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Snowless in the Netherlands : off-road rollerski's?



 
 
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  #1  
Old March 5th 06, 11:30 PM
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Default Snowless in the Netherlands : off-road rollerski's?

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




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  #2  
Old March 6th 06, 01:14 AM
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Posts: n/a
Default

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




  #3  
Old March 6th 06, 01:42 PM
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Posts: n/a
Default

Hi Jan,

I am a British XC skier, in a part of the country which doesn't get
much snow :-(

I know there are some groups of XC skiers in the Netherlands. I don't
have contact details but if you try your National Ski Association ,
they should be able to put you in touch with local groups and teaching.

I can't advise about roller-ski-ing much, as I don't do it anymore.
However, I do suggest you get some lessons before you try to do much by
yourself. You are likely to pick up habits which will spoil your
snow-ski-ing, if you don't learn to do it the right way from the start.


I know the London Region Nordic ski club holds regular roller-ski
events and there are several Netherlanders who attend. However, unless
you are in London anyway, you are probably better off spending your
money on finding some snow!

This page is made by a roller-ski instructor in London and you will
find some helpful links there.
http://www.rollerski.co.uk/links.html

  #4  
Old March 6th 06, 02:55 PM
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Posts: n/a
Default

Thanks for the responses so far!

I was up til 3am last night reading all about technique on Ken's website,
awesome stuff!
Most of it seems to translate decently to my crosskates. I know I'm doing
things totally wrong.

I don't know what it is about rollerski's, there's even a semi-local club
into that, but the insane speeds don't appeal to me too much. I stayed in
mountainbiking because I did't like the high-speed road-cycling crashes. Yes
I do now "train" on asphalts, but most of the time in protective
MTB-downhill gear :-)
I think I'll be satisfied if I can use these Crosskates or a similar product
which may prove more practical, as long as I average better speed than when
running. I'm not there yet though, not by far. Totally undevelopped specific
muscles after years of mostly mountainbiking, few else.
The rollerski clubs do seem great to get tuition when in the snow, in my own
language, and maybe join their ski camps.
If I ever get to a level that satisfies me (national top level is my aim,
maybe big televised snow races, I know, stupid), I'm not sure Rollerskiing
is my thing. Those speeds...I really wonder why I wouldn't just pick
speedskating and do skeelering all year long, just no poles. Probably easier
to learn also, especially after reading on Ken's site how much goes into a
bit of forward motion.
But this snow thing...it's not over-the-top scary like snowboarding and
alpine skiing, addresses my genenic ability to produce lots of power during
anything over 5minutes, and my fellow countrymen seem unable to act at
international level. Why would we win "all" speedskating and send zero XC
Skiers to the Olympics?

XC skating seems to also ask for a variety of other sports to keep fitness
up, a perfect reason to improve my running and swimming game, both about
muscle coordination. I'm starting some run-bike-runs now also, with XC Ski
maybe even winter triathlons become an option.

The pole tips that nordic walkers use, I'm going to destroy those
crosskating over (snowless) fireroads, right?

Maybe if I'm going to buy ski's some day anyway, with those boots bought I
might as well get rollerski frames to use them on. I dunno, the speeds freak
me out. I like my bikes better for that, and am not 18 anymore, hope to stay
in one piece...

Thanks for any other ideas/tips,

J

"Alex" schreef in bericht
ups.com...
Hi Jan,

I am a British XC skier, in a part of the country which doesn't get
much snow :-(

I know there are some groups of XC skiers in the Netherlands. I don't
have contact details but if you try your National Ski Association ,
they should be able to put you in touch with local groups and teaching.

I can't advise about roller-ski-ing much, as I don't do it anymore.
However, I do suggest you get some lessons before you try to do much by
yourself. You are likely to pick up habits which will spoil your
snow-ski-ing, if you don't learn to do it the right way from the start.


I know the London Region Nordic ski club holds regular roller-ski
events and there are several Netherlanders who attend. However, unless
you are in London anyway, you are probably better off spending your
money on finding some snow!

This page is made by a roller-ski instructor in London and you will
find some helpful links there.
http://www.rollerski.co.uk/links.html



 




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