I was told recently by a friend that I wasn’t planning to go sledding, I was planning to go tobogganing. Being corrected in front of my kid aside, my friend was, as I soon discovered, correct. I was not planning on going sledding, I was in fact planning on going tobogganing. While tobogganing and sledding are both tried and true ways of enjoying the snow and generally moving downhill at a quick pace, they are different in more ways than one might think. What is the difference and how did either start? While the basic concept of both –moving in a semi-controlled manner down a hill on the snow– has spawned modern sports such as bobsledding and the Luge, it is the sled, rather than the toboggan, that has captured our imagination, and not a lot of people realize the difference.

Toboggans are much older than sleds and are probably the simplest form of what we all now call sledding. A toboggan is very simple and the basic design has not changed… ever. Toboggans are extremely recognizable, like a contour bottle of coke; everyone knows it at a glance. Curved in front, toboggans are traditionally made of bound, parallel wood slats which are bent at the front to form the trademark ‘J’ shape. The toboggan is placed directly onto the snow without the use of runners or skis to gain speed or control direction. A curiosity of the toboggan is that it is just as capable carrying a group of riders as it is a single rider, a nice left-over of an older time when toboggans where basically trailers used for moving lots of junk. If an individual toboggan offers any means of steering, it is usually crude, like a piece of rope fixed to the top of the "J."

The most traditional form of toboggans we know today were used for transport by the Innu and Cree Indians of northern Canada. Adding skies to the bottom and a much more aerodynamic body, the toboggan has grown up to become the Olympic sport of bobsledding. Much heavier than their more rudimentary counterparts, bobsleds are capable of reaching neck-breaking speeds as they slide down carefully designed icy channels.

Sledding seems to be a much more common concept these days, as demonstrated by tobogganing’s above mentioned height of evolution (turning into bobsledding). A sled is similar to a toboggan but it makes use of skis on the bottom in order to enable better control. Sledding first gave rise in Switzerland in the small resort town of St. Moritz when English tourists in the early 1870s became amused by the act of sliding on contraptions down snowy hills. Tourism was in its infancy, and travelers were hard pressed to find things to do or easy ways to learn new towns or cities in order to best experience the cultural offerings before heading back home. This increasingly popular destination for English vacationers happened to use simplistic delivery sleds, piloted by young boys, and used for odd jobs. The tourists, searching for things to do, quickly discovered that these sleds provided an excellent form of entertainment when sat on and pushed down a hill. Basically toboggans, they offered very little in the way of steering. Once popularized, it wasn’t long before folks were devising ways of improving the steering capabilities of their sleds. The meticulous Swiss craftsmen had their way with the sleds, and soon thrill seekers were able to successfully navigate the upgraded sleds through narrow lanes and down streets.

The next logical step, as with anything, is racing each other. It wasn’t long before the sport of competitive sledding was born. The concepts and technologies of tobogganing and sledding were combined; interwoven to create the sport phenomena known as bobsledding. Later Luge and Skeleton were developed, and what the future holds for toboggan/sled inspired sporting genres, none of us with our 20th century educations can possibly imagine.

Today hardly any of us know the difference between tobogganing and sledding. From Rosebud to Santa’s Sleigh, the sled, with its superior steering, typically faster speeds, and quicker acceleration, has eclipsed the toboggan in the imagination of boys and girls alike. However, there is a simplicity to the toboggan that I find appealing. While the game that created baseball no longer exists, the weapons that allowed war to evolve into more and more complicated strategical maneuverings are no longer used, and the glass milk bottle has gone the way of the dodo- the toboggan still lives. A testament to its genius of design and simplicity. And thank God, too… I don’t know that I care to go all that fast down a hill at my ever-increasing age. Also, thanks to my deductible, my kid doesn’t need to go that fast either.

There are lots of great places to take your kids sledding in the area. Give it a shot. I suggest you throw snowballs at your children as they race to the bottom. Then blame it on other people.