Sharing communities in Europe make winter sports accessible to everyone
Winter sports are among the least accessible sporting activities.
To practice alpine skiing, participants must purchase a ski jacket and pants, ski goggles, helmet, poles, skis, boots, gloves and ski socks. Since the slopes are generally far from urban areas, many skiers have to pay for transport and accommodation. They must also pay a ski pass to use the slopes and lifts.
Then there is the payment of a teacher or a ski school. There are similar expenses for snowboarding, cross-country skiing, ski jumping and biathlon racing. These barriers make winter sports inaccessible for many people, but initiatives in Europe show that sharing can change that.
ski club Ogulin started in a small Croatian mountain town when the nearby ski resort burned down. Since local residents had no place to train or teach children to ski, they created their own makeshift slope. The effort was supposed to last a year or two, but 11 years later they have a functioning ski resort with ski and sledding areas and snow cannons.
“We didn’t have a big plan, we just started small. When we saw how happy the children are, we couldn’t stop. It gave us the desire to continue. Everyone was saying you’re not going to last but we keep going,” said Ski Club President Darko Vučić.
What makes the Ski Club location unique is that the facility is open to everyone and completely free. Even tea to warm up after skiing is free. The ski slopes are open in the afternoons and evenings on weekdays and all day on weekends. This is possible thanks to many volunteers. For each weekend, they need 40 volunteers who all work two-hour shifts.
“We decided from the start that everything would be free. In our city, children have almost no opportunity to play sports in winter and we wanted it for them. People heard about us and started coming from all parts of the country. They can’t believe everything is free,” Vučić said.
Even if it is mainly the enthusiasm that animates the place, it is expensive to make artificial snow which has become a necessity in the age of climate change.
“People leave donations if they want and we literally buy tea for the next day. We also get donations from companies,” Vučić said.
The club is trying to get financing for a new snow cannon, which costs over $10,000.
Even though children and adults in Ogulin don’t have to pay for ski passes, there’s still the problem of expensive equipment that kids usually outgrow within a year or two. This is why the club has set up its own sharing system. Parents swap kids’ clothes and gear as they grow. The club also accepts equipment donations from people who do not need it and distributes it to those who need it.
In Norway, unlike Croatia, winter sports are traditional activities that people are expected to participate in. Schools usually organize ski days and if children do not have the proper equipment they cannot participate and may feel left out.
This problem is addressed by 170 different equipment loan programs across the country. They are all part of OBU network, a social franchise system that works like a library. These facilities lend all kinds of sports equipment for free, from snowboards to tents to bikes, but winter sports equipment is particularly popular.
“It is very important that children are able to participate on an equal footing with their peers and experience mastery and belonging early in life. Immigrant families in particular do not have the culture of buying sports equipment every year for their children as they grow up. This tradition creates social differences and then we have to do something,” said Monica Vogt, CEO of BUA.
Many different organizations operate lending sites, including municipalities, voluntary organizations, libraries, and sports clubs. Libraries of equipment are created with various objectives, ranging from increasing physical activity and stimulating healthy lifestyles to creating equal opportunities and combating overconsumption.
We want to show that you don’t have to own everything. — Monica Vogt, CEO of BUA
In some cases, lending sites also function as a job training opportunity and provide work experience for young people. The biggest challenge for the network is to secure the necessary funds to allow good opening hours of the service.
“Borrowing has become very popular and it is demanding to run a loan business with few resources. In some places you depend on volunteers and it is difficult to get enough volunteers. Opening hours are therefore a major limitation and there are often long queues of people wanting to borrow equipment, especially in winter,” Vogt said.
You must be a Norwegian resident with a Norwegian mobile phone number to borrow equipment purchased new and maintained in good condition. Skis, helmets, snowboards and other items can be borrowed for seven days.
The BUA network operates a common web page with all loan locations, hours of operation and equipment availability. Some sites also offer online reservations.
“We want to show that you don’t have to own everything. With better opening hours and more equipment to lend… we can bring about major structural changes in people’s consumption habits when it comes to sports equipment. I think we can make a real difference,” Vogt said.