Battered & Bewildered
Rollerskiing, Hetton Lyons, 26th June
Colin Blackburn
Before I start, it was I who was battered while many of the residents of Hetton were bewildered by the weekend just gone. The bewilderment came from 20 plus people on little planks with wheels tearing and, in my case at least, stumbling around Hetton Lyons Country Park. The battering came from the odd tumble I had as I learned that tarmac was harder than snow and planks with wheels weren't quite like skis.
After XC skiing for a few years now I finally decided it was time to try the summer equivalent, rollerskiing. Rollerskiing uses most of the same techniques as XC skiing and allows you to train throughout the year. It's used by all of the top XC skiers and though I'm not exactly near the top I do need to do some technique training between the odd week away in the winter.
So, with a little trepidation I arrived at Hetton Lyons on a beautiful sunny Saturday morning for a Snowsport England training weekend to find I already knew half the people of the course from various skiing trips. People had travelled from many parts of Britain and Ireland. Aine had flown in from Dublin, several people had come up from London and several down from Scotland. Many had brought there own equipment but I hired two pairs of rollerskis, poles and boots for the weekend. Kitted out we were split into three groups, beginners/improvers, intermediates and advanced/race training. I was in the beginners/improvers as I'd not been on rollers before.
The first session of the morning was a steep learning curve as I made the transition from snow to wheels with a few avoidable tumbles. Cycling gloves certainly help in protecting the hands. Once I'd found my wheels things went well as we went through a series of drills to gain confidence and balance. A lot of it looks silly, scooting along on one ski or trying to swat imaginary flies ahead of you but it all helps in emphasising the right body position on the rollerskis. It certainly looked silly to many of the walkers and cyclists in the park. Some of the more curious stopped to ask what we were doing, some of the younger lads passed the odd ribbing comment but on the whole people just passed by a little bemused. After a morning's skating we moved on to classic technique where the rollerskis have ratchets in them to simulate the ski gripping the snow. Oddly, despite my classic technique on snow being much better than my skating I found it the opposite on rollers. It took a good while to get a feel for the difference
After the Saturday sessions there was a 10km race using classic rollerskis. I decided my skill levels weren't yet up to racing on tarmac so I helped out with marshalling, warning people that rollerskiers wold be coming by very fast and with limited ability to stop quickly! And they did come by fast! I was amazed at the speed to top few went by at. It turned out that a few of these were from the national junior development squad. This was a serious race that formed part of a national series. That said there were a few "regular" contestants too. The winners got round the 6 1 mile loops in under 30 minutes.
Most of the weekend's participants were here for two days and so overnight accommodation had been booked at the Premier Inn on the edge of Durham. Despite only being 45 minutes from home I stayed with the rest of the crowd and enjoyed a few decent beers and a meal with them. Luckily this was the only point in the weekend when the heavens opened and it hammered down.
On Sunday morning after a good breakfast—Premier Inns do porridge though I went for the granola and croissants!—we resumed at Hetton Lyons for a second day of more of the same. For the second day we all changed coaches. I for one found it really useful to get different perspectives on things. It was then very much more of the same, lots of useful drills interspersed with some skiing. I was a little more confident on he second day as I had finally got to grips with slowing and stopping using a snowplough technique modified for rollerskis. I didn't believe it was possible, but it is. After a second excellent day of weather and skiing I went home trying to avoid hearing the England-Germany score. I made it but wished I hadn't!
There's a second rollerski session at Hetton Lyons over the August Bank Holiday weekend. I'd recommend it to anyone who fancies doing something a little different. All you need is the sort of clothes you might run or cycle in and a cycle helmet and gloves. Knee and elbow pads are useful but not essential, I wore kneepads though I didn't ever fall on my knees. All the rest of the stuff, rollerskis, boots and poles is available for hire. Go on, give it a go. At worst you'll be a little battered and bewildered but you may discover a latent talent!
