Ski poles

Ski poles as a device for skiing appeared recently - not earlier than the nineteenth century. Previously, skiers used one stick, and this at a time when skiing was not a sport, but had a purely utilitarian value, it was enough. The stick used by skiers served as a support when walking, as a brake on the slopes and as a weapon - just like that, just in case. You never know what kind of person or animal you will meet in the winter forest.

And only when people decided to compete, who will run the distance faster along the previously laid ski track, did pair ski poles appear. As the varieties of skiing appeared and developed, sticks changed, improved, and adapted to different ways of moving.

Back in the mid-twentieth century, ski poles were mostly wooden and made of light and durable bamboo stems. Throughout the twentieth century, they improved. First, steel came to replace the bamboo, then they were replaced by sticks made of small diameter duralumin tubes. Ski poles for moving along the plain and for slalom “dispersed” around the fifties of the last century. Since then, their improvement continues. Following duralumin, it was the turn of titanium sticks, and in the eighties and nineties of the last century, the first samples of graphite sticks and sticks made of modern light and durable plastic appeared. Often they are made from composite materials.

Ski poles designed for slalom and downhill from the mountain are slightly curved to improve the aerodynamic performance of the athlete on the downhill and to exclude the possibility of ringing on the goalposts. To descend the slopes of different steepness, the sticks are made telescopic, with varying lengths.

For skiing on the plain, sticks should be chosen as follows: standing on a flat surface, put the sticks nearby. The handle should be at shoulder level, not higher. Particularly "advanced" use a different method. The stick must be turned "upside down" and hold the ring with your hand. In this case, the angle between the shoulder and forearm should be ninety degrees. The main thing here is not to confuse which part of the body is considered the shoulder and which part is the forearm. For those who have doubts, it’s better to look into the school textbook of anatomy.

Many well-known companies in different countries are engaged in the production of this part of ski equipment. Exel ski poles are considered the most popular and famous in the world. The sticks of this manufacturer worked well back in the seventies of the last century, when many leading athletes,

speaking at various competitions of the highest level, they won many medals of various denominations. Exel produces the widest range of products for all types of skiing.

Among Russian manufacturers, one can distinguish the company STC (Sports technology center) - Sports Technology Center. STC ski poles, not inferior to the world's leading manufacturers in quality, win in price. The cost of STC products of similar quality is about twenty-five to thirty percent less than imported. The Russian company STC was established in 1992 and over its twenty-year history managed to build a reputation for itself as a manufacturer of high-quality sports equipment.