| The Mad River Rocket is perhaps the first sled that you can actually steer and stop. It took a nationally known architect to combine the complexity of control with the simplicity of old-fashioned fun.
“During the energy crisis of the 1970’s, I was looking for alternatives to downhill skiing with its parking lots, chairlifts and snowmaking,” says David Sellers of Warren. “I got interested in hockey, skating and sledding. Traditional sledding is really dangerous. I wanted something that didn’t require a manicured hill, was lightweight, maneuverable and easy to learn.”
He spent five years tackling the problem. He took apart toboggans, studied the vacuum molding process used by the nearby Mad River Canoe Company and borrowed the idea of a negative keel from the bottom of a Boston Whaler. The result: a seven pound, vacuum-molded, brightly colored, polyurethane whiz kid sled with grooves on the bottom and built in knee strap and cushions.
You kneel on the sled, strap yourself in and take off. Wooded slopes? No problem. “It’s more fun in the woods—just any plain old Vermont hill will do,” says Sellers. Your arms steer and brake as you lean to and fro. You sail through winter. After a run or two, you’ll be building banks for jumping and performing “helicopters”—360-degree spins—and ”tables”—a mid-air wobble perfected by snowboarders. Sellers’ son, friends and neighborhood kids have held Mad River Rocket Regattas—with casual competitions for distance, jumps, tricks, slaloms and even a sledders’ chess game.
The Mad River Rocket is available by mail ... It can also be ordered off their web site www.madriverrocket.com. The Rocket is also available at various sports shops.
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