There’s nothing worse than eagerly taking your brand-new skis or snowboard up the mountain on the first day of your winter break, only to find it’s not quite the smooth ride you were hoping for !
You can read the board write-ups, study all the latest skis and feel certain you’ve made the right choice from the moment you unwrap your new gear, right up until that first slide on snow!
But this needn’t be the case, as real-snow indoor ski and snowboard centres up and down the UK offer you the chance to demo kit before you buy it! Make sure you find the right setup for your park, piste or powder needs by trying the latest skis or snowboards from Snow & Rock at The Snow Centre Hemel Hempstead or Ellis Brigham at the Tamworth, Castleford, Milton Keynes and Braehead snow domes.
As long as the board or skis you want to try are available in the store’s demo pool, you can usually try as many different models as you like for FREE, so you only have to pick up the cost of your time on the slopes! Snow & Rock charge £15 per demo, but if you buy the board or skis afterwards, you get the £15 off the price of your new equipment ! Much better than spending hundreds of pounds or more on a setup before finding it doesn’t quite suit your on-slope style !
What’s more, Ellis Brigham will happily refund your one-hour slope time if you actually buy the board you demo! That’s some free indoor riding, plus brand-new skis or a board you can’t wait to hit the slopes on!
Alternatively, you can time your indoor ski or snowboard demo session with a centre’s speciality demo night. The Snow Centre invites various brands along to most of their Friday Freestyle Nights, and you don’t even have to leave the slope to try a whole range of the current season’s equipment. From Nitro to Faction Skis, the guest brand set up a demo stand at the bottom of the slope, so you could swap your snowboard or try a new pair of skis on every run!
Now there’s really no need to blindly buy that board because it has a spectacular graphic or those skis because everyone’s raving about them – make sure you try before you buy this season!