First time on a dry ski slope...

A snowHead

I've had probably had 8-10 hours of lessons at Hemel, and a week in L2A. Consider myself to be well on the way, getting into parallel on the real stuff, using my edges etc.

We are heading off next weekend to Monty so thought we'd get our ski legs back in and we headed off to our local dry ski slope, Knockhatch in Sussex. We were expecting it to be different but wow.....I felt like I had never skied before! Couldn't turn, struggled in even a basic snowplow which I thought I'd left far behind and just felt like I was not in control. Was blooming horrible.
After about an hour some, confidence had returned but it was hard work. My biggest issue was getting the back of my ski to come round on turns, just felt like they were sticking.

We did want to go there more regularly throughout the summer but it just felt so....wrong, if that makes sense?

Should we persevere? Have others shared this experience?

A snowHead

It is easier to go from mat to snow than it is from snow to mat. I learned on mat so not best placed to comment on your situation. However, skiing on mat is generally much cheaper that in a fridge so it is worth persevering.

Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?

@Fridge03, My daughter was a very good skier, 16, skied for 10 years and à BASI L1 instructor the first time she skied on a dryslope. She found it very difficult for a while before it clicked. I'm told it is really good for your technique, persevere would be my advice.

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It is like skiing in glue. Everything has to be done slowly and with a lot more pressure. Very hard on the legs! probably why it is supposed to be good for the technique, as you cannot just skid your way out of bad turns.

snowHead

Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.

Like Gaza I learnt on a dry slope and would suggest you persevere. Maybe have a lesson on the dry slope it might just get it to click. You may find that you are leaning back slightly which is why you feel that the tails are sticking!

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yes it is easier going from plastic to snow your main issue there is getting used to the higher speed, but in reverse the lower speed hinders you, it just throws everything out of sync. Another thing to think about though was the dryslope sprinkler system working properly ? Did you wax skis prior to going both these really affect how the skis glide and make the first point I mention even more pronounced.

Yes if the dryslope is close by then it is well worth continuing, if you decide to keep going buy a secondhand set of skis from fleebay rather than keep using your main skis or the slopes hire skis. As an old school skier who learnt and worked on dryslopes for many years I would say old school technique of unweighting to initiate the turn works best rather than the just rolling the skis. Once you get good on plastic rolling works but unweighting just helps initiate the turn so much better.

If you decide to go regularly get an old towel and some liquid wax and put that on the towel, every few runs just slide over the folded towel and you will see a big difference. Even a cheap wax spray polish works fine if need be, and during the summer these are essential on plastic, even with sprinklers you can feel as though you could walk down quicker without the wax.

Your skiing will improve rapidly if you go year round just when you go away take the first run or two easy till you re adjust to higher speed of snow ( as you improve this gets less and less till you can just rip the first run and hopefully look great ).

Then you can post your own questions or snow reports...

After all it is free

I learnt at Hillend and got pretty comptetent but still remember my first time on snow. I was probably about 13. I couldn't believe how slippy it was! I remember flying down Sunnyside at Glenshee, on a narrow ribbon of snow between the fences, thinking I'd reached ski heaven!

Since then I had much more access to dry slope than snow. I worked as a dry slope instructor for about 7 years, it gave me such a base and technique I'm extremely happy to have had the opportunity.

There are talks afoot about rebuilding Sheffield ski village. I'm not sure I'd use it, but excited that my boy might get the chance to.

I'd say stick with it as it's a great chance to build skills and is easily accessible.

Agree with all the above. Dry slopes are much, much harder to ski on that snow.

BTW. Where is 'Monty?' Montalbert?

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I started joining in with the (lower levels of!) race club at our local slope. In just 6 sessions it did wonders for my technique - it forces you to carve really well or you lose a lot of speed. There is a huge difference between the speed the coaches and the good kids carry vs anyone who scrubs for just part of a turn. It exposed a lot of technique weaknesses that I've never really noticed on snow, but were holding me back.

The basic difference I find to snow is that you have to be on edge to get speed on plastic - as soon as your base hits the mat, the resistance is huge. It's faster to ski our "GS" course on plastic than it is to straightline the slope.

I'm definitely going to stick with it through the summer. My kids ski on plastic and ice skate through the summer, and start each ski season better than they finished the previous one.

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I've found the same. I want to enjoy it and it's a lot cheaper. I went to rossendale quite a few times the year before last and it got easier but when I went last year for my annual pre holiday build up I could not get to grips with it at all! Gave up and kept going to chill factor. It's obviously me that's the problem but maybe I'm too old to learn new tricks? 😀

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@snowdave,

Try the cloth/towel with a liquid wax if you can find some but just apply wax every 2-4 runs dependant on slope length and how well lubricated it is. Another thing with skiing on plastic you start developing your technique to accelerate out of turns.

