’s easy to find yourself in a mindset where it feels as though it’s something that’s happening to you. When it hits twice in fairly quick succession, you can really start to feel put-upon. It’s important to remember how big our social networks are; how many people share the feelings […]

Seeing that it is the start of the training season for Nordic skiers, it seems like a good time to recap some of my highlights from this past year and also talk about some of the things I am looking forward to this upcoming year at Caldwell Sport. We had a very busy winter season […]

2013-14 was an exciting season for new products. Last Spring we wrote a series of previews of the Speedmax model from Fischer and the REDline model from Madshus. We’ve now had a full season of feedback from our own testing, and from customers to feed into the grading calculator. Here’s the report card, including our […]

Grind development is an ongoing process; we’re always trying new ideas and looking for improved performance.  While the development work is steady, progress comes in fits and starts. The last time we had a real breakthrough in structure development was 2011, when we found success with S2-1X, S1-0X, L2-0, and other grinds built on those […]

The Birkie storm delivered all that the forecast promised, and temperatures have dropped on the back side of the storm, as advertised. Jeff Tumbleson’s note this morning indicated that the current conditions look perfect for 330C powder. The 330C is a World Cup CODE powder for colder new snow – it runs very similar in […]

The forecast for Birkieland & Birkietime has shifted toward the snowy and cold end of the spectrum in the last couple of days. As of now, we’re feeling pretty solid with a recommendation of hfC21.1 powder. The 330C powder that I was leaning toward a couple of days ago still has a real shot – […]

The Olympic venue here in Russia has been downright tropical lately, so it takes a real mental adjustment for me to make sense of Jeff Tumbleson’s testing reports from the Birkie trail. But Jeff has been providing enough information, and a small touch of the fever has permeated my Olympic mindset, so I’ll hazard some […]

Last year in January we published this article. Since then we’ve had a number of requests for the link. I figured it would be a good idea to re-publish it. I considered updating it, but I think it’s pretty good as it is… Kick Waxing – Early season testing lessons. The snow we received right […]

The week at Soldier Hollow was a great opportunity for us to do some intensive testing. You can’t possibly learn so much, so fast, when you’re not in a competition setting. We won’t make any outlandish claims about having the best wax or service, but we were very satisfied with our results over the week. […]