 Poster: A snowHead
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Heard a rumour that the Bromley dry slope (confusingly not in Bromley, but Orpington) is to close and the site to be sold for redevelopment. It's a shame if it's true, as my two kids learned to ski there and have trained with Charlotte Evans & Chatham ski club there. Doesn't leave many (any?) places to ski within the M25, and the Alpin Sports shop will shut which is also a pity as that's where I get my skis done!
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Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
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Welwyn/gosling is also planned to close; Date not fixed yet but again for property development.
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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?
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Forgive me for going back to the 90s, but is Uxbridge still around?
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Uxbridge/Hillingdon, is long gone, in the late 90's I think. Outside the M25, but I dropped in to Bracknell the other week for the first time in years, the whole complex, not just the ski slope looked very tired.
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Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
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I think Sandown is still there.
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You'll need to Register first of course.
You'll need to Register first of course.
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Warley Brentwood still going strong
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Warley Brentwood still going strong
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@Gilberts Fridge, work round the corner from backnell and it is extremely run down, very rarely anyone skiing/boarding on it mainly used for scouts/brownie packs doing tubing parties.
have been told that it is also going to be developed for housing, I assume along with the ice rink, I suppose being reasonably lose to hemel/Milton Keynes it was going to lose business especially when our weather is generally biblical!!!!
its a shame about the loss of all the plastic slopes, I used to use Hillingdon and beckton alps a lot in the early 90's.
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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.
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My first ever s;lide was at Crystal Palace dry slope
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I suppose being reasonably lose to hemel/Milton Keynes
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sorry, should have read "close to" doh!!!!!!!
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snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
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@daveyladboy, Shame - it's been struggling for years though.
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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.
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The economics of running a dry slope are tough. People mostly seem to use them for lessons or practice before they go skiing, so they run flat out for 6 weeks from New Year till Half term, are less busy from Half Term to Easter, and in December, and the rest of the year they are dead. Without the tubing parties they'd have no chance.
The snow slopes seem to have hit the dry slopes quite badly. Personally I can't see why people from Surrey would want to sit on the M25 for an hour to go to Hemel and pay almost the same for a group lesson on a crowded, lumpy slope, as they would for a private on a quiet dry slope with a uniform surface, of which there are 3 within half an hour of where I live? But they do seem to.
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It shuts next week - the owner is currently selling off the fittings.
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You know it makes sense.
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Oh no  that's our local too. The wife learnt to ski there and it was a good bar for a pint/game of pool after a ski session.
RIP.
Are Hemel and Chatham the closest now?
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Otherwise you'll just go on seeing the one name:
Otherwise you'll just go on seeing the one name:
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| Quote: |
Personally I can't see why people from Surrey would want to sit on the M25 for an hour to go to Hemel and pay almost the same for a group lesson on a crowded, lumpy slope, as they would for a private on a quiet dry slope with a uniform surface,
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Because Dry Slopes still suffer from their old image problem - they're covered in the bristle-brushes which'll remove your skin as soon as you touch it and break any body-part for good measure. That using them is a pain in the back bottom both figuratively and literally. How many times have people written here that "If you can ski on a dry slope, you can ski any conditions because they're the worst" - hardly a ringing endorsement.
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Poster: A snowHead
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I think there is also the problem that people don't know they are there unless they are very local. I've only been skiing for a couple of years and have done quite a lot of reading magazines / websites etc. The only mention of specific dry slopes I remember seeing is on here. As @Richard_Sideways says there is a bit of an image problem, but I think there is also a problem of profile.
A few weeks ago I started thinking that maybe I should try a dry slope - I was suprised how much searching it took to find the local ones. I'm in Hillingdon (20yrs too late!) I found Sandown, but their website is so difficult to navigate I struggled to work out anything about what they offer. It also doesn't seem to have any photos of the ski slope on the site, which suggests to me that it is very run down(?). I also found Bracknell - which looked better / friendlier and had a navigable web page, and was planning to take a scoot over there at some point (although from the above it sounds like I might need to be a bit sharp about it). Compare that to Hemel, which everyone, even people who don't ski/snowboard, seems to know about.
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Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
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Chatham/Capstone was my local before I went in to exile. Impression I always got was that they make quite a bit of their money on holding functions and so on, rather than just the skiing. Our school used to have PE lessons there from time to time, but it was very limited (ie an 8 passenger plus driver minibus, for a school of 1200 students).
Didn't even realise there was one at Bromley (or Orpington), which being just up the road from "home", does kind of back up that suggestion that they're only known by locals. Either that or Chatham/Capstone was better at PR for evening functions and events that are often not related to skiing in any way.
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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?
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You need to Login to know who's really who.
You need to Login to know who's really who.
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@Little Martin, that is really out of date - still shows Sheffield ski village and that shut ages ago
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Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
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@Little Martin, that is really out of date - still shows Sheffield ski village and that shut ages ago
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@Little Martin, Thanks, several there reasonably locally that I was not aware of.
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... Although it turns out that one of those closed 10 years ago, so the map is perhaps not the most up to date!
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@Tubaski,
Yeovil closed in 2007, High Wycombe is long gone as well.
