It has been a while since I last shared details on some ski inventions or variations that I’ve cobbled-together.
In college, I made a very simple human-powered grooming device out of lumber and old corrugated drainpipe I found behind the Facilities/Workshop building. My coach referred to this stuff as “Terk Tech” as a play on the actual Nordic company Tidd Tech, maker of snow grooming equipment.
Unlike TiddTech, most of my stuff does not come with authentic craftsmanship. There is certainly no quality control, and often I’m the test subject for a few iterations of a given invention before it is approved for use by the team.
Why do I spend time and money on this stuff?
I think one fun element of our sport is all of the technical elements. When I say I enjoy the technical elements of skiing, I don’t just mean analyzing video of skiers in slow motion or watching extended videos describing ski grind characteristics. Those things are fun in their own way, but when you zoom out from the ultra-techie aspects you can still tell our sport is very diverse in the physical demands required, and the specialized gear to help meet those demands.
TerkTech comes about because:
- I like to try and get creative and think outside the box, maybe even just as a personal challenge
- Some days you can’t just stare at the computer screen before/during/after training sessions
- It’s fun to try and look at tools or exercises from other sports and work out how they may be useful to skiing
- A surprising amount of inspiration comes with 30 minutes of wandering absent-mindedly through Home Depot
So…what’s the latest-and-greatest from TerkTech Industries?
Classic Rollerski Slip Mats
This one is best explained through relaying the stream-of-consciousness that led to its creation.
What do classic skis do, despite our best kickwax efforts? They slip. Wax wears off. Conditions change. Skiers get tired. Slipping is normal in classic skiing, and I think we are one of the best classic skiing teams in the East because we work on accepting and handling that. We don’t just try to ski with perfect technique: we try to manage skiing with all types of wax jobs. We never use skin skis. Never ever. We will slog and slip through winter intervals at the Range with crappy kick, no tracks, and steep hills.
What do classic rollerskis do? They kick. They kick every. Single. Time. They kick so well that for years many coaches said skiers might want to skip classic rollerskiing altogether. They kick so well that we spent years never striding on our rollerskis…just double poling on classic days.
But what if you could make classic rollerskis slip? Couldn’t that make things more realistic?
So how do you make classic rollerskis slip? The ratchet wheel always stops. That means you need to make the rubber itself slip on the pavement. The statement above about classic rollerskis kicking every time is actually a bit of a lie…when do rollerskis actually slip? When it’s wet out, and when there’s leaves on the trail.
So for a few years now we’ve had days where I’ll grab a bunch of leaves and ferns from the woods, and spread them on the trail. Then I’d douse them with the water jug.
But what is more slippery than water? Soap. Ok then, soapy water on wet leaves it is.
For a few years this worked. But what about a solution that was guaranteed to be more slippery, and would stay in place during a training session? I thought about fake snow and artificial summer ski surfaces. I also thought about ski jumpers, who train in the summer by jumping and landing on what looked a lot to me like astroturf.
You know where I bet I could get some astroturf…
When Justin Beckwith would set up the wooden ramps for rollerskiing, he used concrete screws to drill them straight into the pavement. You know where I bet I could get some concrete screws…
Ok, part one is done. I can screw some astroturf right into the pavement and have slippery patches for classic striding. But what about making the mats more slippery? Should I just use soap and water again?
Wait a second. What do I use to make skis slippery? Wax.
What kind of wax do you get for cheap that covers a large surface area? Car wax.
Mission accomplished:
So we now have two slippery astroturf mats, that can be installed or removed quickly from the pavement! Nice!
Is there anything else from TerkTech?
Yes, actually! This one is a bit less unique, and actually takes inspiration from hockey and speedskating, along with Sharon Henry inquiring if we’d ever thought about this tool in light of identifying some general weakness with single-leg power among our skiers.
The MNCC is now equipped with a slide board! It does not look quite as nice as the one in this video, but it’s not surprising that with a cheap piece of laminated shelving and some materials left over from MNCC renovations you can make a pretty good simple version!
We’ll get to put this new tool to work during strength sessions on Wednesday.
