I live at the beach. Can I XC Ski on the beach? Anyone ever tried it?
Sure; Bill Koch (Silver Medal in I think the 72 Olympics in Sapporo; 1st for the US in XC) did this a lot - he did it on the beach in what’s roughly the boundary layer between beach and sea - wet sand with a thin layer of water on it from waves.
yikes. in delaware, we have little transition. the waves break on the beach almost everywhere. it goes from deep soft sand to instant shore breaking waves. the “wet’ish sand” is on a sharp angled slope. I wonder if the dry-soft-sand would work?
I’ve not tried this myself under your conditions so understand that this is just some mildly informed speculation on my part. You want to glide over the sand as much as possible instead of pushing it aside, so I think that a really wide pair of light touring skis (i.e., ones without metal edges) would be what I would try. If you don’t already have a pair then some second hand / used sports gear places may have some you can get cheap.
there’s a youtube video of the Northern Michigan University XC ski team training on the beach in Marquette (on the shores of Lake Superior). Those kids are tough!
when i lived in vt we skiied on mud (wet sand)
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Nordic skiing, Brazilian style: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_WUjHLyEckY
Looks like you get great kick. Not so good on the glide. But you might get a free stonegrinding for your bases while you’re at it. I think we might be resorting to it up in Vermont soon, the snow conditions are so bad.