Ski or Snowboard in West London
In the UK, most of us are familiar with indoor snow slopes or outdoor dry slopes. I, for one, caught my initial snow-sliding bug during a very painful, exhausting but exhilarating day inside Xscape Milton Keynes. However, there is now another way to get your ski or snowboard fix, as new company Skiplex set their sights on storming the UK.
Yesterday, a handful of the crew from our London office took a trip to the UK’s first Skiplex centre in Chiswick, West London, to check out this new-fangled idea and to arrange a special deal for all NONSTOPers. So, if you like the sound of it, keep on reading to find out how you can give Skiplex a try.
Skiplex is very different to anything you would have experienced before. It works on a similar principal as a running machine, with a snowflex-style surface moving below your skis/board. This gives it a couple of obvious benefits over other artificial slopes. Firstly, you can ski or ride an unlimited distance without having to get on any lifts and, secondly, you stay in the same position, while watching yourself in the mirror, which is great for technical development. Although this is a new concept in the UK, it’s massive in mainland Europe, with over 100 well established centres.
The slope in Chiswick has been installed in an old squash court and has a similar glass viewing gallery from the outside. When we arrived, we found a skier in full carve mode, concentrating heavily on the glass we were standing behind. It was quite strange for him not to acknowledge us and to be staring blankly at an area between us, but it made sense when we found out that it was a one-way mirror and he was actually studying his own body position and technique. It looked like a lot of fun and we couldn’t wait to give it a go.
We all happened to be snowboarders, but Rochelle decided to be a little adventurous and gave skiing a go for the first time, to see how the slope faired from a beginner’s point of view. There’s always an instructor on-hand for every session, so within minutes of stepping on to the moving carpet, she was in snow-plow position and starting to get to grips with her stance and balance. It was amazing to see how close the instructor could get to her – he could physically move her skis into the right position and give her direct tips, all the while she was in motion. This shows that it’s a great way to develop beginner technique.
As experienced snowboarders, Max and I were very intrigued with how a moving carpet could compare to sliding down hill. As we gripped a bar and built the feeling for balancing on our heel edge, it certainly felt very strange underfoot, but the principals of correct body position to aid balance were the same. Things started to slide into place a little more when we moved onto falling leaves / pendulums. By the end of the session we started to turn while holding onto the bar for support, but I think it would take another couple of sessions to get past the strangeness of it all and to really start linking turns and carving confidently. At the end of the session we asked our instructor, Drew, to give us a bit of a demo and it certainly looked like you could get some pretty decent turns in (along with a few wake-board style tricks!).
Going back to the skier that we saw when we first came in, it definitely seems that this is a great way to get some mileage under your feet before the season starts and to get your ski fitness together. Although you can’t expect to experience a varied terrain, the speed can vary between 0 and 28 km per hour and the pitch can go up as steep as 25 degrees. So, when at full pelt for 10 mins or so, you really are going to cover some mileage.
I’d recommend to anyone to give it a go, it really is a lot of fun. Of course there are the obvious limitations and a slightly different feel to what you’re used to, but as a training and fitness tool it’s great.
On Tuesday 29th November between 7pm and 9pm, Skiplex will be holding an open evening hosted by none other than British Olympian Chemmy Alcott. So pop along if you fancy checking out the slope and meeting Chemmy, and maybe even having a go. All of the details are here in their Facebook event.
This winter Skiplex would like to offer NONSTOPers exclusive half price sessions. So if you’ve taken a NONSTOP course in the past or are booked on one this season, just let Skiplex know and you’ll only pay £19 for an hour long session, rather than £39! You can take advantage of that discounted price as many times as you want on week days until the end of the winter, so it will be a great way to get yourself ski-fit in time for your holiday or season away.
