Klunen: my new favourite skating word

It's March. It's still cold and snowy. It has been an amazing winter for skating, but I am ready for spring.

I'm planning to be back at Greenwood Park this Sunday afternoon, for what I think will be the last Great Skate of the season.

Meanwhile, here are some things I have discovered during my Great Skate Project:

The Greatest Skating Race
My friend Skye recommended this lovely story by Louise Borden to me. It's about a young boy in the Netherlands named Piet. He dreams of skating in the Elfstedentocht, a legendary 200km skating event that's held whenever the winter is cold enough. But it's 1941, and Piet faces a different challenge: to help two of his schoolfriends escape across the border to Brugges by skating along the canals.


"Klunen"
The Greatest Skating Race includes vocabulary notes, and this is one of the new words I learned. "Klunen" is a Flemish word meaning "to walk on land on skates." You might say that "klunen" is to the Dutch what "portage" is to Canadians.

(Just for fun, do a Google image search on "klunen" and then do one on "portage". There are some remarkable parallels in the photos that show up.)


Skate to Great
Charitable organization Skate to Great wants every kid in Canada to have the opportunity to skate. Drop off your gently used skates, helmets and hockey equipment at one of their hundreds of collection stations, and Skate to Great will pass them along to kids who will enjoy them. What a great idea.


Skating Rink song by David Francey
I love the way you can hear the sound of the skate blades on the ice in the music video.


Comments

Unknown said…
Love your social justice connection to share skating with others. The music video is so Canadian and will certainly connect with my canoeing hubby. And your exploration of "Klunen" is beautiful.
Thanks Leigh for your skating exploration that takes me on the ice in my imagination. Abigail
March 7, 2014 at 2:54 AM
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