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Branny 
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Post subject: Re: RE: Just a thought?!?
 Posted: Feb 05, 2009 - 03:31 PM
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First post: Oct 11, 2004
Total posts: 4559
Location: Is in the U freakin' K
Status: Offline
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cantridepete wrote:
Thanks to this thread I looked at the Glocs website and it does look ok. Still going to tam tonight, but reckon i'll check out glocs next week 
nice one...i'm chuffed that i started it then 
i still love dryslope, it's the thing i miss the most about being out of the UK.
okay it's not the best material in the world, it knacks you and your board..but the friendships and "scene" at dryslopes makes UK snowboarding special, in my eyes at least..
i've been riding plastic (badly) for 15 odd years since my first lesson at Christchurch in hard boots...and i hope i can still turn up and shred plastic for another 15 |
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http://www.facebook.com/brannyuk
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yoda
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Post subject: RE: Re: RE: Just a thought?!?
Posted: Feb 05, 2009 - 04:13 PM
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First post: Oct 12, 2004
Total posts: 750
Status: Offline
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| I think that the dry slope will make a bit of a come back, due to the current "credit crunch", it's the case at Gosling, it seems that more are turning up each week, some weeks around 30 shredders hitting the Euroboys big sack, its nowhere near as busy as the domes, but its better than it was a year ago, with it costing a third of the domes, they may get busier as people watch their pockets . This Tuesday was amazing with all the snow. The atmosphere is far better outside. Jakes now in his 7th year of riding dryslopes and still loves them. It is a shame that the slopes are struggling and there's no investment. |
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Jakes latestvideo
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dunx
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Post subject: RE: Re: RE: Just a thought?!?
Posted: Feb 05, 2009 - 04:57 PM
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First post: Oct 07, 2004
Total posts: 9071
Location: Herts, UK
Status: Offline
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A few years back I'd have said dryslopes were fairly safe, but now we have more indoor slopes spread around, with Hemel soon and Wycombe can't be too far from construction.
Slope Directory:
http://www.snowboardclub.co.uk/slopes.p ... l_all_open
Interesting points made here. For regular use, any dryslope has to be fun. I don't personally find Dendix (note the spelling Whitelines, invented by Dennis Dixon) fun, but I love SnowFlex kickers. The nearest to me is a good 2 hours away though and with MK 40 mins, Tam 90 mins and Hemel soon 5 mins, I can't see myself making the journey.
Any slope that hopes to survive needs to make money. Through the winter months, this is largely generated by lessons. Otherwise, they're reliant on some sort of scene throughout the year, whether that's ski racing or freestyle and at the end of the day those sorts of things aren't driven by management, but by the locals themselves. Sure, management need to invest in rails and maintenance, but that's not going to suddenly get people to start freestyle or generate more business.
What slopes really need are the likes of Alex Spence at Chatham and Wayne Taylor at Halifax that maintain a scene and a loyal following. People like that are gold dust.
As Branny said, they could also make more use of free marketing through SCUK, FOTP and that other website  but as we've both discovered, that seems to be too much trouble for many of them. I remember writing to all 100 UK slopes when I first launched the Slope Directory. Not one replied! |
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mini.
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Post subject: Re: RE: Re: RE: Just a thought?!?
Posted: Feb 05, 2009 - 05:06 PM
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First post: Jun 16, 2008
Total posts: 1648
Location: a world of my own, but mostly sheffield.
Status: Offline
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dunx wrote:
. I remember writing to all 100 UK slopes when I first launched the Slope Directory. Not one replied!
i wonder if at the time they didnt consider the value of websites and advertising outside their local area.
it make be different now.
I just had an afternoon at the Sheffield Ski Village. boy that carpet is bloody hard work compared to snow. but i did enjoy myself.
covered in bruises now. |
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www.skicourchevel.net
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Branny
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Post subject: RE: Re: RE: Re: RE: Just a thought?!?
