nordic skates??

I was just up to the Cross Country Ski Shop and saw some nordic
skates.

Does anyone have experience with them? If so, any thoughts? How are
they on snow covered ice? Bummpy ice? Am I better off just playing
hockey for conditioning? or are they worth it both for conditioning
and technique training?

Well, they're basically speed skates so they're as cool as all that.
Which is darn cool after you learn how to do it. I mean, it's a
worldclass sport. Very fast and smooth. Now, the nordic skates usually
clip onto an XC ski boot so they can be cheaper and more versatile (I
guess) than buying a whole new speedskate. I suppose they often also
have a free heel which can add a cool technique twist a la clap skates.
But maybe the main thing about the nordic skates is that they're longer
than speeders and have a more gently curving front---which is really
supposed to smooth them out on rough natural ice. I bet they do indeed
do this just dandy. Then whenever you get black ice on a lake or river,
you're totally set for a great time. Really, not much is better than a
nifty black ice river. A kinda narrow twisty river is just the
bomb---you can roll along at 20mph, crossing over as the river twists
and winds along. But there are a good half dozen major technique angles
that aren't intuitive (get a book, read websites, get videos, TAKE
CLINICS). Then you usually need to train a half dozen times to get the
groove rolling. Maybe with XC boots, tho, you don't need such groovy
ankle balance, but I sure don't mind the feel of the ice and a low
leather boot. I suppose hockey is good for explosive start-stop
training. Speedskating is cool for XC training, but no hills. Or arms.
You can fake it with poles and a strong headwind sometimes, but get
rollerskis for the real thing when there isn't snow. Speeding is great
in its own right.

kayakclc wrote:

I was just up to the Cross Country Ski Shop and saw some nordic
skates.

Does anyone have experience with them? If so, any thoughts? How are
they on snow covered ice? Bummpy ice? Am I better off just playing
hockey for conditioning? or are they worth it both for conditioning
and technique training?

--

Jeff Potter
****
*Out Your Backdoor * http://www.outyourbackdoor.com
publisher of do-it-yourself culture ... bikes, skis, boats & more! ...

... offering Vordenberg's XC ski tales in "Momentum"! ...
... "The Recumbent Bicycle": the only book about these bikes! ...
... Rudloe's "Potluck": true-life story of workingclass smuggling! ...

... with radical novels coming up via LiteraryRevolution.com! ...
... music! ... articles! ... travel forums! ... WOW! 800-763-6923

On 1 Mar 2004, kayakclc wrote:

I was just up to the Cross Country Ski Shop and saw some nordic
skates.

Does anyone have experience with them? If so, any thoughts? How are
they on snow covered ice? Bummpy ice? Am I better off just playing
hockey for conditioning? or are they worth it both for conditioning
and technique training?

Technique training- probably not so much.
Conditioning- probably worth it.
But a whole new aspect of winter fun!

I bought skates because of poor snow winters, but it seems that ever
since I got them we have had a lot more snow! So I haven't skated as much
as I hoped, and I'm not very experienced at it yet.

They are good in a few cm of dry powder snow, but not so good with
crusty snow, wind packed snow, etc on the ice. The other problem
with snow is that it hides the bumps and cracks.

Nordic skates do handle bumpy ice better that hockey skates. Pictures
of Swedish skating tours ofter show them skating on rather rough
ice.
Compared to hockey skates they are more stable, warmer, more comfortable,
faster.

There's several sides to "Nordic Skating"; there is outdoor skating
marathons (there was a 200 km race on Saturday at Sylvan Lake Alberta).
Then there is recreational skate touring.

The North American expert is Jamie Hess of Vermont; see:
"http://www.webskater.org/"

Some other English descriptions of skating at:

"http://www.uwasa.fi/~ts/info/timonice.html"
"http://www.llk.se/english/index.htm"
"http://www.sssk.se/english/index.htm"

Some photo collections of skating (Swedish text):

"http://www.bahnhof.se/~robberts/"
"http://www.frilufts.se/stockholm/alliansen/album/"

My Swedish Almgrens skates:
"http://www3.ns.sympatico.ca/dermott/ski/almgrens.jpg"
and my cheaper Dutch Zandstras:
"http://www3.ns.sympatico.ca/dermott/ski/zandstra.jpg"

--

David Dermott , Wolfville Ridge, Nova Scotia, Canada
email:
WWW pages: http://www3.ns.sympatico.ca/dermott/

Thanks for the info guys! It's a lot to weed thru.

