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MANITOBA'S REIGNING SLED ROYALTY: Dawn, Jim, Nicole and Dylan Pruden (clockwise from left) love to go snowmobiling as a family. —photo by Dawn Pruden

Meet the Prudens, a family from eastern Manitoba with a passion for the sled. Long the centre of their snowmobiling community, the Prudens were an easy pick as their club's nomination for the 2007 Snowmobilers of Manitoba (SnoMan) Family of the Year. The surprise came for Jim Pruden when his family actually won the honour, beating out dozens of other families up for the title, at an awards ceremony this past spring.

“It was a little bit of a shock,” he said modestly. “I figured that there were just so many other nominations.”

The annual award recognizes a Manitoba family whose members devote their time and energy to the sport.

Few other families can match the dedication of the Prudens. When they are not making snow fly around their ranch home, the family is putting in hours for their local club, the Brokenhead Trail Blazers, for which Jim Pruden serves as president. Also the club's mechanic, Pruden spent just under 300 hours this past year working on the groomer, helping to keep the trails in top condition for other snowmobilers in the area.

A lifetime affair
For Pruden, the award is the result of a life devoted to the sport, though snowmobiling was far different when he first hit the trails more than 35 years ago.

“It was ride on the weekend, fix it during the week,” he said with a chuckle, recalling the clunky machines of the early 1970s.

Nonetheless, Pruden grew to love the sport, later introducing his wife Dawn to the sled, though he admits she was initially a little less enthusiastic about snowmobiling.

“I dragged her into it," he said. "But now when she gets out, she enjoys it.”

Naturally, the couple’s love for the sled has been passed on to their children, Nicole and Dylan, ages 11 and six.

While the rest of the family will often take a week off from the trails, Pruden religiously takes his Ski-Doo Renegade out every weekend, even when temperatures drop, as they often do in Manitoba, to the point where skin can freeze in a matter of minutes.

“It gets brutally cold. We’ve been out riding where it’s damn near minus 40 below. But it’s not too bad. After this many years of riding, you learn to ride in the bush, not in the open.”

While being selected for the SnoMan Family of the Year was a nice kudo for Pruden, the thrill of the ride itself will always be his biggest reward.

“It’s the great outdoors. And the people. Being with friends and family. That’s why I do it.”