At six foot four, Bend Oregon’s Barry Wick remains a person you want to draft behind. The former World Championship mountain biker and cyclocross rider still carries many in town on his wings. There’s the fact of the matter tallness, and yes drafting behind him does feel like you’ve got just a little more lift. He’s also the brains behind bike manufacturer Kona’s endurance cycling team, he’s the endurance team manager, and the owner and artist behind Hella Sweet Ink, maker and curator of funky customized gloves and sneakers. This much is true: His vibe will give you a little lift too.
Long gravel grinds, up and down trail runs, skate skis at the Mt. Bachelor Nordic Center and big vert ski-mountaineering jaunts are how Wicks now finds balance as a former pro athlete who still feels best when lighting out. Bottom line, he’s got an uncanny harmonic resonance, and sometimes an eclectic buzz. As any person who’s been around an elite endurance athlete without their daily aerobic fix, the buzz can be seismic.
In the months, which are plenty here in Bend, when the biking is unprime and hours too short for a mighty ski tour, Wick can be found sublimely skating Bend’s nordic trails. Wick’s father ski patrolled Mount Hood. His younger days spent tagging along on the volcano’s slopes feeling free. He rode lifts, poked around a bit on touring skis, but never gravitated to cross-country skiing until later.
“Skiing in the bigger mountains is a large part of what I look forward to every year –it’s just from that experience of growing up on the snow and having a love for the mountains and being outdoors,” said Wicks. “I just started Nordic skiing simply as a way to stay fit. But when I moved to Bend, having Mount Bachelor’s cross-country ski trails and their reliable snow was new for me. I picked it up as a side-of-side-benefit of something to do in the winter that would keep me fit. I equate skate skiing to what I love about mountain biking. Flying through the woods on my skis is similar to what I do on my mountain bike.”
His love for skate skiing is derived from the simple combo of the kinesthetics and zooming through old fir tree forest. For the once dedicated pro, now there’s no HRM, Strava, or logging miles. The ski loop and pace dictated by other life and work responsibilities, not priming the pump and conditioning muscles to higher lactate loads.
“I just want to get that feeling now, it’s like a lightness and connection to the world like an escape from like the sort of the trappings of real life as they call it,” said Wicks. “I’m not trying to have perfect form and I’m not trying to look excellent on my skis. For me, it’s about the feeling I get when I’m skiing. If I can reach that feeling where I feel like I’m flying through the woods effortlessly, I don’t really care what I look like. I know that in cross-country skiing, along with cycling, there’s this very finite thing where you have to look a certain way with your form – refined and efficient. I don’t focus on that.”