Jeff, I was thinking of skating around lake lansing (snow covered
ice)...any thoughts or do you know of some fairly consistent ice...red
cedar maybe? I'd like to find something I can squeeze in about 3 times
per week to supplement skiing.

thanks again for the input

Hey, you're around here? Cool! When we have snow there are tons of places
to ski, but with just ice...Lk Lans and Red Cedar are both fine. Any pond
with good ice, we like. The good ice only lasts a couple sporadic weeks
around here in Dec/earlyJan it seems. The past few years it hasn't been
worth my ankle adaption time. I just rollerski. There are also a few
gungho indoor speedskaters around here, incl one guy who would probably
go every day in the EL area if he had someone to skate with. Email me.
There's also some good coaching help. The nordic skates might extend the
good ice a week or so. Years ago we'd work on keeping a 1/4 mi loop
shoveled on Lk Lans. Kooky. I skate on Lk Lans once every few years and
on Red Cedar only every 10 years. My friend skied quite a bit on Red
Cedar this year.

kayakclc wrote:

Jeff, I was thinking of skating around lake lansing (snow covered
ice)...any thoughts or do you know of some fairly consistent ice...red
cedar maybe? I'd like to find something I can squeeze in about 3 times
per week to supplement skiing.

--

Jeff Potter
****
*Out Your Backdoor * http://www.outyourbackdoor.com
publisher of do-it-yourself culture ... bikes, skis, boats & more! ...
... offering Vordenberg's XC ski tales in "Momentum"! ...
... "The Recumbent Bicycle": the only book about these bikes! ...
... Rudloe's "Potluck": true-life story of workingclass smuggling! ...
... with radical novels coming up via LiteraryRevolution.com! ...
... music! ... articles! ... travel forums! ... WOW! 800-763-6923

I've had a pair of Nordic Skates for a couple of years, and although I
haven't been able to use them much I think they're a blast. I do a
lot of inline skating in the summer and from the start they felt
almost identical to my inlines in terms of stability and required
technique. I use them with my normal ski-skate boots, but I've heard
that most of the Europeans use them with telemark boots and the strong
telemark bindings. One nice thing about them is you can put your ski
boots on in the warmth, drive to the lake or river, and just clip into
the skates and you're off. They work very well with bumpy ice, but I
don't know about snow cover. Anyway, I would higly recommend them for
any skating activity, except hockey and figures I guess.

Jim

(kayakclc) wrote in message . com...
I was just up to the Cross Country Ski Shop and saw some nordic
skates.

Does anyone have experience with them? If so, any thoughts? How are
they on snow covered ice? Bummpy ice? Am I better off just playing
hockey for conditioning? or are they worth it both for conditioning
and technique training?

Nordic Skates:

I believe first occurance of these skates may have originated here in
Ottawa, Canada during the early years of the Winterlude Tri. Some
local entreprising retailers (Pecco's in particular) began marketing
these things back in the late 80's to reduce the transition time
between the skate to ski protion of the race. In addition, not having
to fork out $500 for a poorly desgined/comfort boot with a long piece
of steel on it lead to the quick adoption of the nordic skate in our
area. The early versions consisted of a piece of hardwood with a
blade attached to the bottom with a skate binding on top. You still
see a few around on the canal.

To answer the question on how they handle slush, snow, cracks or
whatever are thrown in their way, in my mind they are the best as
comapred to other forms available.

They are a pleasure to use espcially after taking a quick 5 minute run
to the canal, strapping them one for a 15 km skate, then another 5
minute run back to work during lunch hour.

Unfortunlately, mine are put away for the Rideau canal season, but may
use them during a spring ski in the Gat's. Most often one can use
them on Black's Lake, yes the same Black's you pass while doing the
Keskinada.







(Jim Grau) wrote in message . com...
I've had a pair of Nordic Skates for a couple of years, and although I
haven't been able to use them much I think they're a blast. I do a
lot of inline skating in the summer and from the start they felt
almost identical to my inlines in terms of stability and required
technique. I use them with my normal ski-skate boots, but I've heard
that most of the Europeans use them with telemark boots and the strong
telemark bindings. One nice thing about them is you can put your ski
boots on in the warmth, drive to the lake or river, and just clip into
the skates and you're off. They work very well with bumpy ice, but I
don't know about snow cover. Anyway, I would higly recommend them for
any skating activity, except hockey and figures I guess.

Jim

(kayakclc) wrote in message . com...
I was just up to the Cross Country Ski Shop and saw some nordic
skates.

Does anyone have experience with them? If so, any thoughts? How are
they on snow covered ice? Bummpy ice? Am I better off just playing
hockey for conditioning? or are they worth it both for conditioning
and technique training?