It's great to have Friends with fast skis

View from the Whaleback - There was a time when you'd head off on a tour with well-worn gear and feel totally comfortable in your skin. The constituents of a tour in "them days" resembled that of a rebel army.

The clothing and equipment was often wooly and warm and hand-me-down wooden skis were commonplace. Glide and speed on the trail were of little importance and everyone on the tour was just "doin' it!"

But now, style and slick graphically enhanced skis are commonplace on the trails at Whaleback. So what's a fellow like me to do when your boots are drafty, your ski bases are worn thin and your speed on the course has slowed to a mere trickle?

Just last week, Dan and I were prancing around the trails on a leisurely 20 km tour and without warning, who should skate up beside us on a flashy new set of RX-4000 Atomic skating skis, but Greg Alexander.

After a brief chat, off he goes down the trail leaving us in a squall of flurries. Now Greg, Dan and I are great companions and we can usually ski along and chat on a variety of topics, but it was clear that the lowest common denominator in our chat was our worn and tired skis. How could we chat with a friend if we couldn't keep up with him?

While we were labouring to keep pace, Greg was whistling down the trail like a '69 Dodge Challenger. There was just no comparison. Our skis felt like they'd been waxed with liquid nails.

Once Greg disappeared around yonder bend, Dan and I sat right down at trailside and said, "Enough is enough! No more would we be laggards!"

We wanted to glide briskly along and chat with our buddies, but instead our conversation floated off into the black spruce because no one stuck around long enough to listen. That very evening I called Pete, the Cycle Solutions man, and ordered up two sets of fancy skating skis.

Within a week, Pete called to say that they were in. Well, actually only one set had come in, but the other set was on back order. Being the gentleman that I am, I offered the new set to Dan and before I could reconsider my display of generosity, he snapped it up like a salmon rising for a mayfly.

The next morning Dan picked up the skis and that afternoon we headed out for our regular tour of the trails. As expected, there I was labouring behind Dano as he glided gracefully down the trail on the new skis. When he was one-skating, I was two-skating, when he was two-skating, I was off-setting. I was taking two laborious strides for every one that Dan took. When we got back to the chalet we hatched a new plan. Until the second set of skaters came in, we would share the premium set. I would use the new skis for the first part of our tour and we would switch at the 10 km mark. And the new plan has been working flawlessly. For the past week, we have been skiing harmoniously along, chatting away and then at the bottom of Sleepy Canuck, I hand over the speedy skis and all is well.

But a big problem is looming on the northern horizon. The 39th Annual Coleman's NL Marathon is slated for St. Anthony in less than a week and the other new set of skaters have not yet arrived. BIG, BIG problem!

Both Dan and I are registered for the 42 km course so the question is: Who gets the fast skis for the marathon? Well, yesterday I propositioned Dan with a superlative plan. Or at least it sounded good to me. Seeing as I am a year older than my buddy Dan, then maybe I should use the fast skis until we get to the 20 km mark and then we'll just switch. It works well at Whaleback, so why change the template? Dan thought it was an excellent arrangement. After all, Dan has always been a strong finisher; while I like to have an imaginary chase of the front-runners.

Now, I've never shared a set of skis in a marathon before, so we'll have to see how it works out. But let me assure you, if the sun is shining and the glide is slick, Daniel Gerald Rumbolt will have a long slow day on the St. Anthony trails! Isn't it great to have friends with fast skis!