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| Curtis Bacca, 2-time Olympic Gold Medal wax technician for Seth Wescott, Torino 2006 & Vancouver 2010, also waxed for 14 X-Games Gold Medals (Nate Holland, Lindsey Jacobellis, Daron Rahlves, Reggie & Zach Crist, Peter Lind), 4-time Olympic Wax technician for the US Ski & Snowboard teams, Kyle Rasmussen's wax tech for his World Cup DH victories in Wengen, SUI & Kvitjfell, Norway.........owner of "the Waxroom", Ketchum, Idaho | |
Wow! Just returning home from an amazing Olympic experience. This was my 4th Olympic Games and the most fun so far. Torino 2006 was a great a experience with Seth winning the first ever Olympic Gold medal in SBX. This year in Vancouver even trumped 2006! Seth’s victory to come from behind in the Finals to win Gold was legendary.
He was surgical with the way he rode the finals. He was calm and confident all day long, telling me between every heat he could win from any lane. He rode with smarts, patience, precision, and matched every transition. Twice he picked the right time to pass by nailing the turn before the flatter glide section. It was awesome to be part of making history again with Wescott, winning back-to-back Gold Medals in the 1st two Olympic Snowboardcross races. He is also the 1st male skier or snowboarder in US history to win back-to-back Olympic Gold, and the 1st American (male or female) since Anne Marie Lawrence back in 1952 to repeat Gold.
I want to thank everyone for their support and kind words throughout the journey.
I would like to thank the following : Hansjeurg Kessler of Kessler Snowboards for designing & making his snowboards specifically for Seth’s specs. Hansjuerg was invaluable in the process and great to work with. Kenny Nault, Kevin Sweeney & Mike Wagner from Swix for all their wax, support and advice. I can’t thank you enough. You guys were awesome. Thanos Karydas & Tom Reinerth from Dominator Wax for their support, and the in-depth conversations we had at Cypress on wax & wax theory. It helped a ton. Dan Brewster & Karter Riach of Snoqualmie Ski Resorts for giving us Carte Blanche on their mountain to test Seth’s boards prior to the Games. US Snowboarding Head Coach, Peter Foley for understanding the importance of testing Seth’s boards and allowing me to go up to Vancouver 5 days early to test. He arranged hill space, first class accommodations and provided me with two test pilots. My test pilots; Bud Keene (who is also Shaun White’s personal coach) & Alex Deibold (US Snowboarding team member) for working hard, riding a flat board while testing Seth’s & Lindsey’s quiver, thus giving me great data.
Big thanks to Luke Bodensteiner from USSA, Jeremy Forster & Abbi Nyberg of US Snowboarding for taking care of everything in Vancouver. You guys really took care of all of us! Including driving me to the waxroom at 5:30am. Thank you so much, I greatly appreciate it. Back home, the Sun Valley Ski & Snowboard school for allowing me to travel this winter and still come home & be able to instruct & coach.
I especially want to thank all the boys at my shop “The Waxroom” back home in Ketchum; you guys are awesome!, holding down the fort all winter long. Dan Freeman for all the pre-grinds on Seth’s, Lindsey’s & Shaun White’s boards, Dan & Nate Galpin for putting the angles on, along with Bucky Beichle doing multiple wax bag sessions on all the boards throughout the season. I couldn’t have done it with out you guys! Last but not least I want to thank my wife Debbie & daughters Payton & Zoe for allowing me to work & travel all winter. I appreciate how much you do while I am gone taking care of the girls, the house and our dog Chewy. Your love and support is my rock daily.
This has been an amazing journey; Seth has been incredible to work with the whole way. He chose to do things a little differently than the rest of the team the past couple of years with his training on and off the snow. He also hired me exclusively to work for him with his own money, instead of sharing the team’s technician. He was doubted & even criticized for his decisions, but he had a plan in place and he stuck to it. Obviously it paid off. We always believed he would do it again. I have worked with numerous World Class athletes and Olympians over the years, they are all outstanding in their own right, but this last performance by Seth was truly amazing. I compare it with a buzzer beater shot by Michael Jordan in the NBA finals, or a clutch RBI by Derek Jeter in the World Series. Seth is in that class. He will be back in the quest for a 3-peat Olympic SBX Gold, 2014 in Sochi, Russia! And so will I.......Wax-On! Curtis
Previous
Lindsey Jacobellis on race day. Click pictures for larger images.
