Kick-sleds

Feb 10, 2011

by  Lorraine Julien

About 15 years ago, I purchased a sleigh I’d seen advertised in a cottage magazine. It was an intriguing looking contraption, unlike anything I’d ever seen. In the years since, I’ve used it every winter – if there’s not enough snow, there’s always ice on the lake.

Since this sleigh (kick-sled) is always a conversation piece, I thought it might be an interesting and timely subject for the Outdoors column. 

Though some sleds may be bigger, my adult-size sled has two narrow flexible steel runners about 80” long and about 16” apart. It has wider plastic runners which I leave attached to the steel runners, enabling the sled to move better in snow, but they are easy to take off if you prefer to just use the steel runners. A metal foot rest is attached to each of the runners. There are two uprights made of tubular metal (some may be made of wood) about 40” high. A wooden handlebar is attached to the top of the uprights.

On traditional sleds, there is a small wooden seat in the front which can be used to carry a passenger or even to sit on when putting on skates. I put a plastic grocery box on the seat secured with bungee cords and then I can carry almost anything as long as it’s not much more than 100 kg.

The sled is easily transported on a car roof rack either folded flat or in its upright position.  To flatten the sled, you just have to take off two wing nuts (no pun intended!).

To get the sled going, just place one foot on a footrest and then push or kick off with the other. If you’re going downhill, you can put both feet on the footrests but remember, there are no brakes! You just have to drag your feet to slow down. With some practice, however, it is possible to steer the sled just by twisting the lightweight frame and also by shifting your weight from one foot to the other.

We used to hitch our Siberian Husky, Kodi, to the sled which he loved to pull because of its lightness (he was a lazy husky!). Kodi would tear down the hills and along straightaways as long as we were headed away from home but, as soon as we turned to head back, he would stop and decide it was time to water the trees! 

My sled was made in Norway and imported here by a company which has since gone out of business. Today, though, there are a number of distributors and manufacturers in various parts of Canada and the U.S.

Kick-sleds are called “Sparks” in Sweden and Norway (short for “Sparkstotting” – “spark” means “kick” and “stot” means “push” or “sled”). It is thought that the first kick-sled was invented around 1870 in Sweden. The story goes that a Swedish farmer nailed a chair to a pair of skis and used it for hauling firewood, etc. By the 1890s, kick-sleds had spread to Norway and Finland. The modern steel runnered kick-sled was developed about 1900 and has remained almost unchanged to this day. At first they were built by local village blacksmiths or carpenters and, as their popularity increased, larger factories produced them. Production there reached a peak around 1948 when 135,000 kick-sleds were produced.

Perhaps you may remember scenes from the 1994 Winter Olympics in Lillehammer where locals were seen doing their grocery shopping on the main street with kick-sleds.

Kick-sleds are quite useful and provide lots of fun and great exercise here in lake country.  Since I’m not a very good cross-country skier, I find the kick-sled much safer and more fun. It is so lightweight that it’s easy to pull or push up hills. I live on a road that is covered in packed snow most of the winter so I’m able to use the sled regularly. If the snow is not too deep on the lake, the sled just flies. Once the snow is really deep, it’s better to use snowshoes or cross-country skis.

Recently, I began ice skating again on our own rink, and for the first few times on the ice, I used my sled to ensure I stayed upright. If you’d like to try a kick-sled, I understand that the National Capital Commission in Ottawa/Hull rents them -  they’d be great on the Rideau Canal.

According to a kick-sled website, sprinters over a distance of 100 meters have reached more than 40 km/hr. (achieved with a racing sled and an athlete in top form). On hard lake ice, you could reach a speed of 10 km/hr. with very lazy kicking (probably my speed!), 15 km/hr. is a comfortable pace and 20 km/hr. is a real workout. With a tailwind you can, of course, go faster but when you turn around to go home, you then run into a headwind!

Unlike other winter sports, there is almost no learning curve – you just get on and go. What better way to see our great outdoors!  One man, on the internet, described his kick-sled as his winter canoe!

Please feel free to report any observations to Lorraine Julien at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.  or Steve Blight at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.