Posts Tagged ‘Perma-snow’

Living in the UK, you would not expect there to be any snowboard instructor courses, whats the point, we don’t have any mountains?. Chatham Dry Ski Slope offer a 24 week snowboard instructor course that will allow you to teach at various snowboarding dryslopes across the UK providing you qualify.

The snowboard instructor course is structured into two halfs. The first 12 weeks will be spent breaking down your snowboarding and going through everything you’ve ever learnt on your snowboard all over again. Snowboarders that have completed this instructor course in the past have improved their boarding vastly in the first half of the snowboard instructor course. The second half of the instructor course will concentrate on how to teach a snowboard lesson so that it safe, fun and informative. You will also be taking guinea-pig snowboard lessons with (volunteers)  to get you used to how a snowboard lesson should be taught.

The surface at the snowboarding dryslope at Chatham is Perma-Snow which is a great surface to teach snowboarding on. If its not a surfaces you’ve ever snowboarded on then I would definitely recommend you give it a try (especially if its raining!).

The snowboard instructor course costs around £15 a week for the first 12 weeks, for the last half of the snowboard instructor course you will be effectively sponsored by John Nike Leisuresport, the owner of various dry ski slopes in the UK and so will not have to pay anything for the last 12 weeks.

As I mentioned at the start of this post, this qualification will allow you to teach snowboarding across snowboarding dryslopes in the UK. If you are planning to do a snowboarding instructor course abroad then this course is a great stepping stone and will give you a major advantage over other snowboarders on the same course. It will also improve your snowboard technique and general understanding of the sport.

Perma-Snow is a revolutionary artificial dry ski and snowboard surface. The surface has been developed to try and create a surface that feels like real snow. Even more so than the existing dry ski slope surfaces like Dendix, and snowflex.

Perma-snow is produced in rectangular white mats. Each mat is made up of thousands of small plastic hoops which have just the right amount of flex to allow ski and snowboard edges to push between them and allow for turning and carving on your skis or snowboard.

In my opinion, the perma-snow surface is most like skiing or snowboarding on hard packed snow. The surface is also much easier to ski or snowboard on when it is damp, so I would recommend getting out there during or after it has rained (unless of course your local perma-snow dry slope has a sprinkler system of course). The only downside to perma-snow when it is wet is the fact that it can be very difficult to stop on at high speed and it does tend to feel more like ice when it comes to slowing yourself down.

One of the main advantages to learning to snowboard on perma-snow is the fact that it has a spongey underlay which will help to cushion your falls and there aren’t any holes in it that you could catch your fingers in, like you can on dendix.

The surface is relatively new and is only available on a few dry ski slopes in the UK but if you feel like giving it a try, you can do so at the following snowboarding dry slopes and ski resorts in the Uk…

• Bracknell Ski Slope
• Chatham Ski Slope
• Llandudno Ski Slope

A snowboarding dryslope is an artificial surface that immitates real snow, allowing snowboarders to practice their snowboarding throughout the year without the need for cold temperatures and lots of snow. Beginners often choose to learn to snowboard on snowboarding dryslopes before they go away on their snowboarding holiday in the winter. This way they won’t have to spend so much time having snowboard lessons while they are on holiday.

There are various surfaces used on snowboarding dryslopes. These surfaces include dendix, Perma-snow and snowflex. These surfaces are all different in their own way but all give snowboarders the ability to ride all year round. Countries like the Uk for example have various snowboarding dryslopes throughout the country because there aren’t any real mountains and there is never really enough snowfall.

The technique involved in riding on a snowboarding dryslope is very similar to the technique you would use on snow however, snowboarding dryslopes are a lot less forgiving so your riding style will need to reflect this and you would need to pay extra attention to detail when it comes to making turns. The fact that it is harder to learn on snowboarding dryslopes than on snow makes learning on an artificial slope a great idea before going away on your first snowboard holiday. In my opinion, if you can snowboard on a snowboarding dryslope you can snowboard on anything, but it does not necessarily work the other way around.