The kicksled or spark is a small sled

Sled

A sled, sledge, or sleigh is a land vehicle with a smooth underside or possessing a separate body supported by two or more smooth, relatively narrow, longitudinal runners that travels by sliding across a surface. Most sleds are used on surfaces with low friction, such as snow or ice. In some cases,...

  consisting of a chair mounted on a pair of flexible metal runners which extend backward to about twice the chair's length. The sled is propelled by kicking ("sparke" or "sparka" in the Scandinavian languages) the ground by foot. There is a handlebar attached to the top of the chair back. "Kicksled" is a direct translation of the Finnish word "potkukelkka". Some other possible translations are "kicker" and "chair-sled".

Design

The typical adult sized sled has runners about 2 m (78.7 in) long, spaced 400 mm (15.7 in) apart. The steel runner blades are about 5 mm (0.196850393700787 in) wide. The handlebars are about 900 mm (35.4 in) above ground.

The kicksled is driven forward by the driver standing on one runner, kicking backwards on the ground with the other foot, hence the name. The flexibity of the runners allows the driver to steer the kicksled by twisting the handlebars. One can have a passenger or luggage on the chair seat. The kicksled can also be used as a dog sled.

A kicksled can only be used on hard, slippery surfaces like ice or hardpacked snow. On very smooth, bare ice, the use of traction devices like spiked shoes or crampons improves kicking force. On level ground, one can easily reach a speed of 15 kilometre per hour to 20 kilometre per hour, and much faster on downhill section or with a strong tail wind.

The kicksled is in common use in Norway

Norway

Norway , officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic unitary constitutional monarchy whose territory comprises the western portion of the Scandinavian Peninsula, Jan Mayen, and the Arctic archipelago of Svalbard and Bouvet Island. Norway has a total area of and a population of about 4.9 million...

, Sweden

Sweden

Sweden , officially the Kingdom of Sweden , is a Nordic country on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. Sweden borders with Norway and Finland and is connected to Denmark by a bridge-tunnel across the Öresund....

 and Finland

Finland

Finland , officially the Republic of Finland, is a Nordic country situated in the Fennoscandian region of Northern Europe. It is bordered by Sweden in the west, Norway in the north and Russia in the east, while Estonia lies to its south across the Gulf of Finland.Around 5.4 million people reside...

, especially where roads are not sanded or salted.

It is also an excellent means of travelling over frozen lakes to go ice fishing or just to explore the lake. Kicksledding on lake ice shares many of the same features as tour skating

Tour skating

Tour skating is a sport and recreational form oflong distance ice skating on natural ice.The Nordic style of tour skating is popular in the Nordic countries,especially Sweden, but increasingly in...

.

Some models also include a wheel kit allowing to transform the sled to a kind of walking aid for summer use. This type is especially popular amongst the elderly.

History

The first definite record of a kicksled was in a newspaper in northern Sweden around 1870. The kicksleds of that era had stiff wooden runners and were heavy. In 1900 the design of the modern kicksled with flexible metal runners was introduced by the Swedish factory Orsasparken which quickly became standard in Finland, Sweden and Norway.

Racing

In the years 1890 to 1910 kicksled racing was a popular sport, especially in Sweden. Kicksled racing was a major event in the
Nordic Games

Nordic Games

The Nordic Games was the first international multi-sport event that focused primarily on winter sports, and was held at varying intervals between 1901 and 1926. It was organized by Sweden’s Central Association for the Promotion of Sports, and more specifically by Viktor Balck, a member of that...

, which were the ancestor of the Winter Olympics.

Around 1990 kicksled racing was revived as a serious sport in Finland. There are races of up to 100 kilometres (62.1 mi) long and the average speed is around 30 kilometre per hour. Often the kicksled races are held in conjunction with marathon speed skating

Speed skating

Speed skating, or speedskating is a competitive form of ice skating in which the competitors race each other in traveling a certain distance on skates. Types of speed skating are long track speed skating, short track speed skating, and marathon speed skating...

 races on natural ice; the kicksleds use the same ice track as the skaters.

A light-weight racing kicksled model is mass-produced by the Finnish kicksled company ESLA. Another racing and sport purposed aluminium-alloy based ultralight kicksled - the Kickspark is produced by Kickbike Worldwide in Finland.

In Canada, the kick sled has been modified for dog sports. A bridle is attached to the kick sled, and a gangline to that, with one to three dogs pulling. This small sled is useful for the urban dog owner, as it is lighter and easier to transport than a full scale dog sled. Kick sled races are now being held, with teams racing at times comparable to skijorers.

Norways's Geilo Ski Resort boasts an annual Kicksled World Championship every January.

Further reading

• Sparkstöttingar by Göran Rosander; Stockholm; Nordiska Museet; 1995; ISBN 91-7108-385-5

External links

• GoSlide - North American Distributor of Finnish Kicksled
• Article on the Kicksled
• Kicksled videos
• Article on the Kicksled,Stowe Today
• Mountain Boy Sleds - US Maker of Kicksleds
• Article on the Kicksled
• Finnish producer of sporting kicksleds
• Kicksled Handbook from Finland (1200 kB
  Kilobyte
  The kilobyte is a multiple of the unit byte for digital information. Although the prefix kilo- means 1000, the term kilobyte and symbol KB have historically been used to refer to either 1024 bytes or 1000 bytes, dependent upon context, in the fields of computer science and information...
  
  )
• Kicksled World Championships
• Spark or Kicksled (23 kB)
• Estonian distributor of nordic kicksleds
• Historical References in Swedish or Norwegian:
  • Kicksled racing in 1890 Sweden
  • Museum in Sweden with earliest known article about kicksled
  • The kicksled page of Nansen Produkter AS
  • Museum in Tynset Norway with kicksled history