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What Your Maine Sled Choice Says About You

You can tell a lot about a Mainer by how she chooses to get down a snow-covered hill.

What Your Maine Sled Choice Says About You
Photographed by Erin Little, styled by Janice Dunwood.
By Brian Kevin
From our March 2016 issue

Say what you will about sledding, it’s easily the most egalitarian of winter sports: It rewards moxie, not skill. It accommodates both pillows of pure powder and inches of late-season crust. And no matter where you live, chances are you can find a pretty savage sledding hill within 20 minutes of home. Maine’s sled-making heritage runs deep, so we in the Pine Tree State have long had our pick of our favorite downhill winter conveyance. What’s yours?

Runner Sled

Your ride: The steerable, birch-wood-and-steel-rail Flexible Flyer, manufactured (albeit in China) and sold by Paricon, Maine’s 155-year-old, five-generation, family-owned sled-making company.

What it says: You’re a meticulous nostalgic who likes being in control. You’ll decide your own route down the hill, thanks very much, and do it with old-school panache. Darned kids today hardly know what real sledding is anymore.

Signature moves: Graceful S-curves on the slopes; hours of meticulous oiling and sharpening in the garage.

Toboggan

Your ride: Big spenders: Handmade native-ash 10-footer from the artisans at Camden Toboggan Company. Craigslist shoppers: Vintage, careworn 4-footer from L.L.Bean (pictured).

What it says: You’re all about craftsmanship and appreciate the finer things in life. Either that or you’re one of the staggering, hell-on-slats party animals who show up each year at Camden’s National Toboggan Championships.

Signature moves: Piling on one more rider than is probably wise; arriving at the bottom in a tangle of arms and legs.

Molded Plastic

Your ride: Paricon’s Flying Saucer or 4-foot Winter Lightning.

What it says: Wheeeeee! You have a need for speed and nobody to impress! Life is short and possessions are disposable and you might as well have fun!

Signature move: Chasing your sled out into the parking lot after making an emergency ejection for lack of any better way to stop.

Inner Tube

Your ride: Heavy-duty LT245 tire tube from auto parts store.

What it says: Function over fashion, my friend. You’re a simple person with simple pleasures. And one of those pleasures is lounging in cushiony comfort the whole way down the hill.

Signature move: Making it all the way to the bottom without spilling your beer.

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