Nordic skiers turn to roller skis for off-season training

Tag : roller wheel

BOISE, Idaho - Unless you're an elite athlete with sponsorshipdollars at your disposal, you probably lack the resources totraipse around the world training in ideal weather.

Winter competitors, in particular, can have a hard time simulatingtheir sports on dry land. But thanks to roller skis, no snow is noproblem for Nordic skiers.

Take a conventional cross-country ski, condense it to about 2 feet,put a wheel on each end and you have roller skis. Depending on themodel and type of wheels, roller skis can be used on asphalt orpacked dirt roads.

Skiers have found training on wheels is true to the feel of skiingon snow.

"Roller skiing mimics exactly what you do on skis - it's the exactsame motion and about the same speed as groomed snow," said MattGrover, a Boise resident and World Cycle clerk who has been rollerskiing for about 10 years.

Though roller skis have been around, at least in homemade form,since the early 1900s, they did not hit the European commercialmarket until the 1970s. Early models had three wheels - one infront, two in the back - and hinged frames.

Modern roller skis have a lightweight, non-hinged frame (usually analloy) and either pneumatic or hard wheels. Models for classic andskate skiing are available from about a dozen manufacturers aroundthe globe.

Classic-style roller skis have a device on the front wheel to keepit from rolling backward, simulating the effect of grip wax, whileskate-style roller skis have free-rolling wheels.

Some models have bindings that can accommodate regular Nordic skiboots, while others can be used with athletic shoes. Poles are thesame save for carbide tips in place of baskets.

Far more widespread in Europe, where competitions have been heldfor 30 years, roller skiing is catching on in the States,particularly with national and college Nordic teams looking tomaximize off-season training time, which typically begins in latesummer.

"It's not really a sport unto itself - it's a means to an end,"Grover said. "You probably only do it if you're training for Nordicskiing."
Even then, not a lot of cross-country skiers are hip to rollerskiing. Jeff Gasser, treasurer of Idaho Nordic, said about 10percent of the group's 100 members have roller skis. World Cycleorders about 10 pairs of roller skis a year. Currently, the shop,one of the handful of places in the Treasure Valley that sellsroller skis, has a single model in stock, the V2 Aero XL ($319.99,plus $100-$110 for bindings).

The few people who do roller ski around town give the activity highmarks since it helps develop the endurance, flexibility and rhythmneeded on the snow and makes for a fun training alternative to thetreadmill or bike.

"You apply all the basic techniques - balance, weight transfer andtiming," said Gasser, who has been roller skiing for five years."The only difference is, if you fall down, it hurts a lot worse."

That's because most roller skis don't have brakes in the true senseof the word. Many models have what are called "speed reducers" -something to put tension on the wheels to slow the skis down - butmostly it's up to the skier to stop.

It's why you'll find most roller skiers on flat terrain like theGreenbelt or going up - but not down - a pitched road like BogusBasin Road. In downhill instances, skiers rely on a modifiedsnowplow wedge to slow down. "Otherwise, you stop instantly andcartwheel," Gasser said.

Such hazards are not enough to keep skiers off their roller skis,as the rewards - particularly at the start of the Nordic ski season- far outweigh the risk of a few scratches and scrapes. "That firstmonth of being on the snow, there's a big difference," Grover said."It's as if you haven't been off the snow."