Club Fleet Testimonials:

"Waterloo Region Nordic considers that our inventory of rental ski equipment is a very important part of why we have been able to sustain and grow a youth ski program, despite challenging ski conditions. We are, after all, in Southern Ontario, and snow is something that we cannot take for granted. Our membership of our youth section has grown from 51 in 2013-2014 to 129 in 2020-2021. The club has recruited numerous new skiers, mainly by word-of-mouth advertising. Many of these skiers come from non-skiing families. The attraction to families of renting, rather than buying, equipment at least until the children are committed to cross country skiing is obvious. The club, on the other hand, receives rental fees, lesson fees and membership fees from any youth skiers who rent equipment. The purchase of a fleet of rental equipment obviously requires an investment on the part of a club, but the investment can be repaid with ongoing rental fees. In other words, buying rental equipment definitely requires capital investment, but it can foster club growth (and even profitability), especially if the equipment supports learn-to-ski activities."

Ken Campbell, Board Director, Waterloo Region Nordic Sports Club

~~~

Lappe Nordic Ski Club: "The program continues to evolve but is a service that has a growing interest and uptake by our members. We offer rental skis equipment to Club Program members to have and use for the whole season, with pick up dates at our Open House/Ski Swap and first few sessions of the season and drop off on the last days of sessions and the last event of the year in April. The program does already bring in some financial profit for the club with less demand on coordinators and volunteers than the ski at school program. There is large interest in the program from Jackrabbit aged children, especially the youngest groups. We also have a lot of interest from Adult learn to ski and recreational technique groups. We don't offer daily or short term rentals as we only have a volunteer available on Saturdays from 11-11:30 (after training team, before jackrabbits) and 1-1:30 (after jackrabbits and before adult learn to ski and rec technique). We were fortunate to already have a club trailer for storage of which half is used for waxing. 1/4 of the trailer is blocked off and heated in order to dry the boots in that room. We get anecdotal feedback that the rental system is great, and a good deal, and are so happy to access it. We are in our second year of running it and next year we will be identifying what gaps or shortages there are in our inventory and look to purchase new or used equipment to fill those gaps. Purchasing this much equipment (approx 100 sets total for all ages/sizes) at once would likely not be feasible. We were able to amalgamate our jackrabbit donated equipment, some of which is 20+ years old, and also our ski at school equipment. The volunteer work hours come in when at the end of the year (April/May) tracking down families who have not yet returned, cleaning and waxing all the skis, re-inventorying and organizing the equipment. A coordinator position is needed to keep good track of what equipment goes to who, payments, and assisting with equipment selection."

Here is the link to the programs we offer: https://www.lappenordic.ca/club-info/seasonal-ski-equipment-rentals/

Rena Viehbeck, Program Manager, Lappe Nordic Ski Club