Rooted in the “back to nature” movement of the early 70s, XCD skiing drew from an adventurous crowd fanning out across the country looking for alternatives to the status quo. Throughout the mountains, ambitious alpine skiers got caught up in the renaissance of Nordic skiing, captivated by the gear’s light weight, ease of travel and most of all, simplicity. In spite of the adventure, one problem remained: this great touring gear was excruciating on any descent. Filling the void for more downhill-friendly Nordic gear was Antii Tiitola, a powerful Nordic and downhill skier from Finland with a dream design for a ski that would marry the Nordic and downhill qualities lacking in skis at the time. Built by Karhu North America, the ski was christened the XCD. The name was the perfect encapsulation of the ski’s purpose (Cross-Country Downhill), and to a larger extent, captured the essence of the whole telemark revival.
As part of the XCD History Project, Karhu’s Nils Larsen connected with Antii Tiitola this winter. On the 30th Anniversary of his original designs, Antii Tiitola shared the story of XCD inspiration and innovation:
Nils Larsen: What is your ski background, Nordic and Alpine? I have heard you might have been on the Finnish National Ski team?
Antii Tiitola: As a Finn I have grown up with skis. Every kid learned cross country skiing in my time. Afterwards I learned ski jumping and about in age of 16 started alpine racing. I raced among the 10 best in Finland in the junior series in all alpine events. During my university time I won the Scandinavia UNI Championships in slalom. I was on the Finnish National Team for the 1962 season, in the European World Cup Races and FIS World Championships in Chamonix 1962.
After ‘62 I started to work as engineer and finished the active racing. My interest turned to motion sports, and I concentrated on training for ski marathons, which continued until ‘78. After that telemark skiing became my main interest, and I also participated in telemark racing until the year 1992.
NL: In Canada, the name Titan was used with Karhus a lot, including the early XCDs. I have heard that this originated as your company (Titan) in Finland and then at some point you became the head designer at Karhu Finland and the company became Karhu Titan OY ?
AT: Yes, Titan was the brand name for skis and hockey sticks produced by my company Tiitola Oy. I started this company in1966. It was producing alpine skis, xc skis and hockey sticks using a unique fiberglass technology developed by myself. In early 70`ties Karhu interested about my technology and the negotiations ended to a merge of the companies in 1973. The name of the new company became Karhu-Titan and took the responsibility of R&D projects and product designing.
