An annual staple of the central peninsula, the Kenai Sport Swap is the place to go if you're looking to get your hands on new or used sports equipment at a reasonable price. Put on by the Kenai Nordic Club, the event helps raise money for the Kenai Central High School ski team, the largest high school ski team in the state. This year’s swap happened last Saturday at the high school.
Since it first began about 25 years ago, funds from the sport swap have helped pay for the team’s equipment, transportation and coaches. Funds have also been used for travel to state competitions as far as Fairbanks.
All sporting equipment sold at the event is brought in by members of the community, who can set a price for what they are selling. The Nordic Club gets twenty percent of the proceeds.
In addition to ski equipment, up for grabs at this year’s swap were skates, tents, snowboards and more. The event draws a full house every year.
“It is standing room only,” said Mitch Michaud, President of the Kenai Nordic Club. “It opens at 10:00 and there is no previewing. What I advise people to do when you come to the ski swap is that you know what you’re looking for, you got a sense for what size something is, and we’ll help people to size up skis. We don’t want people to go out there and not have a good experience because they got the wrong size gear.”
Michaud says many parents bring in ski equipment to sell that their children have outgrown since last season. The swap serves as a great opportunity to find better-fitting gear without paying retail price.
“We have four boys in hockey, so we always come and try to find stuff that we can use either for this season or next, so we got a bunch of skates,” said Nick Torres, a shopper whose hands were full of sports equipment he purchased. “Listen, there’s the Catalina Wine Mixer, and then there’s the Kenai gear swap, and they’re the same.”
“It gets people out in the snow,” Michaud said. “You have folks who will come in here who have never cross-country skied, and they were told this is a great place to get something just to go out. Oftentimes, they’ll love it so much they’ll come back and bring the gear that they bought back to us because they’ve moved on to buying some really good skis, poles and gear.”
While the sport swap benefits the Kenai Nordic Club, it also increases options for local shoppers. As winter quickly approaches, events like these help to make winter sports more accessible.
“We want the central Kenai Peninsula to become outdoor winter sports oriented,” Michaud said. “If you really want to thrive here, find yourself an outdoor sport, and one of the best ones to do in the wintertime is cross-country skiing.”
This year, the Kenai Sport Swap sold about two-thirds of the sporting equipment available for purchase.
