Ski Racing - September 19, 2011

race course. The first two years, when U.S. nordic nationals were in Rumford, Maine, Caldwell estimates he ground about 50 pairs of skis there, but they swept the podium in one sprint race. “Good success on a big stage early on — I had some luck that way,” he says. “I’ve screwed some skis up big-time for people, too, but that’s all been part of the learning process.” In his first full year, Caldwell ran about 600 pairs of customers’ skis through his grinder. In his second year, it was 1,200. In his third year, there were too many skis for the truck, and he moved to a shop-based business. “I’d spend 45 minutes taking skis out of the truck in order to just be able to start working,” recalls Caldwell. “It’s unbelievable to me now how hard I worked against myself to make this thing go; high-volume grinding in the truck is just insane to think about now.” In 2006, Caldwell purchased a new Tazzarri (which sells for about $80,000) and sold the original to Nathan Schultz, who was starting Boulder Nordic Sports, now the premier nordic ski outfitter in North America. In 2007, Amy got a high profile coaching job in Canada at the Callaghan Valley Training Center, and they jumped at a great opportunity for both of them; Caldwell would be testing grinds and skis at the 2010 Olympic venue for almost two full years leading up to the Games.

Along with the success of his stone grinding operation, Caldwell’s reputation for picking quality skis directly from the European factories also grew. He hand-picks all his skis and visits the factories of Salomon, Fischer and Madshus.

For those who glaze over at the physics talk, there’s a simpler analogy. “I grew up near a couple of orchards — I’d stop and pick apples and eat them,” says Caldwell. “I knew which apples I liked, and I could recognize them. If you like a certain variety of apple, say, Macoun apples, and you find a tree full of them, you’re going to have good luck getting good apples. Now, a shop gets a basket of apples — a mixed bag of different apples. The best shop is going to analyze these apples. They’ll check the flesh, the skin, the color, circumferential measurements, height versus girth ratios, sugar content etc. In the end, they might be able to pick the Macoun out of the basket, but they are way, way over analyzing. If someone just showed them a Macoun apple to begin with, they could go find the tree in the orchard and pick them out of there. That’s what I do with skis.” Caldwell gets in early and tries to understand what the ski manufacturers are building so that he can measure their success and show the best of their work to his own customers. Sound complicated? Not if you’re winning on Caldwell-prepared skis, or if you’re the professor behind the physics yourself. “It gets pretty easy,” says Caldwell, “once you’ve handled 40,000 or 50,000 pairs of skis.”