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  1 of 5 17/11/2004 @ 14:02 |
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| Revision #1 (Last edited: 17/11/2004 @ 14:07) |
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| Price Per Hour |
| £11 for a Burton demo-day and hotdog/drink |
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| Times Visited |
| Just Once |
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| Review Detail |
| This place is unbelievable. We travelled 40 odd miles for this very small farmyard type arrangement. The slope was slopping with greeny-brown water and big stagnant puddles at the bottom, yet point your board fall line on the steepest section and you go absolutely no-where. And when you turn there's no resistance whatsoever. Dendex may hurt a lot more - I've dislocated a finger in that stuff which was grim, but I'd happily pop my fingers out on every run rather than waste my time and money at Knockhatch again. We complained that, as Southdowns so rightly points out, 99% of the world's snowboarders won't be able to ride this carpet, and pointed out that only 2 people out of the 15 or so riding at the time were actually able to do anything, but the arrogant staff just said the slope was running particularly well that day and, surprise surprise, the only two who could ride it were the instructors, who tried to tell us our riding style was all wrong. Don't bother with this one. Oh and the demo thing was a bit lame. You had to transfer your own bindings onto the boards in order to ride them . . . and why have a demo at a slope where no-one can actually ride? |
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| Strengths |
| Hm? They've got nice chairs in the cafe. |
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| Weaknesses |
The slope is unlike any other surface you'll ever ride on - so why bother?
The staff and instructors were pretty arrogant.
Fairly expensive.
Bad drainage . . . no drainage, and the matting is generally badly laid (ripples and creases) and maintained (an abundance of green mould). |
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| Similar Slopes Visited |
| Bromley, Chatham, Cardiff. |
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| 1 of 5 21/04/2004 @ 20:44 |
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| Times Visited |
| Just Once |
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| Review Detail |
| Never ever again, the powderpak is greengrocers matting sprayed white and you can't hold an edge on it at all, the jump has lumps before it so you usually end up catching an edge and falling into the huge puddles of stagnant water at the base. |
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| Strengths |
| They have cones with a cap that pops up and soaks the slope, it also soaks everything else in site even in the winter but it's good for comedy value |
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| Weaknesses |
Very poor drainage
The surface is awful, even when you land a spin dead straight its so slow you go over your nose into the huge puddles of stagnant water, on guy pointed his board straight down the hill at the top and it went nowhere!! |
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| Similar Slopes Visited |
| Bromley, Calshot, JNLL Chatham, Gosling, Wycombe, MK Xscape, Hemel, Bowles |
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| 1 of 5 16/02/2004 @ 11:34 |
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| Price Per Hour |
| £9.50 |
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| Knockhatch Dry Slope |
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| Times Visited |
| Just Once |
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| Review Detail |
Coming down from a holiday high - eight days boarding in the 3 Vallees is always difficult. A trip to a dry slope was a little fix to keep me going. On the Web, Knockhatch looks good. Bright white slope, reasonable length and steepness. So when a friend invited me to help out with a group he was taking there I jumped at the chance.
Knockhatch fails to deliver on its promise. My criticisms focus on performance and operations
The web site makes a big claim that its 'Powder Pac' surface is good. Interesting to note that at launch they called it 'Tuf Glide'. My friend had it sussed - cheap greengrocers matting. This surface is appalling for snowboarding on. It's close weave may not create the pole grabbing voids of dendex but it means that when it is saturated it creates suction with a board. I am 15 stone and pointed my board down the fall line at the steeper top section. I leant back and forward and still did not move. I had to jump to get any movenemnt. Then when trying to edge and turn , the brakes go on again unexpectedly and you end up toppling over in an any direction but the one you should be going..
Dendix may burn and catch but you can ride on it but Knockhatch's surface is the pits
Seven runs later I could just about make a turn, exagerating the necessary actions massively, You can snowboard on it but not in a way that 99% of the world would recognise.
The jump pan looked good but with the sticky matting there seemed a chance you'd land and not move any further.
Operations
I've board at Hillingdon in its later days. not a pretty place, a health hazard but at least it had spirit. The spikes of dendex poking up were discounted by the fun toys on the slope. At Knockhatch the shoddy set up of the matting wasn't compensated by having fun. The matting did not overlap downhill so had creeped leaving inche wide gaps and fixings visible. Puddles of standing water were at the bottom and the fence at the end did not have aby padding. High Wycombe got slaughtered by the HSE even with more than mandatory padding. Why hasn't Knockhatch got padding here? Same goes for lift towers.
