by Billy Kerr, Year 7
Last Sunday (12th June) a group of students from St Thomas More attended the Esskia dry slope ski training camp. This trip is a very good experience for skiers that have not done dry slopes before or like doing it for fun.
The event was held at Sunderland/Silksworth and we skied for five hours. We had to warm up for half an hour and do exercises, then they would bring out the stubbies (slalom gates about knee high) and we had to ski around them. With every run, we had to get a little bit closer until we were hitting them with our shins. After that, the stubbies were changed for full size gates.
The coaches were all professional trainers. They were really helpful and gave us a lot of tips so we didn’t struggle. If you have only skied on snow, the dry slopes aren’t that much different, you just need to put in more effort when turning.
Overall I had a brilliant experience at Silksworth and wish I could do it more often, especially on their dry slopes because it was challenging and the coaches were very supportive.
