Sunday, January 10, 2010

5 DIY Sleds

The recent worldwide winter snows have created a crisis of epic proportion in Germany.

Worse than the hole in the ozone layer (or is it passé to worry about that any more?)

Worse than hording Eggos during the current frozen waffle shortage (You realize you can make your own waffles and freeze them for later don’t you? Or is that something going on with waffles that taste worse than the cardboard package that I don’t know about?)

Europe is running out of sleds!

Yes, as in slide down the hill and go “whee!” type of sleds.

Photobucket
Who needs a sled you have feet?



Is a former kid I have a lot of experience and opinions on sleds. The trusty Flexible Flyer, the saucer, both good but neither could compare to the toboggan my mom bought at a yard sale. It was broken in just right and extra zippy but not too much so my friends and I didn’t wipe out in the middle of our ride.

Good times.

The sledding hills in my little hometown town were good, but could not compare to the big you’re-not-supposed-to-sled-here-but-we-did-anyway hill on my college campus. Nice and steep and only steps from the front door of the dorm.

Being college students we had to get a little more creative when it came to acquiring a sled for some illicit sledding. We did it DIY style,
liberating uh, I mean borrowing and returning items we found on campus.


Our DIY sleds included:

  • Plastic shower curtain liners – Yes many plastic show curtains and liners contain vinyl or PVC but since there are so many layers of clothing between you and the shower curtain you should be OK. Unless you fall off and break something during your sled ride. 
  • Cafeteria trays – Personally I like the zippiness of the smooth bottomed fiberglass trays but the smooth bottomed plastic ones work too.
  • Plastic trash bags - Always a classic.
  • Plastic storage tub lids – make sure it’s flat on the bottom. 
  • Cardboard – I haven’t tried it but they hold cardboard sled derbies so how bad can it be?



OK, pretty bad as far as functional sleds go but they get extra points for style and recyclablity! (I don’t think that recyclablity is a real word. Is it? )

Help out our European friends and tell us - what is your favorite type of sled? Have any DIY options?

6 comments:

Erika Jean said...

on year, in our dorms some students decided to take the mattresses to the local hill (since they were practically plastic) lol

Kristin - The Goat said...

I was never small enough to be able to sled on tray lol When I was growing up our neighbor had the best hill ever. We would have a bon fire at the top of the hill and there were just enough trees at the bottom of the hill to make it dangerous. If you had a zippy enough sled you might even be able to make it to the swampy area...if you were really lucky, the swamp wouldn't be frozen solid and you could fall through enough to get soaked. If it was nighttime and we had the fire, you could dry out, otherwise it was back home for a change of clothes. Ahhh, the joys of sledding.

Robj98168 said...

My favorite tyoe of sled is the saucer type I had as a kid. LOL I think it ended up as a cacti garden or something else my mom made. My other favorite is the sled I inherited from my Step-Grandpa- homemade classic sled that he made for my dad, when I was a baby, my dad installed a box on it so my mom could put me in it and take me to the store. I still have images of me getting covered in snow while she walked the 4 blocks to the town store!

downtown san diego condos said...

great blog! Thanks so much for the post!

Susie - secondhandsusie.blogspot.com said...

We 'borrowed' trays from the canteen at my uni for sleighing purposes when I was at uni - wheeeeeee!

Anonymous said...

team bog sled

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