Skate skiing
WHAT IS IT?
Not the elegant glide of cross-country skiing, but the momentum-gaining motion you watched the biathlon athletes use between target shots in the Olympics.
WHERE'S IT AT?
Just because you love cross-country skiing does not mean you'll be a natural at this. Believe me: It's harder than it looks. Unless, of course, you're an 11-year-old natural athlete who has been on hockey skates since you were two years old, in which case you'll be lapping your mother, flashing her the loser sign and trash-talking her as you whip by her barely upright flailing frame. Really, all you have to do is get down in seated position and push off in a hockey stride. It sounds so easy, and it is on fat downhill skis. But skate-skis, unlike their cross-country cousins, are unwaxed and have no grip. Think splits and face plants. I windmilled so frequently, my instructor – the exceedingly patient and encouraging Trevor Eagles (Nordic program co-ordinator at Winsport Canada's Olympic Park in Calgary) – admitted that if there were fjords and tulips, I'd be a Dutch landmark.
Once you get the technique and graduate to poles, you'll find it much easier. Just don't get cocky, or you'll find yourself in a spectacular chin-bumping, ski-twisting dive with trash-talking daughter suddenly looking concerned. Up you get though for another lap in the decidedly urban setting as you long for the groomed trails out in wide-open Kananaskis Country.
WHO'S IT FOR?
Nature lovers with powerful thighs who feel the need for speed.
Winsportcanada.ca
