My analogy of Trail Skiing to mtbiking hasn’t gotten any traction in wider Nordic circles. Strangely.
How about if I put some finer points on it…
Because we now have new gear that we’re using in new ways, let’s say that using the new midlength skis and cuffed BC boots for serious fun on trails that had been ignored by Nords until now is like the FATBIKING of Nordic. Would that work?
Or maybe we should say that doing big challenging day-skis on trails (with a big dose of fun, picnicking, stage-stops on trail along the way), an approach and experience unlike anything groomed skiing has to offer, is like GRAVEL GRINDING.
But for this to really parallel biking we’d need an Enthusiast Base that wants to reach out to new kinds of fun, that gets a kick from versatility.
This doesn’t exist in XC today!
At least here in Michigan WE’VE LOST ALL WE HAD. We’re back to everyone being before the level of beginner. Lost generations. We used to have 200 skiing on weekends. Now it’s 20.
It’s like if surfing stopped in California for 20-30 years and everyone thought cubicles were cool. Surfshops all closed up. People might look at an oldtimer who didn’t get the message, out there grinnin’ and carvin’ in the sunset and wonder what he was doing. If surfing was to start again the old timer would have to say “OK, here’s *water* and here’s a *board*. It slides on the water. With this *board* you can be *free*. You stand on it and move your body. …In. Tune. With. The. Ocean. Do you understand what I am saying? Can you hear me?” … He would have to start with babysteps.
But even there he might be tapping into healthy energetic people. Like young kids getting into skateboarding. They have potential. He’d be appealing to their desire for Max Gusto and Dyno Action.
He wouldn’t be saying: “Look, you can lay on this air mattress and pattycake the water and do that on weekends.”
XC ski is so often pitched as a way for duffers to just duffer about. Ooh, look at me, I’m waddling. Maybe I fall down. “It’s so easy. Here, let me help you, stiff person who isn’t used to moving.”
I hear there isn’t appeal in something that is difficult, that takes time to learn, that offers lifelong improvement. …Huh? Why did skateboarding catch on? No, I’m not sure that the best sales pitch for something is that it doesn’t offer much or ask much. Martial arts seems good at hooking folks into learning, pushing, going beyond. What about rock climbing? Heck, every other sport has degrees, levels, improvement, as a sizable part of its core. It’s fine that XC is *BIG*.
