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News - 3/1/11 First London, next Cardiff. Rollerskiing is to find a new home in Wales thanks to the endeavours of Roger Heslop, who will shortly be setting up a new rollerskiing school in the principality.
Roger runs Capital Adventures Wales, which provides mountain biking and canoeing activities, among others, and has been a keen cross-country skier for many years. However, it wasn't until reading about rollerskiing in the paper last February that he even knew of rollerskiing's existence. Not being someone who lets the grass grow under his feet, Roger soon signed up to one of our courses, then another, then became qualified as an instructor under the Snowsport England awards scheme. Before long his son, one of the Wales's leading high school runners, also got the bug, and signed up for the British Nordic Development Squad. Roger has now made the sizeable investment in the rollerskis, boots, poles and padding needed to run a programme of rollerskiing. As I have found it, teaching rollerskiing is not an easy option - there are endless tasks to be done, from pole sharpening to cleaning of kit, drying out boots, dealing with bookings, organising and paying instructors, communicating, marketing, maintenance, etc, etc. But it is worth it when everything comes together. And I doubt it will faze Roger, who has seemingly boundless energy and enthusiasm and an already established team. The sport could really do with more Rogers if it is to grow. In rollerskiing, there has not been the tradition of professionals as there is in tennis, golf or alpine skiing, but we've shown that people do value good instruction and coaching, and keep coming back. Personally I've found that apart from all the good stuff we do in developing skiers, we also act as a catalyst for other activity - bringing people into clubs across the country, introducing them to racing and providing an entry to the BNDS's youth development and Snowsport England's masters' development programmes. We've also been able to recruit a fantastic bunch of instructors, who would otherwise not be involved, and generate publicity for the sport that just wouldn't have happened. Roger is well placed to introduce a new generation of people in Wales and the West of England to rollerskiing, and I am sure the whole community of cross-country skiing in the UK will welcome and support him. I also think Roger has a better chance of getting kids involved, and that would be great to see. If you are an instructor, enthusiast, teacher, potential rollerskier or in any way interested, please get in touch with Roger - details can be found on his website below. We'll watch this space with great interest. |
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