Twice this weekend we hit Cherry Hill (in Lunenburg, behind the ice cream stand of the same name) to go sledding. We had a couple of different sled types, and we witnessed a ton of others, and I feel like I am as qualified as anyone to evaluate which ones worked best.
First of all, I would like to thank the sled companies for coming up with designs that GREATLY improve over the crappy stuff we used to use as kids. Not that some of those items weren’t being used over the weekend, but they clearly were inferior products.
I will use the sleds available at Amazon for my rankings, as that way I can use the graphics guilt-free.
We have a sled very much like this one that Junior tried on Saturday. I’d give it a B-. It did the job, but not as fast as the others. The snow apparently needs to be just right. Plus, it’s heavier than some of the other sleds so the kids get tired of dragging it back up the hill earlier. Always a concern.
I have to give the tubers the edge this weekend with an A. Tubes worked well on both days, especially Sunday when the snow was more packed down. In a race with 2 kids on the next sled, and one kid on a tube, with the sled going down at least 4-5 seconds before the tube, the tube caught up and passed the sledders. And they seemed to go further than anyone else. My best bet is a tube. I watched several of them run over other sleds and keep going. A+
I literally cannot believe they still sell steel sleds. I wouldn’t get this just for the weight. And it seems to me the steel would be an issue for having snow stick to it in certain temps. But I’m not a scientist, so I could be way off base. I’d go with the similarly round foam kind [next].
Whirler
This is the same as the next kind, but only in a round form. I give this an A-, only because I find the round shape limiting (i.e. you can’t use it on your stomach)
First runner up is this style of sled. The one we used, which had two sets of handles so two kids could ride, doesn’t appear on Amazon, but you get the idea. It’s an “EPS foam core board with hi definition graphics, laminated and thermoformed to a high density polyenthylene, and easy to carry easy grip handles.” Lots of different styles out there, and all of them worked REALLY well. Also an A.
