The old saying is that behind every great man is a woman, but put an alpine twist on the adage and you can say that behind every great racer is a good ski technician.
No one attains success independently, and you just have to look to Reggie and Zach Crist, the Ketchum ski racers who claimed gold and silver medals at the 2005 Winter X Games in Aspen on January 29 to prove that fact.
The man who helped them go fast: Curtis Bacca, who has worked with Reggie for the past 15 years and Zach for 12.
But the Crists aren't the only ski racers Bacca has helped to the top of the podium.
The 43-year old Bacca, owner of the Waxroom in Ketchum, has boosted skiers' success on every level from World Cup to Kindercup, and even the Boulder Mountain Tour.
Bacca, a ski technician for the U.S. and Canadian teams for eight years, was the technician for Kyle Rasmussen when he skied to a pair of World Cup victories in 1995, and in the past four years, his racers have collected 10 X Games medals. He also worked with Rasmussen and Tommy Moe on the Pro Downhill Tour for three years.
Obsessive-compulsive is probably a polite way to sum up Bacca's rigorous preparation.
Getting ready for the 2005 X Games involved countless hours of finding the right skis, testing them to find the fastest pairs and waxing them twice a day since December. And that was two months before the event.
"You have to go with the fastest skis as opposed to what feels the best. The clock doesn't lie," Bacca said.
While in Aspen, Bacca kept a keen eye on the weather and how it might affect conditions.
"You have to try and weigh all the variables: snow temperature, air temp, what the angle of the sun is going to be when the race starts, humidity, crystal shape and size, speed of the track and what the sharpness of snow will be.
"I was asking my buddies what they thought. You just try and gather as many variables as you can to make good choices," Bacca said.
While many of the other ski technicians tried to pick Bacca's brain about what he was slapping on his racers' skis, he's was as tightlipped as a mule with lockjaw.
"If they ask me, 'Is that Swix' I just shake my head and say yup. I didn't give anyone a straight answer. It's a little game I play."
Bacca did allow that he used the same wax combination on the Crists' skis that he did on Rasmussen's when he won a World Cup downhill at Wengen 10 years ago.
"That was the last time I used that combination," he said.
While Bacca might be a factor in the Crists' success, he is quick to defer credit where credit is due.
"I think one of Reggie and Zach's strengths is they are able to read and inspect the course -- maybe better than the other guys. Plus, their skiing ability and the training they do. Reggie was one of the oldest guys there. It takes a lot of determination and perseverance to excel at Reggie's age. He has to work harder than anyone else."
Bacca had to watch the race from the start house, and he described his elation when the Crists placed first and second.
"I see them go over the whoops and Grand Canyon and then they disappeared. I ran into the food tent right when they crossed the finish line and caught the end on TV. I had my headset on and I am yelling, 'Is that what I am seeing? First and third?' I was screaming yeah and freaking out. All the sudden I hear everything is under review -- first and second -- and I started freaking out again. They were stoked and I was stoked. I am really proud of those guys.
"We were there to win. They knew what they had to do and I knew what I had to do. It was cool."
Reggie and Zach were not the only racers Bacca worked with at the X-Games. He also helped Nate Holland, who won the bronze medal in UltraCross and Ketchum's Graham Watanabe who crashed in the quarterfinals of the Snowboarder X.
Holland, a member of the U.S. Snowboarding team, was so happy with Bacca's work that he hired him as his technician for the Gravity Games in February and took him to a World Cup event at Lake Placid in early March.
"It was really fun," Bacca said. "I had my waxroom set up 50-yards from the finish line and we had three boards rolling. Nate won the first two rounds in bordercross, advanced to the round of eight and then to the finals. He finished fourth and was the top American."
Holland went on to win a World Cup bordercross in Spain and is currently ranked first in the United State and third in the world in the event. He and Bacca will travel to Chile for World Cup races this September.
The success Bacca has had with Holland caught the eye of Peter Foley of the U.S. Snowboarding Team. He and Bacca are currently working out terms for Bacca to work with the U.S. squad at the 2006 Winter Olympics in Bormio, Italy.
"The team is really fun," Bacca remarked. "It's just like being with the U.S. downhillers 15 years ago."
The formula for winning never changes. Just ask Curtis Bacca, although he might not give you the recipe.
A winning combination. Ski technician Curtis Bacca (center) has worked with the Crist brothers, Zach (left) and Reggie (right) for more than a decade. He helped them to the top of the podium at the 2005 Winter X Games in January.