LJ on the 6:30am bus heading to the hill
LJ Outside the Waxroom
LJ in the Waxroom
LJ and the girls killing time during the weather delay
LJ's ride is ready
LJ inspecting the course
LJ ready to race
What it's all about - Olympian friends Graham Watanabe & Seth Wescott
Game Day! Men's Olympic SBX today Live @ 2pm PST, Time trials starting @ 1030am Go USA! & Let's Go Wescott!!!!! Pics from today as we arrive at the Olympic venue and yesterday's training including our weather guys.
Lindsey J at the waxroom 1st day of SBX training Sent from my Verizon Wireless BlackBerry
[Editor Note: Curtis Bacca is blogging from the Vancouver Olympics for SunValleyOnline.com. This is the first of his updates on the Games.]
Let the Games begin! Stoked to be here in Vancouver for my 4th Winter Olympic Games, my 1st two Games were with the US Ski Team, Kyle Rasmussen, Tommy Moe, AJ Kitt and the boys. This is my second Olympics with the US Snowboarding team, this is a great group lead by Head Coach Peter Foley. I was hired specifically to wax, tech & test for 2006 SBX Olympic Gold Medalist Seth Wescott & Silver Medalist Lindsey Jacobellis..… Go USA!
------Original Message------
From: SVO Sun Valley Online
To: Curtis Bacca
Subject: re: Pre-Olympic grind session at the Waxroom
Sent: Feb 4, 2010 1:17 PM
Your story has been posted via email:
http://sunvalleyonline.com/2010/02/04/pre-olympic-grind-session-at-the-waxroom
Any replies to this email will be added as updates at the end of the story
at Thu Feb 04 20:15:06 GMT+00:00 2010 you wrote:
Jamming now, just Stone-Ground 8 new Kesslers shipped directly from Switzerland for Seth Wescott & Lindsey Jacobellis! The boards look sweet! Can't wait to test them this week.
Sent from my Verizon Wireless BlackBerry
Sent from my Verizon Wireless BlackBerry
| RANK | NAME | TIME |
| 1 | Lindsey Jacobellis | 1:42.598 |
| 2 | Helene Olafsen | 1:43.863 |
| 3 | Maria Ramberger | 1:48.406 |
| 4 | Alexandra Jekova | 1:48.719 |
| 5 | Joanie Anderson | 1:49.805 |
| 6 | Callan Chythlook-Sifsof | 1:50.233 |
| RANK | NAME | SESSION 1 | SESSION 2 | ||
| 1 | Seth Wescott | 1:34.384 | |||
| 2 | Nate Holland | 1:34.837 | |||
| 3 | Graham Watanabe | 1:35.434 | |||
| 4 | Ross Powers | 1:36.145 | |||
| 5 | Nick Baumgartner | 1:36.781 | |||
| 6 | Jayson Hale | 1:37.294 | |||
| 7 | Max Schairer | 1:37.402 | |||
| 8 | Drew Neilson | 1:37.686 | |||
| 9 | JJ Tomlinson | 1:37.698 | |||
| 10 | Alberto Schiavon | 1:38.059 | |||
Nate Galpin and I just got done waxing the race boards for tomorrow's time trial, it should be exciting lots of good riders!
New article X-Games article..........more media hype
http://espn.go.com/action/xgames/winter/2010/countdown/blog/
Check this video shot by my assistant wax tech, Nate Galpin, Hailey local, Waxroom employee,also a former US Snowboarding team rider & X-games competitor). This video gives you a great perspective from the riders view, except the rider is going 10 times faster with 5 other riders battling next you...........game on!
http://www.facebook.com/curtis.bacca.theWaxroom?ref=name#/vi?v=1311033530318&ref=mf
http://www.facebook.com/curtis.bacca.theWaxroom?ref=name#/vi?v=1311036050381&ref=mf
