 Poster: A snowHead
|
|
Queensbury, Bradford. Taken the eldest Dougette (5and a half yrs old) to her first taste of skiing just this morning. She loved it!
|
|
|
|
|
|
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
|
North Staffs ski club in Kidsgrove for me (and I am biased as I am Member). Rollers down one side and the bottom one just spits you out if you don't get it right! Amazing freestyle park producing some really talented youngsters and probably the best value for money dry slope skiing on the planet.😜 🎿
http://www.ski-kidsgrove.co.uk/
|
|
|
|
|
|
Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
|
| skisarah wrote: |
North Staffs ski club in Kidsgrove for me (and I am biased as I am Member). Rollers down one side and the bottom one just spits you out if you don't get it right! Amazing freestyle park producing some really talented youngsters and probably the best value for money dry slope skiing on the planet.😜 🎿
http://www.ski-kidsgrove.co.uk/ |
And ive lived 3 mins away from this slope all my life, but sadly never been.
Really wanted our little lad to learn there for ease (we live in alsager and regularly walk around bathpool) but alas you dont accept 3yo's.
Do you accept 3yo's if they can ski (which he now quite competently can - controlled snow plough turns)
|
|
|
|
|
|
You need to Login to know who's really who.
You need to Login to know who's really who.
|
|
Rossendale - rain, plate bindings and the smell of ski wax - hooked ever since.
|
|
|
|
|
|
Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
|
Rossendale!!!!!!! For the views!! That they do get real snow up there often enough! and the Hot Vimto 
|
|
|
|
|
|
You'll need to Register first of course.
You'll need to Register first of course.
|
| vjmehra wrote: |
Has anyone tried Brentwood? As a new East London resident with no car it looks like the most viable option, in the absence of any developments at Stratford of course  |
Yes but I've only ever ridden there when its snowed. Not sure of the logistics as its quite a way from the station? (Warley Gap). Seems ok my mates girls are enjoying learning there and the Chinese buffet next door is about as decent as they get. Dirt jumps and MTB trails in the surrounding forest. Worth a visit I reckon but I'm only 20 mins away and would rather go to Hemel.
As mentioned Becton is now gone but was quite the place in the 80's.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Family and I learnt (or started to learn) at Brentwood. Really enjoyed it there and the instructors were great but now we've progressed to real snow we go mainly to Hemel. However, as a dry slope goes its wide (although some trees in the middle) and it seems long. We looked at one in the new forest and Brentwood is much longer. If I was going back on a dry slope I wouldn't hesitate to recommend Brentwood.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
I've spent a lot of time at Southampton over the past few years. Firstly, while they taught my daughter to ski and then when they introduced the freestyle evening last year.
@boredsurfin, @Dav, Southampton City Council have been talking about improvements to the sports ground that include a new nursery slope. Hopefully that means some new surface and a reuse of the current nursery slope.
I've noticed that Billy Morgan has done a few interviews up there recently and the camera has carefully avoided the slopes!
But I have to say the Snowtrax in Christchurch is pretty good. A really good kicker, new surface, tonnes of enthusiasm, a shop, a café ... and a bar. In fact the only thing wrong with it is that it's not in my home town.
|
|
|
|
|
|
You'll get to see more forums and be part of the best ski club on the net.
You'll get to see more forums and be part of the best ski club on the net.
|
|
Thanks for the comments on Brentwood guys, will give it a go!
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
I only did one race at hillend but remember thinking that it was the best dry slope I'd seen. Mind you, all my learning and race training took place in cardiff which is max 100m long!
Also loved Llandudno. That was a fab slope! Some great weekends spent up there.
|
|
|
|
|
|
snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
|
|
Pontypool's not bad. 230m long, far better than the strip of carpet that is the Cardiff slope.
|
|
|
|
|
|
And love to help out and answer questions and of course, read each other's snow reports.
And love to help out and answer questions and of course, read each other's snow reports.
|
The first dry slope I skied was Woolwich, very short and no views!
Its where I first got the bug though so have fond memories.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
You know it makes sense.
|
|
@Samerberg Sue, love Ponty. Apart from the bloke who always tries to get you onto the beginners' slope to demonstrate a snowplough before he allows you onto the drag lift......
|
|
|
|
|
|
Otherwise you'll just go on seeing the one name:
Otherwise you'll just go on seeing the one name:
|
@dobby, didn't happen back in the days before H&S, we just used to collar those who were dangerous and give them the option or leaving or joining in lessons on the nursery area. Colin had a very large and muscular deputy manager that they would "discuss" this with! 
|
|
|
|
|
|
Poster: A snowHead
|
|
@Samerberg Sue, reminds of the time when my girl was well peeved because she was getting told off by staff at Cardiff for not turning properly, when some muppet was straight-lining it and getting away with it.
|
|
|
|
|
|
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
|
| Quote: |
North Staffs ski club in Kidsgrove for me (and I am biased as I am Member). Rollers down one side and the bottom one just spits you out if you don't get it right! Amazing freestyle park producing some really talented youngsters and probably the best value for money dry slope skiing on the planet.😜 🎿
http://www.ski-kidsgrove.co.uk/
|
Glad to see Kidsgrove being mentioned! I was a member when I lived closer, and it was perfect for lessons and practice when I was learning to ski - this was before the recent slope extension/improvements. Everyone was really friendly and helpful there, and at the time it prided itself as being one of the cheapest in the UK for lessons - mine were certainly very good value, and on a nice quiet slope too. @PaulC1984, hope you can get your lad going there soon.
|
|
|
|
|
|
Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
|
|
@PaulC1984, 06/07 until about 2010. It was during the days of Bob, J and Kelly then the transition period of Wilson managing the place
|
|
|
|
|
|
You need to Login to know who's really who.