Posted: Feb 05, 2009 - 05:29 PM
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First post: Oct 11, 2004
Total posts: 4559
Location: Is in the U freakin' K
Status: Offline
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totally agree with dunx on the fact that a local dryslope scene is rider generated rather than slope
and the examples of halifax and chatham are amongst the best, and gem's like alex and wayne unfortunately hard to find
but if your interested in dryslope it's worth checking some of them out, as well as fax and chatham..
the humble boys are working hard for swad, warmwell, calshot are amongst a few that still keep the carpet burns alive.
i know from experience one or two good events (and i mean good local not being made a ttr stop) can change the perception of slope management to the possibilities of freestyle nights and giving you more freedom to optain new rails and stuff.
glad you had a good time mini...will it be a repeated experience? |
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dunx
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Post subject: RE: Re: RE: Re: RE: Just a thought?!?
Posted: Feb 05, 2009 - 05:47 PM
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First post: Oct 07, 2004
Total posts: 9071
Location: Herts, UK
Status: Offline
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I missed off Neil/Euroboys at Gosling too. Certainly one of the few Dendix examples of a great scene I can think of.
You also make a good point about local events, but again those are locally driven. I do think the Brit Snow Tour can open the eyes of both management and locals to what's possible though.
One aspect of the planned changes to SCUK over the coming year will be the ability for people to "subscribe" to a number of slopes to better focus on news from that slope and local discounts. Part of our hope in that is to generate some sort of scene at those slopes through SCUK. Ideally, we'd like to be able to give enthusiastic individuals responsibility for looking after a slope on SCUK, act as a focus for news and questions about the slope. Perhaps we can be instrumental in creating a few more Alex and Waynes, although I'm not sure the world is ready for more Euroboy Neils |
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mini.
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Post subject: RE: Re: RE: Re: RE: Just a thought?!?
Posted: Feb 05, 2009 - 05:51 PM
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First post: Jun 16, 2008
Total posts: 1648
Location: a world of my own, but mostly sheffield.
Status: Offline
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Maybe Branny.
when i can lift my arms without them hurting i will give it some thought.
i can almost see the sheffield ski village from my house. its not quite walking distance but not much further. |
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www.skicourchevel.net
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HandD
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Post subject:
Posted: Feb 05, 2009 - 05:53 PM
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First post: Feb 09, 2005
Total posts: 1763
Location: Medway
Status: Offline
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thanks for the name check Dunx/Branny, but we're even finding it hard at chatham. Even with the huge array of toys the numbers are down. So we're building the scene from ground up again. Smaller toys out for the rookies, more bobbing, regular dj nights, more small events rather than one big one.
I'm hoping it'll all pick up when we got our slope rematted. Not that's it's as bad as some of the other jnl slopes were, but would be good to be done before it needs it |
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kieronh
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Post subject:
Posted: Feb 05, 2009 - 06:25 PM
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First post: Oct 11, 2004
Total posts: 2253
Location: Bournemouth - Represent!
Status: Offline
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Interesting thread.
Where I am , I have 4 dryslopes within 35mins . Nearest indoor is 2.5 hours, so I dont think the effects are being felt so much of indoor snow round here, and with none in the south being planned , I cant see this situation changing.
Snowboarders breed snowboarders. the more people who get into the scene and start going weekly and progress to freestyle after they have had there lessons are the key to success.
Dryslope are going to take a hit with the current economic climate ,but also dont forget that snowboardings had its peak. late 90s early 2000s you couldn't turn on the telly in the winter without some mention of "the next big thing" , but now its old hat and so doesn't get as much coverage and hype as it once did. I remember when Transworld was the size of the Yellow Pages!
Riding Calshot in November/December last year it was probably the busiest ive even seen it (about 7 years since I started going there ), this has probably been for a few reasons but having lots of boxes and different stuff to ride is a big thing.
One advantage dryslope has over indoor is that you can mess about and build your own stuff, move stuff about mid-session and generally make some interesting and crazy setups. |
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Big Dreams Snowboard Shop - Dorset .
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Bobafett
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Post subject: RE: Re: RE: Just a thought?!?
Posted: Feb 05, 2009 - 07:35 PM
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First post: May 01, 2006
Total posts: 169
Status: Offline
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| Of the people who do hit the snowflex/dendix, how many of them do you think are members of the club and have therefore paid their dues already? If it's a lot of them then a single "freestyle session" at an artificial slope is not going to make much difference to the club's income. If lots of people come who aren't members of the club then that's a different ball game entirely, but I would hazard a guess that the majority of the people showing up are members already. |
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Branny
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Post subject: RE: Re: RE: Just a thought?!?