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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.
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@kat.ryb, thanks, no idea it was that out of date
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Hi all, its funny you say about Dry slopes. We learnt basics in Brentwood and it was great although quite different (for us beginners) moving to snow. We now frequently travel past Brentwood to go to Hemel but I've been so so tempted to go back to Brentwood as its so close but I've read so much about "its bad", "its not the same", "its so much harder" that I've been put off. The thing is the snow in Hemel can get so choppy and icy in places I'd wager in a lot of circumstances the dry slope surface is actually more accurate to practice on (for on piste). I just need to man up and try it again !
Shame if a slope is closing because at the start Brentwood was great fun to do as a family and it was a great introduction
Last edited by Ski the Net with snowHeads  on Sat 23-04-16 11:58; edited 1 time in total
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snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
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I learnt to ski at Churchill Dry ski slope south of Brizzle (long, long time ago...)... and can confirm that it is certainly harder work than the real thing.. but this is quite a 'good' thing - makes your first skiing on the real thing a moment of joy (and pleasant shock).
Either option (plastic or snowdome) is far, far better than flying/driving to a ski resort as a novice and learning to snow plough in a group 
ps should point out that snow plough in particular is heavy going on plastic... once you're up to carving (ish) then it shouldn't be so bad for a pre season warm up etc.
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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.
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That is so true, we spent a lot for 10 family dry slope lessons but boy was it worth it. We got so much more from the holiday by doing the dry slope first. Alas my wife and I had prebooked beginner lessons on the holiday so we were held back a bit but my son ... he was flying down reds within 3 days on the real slope.
p.s thanks for that last p.s thats worth noting as we are def at that stage now
Last edited by And love to help out and answer questions and of course, read each other's snow reports. on Sat 23-04-16 11:58; edited 1 time in total
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| Quote: |
but this is quite a 'good' thing - makes your first skiing on the real thing a moment of joy (and pleasant shock).
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My first time on real snow I was in awe "it's so slide-ey" 
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You know it makes sense.
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| kat.ryb wrote: |
My first time on real snow I was in awe "it's so slide-ey" |
My first lessons were at Skiplex, so the slippiness of snow did come as something of a surprise to me too! I was also totally unprepared for all the non-downhill moving about bits (sidestepping, poling on flats etc.)
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Otherwise you'll just go on seeing the one name:
Otherwise you'll just go on seeing the one name:
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Poster: A snowHead
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Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
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| Tubaski wrote: |
| kat.ryb wrote: |
My first time on real snow I was in awe "it's so slide-ey" |
My first lessons were at Skiplex, so the slippiness of snow did come as something of a surprise to me too! I was also totally unprepared for all the non-downhill moving about bits (sidestepping, poling on flats etc.) |
That's exactly what my OH found on our first ski holiday together. She had had about 6 lessons at Swadlincote dry slope and could link snowplough turns, but actually pushing herself along to get to the lift was what we hadn't anticipated as a problem!
When we took our daughters for the first time, we took them to Snozone for a few lessons instead. It is a much better preparation.
Incidently, I went to Swadlincote last weekend for my daughters tubing and tobogganing party. The place looked quite run down, though there were quite a few people having lessons. It is pretty close to Tamworth, but they are still attracting punters.
I declined to have a ski. They replaced the Dendrix with something called perma-snow which looks like white astro turf. You're less likely to do yourself serious injury when you fall, but with the slight disadvantage of it not being slippy. The only time I tried it I had to push myself down the fall line. I guess it might be ok if it's raining.
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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?
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dry slopes good for learning the basics getting boots on and off , sidestepping , herringbone ,snowplough , i had lessons at the old woolwich dry slope circa 1998 ,it snowed in london day before i went to verbier . layer of snow on the very short dry slope at woolwich made sliding easier . picked up sliding around pretty quick verbier tough resort for beginners esp as i was st on to the red run rouge learnt to ski lapping that run .
shame orpington going used to go there to "keep" hand in and test out new boots . the little shop there was also great .
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You need to Login to know who's really who.
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Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
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There's one at Woolwich too? (or was?)
Definitely true then about local slopes for local people.
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Had my first lesson at Woolwich in the early 80's before a school trip, it was a short slope!
Very sad to see Bromley go, to be honest I think there is a place for both fridge and dry slopes. The dry slopes are also a nice place to practice / experiment what ever your skill level.
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@Richard_Sideways, Says it well regards image, people perceptions, knackering you and your gear, the friction burns etc
BUT
You can never re-create the atmosphere you get at a dry slope in a dome:
The smell of:
bees wax
Mr Sheen!
burning skis
burning flesh
Algae
the trees
the cold winters nights
The sound of the old Pomas (the springs and runners)
and not to mention the endless hours of fun I had as a kid at stoke, not to mention the summer race leagues all around the place
Its the only place Ive ever felt sentimental about, and I only hope Stoke and Rossendale never go under.
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Have been to MK and thought was good but would rather go to a local dry slope than travel to MK on the whole. With Bromley gone I guess I will not have that choice!
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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.
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@Richard_Sideways might want to point out the Sandown Ski Centre is in Surrey not on the IoW 
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