Building a good sledge

Coming from Europe to Canada I was really surprised that the shops have only those bath tub like plastic sledges. They work somehow in the snow but they are sliding in all directions and the friction is quite high as the entire bottom plane is in contact with the snow.

The sledges that I used as a kid where made from solid wood with two metal plated pieces of curved wood. They stay on the track and are quite fast.

My idea was therefore to make a sledge of similar or better quality as the traditional wooden sledges.

It is difficult to find suitable curved wood. I decided therefore to buy two small children ski (110cm long) and use them.

On top of it I build a seat. It's made from pine wood and my goal was to make it light and strong.

Here a few photos of the sledge for your inspiration.
ski wood sledge

The seat is made from small wooden beams. The ones on the sides are shorter to provide space for a person to put the feet onto the front of the ski. I used screws with a flat cone shaped head to screw the ski from the bottom to the little wood blocks.

The result? Really excellent! It is the best sledge I ever had. On the hill where we go sledging it goes twice as far as any other sledge.