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Each time, era, and place has it its own rituals for becoming a man. In my little village, the tradition started in the early 60’s when a few youngsters challenged each other to jump the biggest cliff around with their parents Skidoo’s, Evinrude’s,  and Polaris’s. Every year it all took place when the first snow arrived on the 30th of October. The boys, not yet men, gathered together in the full moonlight to wait for the village’s elderly man to give the signal. When the moon’s first beams broke through the clouds and the shadows showed them the way, he would wave a clutch belt in the air so that the humming sound called for their attention. He laid a fatherly hand on each of the youngster’s shoulders and offered them a sip of hooch from his pocket flask.  The solemn scene demanded silence, although a few coughs were heard from the young palates that were unaccustomed to the taste of booze, as they all “drank to the end of their youth”. One by one they started their engines and disappeared over the edge and in to the darkness.


As you may understand the custom spread slowly over the country, often slowed down by the frequent and long recoveries among the brave but injured participators. Then in the mid 90’s something happened. Whole crowds of youngsters threw themselves like lemmings over cornice’s all around the country to the tunes of the Offspring and NOFX.


Gone were the old Evinrude’s and down went the mortality rate thanks to new technology like high performance engines, 2 inch tracks and real suspension.

This is not just a tale about the time when men where men and the sleds had chassis of steel. This is a celebration to the technical achievements that made it possible for thousands of less physically equipped boys from the video-game generation to become men in the same honourable way as their ancestors.

PHOTO ÅSA NYSTRÖM

Photo description: Rider Erik Johansson risk his balls for a great photo in Fisksjön, Sweden on his 9 hp Larven 8200. He`s wearing an original Larven outfit with matching Dynastar skis from the 70th´s.

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