It’s snowmobiling heaven outside family’s front door

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This article was published 07/02/2004 (8090 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

LOCKPORT — Alvin Kreviazuk can’t have things much better. He has a nice home in Lockport with his wife Betty. They have three sons, Christopher 21, Joshua 18, and Benjamin 15.

However, the best thing of all for the Kreviazuks is to go for a good sled ride, the family doesn’t need to do more than walk out the front door.

“Here I can go wherever I want,” Kreviazuk says.

And when he says it, he means it. You hop on a sled from the driveway, cross the road and you can link up to a network of prime sled trails.

The trails lead you across fields (which right now are filled with tons of powder snow), through woods and a nearby pit where you can even play around with tricks if you want. You can even go down to the river and test out your speed.

The area is beautiful and ideal for snowmobiling — a snowmobiler’s paradise if you will. And all of this is adjacent to Kreviazuk’s driveway.

“It’s about the scenery and going out with the family,” he says.

At almost 50, Kreviazuk is into riding and restoring older snowmobiles. Not just any snowmobiles, though. He has a passion for John Deere sleds specifically.

At press time, he owns six John Deere sleds, but that seems to change almost weekly. Over the last two weeks he has sold two and picked up another. It’s almost like NHL player transactions close to the trade deadline.

“I just started watching the papers and buying more,” he explains.

When Kreviazuk decided to get involved with restoring older sleds, he thought he might buy one of each make that he could find. As it turned out, he settled on a family of Deeres.

“At first I thought I’d buy one of every make. Then I started thinking about parts — so I settled on John Deere. I just find them so simple and easy to work on.”

It’s not that he has any problem with new sleds. He’s just in a different place right now.

“I think the new sleds are awesome,” he says. “But with the new technology, you have to pay for it somehow. When buying the sled and loading up on gear, by the time you get stuff going with the clothing and all, it’s big bucks. When you’ve got a family of five, it’s expensive.”

“For years I went 100 miles per hour busting down the river and I never looked at the scenery. Now I’m enjoying it, just going out with the family — we all go out and have a good time. I think it’s a different mentality.”

Kreviazuk says there is a certain amount of stress that comes with the care of a brand new sled that you just don’t get when you own older ones.

“When you haven’t put as much money into it, it’s not a big deal if it breaks down,” he says. Besides, there’s just something about rebuilding an old machine.

“I like the process of taking something discarded and restoring it again.”

Kreviazuk hasn’t had trouble getting parts to patch up the old sleds, either. He’s hooked up with a parts supplier on the East Coast and he says there is very little downtime with his sleds.

“It’s great. If it breaks down on Sunday, the parts will be in by about Thursday so the next weekend I’m going again.”

No downtime is good because when friends and family visit the Kreviazuks, snowmobiling is usually on the itinerary.

On this particular day, the hill across the driveway is filled with Kreviazuk’s three sons, their friends and cousins. It’s easy to see the family enjoyment supplied by the family of Deeres.

At this point, there is no questioning Kreviazuk’s brand loyalty. He even has a John Deere mailbox with the family name on it.

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PHOTO JOE BRYKSA/WINNIPEG FREE PRESS