The Snow Show 2023

22nd October 2023 | Simon Wilson, London Snow Show.

Last modified on October 26th, 2023

PlanetSKI reporter Simon Wilson has not been to a ski show for more than forty years – so we despatched him to this year’s exhibition & asked him to take his teenage-self along. What has changed?

Nothing changes.

Everything changes.

If I could go back and grab my greasy-haired teenage self from the late 1970’s and drag him through space and time to London’s Excel conference centre on a crisp Docklands morning in Autumn 2023, there is much he would recognise.

The same thrill of entering a cavernous, darkened exhibition hall – back then it was in Earls’ Court or Olympia – to be confronted with dollops of fake snow, movie-set wooden chalets and row upon row of the latest boots and skis.

He would see the same excited, if somewhat terrified, look on the faces of young children being cajoled by parents to strap on skis and take those first tentative turns on an indoor slope.

Back in the day it was a somewhat rickety inclined wedge of plastic bristles that cut and burned when you fell, which of course my teenage self did.

Often.

This year I am delighted to be in the position of watcher rather than participater, at Crystal Skis adventure zone as first snowplough turns are performed under expert eyes on a clever, rolling snow simulator.

The London Snow Show. Image © PlanetSKI

The teenage me would be just as excited to examine the latest ski shapes.

If somewhat baffled by their strange, curved sidewalls and short length.

And he might well be starting to wonder about the wisdom of spending an entire year’s hard-earned cash from his weekend job stocking shelves in an off-licence on a pair of 207cm Dynamic VR series skis.

The older me now rarely skies on anything longer than 180.

Some things would baffle him entirely.

Snowboards, now so integrated into the winter sports scene that they barely merit a special mention, would look like something out of a science fiction movie to a 1970’s teenager.

The London Snow Show. Image © PlanetSKI

And, being a pretentious little so-and-so, he would also likely observe how much British society itself has evolved in the intervening decades.

Sustainability and environmental awareness now trump convenience on exhibitor stands.

Visitors making their rounds of the hall now clasp steaming cups of flat-white coffee and cappuccinos.

The London Snow Show. Image © PlanetSKI

In the 70’s or 80’s no self-respecting parent would have left an Earl’s Court or Olympia ski show without downing multiple glasses of vin chaud.

And if my teenage self is feeling a little dizzy as we mull together these weighty issues of social development, ski fashion and the passage of time, I will comfort him with the knowledge that some things never change.

In the far corner of Snow Show ’23, on the main Inghams stage, is that quintessential British underdog Eddie ‘the eagle’ Edwards.

He is still pulling in the crowds and regaling young and old alike with the extraordinary tale of his ski jumping obsession and his legendary journey to the 1988 winter Olympics in Calgary.

Eddie, like me, is now a man in his sixtieth year and he looks good on it, lean and fit.

And if the faces of those under twenty in his audience are somewhat blank at his reminiscences and his VHS highlights reel, it is clear from the glints in the eyes of those, like me, from his generation that I am not the only one at this ski show taking a happy trip down memory lane.

Once again, 40-years on, a ski show has fired my imagination for sliding down a mountain on snow.

My teenage-self would understand.