By Lauren Cina
Minnesota winters are anything but mild. When it snows it comes by the boatloads. And this snow doesn’t fall one day and melt the next. Typically, it sticks around, sometimes for weeks. Winters can feel like they drag on in Minnesota so one year my dad had a brilliant idea that changed the course of my life. Well, that’s a bit dramatic but when I was a kid, I thought this to be the case. I didn’t know fun until I had gone down the Cina family luge course.
With the 2022 Winter Olympics underway in Beijing, China, I am reminded of the fun my mom, dad, sister and I used to have on our homemade luge. The four of us and whatever friends or neighbors that joined spent countless hours outside enjoying the snow creation. My dad would create a huge snow pile at the top of our yard and would continue to build out the snow as the yard sloped. Then, he would smooth out the path and extend it all the way down to the pond at the end of our yard. Here are some photos of what our first luge looked like in 2010 and our most recent one in 2018:
In order to make the luge fast, my dad would spray water on the curves. The freezing temperatures helped keep the snow solidified as well as make the water freeze and ensure the surface was slick. My sister and I decided after many trial runs that the purple and green saucers were the best and fastest sleds on the luge.
My dad took many photos of his creation over the years. He even got some action shots as my sister and I were riding down. My favorite thing he captured though was the videos. Another hobby my dad acquired in my youth was editing videos. Below is a link to one of my favorite videos on his YouTube channel. It is of course set to music from the movie Frozen as it was all the rage in 2014 when this was filmed. Fun fact: One of the luge videos on my dad’s YouTube channel is currently sitting at 216,000 views.
The family luge means a lot to me, and the memories made with my family are ones I will never forget. I am hoping to continue this tradition with my kids one day if the weather provides, of course.
Lauren Cina Photography & Writing 