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Dry slope

Posted: Mon Jun 06, 2011 9:49 pm
by falls
We are apparently getting one of these about 2 hours drive from where I live
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dgIo4Pex ... r_embedded
It looks pretty good. Any experience?

Posted: Tue Jun 07, 2011 8:34 pm
by carnold
Hi Tim. That'll be about 15 min from my place. It'll be great for summer board testing. C.

Posted: Tue Jun 07, 2011 9:13 pm
by falls
sweet. the video makes it look pretty realistic in terms of comparing to real skiing/boarding. Their site says $25 for an adult - seems pretty reasonable.
Will be pretty weird to go and ski on one of those 45C Melbourne summer days!

Posted: Tue Jun 07, 2011 9:41 pm
by MontuckyMadman
scary.
Is it wet or hosed down or fed from the bottom?
so weird.

Posted: Wed Jun 08, 2011 2:33 am
by tufty
MontuckyMadman wrote:scary.
Is it wet or hosed down or fed from the bottom?
so weird.
Looks like it's kept wet by some sort of integrated water feed.
This explains it a bit : http://www.snowflex.co.uk/technology.asp

I'd be interested to see if it's possible to carve on it without dded your edges or the material itself (and I do mean carve, not what 99% of snowboarders seem to think carving is).

I'd also be interested to see what it does to your base.

Posted: Wed Jun 08, 2011 3:14 am
by falls
it might give your bases a good brush and expose the structure!

Posted: Wed Jun 08, 2011 8:04 am
by twizzstyle
I have visions of some nasty rug-burn. But it looks pretty awesome!

Posted: Wed Jun 08, 2011 3:40 pm
by Brazen
Yeah, me too. I'll bet that shits hard as a rock. Cool though, looks pretty fast!

Posted: Wed Jun 08, 2011 5:03 pm
by skidesmond
That looks pretty cool. I can see it being a big hit for people who hit the snow parks, even a big 1/2 pipe. I'd be willing to try it if built in my area. But I wonder... ever see a ski slope in the summer? How do they keep weeds from growing through it? The little bit I read from the above link sounds like the slope has to be designed for the material. I'd still try it.

Posted: Wed Jun 08, 2011 7:50 pm
by falls
They say it hurts less than falling on groomed snow.
It has a padding layer built in.
The older dry slopes were that hard plastic in rings that you sometimes see under heavy wear areas like chair lift lines (maybe just here in Australia where we can struggle to keep the snow at lower altitudes?). Apparently it was horrendous and people used to break their fingers a lot getting it jammed in the holes.
Image

Posted: Thu Jun 09, 2011 1:47 am
by Idris
Falls, true the old school stuff was nasty to fall on.

I raced (slalom) on that stuff for years as a kid - every other weekend in Summer!

But the new stuff gives you nasty carpet burns - can melt your clothing into you!

Posted: Thu Jun 09, 2011 10:36 am
by skidesmond
Idris wrote:Falls, true the old school stuff was nasty to fall on.

I raced (slalom) on that stuff for years as a kid - every other weekend in Summer!

But the new stuff gives you nasty carpet burns - can melt your clothing into you!
Imagine the ski boots would get pretty funky smelling after skiing in them over a summer.... a winter season can be bad enough :?