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Possibly planning a dry slope tour of England. Help?

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Thenowhereman42
Posts: 5682 - Karma: 65
Whats up UK? I'm American but most of my family and some of my friends and shit live across the pond, so I generally try to go there every summer for a few weeks. Usually I just kick it, get drunk, hit some clubs, go to a massive like Global or Big Chill, whatever.

Last summer I tried to plan my trip too late and didn't get to go, so I have some extra money for this trip. I've always wanted to do a summer ski trip, so I figured why not combine the two?

I guess what I'm looking for is advice on which dry slopes to hit up. Obviously I want ones with park features, but I'm not as ridiculous as a lot of kids on NS, so I don't need anything gigantic. Just some jumps up to 25 feet, down-flat boxes, 10 or 20 foot rails, that sort of stuff. I usually land in London and go to Aylesbury, Worcester, Birmingham, Wycombe, and Carlisle, so places close to there would be awesome but I travel alone so I can really go anywhere I want. I could go to southern Scotland too probably.

Been thinking about this for a couple of weeks and didn't really know where to start, the only dry slope I know of is the one in High Wycombe, but I've never been there or anything, just seen signs for it. Any advice would be great.

And I've also never actually skied on a dry slope so what is that whole thing like? I heard bailing hurts a lot more.
Jan 18 2010 10:45PM
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JibbaTheHutt
Posts: 2132 - Karma: 1,597
if your going to birmingham it up tamowrth on a freestyle night the jumps suck but theres usally a good rail setup there
Jan 19 2010 1:31PM
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miketheskier88
Posts: 749 - Karma: 66
You're going to struggle with finding park features on teh dry slopes, they're mostly used for slalom training really... The one in Edinburgh is quite long, and there's one in Norwich too (which is meant to be one of the better ones).

My advice is.. get a list of all these dry slopes, and call them up and ask them when their freestyle night is. Most of them only put out the park features for one night of the week at a specific time. The indoor ski halls will be a little more flexible though...
Jan 19 2010 7:58PM
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Thenowhereman42
Posts: 5682 - Karma: 65
Hmmmm. Well, I can check freestyle nights on these places, that is really good advice. WTF is an indoor ski hall?
Jan 20 2010 6:12AM
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nickyp
Posts: 5673 - Karma: 215
The UK has 6 real snow indoor ski slopes, i.e. that have snow making facilities, rather than using turf. Most are pretty modern, with good facilities, and flourishing freestyle nights
Jan 20 2010 7:00AM
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.Roockley.
Posts: 3866 - Karma: 4,089
its basically your park run abroad, sclaed down into 100 meters of features, kickers aren't as big but the rails are sick

if you can get to yorkshire check out Xscape Castleford, check the plans occasioanly, they have a stash park this week for example
http://snozone.co.uk/html/castleford/activities-prices/snow-slope/main-slope-activities/freestyle-snopark/snopark-plans/
Jan 24 2010 12:31PM
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nickyp
Posts: 5673 - Karma: 215
That looks sick man. Do you know which ones are rails and boxes, and what type, etc? And what that triple thing at the top right is?
Jan 24 2010 2:34PM
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.Roockley.
Posts: 3866 - Karma: 4,089
everything is wood this week so no metal rails or boxes

left side of park:

wooden spine
2 kickers
up flat down wood rail
picnic benches
wood box

right side:

10 ft cliff drop (word)
random wood jibs
kickers
wood box
Jan 24 2010 3:35PM
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flexpattern
Posts: 1090 - Karma: 45
wow that sounds awesome! cliff drop would be sick! unfortunately i have exams this week but i would have made plans to come up! ill look out for sick stuff like that a bit more in the future! i just wish MK got their shit together and put together a decent setup with some good hits....

last time i was there they had the baby slope with these little pathetic boxes and then had the really pro stuff like their massive rainbow, and the redbull street rail, which had the most ridiculous lip on to it, i only saw 3 people hit in the whole night... they need some more intermediate stuff that you can get some tricks lain down on


Anyway to the op there are loads of dry-slopes dotted about the country, i would say at least one in most major town/cities, but what you really need to do is look out for snowflex slopes, that stuff is better than the old school dentex matting, my local snowflex slope isn't very long though, so i won't recommend my slope as it only has a few jibs and some (very) small kickers.

havent been to many other slopes around the country, one dryslope is practically the same as next tbh, so i havent been to many, only 4 slopes i believe.... Warmwell in dorset (i think) is pretty good or so i am told, their slope is mostly snowflex, also Norfolk Ski Club have a really nice slope it seems from the pictures, i think it is a mixture of dentex and snowflex and they have several kickers and stuff (never been there but seeing as i only live about 70mins drive away i feel i should have given it a look!)

