The Dryslope scene for me in the 1990’s & 2000’s was a game changer. As a kid, I’d never been fortunate enough to get to the mountains to try snowboarding, so when I received a birthday present in the mid 90’s to have a snowboard lesson at Hillingdon dryslope (a few miles from where I lived) I was totally stoked.

We learnt how to ride Dendix in hard boots on a stiff old snowboard, and after a second follow up lesson we carried on shredding on our own. Hillingdon was a fun hill and we rode there every week. Well, that was until we found out that there was a place about 30 minutes down the road called Wycombe Summit that was much longer and had 2 slopes, a few kickers and a fun-box!

We spent every Sunday there, pretty much the whole day, only stopping for cheesy chips when we ran out of energy!  In the summer, you could smell the burning plastic from snowboard bases that were melting on the way down (the sprinklers were never really up to the job!). Extra speed was achieved by using the wax pad at the top of the hill or a squirt of back-to-black (not sure we were that eco-friendly back then).

As I remember, there were a bunch of dodgy Forum snowboards being sold and the die-cut letters were falling out the bottom 😂

From then, I hit the dizzy heights of Mount Bracknell where these photos have been taken. They used a different surface called Permasnow, which although it didn’t seem to hurt quite as much when you slammed, it was harder to get an edge in than on good ole Dendix. But, on the plus side, it did have chairlift and some kind of crazy toboggan run at the top (that I never saw run!)

Sadly all these slopes are now gone, not profitable I guess… or maybe a lot less profitable than whatever they have been replaced with. Shame.

Did you, or so you still ride dry slope? What is / was your favourite spot and why? We’d love to hear!