When it comes to sport I have always tried to avoid extreme sports, favouring instead things like athletics and running. I represented my county (Yorkshire) at both cross country running and athletics when I was still at school and since then I have completed one full marathon and three half marathons but as far as sport is concerned that is about it for me.
I have always consciously avoided skiing, although I realise that this is quite tame in comparison with a lot of what is available these days. Over the years I have declined several chances to accompany friends to winter ski resorts for fear of being a likely candidate to suffer a broken leg or worse, but I have a group of friends that are regular visitors to the European ski resorts and these same friends also frequently visit the Sheffield Ski Village, which is only a few miles from where I live. One day last year I accompanied them on a visit here, initially as a spectator,
only to return a few weeks later as a fully participating visitor.
The Sheffield Ski Village is the largest artificial outdoor ski slope in Europe and opened in 2001. Unlike places like Xscape at Milton Keynes and Castleford, and the Ski Dome at Tamworth this does not have real artificially created snow but instead its slopes are covered in a special kind of matting that is sprayed with water to make it glisten like ice. This matting is very slippery and I am told by my friends that it is very similar to skiing on real snow, although visually it looks nothing like the real thing.
During my first visit here as a spectator I spent my time in the bar watching my friends on the slopes. The ski village has both a bar and a restaurant from where the slopes are visible and it is certainly very entertaining watching the skiers fly by. There is also an outdoor terrace area with seating that has excellent views of the same slopes and I would imagine that this would be a great place to view from during the summer when the weather is nice.
There are various different slopes here. The main slope is reserved for the more experienced skiers and it is on this slope that my friends can usually be found. For the more experienced skiers there is a half pipe and a quarter pipe and several jumps. All of this looked quite scary for a novice like me but it is certainly good fun to watch. In addition to the people skiing in these more advanced areas of the ski centre there are also quite a few people on snowboards too.
For the beginners and less experienced visitors there are two different nursery slopes. If you visit the Sheffield Ski Village you will find that the prices vary considerably but be warned the prices are not cheap. The standard off peak cost on the main slopes is as below:
My friends who are quite frequent visitors have made themselves members and enjoy a reduced entry fee.
During my second visit here I came with a friend who had been here once before with some work colleagues. She had reassured me that during this visit she had not progressed beyond the nursery slopes and so I was quite happy to accompany her when she asked. Rather than just messing about on the nursery slopes as she had done on her first visit we actually decided to pay for a lesson, something that I was very nervous and apprehensive about. We each paid £17 for a one hour lesson, which included the hire of all of the equipment.
The first difficult task was encountered shortly after parting with our money and long before we got anywhere near the slopes since neither of us could get our ski boots on no matter how hard we tried. After a few minutes we were both rolling around on the changing room floor hysterical until a member of staff took pity on us and sorted us out. Then, with no more excuses we headed off to the nursery slope where we met our instructor, Caroline.
As there was only the two of us we were put with another group of people which formed ten of us in a group of absolute beginners. The lesson began with a quick chat and then we were each encouraged to participate, under the watchful eye of Caroline. The nursery slope is very gentle but looking around I could see that some of the people in the other more advanced beginner groups were reaching quite impressive speeds and this made me very nervous.
Within just a few minutes my friend fell over, which was followed by another bout of hysterical laughter and then I toppled over sideways. Over the next 20 minutes we both discovered that neither of us had very good coordination skills and that keeping your balance and staying upright is not something that happens naturally.
Eventually I did begin to get the hang of things a little bit once I had worked out how to keep my skis parallel which kept me in going in a straight line but by the time the lesson was over I still hadn't worked out how to stop in a dignified matter that didn't involve colliding with an object or another person. I had also discovered on numerous occasions that the matting was quite hard when you hit it with a thud and I wished that it was nice soft snow.
Overall I really enjoyed my visit to the Sheffield Ski Village and if this sounds like your sort of thing then I would definitely recommend it as it is a good laugh.
It is open all year round at the following times:
Monday to Friday from 11am until 10pm Saturday and Sunday from 10am until 8pm
Sheffield Ski Village 4 Vale Road Sheffield S3 9SJ
Telephone - (0114)2769459 Fax - (0114)2760413
Go there if you dare!
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Jan 10th, 2008
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