Have a look at skiing in the indoor places - they can be very expensive, and they usually only have a park setup one day a week, so watch out, they can be quite an experience!

Whatever you do just don't expect too much, and it will be an interesting experience!
Jan 25 2010 1:18PM
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.Roockley.
Posts: 3866 - Karma: 4,089
park has had a slight re design for this week + descriptions as well

Click for larger image
Jan 25 2010 1:38PM
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aandbackflip
Posts: 111 - Karma: 11
To the Guy talking about MK, they're completely redoing everything in a bid to fight of Hemel (cos Hemel have put up their prices). The next SNO!Storm which is the 5th March I believe, they building some proper lines e.g, Jib Line, Kicker Line etc. instead of having just the odd bit dotted about so everyone cuts everyone up. There also making a rookie park (Hemel copying?) and a Junk Yard (tyre's stall's quarter pipe jib's etc.) So the OP depending what time you come go to this, should be good.
Jan 29 2010 6:06PM
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.Roockley.
Posts: 3866 - Karma: 4,089
shame the milton keynes snow is shit, everything is bottomed out in 20 minutes

the afterbang jam i hit the rainbow rail and it slid out, not stoked

imagine skiing on sugar and you have MK, cas has the best snow by far, chill factore and cas are a must
Jan 30 2010 1:17PM
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aandbackflip
Posts: 111 - Karma: 11
I was at the Afterbang Jam, the top box on the left was looking a bit sketchy as well, that's the only time MK have actually had a decent few jumps set up that haven't got screwed within like twenty minutes, anyone know if there's something similar this year?
Feb 1 2010 1:22PM
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flexpattern
Posts: 1090 - Karma: 45
this coming wednesday (3rd feb) ill be at MK for their snostorm thing, the setup looks a little small for such a big event - they better step it up!
Feb 1 2010 1:48PM
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.Roockley.
Posts: 3866 - Karma: 4,089
yeah, was so sketchy the snow just doesn't hold together and the bigger jump got bombed out and the smaller kicker on the right lost the knuckle after about 10 minutes from people hitting it first run

do they actually ice things in? i'd love to know how they build the park
Feb 1 2010 5:53PM
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Thenowhereman42
Posts: 5682 - Karma: 65
Shit this all seems more complicated than I was anticipating haha. I'm checking out the places mentioned, the snopark thing looks cool. I'd be stoked to hit a 10ft cliff drop indoors haha. Around how big are those kickers at that place?


Feb 2 2010 6:11AM
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Thenowhereman42
Posts: 5682 - Karma: 65
Also these spots are open all year round right?

And fuck me 30 quid for 2 hours is harsh.
Feb 2 2010 6:12AM
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Thenowhereman42
Posts: 5682 - Karma: 65
Ok so the indoor snow places actually look pretty sick. Snowdome and Snow Centre had some pretty awesome looking features.

So it seems like a lot of these places just have like "events" that you have to sign up for and then you just sesh or what?

I would love to get out for an airbag thing that shit would be so fun.
Feb 2 2010 6:47AM
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.Roockley.
Posts: 3866 - Karma: 4,089
http://www.facebook.com/?ref=home#/theairbag?ref=ts

xscape castleford are starting to do some sick deals, 35 quid for park strife which is the last friday of every month and the kickers are usually around 10-15ft maybe bigger depending on snow levels inside

but fo sure check out cas, the best built park in the uk
Feb 2 2010 3:21PM
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aandbackflip
Posts: 111 - Karma: 11
I did my work experience at MK and they basically set it all up, use a watering can to ice everything over (lips etc.) close it for a little while (But people still try and hit it) and then open it up for the freestyle sessions. If it's a bit bigger then they build it when their closed and let it ice over when it's closed and close it off in the morning so it's alright for the evening. But because they never let the snow rest it's always being churned about and so it's no good.
Feb 5 2010 4:29PM
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nickyp
Posts: 5673 - Karma: 215
Is there going to be a themed park strife every week? It's killing me seeing sick park plans, but having work to do :(

Once exams are over though, I'll be up there every week
Mar 28 2010 8:42PM
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.Roockley.
Posts: 3866 - Karma: 4,089
sno storm this week coming apr 9tth and its looking packed with a secret big feature as well as a channel gap and a hip and a few other things

get down
Apr 3 2010 1:38PM
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fozboy
Posts: 80 - Karma: 32

Hi,

Personally, if you're coming all this way why not a go a little bit further.. get a cheap flight over to France or Switzland and do a summer sess up on one of the glaciers.. Tignes, saas fee, les deux Alpe etc...

You can often do a week for aroudn £400.00 (all in) if you look hard.

just a thought...

Enjoy

Apr 9 2010 7:41AM
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