Freestyle at Tamworth SnowDome

As part of Snowboard Club UK's ongoing partnership with the Tamworth Snowdome, we thought it might be interesting to have a few words from the rider who is currently helping the slope staff put together what is arguably the best freestyle slope in the land.

Words by Stuart Leonard. Pictures by Danny Warren.

When Dunx first approached me to write an article for SCUK about what’s been going on at Tamworth since Christmas, I was a little bit shocked, flattered and to tell you the truth, at a bit of a loss as where to start.

As they say ‘I’ll start at the beginning’. Over the last 18 months a group of riders who all sort of knew each other started to come together and became ‘The Vermin Crew’ (long story) a.k.a. the Tammie locals. Times were good and the progression shown by certain members was breathtaking. Tim Sandy had a lot to do with this, being the designer and builder of many of Tamworth’s various rails and the Vermin box not to mention an general inspiration to the younger riders.

I’m not sure when things changed; I guess it was kind of gradual. Had the layouts gone stale or the toys got worse? Had the riders outgrown what the slope could offer? I guess it was a bit of both. A few of us would always seem to spend a chunk of time moving kickers, re-shaping run-ins, digging over landings and moving rails because they were awkward to hit or posed a threat with people landing off the top kicker. It all got a bit frustrating, we tried not to blame the staff because it wasn’t their fault really. How could it be? How can something be wrong if you don’t know what is right? That was the conclusion I came up with.

Out of this air of despondency and frustration amongst regular riders I decided to try and open some sort of dialogue with the slope management to try and resolve our issues instead of just slating them on web sites. Writing a letter to the Snowdome was the first step and when a meeting was arranged I thought, ‘just remain positive and see what happens’. I found Gary Baker (one of the owners and marketing manager) to be both open and receptive during our conversation, which was very frank. The meeting concluded with me thinking that he had not only listened, but heard what I had to say.

Sure enough, things got better; the slope improved with a lot of hard work from the staff Ryan, Tom, Josh, Matt and the ski hire guys. Sure there have been blips, but you’ll sometimes get ice and less than perfect snow when you go away too.

What also happened was that I worked with the guys who setup Ramp nights and started laying out the ‘classic’ course, making sure that we got things in the right places and set how we ‘the boarders’ wanted them. Things developed and soon enough I started coming up with, and setting, new layouts trying to get lines going down the slope; a proper slope style course not just a selection of kickers and rails. Most of these worked and went down really well. Some things didn’t, but we continue to experiment. One thing’s for certain though, it’s made things interesting. Big smiles returned and people started to progress again. Mini wall rides were put out, barrels and mini shred pipes appeared. Rail sessions like the Smithy to Burton Flat Down with a 3m gap went down.

Things have settled down a bit of late, mainly due to the fact that several rails have been out of action and some kickers recently stolen from the slope. The kit sure does take a hammering and in the past the Snowdome has had VW Beetles on slope... they all die in the end.

I know I’m not the only rider who has worked with their local slope in this way and I hope more people and crews do get involved with their slopes. It's gotta be good for you and your local scene if you do.

By Stu Leonard. Published 9th June 2005.

Of course with any freestyle setup, the real stars of the show are the toys. Here's a gallery of some of the toys that Tamworth has put out within the last year. You're certainly not guaranteed all of these every Tuesday or Saturday board night, but what we think they can guarantee is a great setup.