This continues a new category of posts: Guest columns where friends and
readers share how technology is reshaping their hobby – fishing, basket weaving,
rugby – whatever.
This time it is my good friend Sig Rinde. As hilarious as he is athletic – read on:
“If you did something when you were 3 and still love it is it called a hobby? If you made money as a teenager teaching it, is it a hobby? If most of your country is pretty proficient at it, does it still count as a hobby? Yes, yes and yes. I was born and raised in Norway where they say "we are born with skis".
Why have two planks and some frozen water stuck with me even as I have since moved to France? The joys of ordering British officers around on a snowy golf course helped. So did gently guiding flocks of Danish au-pairs down a slippery slope or living high on the image with somewhat older Swedish girls at mountain lodges during school breaks.
But enough about my youth. Let’s see how technology has influenced my continued love:
1. Two poles.
Some chap in Norway added the second pole, now one for each hand, instead of holding one big one with both hands. Made wonders for the advancement on the flats of course. This enabled long and time consuming 50 km cross country races which one can follow closely, from your cozy campsite in the middle of the woods. The French have since developed this spectator sport for their even longer Tour de France cycling races, although they were sensible enough to move it all to the more outdoors friendly summer and replacing hot chocolate with wine.
2. Snowboard.
One morning some chap in California walked out the door with his surfboard, found out it was snowing and went for the hills instead. In the beginning this was not a popular trend among the conservative ski crowds - sagging pants and grungy music did not help much either. But it has made much fun down to the lift line. I can brag about being an early adopter, at the age of 40. I bought my kids the full package and dragged them into the hills, hey, here we had a sport untouched by parents, nary a screaming ski-mom to be seen.
It did not take long before the snowboard designers started taking what they knew and created skis that behaved more like snowboards - weight forward, use knees to carve along. A totally different, and in my view even better experience than the old. And as the new skis were shorter, easier to carry as well - fewer heads hit with your shoulder-carried 210 cm long skis when you suddenly turned to answer your companion.
Other technology gifts to my hobby:
Safety bindings – unfortunately, that ended the age-old art of plaster graffiti.
Plastic extrusion - I would estimate the number of gates I have to pass in closest possible proximity as 2,400 per season. They are moving to laser gates – wonder if you can mow them down and still stay unscathed?
Boot tech - My early boots were made of leather, two layers each with long and tedious laces. Then came the first "plastic" boots from Lange. That made the connection between leg and ski very direct and a boon for precision when on the slopes. Flip side was that half the season was spent by your foot to reshape, not an entirely pleasant experience. Things have progressed since though.
Microfibers and other nano stuff - Wax under your skis is important, makes you glide faster and allows cross-country-ski leg movements into forward movement. Not cheap – though again it thins out those ski-moms!
Well, I think that should cover it all! Next time ask me about orienteering and you'll get only one short easy-to-read paragraph about the thumb compass.”
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