"They're making twin-tipped Nordic skis now," he said. "This will allow them to do whatever they want."
Just click on YouTube and you'll see US Ski Team member Andy Newell from Shaftsbury, Vt., on his free-heel cross-country skis doing a backflip over a car or skiing in a halfpipe.
Terrain parks and backflips are far from the norm. Cross-country skiing is still about going over the river and through the woods on free-heel skis, but across New England there are some twists on the trails as centers hope to hook young skiers on Nordic skiing before they leave for snowboarding or Alpine skiing. They are also holding more spectator-friendly competitions to both entice and educate the masses.
"There's no question that the teenage years are the challenge for the cross-country industry," said Chris Frado, president of the Cross-Country Ski Areas Association in Winchester, N.H. "We think of it as peer pressure and the appeal of speed. Cross-country doesn't have the flash for kids."
The average cross-country skier is between 35 and 54 years old, according to a 2007 study by the National Sporting Goods Association. They're about evenly split by gender.
The study also showed that kids between 12 and 17 make up only 3.4 percent of the Nordic skiing community.
Several years ago, The Sunday River Inn and Cross Country Ski Center in Newry, Maine, installed plywood rainbows for kids to ski through. General manager Susan Isham said the area now has a snow tunnel to ski through and over, and a snow bowl that acts as a quarter-pipe.
"When the parents are out sitting on the deck, the kids are still skiing," said Isham. "The kids will go out and build their own jumps and do helicopters on cross-country skis."
Other introductory programs are a bit more grounded. The nationwide Winter Trails Day is scheduled for Jan. 10, where first-timers can learn to cross-country ski or snowshoe either for free or at discounted rates. More than 20 cross-country ski centers (found at www.wintertrails.org, reservations required) across New England are participating, including Weston Ski Track, New Hampshire's Great Glen Trails, and Vermont's Smugglers' Notch.
