 Poster: A snowHead
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At 17 years old, my school organised a skiing trip.
Being a bizarrely "cost conscious" teenager, I decided not to go - despite my parents being more than happy to pay for me. The reason? I was already doing a French exchange and didn't want them to have to pay for 2 school trips in a year.
13 years later, I decided to try an activity holiday and picked skiing.
Oh my god. It was like "where have you been all my life?". Me and snow were a match made in heaven.
Not skiing earlier is now my biggest regret in life. I think about all the years i have missed. All the resorts I'll never visit because i discovered it too late. The years i spent doing crappy jobs in Manchester, when i could have jacked it all in and gone and worked in a chalet.
Anyone else in a similar situation or has everyone been into it since they were a kid?
[apologies for the stream of consciousness ranting nonsense - it's late and i've been on the shiraz!]
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Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
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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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The first time I ever went skiing was for a 38th Birthday present from my Wife.
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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 did go on the school ski trip for 2 years running but then for some bizarre reason skipped 10 years before re-finding it. Made up for the missing weeks since though 
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You'll need to Register first of course.
You'll need to Register first of course.
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JP,
The wife and I learned skiing after we turn 50. Alright it is late but we could afford longer holiday, more of it and able to go anywhere we want. So one can take up the sport late too. European resorts have plenty old age skiers. People regard skiing as part of their winter life there.
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admin - we really do need a head slap emoticon 
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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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I started skiing when I was 30, I wish every day that I started skiing as a kid. I would be so much better, and would have even MORE fun
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snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
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I was in the same boat as the OP - when the school ski trips were running I felt that I couldn't ask my parents to shell out for both that and the French and German exchanges - but luckily for me, my French penfriend and his family had a chalet in the Vosges for a week's skiing - so I first went with them when i was 14 and continued until i was 18. Then I had a gap of the best part of a decade, before rediscovering my love of the white stuff in 2004. I can't imagine not doing it now - in fact, i'd almost trade in the summer holiday to ensure that I get my week in the Alps!
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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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My school didn't do ski trips!
HappyMouffe and I started at 30, and feel much the same as magic_hat, although at 7am I haven't just been drinking shiraz 
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You know it makes sense.
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When I first got together with my now husband he said he wanted to go skiing (he had done a school trip), but I wasn't keen. I said it looked too dangerous yet would happily fling myself over huge cross country jumps on a horse. Somehow 13 years went by (now aged 39) before I found myself on a nursery slope in Andorra saying "hey, why didn't you get me to do this earlier - it's absolutely fantastic"! That was 6 years ago and we've been every year since, sometimes twice, sometimes 3 times! I am completely hooked! I love the whole package of the snow, skiing, scenery, mountain food and sheer endorphin exhilaration of that feeling of whizzing along amongst the whiteness and pine fresh trees. I go out in white-outs, blizzards, nothing stops me.
No, I'm not fast or terribly brave but I don't care. It's simply the best  Better late than never is what I say.
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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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As you all prob know by now, I am a recent late starter who bitterly regrets not doing it sooner for various reasons. My school did run trips, but not being one of the sporty ones, I was discouraged from taking part and believed them when they said it was not for the likes of me. It wasn't until just over a year ago, when a friend in her mid 60s persuaded me to go with her, that I discovered that perhaps it WAS for the likes of me after all!
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Poster: A snowHead
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My school didn;t do ski trips, but I lives in Pau in france for 6 months at the foot of the Pyrenees, and the place I wored had a ski club. They gavce me boots and skis and told me where and when to wait for the bus to the slopes each saturday and sunday morning. 60 francs (about £6 for those who don't remember the exchange rates) per day for travel, lift pass and instruction, as some of the club members were qualified instructors. Naturally I went out and got leathered every friday and saturday and never quite made the 6.30 am pickup. It was another 6 years before I did a ski trip. twice a year for the last ten though 
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Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
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Happily my school started to do ski trips when I was 12, and my parents were generous enough to pay for me to go each year until I could afford to pay for myself. Looking back I now know how difficult it was for them to afford that luxury for me, and the debt of gratitude I owe them is huge. I now look at young kids who are learning to ski (my niece gets her first ski lesson this Sunday for her 5th birthday) and I'm envious of all the fun they have in front of them. That would have been a good age to start, although I certainly can't complain about a lack of opportunity to be on skis at the moment - it seems as if I'm hardly ever out of ski boots.
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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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Mrs Spurs and I went last year for the first time, both of us aged 47.
It wasn't something I'd thought too much about when I was younger - no skiing trips organised from my inner city comprehensive!
A couple of friends suggested going on holiday together. They always do a cruise in the summer, but my wife gets seasick, so we suggested skiing as it would be a giggle for the four of us since we would all be complete beginners.
They wimped out just as we were about to book, so we went alone and had the best holiday ever!
We are just back from our trip this year and already thinking about whether we can go again. We've had 3 weeks of group tuition now, and can get down most runs - albeit somewhat inelegantly on the steeper bits. I think that next time we go, we're going to go for a couple of private lessons on the first two days, then the rest of the week on our own.
We don't regret not having done it earlier from the ability point of view, we are enjoying the learning experience. I do echo Beverley's comments about loving the whole 'package' though, and wish we'd done it years ago so that we could have been to even more beautiful places.
Summer holidays? you can keep 'em!
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You need to Login to know who's really who.
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Thanks to a stroke of luck when standing in a bus queue when I was 14 led to my first school trip to Crest Voland. Never looked back
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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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johnboy,
tsk, tsk, these people that don't know the FIS rules of conduct...."Check up and down the hill when you start, enter or cross a slope"
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You'll need to Register first of course.
