Did you search via google groups, advanced search? There's been a lot
of information, experience and opinions about rollerskis over the
years. Also check out www.xcskiworld.com, altho the
product info is U.S. centered. If there are no resources in the
Netherlands, you might try Germany or France. There are some brand
that are different. Perhaps Laurent has some ideas. Generally, you
don't need perfect pavement. Look at mixed carbon fiber poles that are
middle of the line or better (light) with good straps and get rollerski
ferrules instead of those rubber walking dealies. If you can find
someone to take lessons from or good videos, that will speed up the
learning curve.

Gene

"Jan Gerrit Klok" wrote:

Hi all,

I'm new to newsgroups, tried searching this group for info but
nothing came up for me.

I'm J, 29, from the Netherlands.
The snow my coastal region gets, comes 2-3 times a year, most often
under 3" of it, and typically takes shorter than 24 hours to melt
away. Hoping to become a skate-skier and find some cheap starter gear
soon. when I get confident I won't look like a fool in the snow, I'll
just book a vacation a week before a race, train a lot, and try the
race. I'll never know unless I try...

Being a mountainbike racer with some stupid summer asthma I picked up
a few year back, my urge to try XC Ski racing some day has fueled
even more. In winter time my lungs are just SO strong. However I
don't come from a wintersports family, just a couple acquaintances go
snowboarding once a year in the Alps. A couple years back I did one
evening of indoor snowboarding, it was fun, but not my thing. Never
tried ski's, too scared.

I once obtained a pair of Crosskates (www.crosskate.com), with the
intention to help them find a good distributor. Unfortunately they
seem to have gone out of business before I got anywhere with that.
Recently I've found the balls to actually do a more serious effort
(longer round around the block) on them. It's very hard for me, I
hardly move forward, but when I do something right, it's instantly
rewarded. Right now I top out at around 10mph, but I feel I can
improve with this.

I know about the existence of rollerski's, have researched some, but
that's about it. They seem to demand really perfect asphalt and
technique. Competition average speeds are so high, it makes me wonder
if they shouldn't just leaves the poles and use the things like
inline skates. Although they seem to mimic snow speeds much better,
my Crosskates are really heavy, and I may not be strong and skilled
enough to use them offroad too soon, so looking for ways to make them
a tad quicker/easier to live with.

My real question is : who's using these, or something similar? Are
they a good preparation for my body and technique before I some day
find myself in Germany on a Langlauf camp?
Are there any websites to bug for specific tips and info? I'd like to
find faster (road)tires for my Crosskates, and they went bust just
before they started offering them.

I'm now using rubber "asphalt" tips on my poles, but on anything less
that perfectly dry rough asphalt they slip out with the walking
speeds I'm currently reaching. Before I had the standard Swix
triangular tips, but those just seemed to skid off the surface. Just
me going too slow? And what would be good off-road pole tips? The
local outdoor shop sold me the Asphalt ones as they didn't know about
Crosskates whatsoever. I do keep it to pavement for now.

Thanks a lot for your help pointing me to good off-road rollerski
resources or special off-road ski tricks.

Happy trails! (don't ever take snow for granted)

J