FIRST TASTE OF SKIING
5th December 2017
Last modified on August 23rd, 2021
Thirty school pupils have skied for the first time after winning a competition run by the affordable sports retailer, Decathlon. PlanetSKI tagged along.
The children, aged five to 10, came from the Ardley Hill Academy in Dunstable, Bedfordshire.
They won a half day of lessons at The Snow Centre in Hemel Hempstead in an art competition.
PlanetSKI’s chief reporter Jane Peel was there to record their efforts and talk to some of those involved.
The novice skiers had a helping hand from the British former alpine racer, Olympian and Ski Sunday presenter, Graham Bell, who said he was delighted to be involved with a project aimed at getting more kids into winter sports.
The competition was organised to promote Decathlon’s new store in Dunstable and the retailer kitted out the children in its own Wedze snowsports range of clothing, which they got to keep.
First timers Alfie and Izzy
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We spoke to two of the children, Alfie, who’s 8 and 10-year-old Izzy in a break in their lesson.
Alfie described the experience as very good because “you get to go fast down the hill” and try not to fall over. He said he fell a couple of times.
“It was a lot harder than I thought,” Izzy said, but she still wanted to have another go and would like to go to the mountains.
Teacher Ally Dearmer
Art teacher Ally Dearmer accompanied the children.
“It’s an experience that some people will never have and they are absolutely loving it today,” she told us.
All in one piece at the end
UPDATE 14th December – Decathlon have put together this short video edit of the day:
Decathlon, the affordable sports and clothing retailer is expanding in the UK, opening new stores and introducing more snowsports wear.
You can find out more about its snowsports range as PlanetSKI’s editor James Cove gives it the once over:
See here for the main PlanetSKI news page with all the latest stories from the mountains.
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