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sagrah541
Shkhara
Status: Gathering Kudos

I’d love if you’d split the sport of Nordic Ski into the sports of Skate Skiing and Classic. They are very different sports and many people do both based on varying conditions. Thanks!

64 Comments
Schowalter
Mt. Kenya

I was thinking about how Strava could easily do this during my last classic ski. Since skate skiing is so much faster, I would just create a new sport for classic skiing and keep Nordic for skate skiing, possibly changing its name too. This way most segments would remain legitimate since they should be owned by skate skiers in all those places that allow skate skiing and classic skiers would have a chance to populate their own. There are only two issue with this: legends and classic only ski areas. For legends, if Strava institutes this change before next season that will be moot. The affect on leaderboards in classic only ski areas would take a little more work, but perhaps could be managed by an intern who figured out what trails are classic only. No matter what, if Strava doesn’t have a xc skier on its staff, it should talk to some trusted xc skiers—I imagine such skiers would support this requested change as obvious and provide Strava with some good additional insight. 

RobertPyle
Mt. Kenya

I agree, split it to skate and classic.

stigja
Shkhara

Yes please! Would also be nice to be able to add skis to equipment.

Andrew1987
Mt. Kenya

Came here from a reddit post. Another user pointed it out it would be nice if they could track which skis they were using like runners do with shoes as well. Help with determining the lifetime of different waxes. 

krolando
Mt. Kenya

The park that I usually ski at has mostly classic-only trails. However, there have apparently been times in the past where there's not enough snow to set tracks for classic, so the park staff have groomed for skate skiing instead. As a result, the top 2 - 3 skiers for virtually every segment are skate skiers, despite the fact that these trails are almost always groomed specifically for classic skiers.

emP77
Mt. Kenya

I highly doubt that anything suggested here will ever happen. Strava is focussed on biking and running, its support for the rest is extremely poor. For instance they don't support proper segments (with the same functionality) for other sports like nordic skiing nor let you have equipment (e.g. skis). The y really should involve anyone who does theses sports to gain insight what could be needed.

Yoln7
Mt. Kenya

Yes please!!

MazamaSmith
Mt. Kenya

Skate and Classic Nordic skiing need to be distinguished in Strava. Skating averages 10 to 15% faster than classic at similar intensity levels. Strava segments for nordic will always be fastest when skating. Without separating these disciplines it makes classic always second class to skating.

Aaron
Mt. Kenya

I completely agree that there should be a way to differentiate between skate skiing and classic skiing in Strava. There's a huge community of cross country skiers who track their activities. As just one example, an annual community cross country ski race in Anchorage tends to draw over 1,000 participants per year. A lot of people around here both skate and classic ski, and there are miles and miles of trails where one could choose to do either type of skiing. The skate and classic ski motions (not to mention speeds) are completely different, and training plans for the two types of skiing are of course also completely different. Without being able to differentiate the two on the app, it becomes very difficult for anyone who does both to easily track their training progress (because segment times, leaderboards, etc. are not differentiated).

Before every Strava update, I always hope that this will be the update where skate and classic skiing are finally split out. It still hasn't happened, which is why I felt strongly enough to come post this comment. I feel like Strava would be an excellent training tool for cross country skiers, but the lack of differentiation may be causing the app to miss out on a big pool of what could be active Strava users.

Aaron
Mt. Kenya

I completely agree! A lot of people both skate and classic ski, and there are many trails where one could choose to do either type of skiing. The skate and classic ski motions (not to mention speeds) are completely different, which means that training plans for the two types of skiing are also completely different. Without being able to differentiate the two on Strava, it becomes very difficult for anyone who does both to easily track their training (because segment times, leaderboards, etc. are not differentiated).

Before every Strava update, I always hope that this will be the update where skate and classic skiing are finally split out. It still hasn't happened, which is why I felt strongly enough to come post this comment. I feel like the lack of differentiation may be causing the app to miss out on a huge pool of what could be active Strava cross country skiers.

tuesdaythefifth
Mt. Kenya

I’ve been asking for this for about 10years now.

basically there needs to be a way to differentiate skate and classic without having to create the segments over again.

Each leaderboard then should be able to filter by skate(free) and classic.

Existing activities and become free technique. New default is free technique. User should be able to change it if they only classic. That’s the best way to do it. Not a separate activity type but a technique therein. Kind of like how running and cycling have commute vs race, etc. this way I can still see what my cross country ski totals are without having to do math.

It’s an absolute no brainer but apparently nobody over there gives a crap.

If some day (10y from now) they do find that they care about their paying customers after all, they can also make it possible to search for cross country ski segments, add a season total report that starts on Nordic new year (may 1), add ability to choose what skis and wax was used, kind of like there is a way to choose running shoes.

CreakyCrank
Kilimanjaro

On the one hand, I completely agree that these are two separate activity types (the way that activities in Strava works today - like road biking vs. mountain biking), but please look at this idea, as it could accomplish this without adding more activities (and leave thoughts and comments on the idea).

dex8425
Mt. Kenya

Have been requesting this for years. There are also separate "classic only" trails for most ski areas. Polar, garmin and suunto all differentiate between classic and skate.

Maxim_G
Mt. Kenya

Absolutly agree!!

alexsc01
Mt. Kenya

Yes I agree. Skate skiers go a lot faster and longer so strange to have two types of sports competing in same segments. It's pointless to try to compare your times to other skiers no idea are they skating or doing classic.