Thanks for all your tips and advice guys. Glad it's not just me! haha.

Will stick with it and give them another go.

Knockhatch is a continuous carpet as apposed to dendix. What is, in people's opinion the better artificial surface?

You know it makes sense.

@foxtrotzulu, Montgenevre.

Otherwise you'll just go on seeing the one name:

A snowHead

The one with all the holes/gaps - Dendix? - which is what I learned on back in Churchill, Zummerzet... is rather well-known for dislocating thumbs when people fall and put their hands out...

It was so much easier when I eventually got on 'real' snow... but as mentioned it does force better technique - and works better when you're moving quickly which as mentioned is better on an edge.

A snowHead

That's Dendix, yup.
My left thumb is about 1cm shorter than my right due to a C shaped bone following several breaks!
Broke it one week and dislocated the right one the week after. Thumbs are pretty useful but taken for granted until you loose the use of both at once!

I certainly learnt to drive the tail of the ski for speed and pretty happy carving on anything. It does built great edge control with practice.

Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?

@speed098, thanks for the tip - I actually prefer to ski dendix without additives on my skis as that way the runs are all consistent. If I use washing up liquid, wax etc. then the run starts and ends very differently!

One of my problems on plastic is that I gain too much speed at the start and then scrub on the middle gates and end up very slow. Starting slower is doing wonders for my overall time.

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I went to my local fridge last week to get a new pair of boots, skis and binding dialled in, after an hour the boots professionally fitted at Rivington Alpine went from too tight to perfect. I originally learned to ski on the excellent plastic Rossendale dry slope. watching the other customers my observation was that the fridge allows some people to practice and get used to bad technique (ie those not taking lessons). In contrast the dry slope is less forgiving of bad technique and forces people to learn to use their edges and other skills becoming better skiers quicker

Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.

@Fridge03, I teach on Dendix and have been teaching someone who used to ski at Bromley till it closed. He said he tried Knockhatch in his search for somewhere to go instead and thought it was absolutely horrible. He didn't go back there, but he has been coming to us a couple of times a month since about June last year. So don't judge all plastic by Knockhatch...

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@Fridge03, Have you been to Bowles ? It has a misted Dendix surface which is much closer to snow than the carpet at Knockhatch --- and there's a better (IMV) view from the top Happy

Then you can post your own questions or snow reports...

@ski, @Fridge03, +1 for Bowles, and not just because I teach there. The Dendix still takes a bit of getting used to, but it's definitely worth working at. We had an 80 year old chap on Open Practice yesterday who hadn't skied for a fair while. He struggled at first, but persevered to put some really nice turns in before calling it a day.

The view from Knockhatch can be interesting if there's banger racing or Speedway going on at the next door Arlington Stadium.

After all it is free

@ski, @UkuleleDave, We did look at Bowles, which is also closer for us so will give that a go next time I think!

Glad I’m not the only one who finds skiing on dry slope difficult:

I just seem to take longer to get my balance right and it takes quite a few runs for me to feel steady on the skis. On snow, I feel steadier far quicker

I’m currently at the very early stage of learning parallel and have done several lessons on last two trips abroad. But recently on a dry slope, I’m trying to practice what I learnt before, but I’m really struggling trying to turn with the skis parallel. I manage to force a turn by putting my weight on the new outside ski and that ski manages to turn in an arc. But I just can’t get the new inside ski to turn (so that its parallel with the outside ski). This ski seems to get stuck on the mat, then tilts inwards toward the other leg and I end up doing a snowplough turn. I know my technique must be completely wrong in the turn for this to happen but I can’t pinpoint what exactly it is I’m doing wrong.

I’m beginning a “fast track to parallel” course on Friday at the dry slope, so hopefully the instructors will spot what I’m doing wrong. But I definitely did not have this same problem in my lessons on the snow. I’m definitely going to persevere through as at the very least it will give me practice with my stance, balance and the motion of travelling on skis (I’m still a relatively nervous skier)

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@jimmybog, Good luck. Would be great to hear what advice you're given.

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@jimmybog, Make sure you are patient on the dendix, the instructors will (in all likelihood) first have to sort your posture, as the dry slope is much more demanding of good posture and balance than snow. I teach there when not away, and we find that "snow" skiers take a while to adjust to the demands of dendix - you will probably need to do lots of snowplough drills before moving back into parallel, but rest assured that once you do master parallel on the dendix it will make you a MUCH better skier on snow.

Help!!

First time on a dry ski slope...

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