You'll need to Register first of course.
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1st ski trip aged 29, 1st day was a disaster but was persuaded to go back the next day (lots of alcohol and a few white lies about how much easier the 2nd day is) did indeed have a great time. Many years later still skiing and look slightly less like a bag of potatoes on skis than I used to but only because I ditched the all in one ski suit!
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I did a week at Hillend aged about 16 but fell and hurt my knee before evening reaching the slope, plus my younger sistr and eveyone was better than me and so I didn't continue. 12 years after that I had 3 days at Keystone and loved it but there didn't seem to be anyway that I could afford to continue. When I was about 40 the kids started to learn initially at Hillend and then at the local dry slope and so I gave it another go... Now I am gutted that I am only able to go away for 2 weeks this year and I have had them. 
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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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I learned as a child with my parents and loved it (my father had skied before the war and took my mother to visit Switzerland in the winter of 1945). Then my father was ill and, when I was 14, they stopped going and various things intervened. 20 years went by and I decided to give up architecture and be an artist. I went to art school and met my wife, and then I started to have dreams about skiing. In these dreams I almost never got to ski - the snow would suddenly melt or I'd be unable to find my skis when I came to put them on. Eventually, while I was doing an MA, I realised I had to do something about it. Age 35 I went skiing again - the equipment had changed: I replaced my old lace-up leather boots and wooden skis and cable bindings.
Why on earth didn't I do this sooner? I've gone for 3 weeks each year ever since. My wife doesn't ski (she had polio when she was a child and has a weak left leg) and I am thankful that she doesn't mind me going off for 3 weeks while she is working. Although I'd like to do even more (perhaps do a season or teach) I know when I'm well off. Now I'm 59 and have progressed to skiing mostly off piste with guides, searching for the steep and deep. I regret not skiing in my 20s but now skiing is the one reason I don't mind the years rushing by: they bring me to the next ski holiday.
Last edited by You'll get to see more forums and be part of the best ski club on the net. on Fri 8-02-08 10:34; edited 2 times in total
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snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
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magic_hat, good thing is at least everyone on here has discovered the joy of skiing, whatever age they came to it. So many people don't get that far, some because they're too timid, some cos they're too skint, some cos they're just stuck in a rut...
Don't look back on the 'wasted' years, rather look forward to all the snow-filled years of fun to come.
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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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Well done - but I suggest you take up snowboarding now so you dont regret the next ten years as well
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magic_hat, don't regret it, just use that feeling to get well and truly stuck in now.
i had one week's skiing at 17, in a virtually snowless madonna di campiglio, then for some reason didn't go again until i was 31. this was mainly as i couldn't afford travel of any kind until then and didn't have any mates who skied or boarded. meanwhile my sensible brother had been doing numerous seasons. he finally persuaded me to join him and gang of others on a weekend in chamonix which resulted in me damaging my cruciate ligaments. this didn't put me off and i was back out there as soon as it all healed. for the past 6 years i've been 2-3 times a year and, although i will never be as good as my brother (not many people are) i am really proud that i have managed to get to the standard i have despite not starting very young. i can now tackle any piste and am just waiting for the right conditions to start my off piste career. i always make sure i have a short private lesson whenever i go and i have found this really helps my progression.
je ne regrette rien!
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You know it makes sense.
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magic_hat, 30 is not that late to pick it up and if you're fit the learning curve will be a lot of fun
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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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I got talked into it for the first time four years ago, having never fancied it before.
Some on here will no doubt say I shouldn't have bothered 
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Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
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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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Not as late at 15. But I always wished I could go skiing at an earlier age like some of friends did. I loved my first trip so much, I've vowed to go skiing every year.
My parents couldnt sustainably afford it for consecutive years up untill then.
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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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| Roger C wrote: |
| I went once with school in about 1986, to Pejo in Italy. We had a cracking time but for some strange reason the next time I skiied was in about 2000. |
I went there in 1980, my second ski trip. I'd been trying to remember the name of the resort but couldn't, so thanks for reminding me
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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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magic_hat, I did EXACTLY the same, think I went to Lyme Regis instead.... 
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You'll need to Register first of course.
You'll need to Register first of course.
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In Ireland (or at least my part of it), when I was a kid nobody I knew ever went skiing. We were lucky being one of the very few families that went on any kind of foreign holiday but skiing never entered the equation. None of us were sporty, my mum loved the sun back then and basically skiing (if we thought of it at all) just seemed like more effort than desirable for a holiday.
I went on my first ski trip 3 years ago at the age of 27 because I wanted to get away for Christmas and it actually worked out cheaper than a sun holiday. Had no more interest in skiing than the cat on arrival but was well and truly bitten by the bug on departure. MrRibena, on the other hand, skied from when he could stand in skis and I am mad with jealousy. I would give anything to have had a shot at it as a bendy fearless kid.
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Several reasons :-
I played ruigby until I was 40 - seasons happen to coincide
My parents struggled to go on any holidays..let alone ski trips - so that took out the early years
Skiing was middle/uppper class bollox for ponces - as portrayed in the press....
I started skiing at 50, so I guess I became a ponce ...
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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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For all those with regrets - its not worth it. I started skiing relatively young (as a teenager) but then squandered post Uni gap year on a trip to Autraliasia and working holiday visas in the summer. Doh!
The important thing is knowing what you know now.
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Me 35 ....oh I wish I knew then what I know now but I hope I am still on the upward learning curve not the slippery slope.........well not unless its powdery
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FAQ
Would anyone who thinks they might have snogged me when I was 18 please 
) 3 years ago and she is now the worst of the lot of us for wanting to go.