Where and how to learn and enjoy your skiing in England and the rest of the United Kingdom.
Natural snow skiing
Natural snow skiing is regularly available in the UK during the winter when cold weather and snow has fallen. These are mainly in Scotland:
- Cairngorm - near Aviemore
- White Corries in Glencoe
- Glenshee - of the A93 to Breamar
- Lecht - near Tomintoul on A939
- Nevis Range - near Fort William
Others do exist in England when the weather is right
All year skiing
We love skiing in the UK and we invented the sport of skiing so we have many ski centres open all year on artificial surfaces where you can learn the basics, improve your current abilities, move on from recreational skiing to other disciplines of racing, instructing and coaching. To ski regularly all year you will need use one of the many artificial ski slopes around the UK. These are either:
- outdoor on plastic bristle / brush surface or
- indoor on manmade snow in a refrigerated building.
Both surfaces have their own merits as most of the current top racers from the UK have developed skiing on plastic slopes including Dave Ryding currently in the worlds top 10 for slalom racing.
The best way to find a ski centre near you is to use the Snowsport England run website GoSkiGoBoard where you can enter your post code and get a list of slopes and clubs together with their contact details and sessions on offer.
Learning to ski
Use the GoSkiGoBoard website and find a snowsport centre of your choice. Find out what they offer, ask about the quality of their teaching programme, establish the reputation they have and if satisfied book on their starter programme. This will usually have four stages that will take you from being a complete novice to a snowplough skier with the ability to use a drag lift and being able to ski on the main slope in control of direction, speed and being able to stop when required. Some of the stages may need to be repeated as part of your learning process. It will be important to dress appropriately for the conditions, guidance and advice should be available from your chosen ski centre. All centres will have ski gear you can hire as part of a package such as skis, boots, poles, helmets etc. but not necessarily clothing such as gloves, jackets and waterproofs etc. Indoor refrigerated ski centres can be very cold!
They may also offer an awards based programme such as the Snowsport England's - SnowLife Awards which provide a great incentive for young and older skiers to track learning.
Improving your skiing
Many of the snowsport centres offer the opportunity for you to
- improve your skiing ability,
- renew your skills to get ready for your next ski holiday or ski season,
- maintain your skills,
- use skiing as a fitness activity
- or to take your skiing in another direction such as racing or instructing / coaching.
A side from what the snowsport centres have to offer many ski clubs are available around the UK that are particularly linked to racing although not exclusively. Midland Ski Club is an example of a ski club that offers high quality training for both recreational skiers and racing at multiple snowsport centres Ackers Adventure in Birmingham and Swadlincote Snowsport Centre.
Learning to race
As mentioned earlier there are many ski clubs around the UK that offer race training and to support this Snowsport England, the clubs and regions organise many races every year which generates and extensive race calendar both in the UK (both indoor and outdoor) and in the Alps ranging from:
For accurate official race information, dates and status information please visit gbski.com Official Website for the UK Race Calendar and Regulations.
- UK based races (April though to October)
- Club based introductory fun races
- Club National (CN) races key seeded races run by clubs at their local training slope but open to national governing body (NGB) registered racers. The format is three runs with the result being the quickest aggregate time of the fastest of the first two runs plus the third.
- Inter-Regional Races
- North East Ski Association (NESA)
- North West Ski Federation (NWSF)
- Yorkshire Ski Federation (YSF)
- Central England Ski Association (CESA) - Our Region
- Telford Ski Club Race
- Special Olympics West Midlands Ski Group (Disability Snowmark Accredited / Disabled Facilities)
- Ski Team Telford (Telford Junior Ski Race Club)
- North Staffs Ski Club (Recreational Snowmark Accredited)
- Midland Ski Club (Race & Recreational Snowmark Accredited) - Our Club
- Loughborough Sno (Race University)
- Festival Park Ski & Snowboard Club CIC Ltd (Race & Recreational)
- Eastern Region Snowsports Association (ERSA)
- South West Snowsports Association (SWSA)
- Snowsport South (SRSA)
- London & South East Regional Snowsports Association (LSERSA)
- Regional Schools Races
- GBR race series at a higher level format than club national above with the results determined by the quickest aggregate time of two runs.
- Championship Races usually September to November (English, Scottish, Welsh, Irish, English and British Schools) at higher standard of course setting but uses the same format as the GBR series but usually entry eligibility is limited by seed points. Normally:
- Inter-Regional - Mid July
- Anglo / Welsh Indoor - Mid August
- Scottish - Late Aug
- British - Early September
- English - Early September
- Welsh - Mid September
- Irish - Early October
- English Schools - Late October
- British Schools - Mid November
- Alpine Races (December to May)
- Anglo Scottish plus Scottish FIS - Early January
- British School Girls - Late January
- Welsh plus Welsh FIS - Late January
- English Alpine plus FIS - Mid February
- Artemis British Inter-school Ski Championships - Mid March
- Aiglon Schools - Mid March
- British Championships and FIS - Week before Easter
Finding a coach
If you are in the midlands this is where your coaching journey starts...
For Roger ski coaching is a journey taking you from whatever skill levels you currently have and then ever onward improving your abilities, confidence and performances towards your skiing dream.
With over 30 years experience behind him Roger continues to maintain high levels of fitness and skill levels. He continues to passionately research the sport to improve his knowledge and understanding with the aim of providing you the best possible coaching standards. He passes on his knowledge and experience through his Snowsport England coach mentoring role to many up and coming coaches in his endeavour to maintain a high coaching presence in the UK and push the standards ever higher. He is an accomplished, highly qualified, award winning coach with a broad reach in coaching range and styles. He is equally adept at teaching beginners to high performance skiers both in alpine recreational and racing settings. He is also a highly experienced organisational manager within the sport with a business background, holding Head Coach and senior coaching positions at both club and regional levels for many years.
Join the Midland Ski Club to get discounted rates.
Please get in touch to learn more about how to ski better.