You need to Login to know who's really who.
|
| allybrown360 wrote: |
| @PaulC1984, 06/07 until about 2010. It was during the days of Bob, J and Kelly then the transition period of Wilson managing the place |
Small world. I was there before then. I learnt to ski there from 94 to 05, then skied at tamworth till 07, then joined the race team at chill from 07 to 12. I did pop back and race at stoke a little in 11, so know of all the names you mention - they've all been round a long time. I love the place, shame it kills my skis!
|
|
|
|
|
|
Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
|
|
Gloucester for me; worked there at weekends in the 1970s, checking lift tickets, helping to 'oil' the skimat surface (pre-Dendix, dreadful stuff!) and working in ski hire. Still visit regularly; in fact, popping in tomorrow on my way back from the dentists!
|
|
|
|
|
|
You'll need to Register first of course.
You'll need to Register first of course.
|
@Samerberg Sue, I interviewed one Michael Edwards for the Cheltenham evening paper when he was a promising young ski racer. He still remembers it now when I see him occasionally on the train from Stroud railways station. Who was the Gloucester centre manager when you were instructing? Alan Hole was the boss when I first worked there; later I got to know Dave (surname forgotten!) who was the chief instructor. 
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Have to join in with this..
Learnt at Hillingdon -- remember seeing the lightshow from a Jean-Michel Jarre concert in the Docklands from the top. Used to wait for it to rain -- dryslopes really were dry !
Enjoyed racing at Chatham, High Wycombe and Hemel (before the fridge).
Sheffield was properly great, as was Gloucester before it shrunk.
Aldershot is a good race too, Brentwood dual slaloms are always fun -- Bromley is fun too 
Love the view at the top of Hillend -- you are almost in the mountains.
... and finally -- Bowles -- hidden in the woods -- lovely view of the weald -- especially May and June.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
@sarah, I never had hot vimto but did experience plenty of sponges applied to skinned elbows. Under floodlights on a school night - those were the days!
|
|
|
|
|
|
You'll get to see more forums and be part of the best ski club on the net.
You'll get to see more forums and be part of the best ski club on the net.
|
|
Silksworth 1983/84. Went there one Sunday morning after it had snowed a bit. Only one set of tracks on the hill - straight down from the top, no turns, up the in-run and through the bushes
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
@Samerberg Sue,
| Quote: |
| spent many an hour at Ponty while Colin Whiteside was the manager there |
Me too - Colin, Len (?) and Freddie Foxon were my instructors. I then got into grass-skiing at Usk which became my main habit for a few years in the late 70s: racing in the nationals Gloucester, Hillend, Butser Hill etc
|
|
|
|
|
|
snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
|
| ski wrote: |
| Sheffield was properly great, as was Gloucester before it shrunk. |
Gloucester was 'unshrunk' a few years ago when the new owners restored the original slope, that had suffered a landslip, to its original length.
|
|
|
|
|
|
And love to help out and answer questions and of course, read each other's snow reports.
And love to help out and answer questions and of course, read each other's snow reports.
|
@geoffers, Big Len - big black-hair miner type with huge hands and an intimidating manner with smart-alicks? 
He took over when Colin left I think, but never had the same impact in terms of getting the Torfaen council to do what he wanted or was needed.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
@LOTA, Alan was my trainer, I also worked with Jim Durie for a long time too. Fred was another Bristol local who used to turn up to "examine" us when it came to re-validation time. I remember the tin hut at Matson's before they built the clubhouse so I was pretty well in at the beginning there. Bloody freezing giving out skis there in the winter months, which was another incentive to get qualified and move to higher things!
|
|
|
|
|
|
You know it makes sense.
|
I've a few roughly the same distance in travel times for me but I favour Ackers in Birmingham. Nothing special about the slope just love the industrial skyline (it's not in the pretty touristy city centre part of Brum) when you reach the top of the lift.
Only ever visit when there's a heavy frost or a few centimetres of snow, but always love it...for me the experience blows the indoor slopes away by a mile!
|
|
|
|
|
|
Otherwise you'll just go on seeing the one name:
Otherwise you'll just go on seeing the one name:
|
|
Learnt to ski at the Harrogate dry ski slope in the mid 70s ready for holidays in The Scottish Alps. Happy days except for the time I decided to use a golf umbrella as a chute to slow down. Instant dislocated shoulder.
|
|
|
|
|
|
Poster: A snowHead
|
I skied at Hillend in its early days, about fifty years ago, and have made occasional nostalgic visits in more recent years. I also skied once at Bracknell for an hour or two. For those who don't know the slope at Hillend, this photo (along with Gaza's photo earlier) maybe gives some impression of the scale of the development...
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
FAQ
