The Marwe Combi skis come with a front-end extension or support strut, lengthening each ski by about 8 inches when in place. The struts, themselves, are very light with a small, narrow wheel in the front. The wheel doesn't actually ride the pavement most of the time, until you use the skis with good back extension in the classical technique. Essentially, they serve to help keep your ski true when you classical ski and provide some extra stability. The front wheels contain ratchets, preventing the skis from back-slipping during strides. The skis extend about 26" in length without the support struts, and are about 34" long with them in place.

For classical skiing, I found the skis initially challenging to use properly. However, this comes from not having rollerskied classically in quite some time, even though I have had many years of classical skiing experience on snow. My previous pair of classic rollerskis was a set of 3-wheeler Exel aluminum-shaft babies, circa my high school years. Just for fun, I went back to try those in comparison to the Marwes, and I found that I could barely stand up on my old Exel rollerskis either. The take-home lesson was: practice, practice, and practice. With each subsequent outing on the Combis, I discovered that I was becoming more and more comfortable using classical technique. I would begin by doing predominantly double-poling, finding the balance points of the skis. On gentle climbs, I began to incorporate kick-double poling until I had achieved some level of comfort. Finally, I went into the traditional striding technique, usually on steeper inclines that helped keep the ski speed relatively low. I discovered during these outings that it helped tremendously to relax as much as possible and to focus on the technique that would come naturally to you on snow. It is always a challenge for me to forget the hard pavement under rollerskis, and it causes me to frequently rollerski in a much more timid fashion than I would on snow. For classical rollerskiing, this actually doesn't help, because the needed balance of the wheels requires you to ski without too much sloppiness in your strides. On snow one usually has the set tracks to help guide your skis, but the rollerskis actually do you the favor of forcing you to really focus on your technique and concentrate on driving your legs in straight strides. Particularly for full striding technique, I found long, relatively straight climbs to be very helpful, allowing you to spend a good length of time working on balance and timing. A good headwind actually works quite nicely, too.

The great thing about the Marwe Combis resides in the name Combi: you can use the skis easily for skating as well. I've found that it is not necessary to remove the front support struts in order to skate, but it is pretty easy to take them off and on if you wish. For me, the skis are quite comfortable for skating, although some people may find them a little slow, compared to the Marwe 610's for example. I like this, however, given my generally timid approach to rollerskiiing. I found that I could maneuver comfortably down most hills without feeling out of control. I also think this is very helpful in keeping the ski speed down, allowing you to work on classical technique without spending your entire workout double-poling. The wheel diameter (about 1.5") is also a little wider than the Marwe 610's, providing a bit slower, but very stable ride. I found the skis to be very forgiving for cracks and general road debris, including small areas of sand, gravel and sticks. I usually err on the side of caution, not wanting to take a tumble, but I felt that the wheels were slipping much less than what I was used to on my old rollerskis (both classical and skating).

Although I have not yet incorporated rollerskiing as a major part of my training routine for this time of the year, I have really enjoyed getting out to some of the area parks to reconnect mentally with the snow season. For me, classical skiing does this even more so than skating, and I think spending some time developing the comfort level necessary to use the Marwe Combis for classical as well as skating is really time well spent in helping to prepare for a successful snow ski season. While classical rollerskiing is arguable a little more challenging to learn than skating, I think the Marwe Combis provide an excellent tool for both skilled and more novice classical skiers to practice their technique during the off-season.