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Comment by rail2rail | Hacker News Reader

I'm having trouble thinking of something more Canadian than skating to work.

Well, when I lived in Calgary my software developer roommate/friend and I canoed down the river to work. Felt pretty Canadian after that. Only worked one way though, paddling upstream through the deluge of meltwater proved impossible. We were also outstripped by people biking along the riverbank (our usual mode of commute) so only did it once.

The Finnish variant is a Stiga Jet: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IdiPmYSTwlU

(The video starts pretty slowly, and doesn't provide much info about how that was built, but it looks fun. There are also plenty of more scaled-up projects, basically looking like combining a ski-doo with a V-1 rocket).

(I actually used a kicksled in the winters to go to school, until I got a moped.)

In some parts of Norway they only clear snow from half of the sidewalk so you can use kicksled on the other half.

That is nice. Particularly when my kids were small, I would have liked to take them to the daycare in a toboggan, but the pavements were always ruined with grit.

What is a kicksled??? I want one already!

[update] wow...found one, the kickspark! Awesome. http://www.goslide.ca/en/shop/kickspark.php

That's the modern sports variant. The traditional one is better suited for transporting stuff and one or even two passengers as well: http://www.esla.fi/fin/potkukelkka.html

In good conditions this can be amazingly fast, and two people can alternate so that one pushes the sled and the other one rests on the seat.

Sorry, I can't help you with that.

:->

I was half expecting a downvote on that from someone who didn't get the joke, but I'm still a little disappointed....

(Hint: What's more Canadian than skating to work? Apologizing for shit. It's what we're known for. Well, that, hockey, curling, Tim's, Don Cherry, and most of the best comedians on US TV and movies over the last 30 years. Sorry 'bout that.)

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