Kelvingrove Park session
Scottish snowboarders head to the park in May.
More like this...
This month 80 tonnes of snow will be dumped in Kelvingrove Park, Glasgow, for one of Scotland's biggest outdoor snowboarding events.
Organisers of the event SNO!zone, the local indoor snowsports centre, will be building a real snow slope in the park, complete with rails and kickers especially for the event on the 23rd of May, running between 12 and 8pm.
With some of the best UK riders competing against each other, a live dj, and competitions lined up this year looks set to be just as fun as last.
I attended last year, and although it was enjoyable, I couldn't help thinking how far removed this situation was from snowboarding's natural roots, not to mention the impact producing 80 tonnes of artificial snow has on the environment.
Indoor snowdomes and events like this one are great fun, and have brought snowboarding to people that don't have access to the mountains. But artificial snow production is energy hungry, which only adds to the global warming problem, so we need to be careful about how we promote it.
Moreover, there really is no substitute for the real thing, snowboarding in a park in the middle of summer cannot compare to a snowy mountain in winter. But if global warming bites and ski resorts disappear, this is what we will be left with, and who wants that?
In no way am I saying snow domes and events such as this are bad, but they are not going to solve this mess we've got ourselves into.
Subscribe to HUCK for six issues
Only £20 (UK) / £43 (EU) / £58 (Rest of the World).
Kelvingrove Park session (text) by Ruth Carruthers is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License.Comments (8)
Please note: Your comment may be held in moderation for approval by an administrator to prevent spamming. This usually doesn't take long, please be patient.
It would be good to know if the organisers are doing anything to offset the carbon footprint of the event.
Even the wax on your board pollutes the ground when the thaw sets it, snowboarding seems set to destroy itself. And then people will only be riding snowdomes, and then companies who make them really will clean up.
I smell a conspiracy!
I went last year and it was awesome! Can't wait, and a bar this time too I hear!!!
Fingers crossed for some good weather this year!
Bring it on!!
Zombified idots alert!