Posted: Feb 05, 2009 - 07:41 PM
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First post: Oct 11, 2004
Total posts: 4559
Location: Is in the U freakin' K
Status: Offline
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not many uk dryslopes are "club" membership
they're businesses open to the public, a few do have membership schemes that make your sessions cheaper etc but as kieran said..snowboarders breed snowboarders
the main "club" slope is kendal..all the others i've ever riden at have been run by councils or private business |
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akaboxy
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Post subject: RE: Re: RE: Just a thought?!?
Posted: Feb 05, 2009 - 08:07 PM
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First post: Nov 29, 2006
Total posts: 73
Location: Halifax
Status: Offline
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Quote:
Of the people who do hit the snowflex/dendix, how many of them do you think are members of the club and have therefore paid their dues already?
thats a good point. If freestyle nights were to contribute to increasing the income/chances of dryslopes surviving the current climate then they will have to start being aimed more at non members. Up at halifax theres a membership scheme which is something like £350 a year for unlimited slope time. which is only something like £7 a week!!! (Pfft who said dryslope was too expensive.) but id say 80% of people there are paying that membership price. the money that they really need to keep them running is from the 20% paying per hour.
Halifax used to have the most popular freestyle nights in the country not too long ago, but that has seemed to die down with cas and manchester not too far away.!
Saying that halifax has been running university clubs for years now with bradford uni and more recently huddersfield which often bring a good 30+ each tuesday and thursday. maybe something other slopes should look into, every uni in the country has a ski/snowboard club. (or should do!)
Plug: There is talk of halifax organising a weekly freestyle night with everything on the slope. This will include people around to help, either qualified instructors and/or other riders willing to give tips here and there.
And to the people who are worried about their boards, i think ive seen more damage done to boards when away on holiday and at indoor slopes than dryslopes. just go on a day when its not 40 degrees and it wont damage it.
+ halifax has got a good 1ft of snow covering it in areas at the moment. |
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robyhsb
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Post subject: Re: RE: Just a thought?!?
Posted: Feb 05, 2009 - 08:20 PM
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First post: Oct 29, 2008
Total posts: 34
Location: Gloucester
Status: Offline
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cantridepete wrote:
Baz_k wrote:
Personally I think Gloucester is great. It has snowflex park and dendix slopes and if you hit the righ times it is quiet and on friday nights they have freestyle with coaching by an ex pro (not quite my bag yet though) . For me i try and get there weekly and so think its great as i cant afford to hit tamworth or snow on a weekly basis!!
Thanks to this thread I looked at the Glocs website and it does look ok. Still going to tam tonight, but reckon i'll check out glocs next week
Does it have rails etc on friday night?
yeh you should defenitely go up mate, tuesdays and fridays are the freestyle nights, and theres two boxes about 8ft long each and they can connect together too. |
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annieredding
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Post subject: Re: RE: Re: RE: Just a thought?!?
Posted: Feb 05, 2009 - 08:20 PM
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First post: Jun 20, 2006
Total posts: 4958
Location: Coventry
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akaboxy wrote:
And to the people who are worried about their boards, i think ive seen more damage done to boards when away on holiday and at indoor slopes than dryslopes. just go on a day when its not 40 degrees and it wont damage it.
Thats probably the main reason I steer clear of dryslopes (that and the ski in head incident on tallingtons dendix when I was 10).
I still go to the shop there sometimes, the slope looks pretty dead most of the time and there isn't any events advertised going on there so I've never been back with my board. shame cos there aren't major amounts of leisure facilities in the area and in winter it should be packed. |
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akaboxy
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Post subject: RE: Re: RE: Re: RE: Just a thought?!?
Posted: Feb 05, 2009 - 08:35 PM
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First post: Nov 29, 2006
Total posts: 73
Location: Halifax
Status: Offline
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ive never really damaged any boards on dryslope, no more than i would at a freestyle night at cas. yeh people get hurt, but then people get hurt everywhere!
Wayne did the Westbeach series this year, probably the biggest UK comp of the year and british snow tour were there too, again one of the biggest events of the year. yeh it has been quiet recently, apart from this week, but that typical with uk slope, most people go away on seasons.
Im sure if the freestyle nights get going, they will post on here!
Everyone should give dryslope a try, you will find your techique improves sh1t loads when you go back on snow. |
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