Racing 739 and the history of Fluorosurfactants that wonky u =p to four seconds
Some products are so good they make powerful enemies. Hertel Racing 739 is one of them. This is the full story — told for the first time.
It Started With a Hot Waxer in 1972
In 1972, Terry Hertel entered the ski industry with the original HotWaxer — a revolutionary waxing tool that changed how skiers applied wax. Within months, his first distributor had shown it to European competitors. Terry fired them, took distribution into his own hands, and sold over 50,000 HotWaxers. He held the patents and trademarks. When Swix and Toko began copying his design — thanks to confidential information shared by that distributor — Terry issued cease and desist letters. They stopped. But the battle had only just begun.
Reinventing Ski Wax From Scratch
Terry realized the HotWaxer was only half the solution. The wax itself needed to be reinvented. He commissioned independent research through scanner analysis and Sherman Labs. The findings were stunning: every ski wax on the market was essentially identical — the same formula, just different rainbow colors.
Terry set out to change that. With the assistance of Dr. Tim Donnelly, he spent years studying the physics of skiing. The breakthrough insight: skiers aren't gliding on snow — they're gliding on a microscopic layer of water. Once he understood that, he identified the missing ingredient that no other wax manufacturer had ever used. He paid Dr. Donnelly $3,000 for the critical hint that unlocked the formula.
The result was Hertel All Temperature® wax — tested across the world, proven to perform in every snow condition. It was the first truly all-temperature ski wax ever made, and Terry trademarked the term All Temperature®.
Olympic Gold — Twice
Racing 739 wasn't just good. It was historically fast. Hertel wax was used in competition from 1974 onward, and in 1988 and 1994 it helped deliver Olympic gold medals — including taking the Lillehammer Olympics away from the competition. Two Olympics. Two golds. The wax worked at the highest level of competition in the world.
Ski manufacturers knew. Coaches knew. But Swix knew too — and they weren't happy.
The Invention That Changed Everything: The Fluorosurfactant
In his lab, Terry Hertel invented something the ski industry had never seen: a Fluorosurfactant — a compound created by combining a liquid fluorocarbon with a powdered surfactant using a specialized molecular chain. It was a genuinely novel invention, and it made Racing 739 approximately 1.5 seconds faster than any other wax on the market. In ski racing, that margin is an eternity.
In 1993, Terry issued a press release — PPROZ — announcing his invention to the ski industry. What happened next was a defining moment: the editor of Ski Tech magazine took Terry's press release, removed his name, and handed it to Swix. The invention that Terry had created and disclosed was now being studied by his biggest competitor — without credit, without compensation, and without his knowledge.
Swix and their allies tried to reverse-engineer it. They failed. They knew it involved fluorocarbon, but they didn't understand the chemistry. Chemical companies supplied them with PTFE powders — marketed under names like Typhoon — but without understanding the specific molecular chain Terry had developed, the copies didn't work. The overlays they built around these failed formulas compounded the problem. Terry watched it unfold and already knew the outcome.
The Fluorocarbon Double Standard
In 2023, FIS banned all fluorocarbon-based waxes from sanctioned competition, citing environmental concerns around PFAS "forever chemicals." But here's what the industry doesn't want you to know: fluorocarbon compounds are used across dozens of consumer industries — waterproof ski jackets, Gore-Tex apparel, fishing line, tents, and cookware. Major manufacturers including 3M and DuPont faced billions of dollars in liability settlements over PFAS and quietly reformulated their products under pressure from the EPA and EU. They changed their marketing and moved on. No public ban. No headlines.
Meanwhile, the ski industry singled out ski wax — a tiny fraction of total global fluorocarbon use. Terry documented what regulators didn't want to acknowledge: forever chemicals are measurable at 12,000 feet elevation, 300 feet deep in the ocean, and in rivers worldwide. They didn't get there from ski wax.
Terry spent $15,000 proving that his formula did not use the specific banned PFAS compounds. He passed. The clothing giants quietly reformulated and faced no such scrutiny. Hertel took the public beating while billion-dollar apparel brands rewrote their hang tags and moved on.
Terry believes the FIS ban was driven less by environmental science and more by competitive politics — a final attempt to eliminate a product that competitors had spent decades failing to beat on the slopes.
Racing 739 today contains no banned fluorocarbon compounds. And it is still 1.5 seconds faster than anything else on the market — without them.
The Suppression Campaign
In 1996, Swix launched a coordinated campaign against Hertel. They went to every ski dealer in the country with an ultimatum: drop Hertel, or lose Swix and Toko. For dealers, it was an impossible choice. Hertel's sales dropped to zero almost overnight. Terry had to step away from the industry for several years.
The suppression didn't stop there. Racing 739 itself has never been formally banned by FIS — but Terry Hertel has been personally removed. At World Cup events, Olympics, X Games, and NASTAR races, Terry has been refused entry or physically removed, and his credentials revoked. When racers have won using Hertel wax, European competitors and officials dismissed the results as a fluke or claimed they had never heard of the product — despite it winning Olympic gold medals in 1988 and 1994. The pattern is consistent: when Racing 739 wins, the establishment denies it. When Terry Hertel shows up, he gets removed.
His name was removed from race records. He was confronted in gondolas, followed into restaurants, and harassed at every turn. As recently as last year, competitors paid his supplier to halt manufacturing during the holiday season — the most critical sales period of the year. This is not a regulatory issue. It is a 50-year campaign by larger competitors to suppress a small American company that simply makes a better product.
The Comeback
In 2011, Terry put his first 100 units on Amazon. The response was immediate. Skiers who had used Hertel wax for years — or who discovered it for the first time — became loyal customers. Today, Hertel has over 1,200 verified reviews on Amazon and a growing community of 600+ customers on Shopify. The ski wax market has exploded from 3 companies to 31 — many of them copying Hertel's intellectual property. Terry has already noticed competitors beginning to copy yet another of his formulas. He still has more in reserve.
Despite bypass surgery, losing his warehouse, and relentless interference from competitors, Terry Hertel is still here. Still inventing. Still winning.
What Hertel Is Really About
Hertel is not a racing company. It never set out to be. It just so happens that the science Terry developed — rooted in understanding how skis actually interact with snow at a molecular level — produces wax that outperforms everything else. His newest work addresses the realities of global warming on ski slopes, developing formulas that perform better across the changing snow conditions that modern skiers face.
The mission has always been simple: help everyday skiers and snowboarders have more control, more speed, and more fun. Racing just proved it works.
Can You Still Use Racing 739?
Yes — absolutely. Racing 739 is available today at hertelskiwax.com. It is not banned — the wax has never been formally prohibited. For recreational skiers, club racers, NASTAR participants, and anyone who simply wants the fastest wax on the mountain, Racing 739 remains one of the most proven formulas in the history of the sport.
Fifty years of suppression couldn't stop it. Neither could the politics of the ski industry, the fluorocarbon double standard, or the attempts to erase Terry Hertel's name from the record books. Racing 739 is still here — and it's still the fastest.