So the rumours of a half-pipe weren't quite on the mark, but Snozone is to get a semi-permanent snowboard park, which isn't half bad even if it isn't half-pipe.

The park will include a new tabletop on the 15° slope at the top. This is being described as "big" with accompanying "plane in flight" type hand gestures. The existing table top towards the bottom on the 8° slope will also be retained, although possibly rebuilt. There will also be a funbox somewhere, plus various smaller jumps dotted about. At the bottom of the slope we'll get a quarter pipe.

The larger park features will be built of wood/aluminium and semi-permanent. They may be topped with Dendix with a layer of snow on top of that. The smaller features will be permanent, but presumably made of just snow, so could be knocked down and recreated as necessary.

The next question is of course, when? They are not 100% sure yet as they expect to go into a busy period soon, presumably as the season picks up, so it may not be until well into next year. On the other hand they have the budget and hope the Hillingdon crew will be building it. Failing that Salomon may get involved.

It also seems there's a little bit of in-fighting between the Snozone staff who are boarders and those who are skiers. I was pretty sure all the nonsense was over (until The Times wrote their fanstastic article of course).

We'll be keeping you informed and we've been promised an email when all is decided.

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