The LAAX Freestyle Academy building is to be completely rebuilt then re-open in 2024 as an entirely carbon neutral facility. The Swiss resort’s freestyle academy – a year-round centre of learning and excellence for freestyle sports complete with indoor ramps, jumps, big airbags and trampolines – first opened 12 years ago, the first in Europe, using a former indoor tennis

The 18 year-old freestyle skier known as Eileen Gu in the Western world and Gu Ailing (谷爱凌) to Chinese speakers, has had some sensational results in the X Games, World Championships and Winter Olympics over the past few years. American-born Gu decided to compete for China, her mother’s homeland, in 2019 and became the youngest ever Olympic champion in freestyle

The famous dry ski slope of Copenhill on the renewable energy waste-to-power plant in Copenhagen has signed an agreement with the leading Scandinavian ski resort operator SkiStar to create a relationship with the company’s ski resorts. It’s a recognition of Copenhill’s global status and its importance in Scandinavia that it has reached this agreement.  It is fairly common for larger

A much-anticipated high-performance airbag jump has been completed and unveiled to freestyle skiers and boarders at Australia’s National Snowsports Training Centre in Jindabyne. Park and pipe athletes from Snow Australia’s ETP (Emerging Talent Program) were among the first to begin training on the facility, which features a 17 metre run down to the jump, covered with JF DrySki slope material.

The possibility to ski on a cross-country loop by the sea in December and January proved very popular at Italy’s Caorle Wonderland during the holiday season. The event, which ran from 4th December to 9th January at Caorle, a delightful village on the warm Adriatic sea, involves a whole range of events to launch the winter season for the area.

Dave Ryding became the first British skier to win a World Cup Alpine ski race in the competition’s 55 years , winning the slalom at the annual tour’s biggest event, the Hahnenkamm meeting at Kitzbuhel in Austria in January. Ryding, who had taken second place in the same race five years ago, at the time the joint best ever British

The ARC (Amager Resource Center) waste-to-energy power plant in Copenhagen has been awarded ‘2021 World Building of the Year’ at the World Architecture Festival for its rooftop leisure area which includes a long dry ski slope wrapped around the building, its surface supplied by Italy-based Neveplast. The award however is a recognition of the building’s ecologically sensitive industrial design which

A large freestyle jump onto a Big Air Bag is under construction in Switzerland. The Leysin Big Air Bag is being built 27 metres high and will feature two ramps and three slopes. Fondation Leysin Big Air Bag has ordered 717.2㎡ of JF Dryski mat to cover the slopes for year-round use, although it appears there’ll be snow covering the

A new £15 million leisure centre currently under construction at Barnstaple in North Devon will feature an indoor conveyor ski machine. Work on the new Tarka Leisure Centre began during the pandemic began. It is being funded by North Devon Council, Sport England and the Coastal Communities Fund. The conveyor slope will be a top-of-the-range SkiMachine by Alpine Engineering, the

For many years, Bergbahn Kitzbühel (Austria) has been using Lifttrax SP sliding mats for the lift entry and exit of many chairlifts. These are not just standard dry slope matting, but a special, softer product designed for this very purpose. The resort has the longest season of any non-glacier resort in the Alps opening at the end of October using