What the Heck is a Nordie?
How Nordic skiing is a culture of its own
Nordic skiing. Depending on what part of the world you’re from this may be a familiar term or a completely foreign concept. Those from the Northern United States, Canada, and Europe may know exactly what this is, while some others may have at least heard the term a handful of times. Others from warmer climates may be thinking that I’m a total nut job at this point. I’ll break it Nordic skiing down in the way that I have found to be the easiest over the years:
Nordic skiing is like alpine skiing, but instead of just going downhill, Nordic skiers go uphill as well.
I was always confused why when people asked what I do for fun, half of the time I got a weird look from them and then they asked me, “What’s that?” Having skied for around 11 years and racing for 9 of those years it was an odd thought that people didn't even know the sport that I spent years of my life training for. On top of that I am from Northern Maine, here Nordic skiing is everywhere. Every town has a ski team and trails to practice on, plus two of the towns have world class ski centers that have been used for a World Cup and for Junior Worlds as well. One of which isn't even 20 minutes away from my house.
To go a little more in depth with explanations, Nordic skiing has two forms of technique: Freestyle (skate) or classical skiing. Each technique can be individually broken up into three other techniques as well. There are six main techniques in total and each is used in different types of terrain, weather, and snow condition. There are various types of skis for different types of temperatures and snow conditions. These have various flexes and grinds (textures) which serve for different purposes. The ski sizes also play a part with consideration of the skier’s weight but also the snow conditions as well.
On top of this both sorts of skis require a special kind of wax based on, as I feel like you can guess at this point, the temperature and condition of the snow. To add onto that even more, classical skiing requires another wax on top (metaphorically) of the other one. I’m not going to go any more in depth than that because I could be at this for quite some time. It is quite a long winded subject since there really is a whole other science behind all of these concepts.
The whole concept that a majority of people not knowing what Nordic skiing is, is something that I have learned over the years. The first time that it dawned on me that Nordic skiing was a fairly alien concept to a decent amount of people is when one time I was training in Wyoming the ski club I was associated with at the time (Maine Winter Sports Center), and a family that happened to be driving on the road we were rollerskiing on started to match our speed and take pictures of us. They then proceeded to ask us if we could stop and if they could get pictures with us.
It was the strangest request I had ever received, but the more I thought about it the more I realized that it was actually us skiing on the road which probably was the stranger of the two things. It’s not everyday that someone would normally see someone skiing on the road in an area that doesn't have a large amount of Nordic skiing. That just happens to be another one of the unique things about Nordic skiing. Most professional sports have their year long training and that just happens to be one of its. My parents even one time asked me why during the summer I always seem to be walking out of the house with different equipment almost every day. One day I’d walk out with one set of roller-skis and the next I’d be walking out with a mountain bike. I had to explain to them that with Nordic skiing it is necessary on the off season to to cross train, or to do other endurance sports instead of just rollerskiing. I realized that it would seem strange that I would be doing other sports for training as well instead of just doing the one thing that is directly connected to the main sport.
It honestly feels like Nordic skiing is a separate world in and of itself. It is not considered a “mainstream” sport in the United States in the slightest. It is not one of those sports where you can fake knowing how things work and get by. It is quite obvious to a Nordie (Nordic Skier) that you are in fact a pleb (person lacking experience before) who is just trying to impress them. Linguist James Paul Gee points out in this piece “Literacy, Discourse, and Linguistics” that these people lack the correct “language” of skiing. It can be said that “a person could be able to use a language perfectly and still not make sense” (Gee 5). This is exactly what those kind of people do. They say that they are a “skier” but it is quite obvious that yes, they ski, but no, they are not a “skier.” Looking around on the internet I stumbled upon an Q and A of someone trying to but Nordic skiing in terms that a normal person would understand. This is on of the questions and answers in the piece:
Q. Colder the better, right?
A. Cross-country skiers have a colorful relationship with winter weather, all of which we relish to one degree or another. Cold is good, but there’s a definite comfort zone. Beyond green is mean. Blue spells “Yahoo!” (source)
This is an example of what I just talked about but in the opposite manner. Though I do not know if the responder of the article is a racer or just a long time Nordie, his response would make no sense to the questioner because they are not in the Nordic knowledge of things. Such as waxes have different colors depending on the temperatures which also mean they have different consistencies. In this case green is for single digits and lower temperatures and is very annoying to try put on and get off of the ski. This also means the skiing that day will be very slow because of the snow consistency when it drops to lower temperatures. Although it isn't known what kind of Nordic skier this man is, it can be made certain that he is fairly knowledgeable about Nordic skiing. Yes, even from that little statement and the rest of his article as well.