Oh, did I mention the green mould on the matting? The surface must be three years old (if it was laid in 2001) It's past it.
I hired a board and bindings. Both very new but please do wipe the mould off the board. I know slopes are wet and boards get wet but at least make it presentable when taking money off of us. |
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| Strengths |
| hire kit relatively new |
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| Weaknesses |
| Riding experience is terrible! So bad I went skiing for the rest of the time. |
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| Similar Slopes Visited |
| Hillend, High Wycombe, Bowles, Hillingdon, Beckton, Bearsden Ski Centre, Snowdome, Xscape |
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 4 of 5 15/03/2002 @ 16:23 |
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| Times Visited |
| 6-15 Times |
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| Review Detail |
| I can't really say much more about Knockhatch except that I agree entirely with everything that Starnzy has said :) I have been learning to board there, and therefore have nothing to compare it with! The instructors were all friendly, and the lessons weren't too expensive (£40 for 3x 1 1/2hr lessons) after
3 lessons Ive been able to go along to open practice. Water sprinklers are definately a pain, ive had some spectacular falls cos of them Grrr and as Starnzy said, the speed of the slope varies a LOT depending on how wet it is, definately best to go wen it's raining + put up with the wet arse! |
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| Strengths |
| Local :), Friendly (and fit) instructors, doesnt hurt too much when/if you fall, bar just opened up there :) |
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| Weaknesses |
| Sprinklers!!! |
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| Reviews: 26 |
| Site Admin |
| West Sussex |
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| 4 of 5 10/03/2002 @ 16:20 |
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| Price Per Hour |
| £8.50 per hour |
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| Times Visited |
| 6-15 Times |
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| Review Detail |
| I was chuffed to bits when this new slope opened up in December as it's only a 10 minute drive from where I live and until now I had to use a smaller, dendex slope which was further to travel to also.
The slope initially lookeda bit bizarre back in December as it was simply a green hill with some white matting laid on it. It looked very primitive and not really like a Ski/Snowboard centre at all, but over the past couple of months there have been quite a few developments to the surround of the slope making it look more like a complex than a cowboy outfit.
The surface used on this new slope is great as far as artifical slopes go. It's a new material called 'Tufglide' which not only feels better to board on than the old Dendex bristle style surface, but also avoids so many of the injuries caused by the older/harsher surfaces. It really doesn't hurt anywhere near as much to fall on this surface, which does help with confidence levels when pointing it down the hill, especially for beginners taking lessons etc.
The main hut that is situated beside the slope accomodates both Board/Ski & Boot rental/fitting area, and a bar. The hourly price for using the slope also includes the use of their equipment if you don't have your own.
The slope is open until 10pm every day of the week and rates it costs £8.50 per hour for boarders (skiiers get it for £6.50 per hour which to me seemed a bit harsh that they get it cheaper?!).
Standard Button lifts are currently used and despite looking very 'second hand' and un-modern, do the job as well as any other button lifts I have used.
On the whole, if Knockhatch can just sort out some better lubrication and reduce the amount of 'nozzle-exposure' poking through the matting that can cause edge catching, I think they are onto a winner with this slope, as long as they don't bump the hourly rates up later in the year upon gaining their initial user base! Fingers crossed they will keep it sensible (and perhaps flatten out the rates between skiiers and boarders). |
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| Strengths |
| Staff are friendly & helpful. Excellent new surface/matting (Tufglide). Reasonable hourly rates(although slightly bemused by the £2 saving that skiiers get!). |
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| Weaknesses |
| The Lubrication - On several occasions I have used the slope when it has been a dry day/night and the mist system that is in place simply hasn't been doing the job well enough. The board really does move too slow, so I tend to go when it's chucking it down with rain which dramatically improves things (apart from my own comfort! :) The mist nozzles that protrude from the matting in certain areas of the slope do seem slightly excessive in the amount of nozzle that is exposed. I have seen several people actually catch edges on one or two of them!
If your practise session coincides with a group lesson on the main slope, things can get a bit crowded and annoying trying to avoid bodies that are scattered across the slope. |
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| Similar Slopes Visited |
| Bowles Outdoor Centre (East Sussex), Snozone (Milton Keynes) |
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