Welcome to Ski Exchange, an independent UK Snowsports Specialist since 1987. Top Brands, 5* Boot Lab, Latest Kit & Expert Advice

New Race Products Arriving Soon! Use code SUMMERSKI for 25% more off all Clothing, Gloves & Socks!

Jay Hebblethwaite's End of the Summer Blog

Jay Hebblethwaite's End of the Summer Blog

Ski Exchange |

At the start of this summer I was privileged to join the ski exchange team after winning The Ski Exchange sponsored K-Jam Event. During this off season I’ve been working at my local Aldi supermarket saving as much money as I can for the season ahead. Getting up to bike to my 10hr shifts starting at 4am to stack shelves and then deal with customers definitely wasn’t easy but now I’m so excited and ready for the coming winter season especially with the help of Ski Exchange's expertise and kit!

With the Park&Pipe team, I managed to get away to the Sport Vlaanderen training facility in Belgium for a couple of weekends. The facility has a huge 50ft kicker into a 1000m2 soft landing bag: there isn’t a better place to safely learn new tricks. With the escalator still under construction I had to get to the top of the jump the old fashioned way- walk! Even after plodding up over 140 steps in ski boots for each run I still had an amazing time. I learnt heaps of new tricks, including double misty 1440, double cork 1440 blunt grab, some unnatural spinning flips and even did some triple backflips for fun.

Back in the UK I’ve made the most of all the artificial indoors and outdoors ski slopes. In England, just an hour away from London is Milton Keynes’ Snozone. Although not quite real snow, Snozone’s weekly Freestyle Park offered a great place for me to get my snow legs warmed up. I learnt a 450 onto a rail there which the next day at the Futures session, I managed to progress that trick into a 450 on pretzel 450 off and learnt the other way 450 on too. Piecing together lots of different rail tricks in these snow domes has got me ready for my next international competition in October.

Jay image

Up in Scotland I managed to place 1st overall in The Triple Crown, a competition held over three different dry slopes.  I had one of my most enjoyable days skiing ever during the last leg of the event at Hillend Ski Club, Edinburgh. The sun was shining, tunes were playing and with all the competitors, onlookers and volunteers the vibe was just amazing. I even landed Hillend's first double backflip on skis there!
double flip Jay
The photo credit goes to Miles Hallett (@mileshallett) for the snow photos and Ben Sarachi (b.sarachi@gmail.com) for the Hillend photos.

Leave a comment

Please note: comments must be approved before they are published.