They told him it would be easy, even 70-year-old grandmas could do it. Whether it was bravado or the sheer love for a challenge, they had him and how! An insight into the fall and rise of Andy van Smeerdijk on the slopes of Ski Dubai.
So you've been to the Mall of the Emirates. Stood in the gallery. Had your picture taken in front of the Ski Dubai ski-slope. Watched the red-and-blue suited children toboggan, while their parents waddle through the snow. And stood transfixed as skiers and snowboarders scythe gracefully through the white stuff. So why not try it yourself?
"Never! I simply cannot do that," says Shashi Rahman, a Sharjah-based sales assistant. "I have seen snow before in Himachal Pradesh in my homeland, India. It was very pleasant. But I do not wish to try skiing," he adds.
His reluctance is understandable. With the vast majority of residents of the UAE coming from the Middle East and the Subcontinent, few have even seen snow let alone skied or snowboarded. However, since Ski Dubai opened in December 2005, more than a million people have done so. So it can't be that scary, right?
"It's truly crazy. Why do people do it?" says Mohammad, a visitor from Kuwait. "I came to Dubai just to see this spectacular place. I have always visited Dubai for other places and events, but this is something else. Dubai always surprises me with something new."
But would he try it himself?
"I'm not sure ... I'm only here for a few days," he says with a grin.
However, the folks at Ski Dubai say it's easier than you think. You just need a little training.
"Anybody can ski, so long as they go through the proper training programmes," says Lucas Marchand, operations manager, Ski Dubai. He says advancements in equipment over the past 15 years have made the sport more accessible. "The equipment today is very well developed with safety devices. Everybody – from 3-year-olds to 70-year-old ladies – can do it, provided they get the right instruction."
Ski Dubai's lessons are designed to teach newcomers the 'minimal skill requirements' required to ski on the main slope unassisted.
"The Discovery lesson is a very basic lesson where, after taking it, you normally feel: 'Yes, I can do this!' It's the first step towards developing what we call the minimum requirements. These are: you can control your speed, you can turn right, left, you can stop and you know how to take the chairlift."
Ski school is divided into adult and child groups and ability. Most novices start off with a Discovery lesson. These one-hour familiarisation sessions go through the basics: how to handle the equipment and the basic techniques of skiing, turning and stopping.
After this, participants move on to beginner classes where they learn about safety, warming up, controlling speed and turning. The more advanced lessons take place on different slopes and teach more advanced aspects such as turning, taking ski-lifts and mastering control of speed.
It all sounds so easy, so professional. Tempted? Then don your fleeces and join FM on a Discovery ski lesson.
Hitting the slopes
Surprise one: skiing at Ski Dubai can get remarkably hot. So if you're doing a Discovery lesson, you may want to just wear just a T-shirt under your snowjacket and forget about the woollen cap.
Surprise two: in addition to learning this cool winter sport, you may also gain an insight into why penguins waddle. Try turning around while wearing skis and you'll understand!
Our instructor, Stuart Isdale, is a thorough professional. After we're outfitted in snowjackets, pants, boots and skis (note: you must bring your own gloves, or purchase them for Dh10-60), he leads us into the icy cavern that is Ski Dubai.
Being the bottom-feeders of the skiing fraternity we start at the appropriate spot – the bottom of the slope, one of two areas dedicated to beginners. Here Isdale puts us through some warm-up stretches then we're shown how to put on our skis and take them off, no mean feat.
After this, we – three British visitors and myself – are told to all don single skis and "make like a scooter". In other words, we skid around on single skis for a while. After this is done, we put on both skis and do likewise.
"Now comes the most important thing – and that's stopping!" says Isdale. He shows us the 'snow plough' technique: where you push your heels outward so that both skis tilt and touch in front of your body.
Then the weird part starts. At the side of the beginners area, there's a conveyor belt called the 'magic carpet', which whisks skiers to the top of the modest slope. But our instructor has other ideas and teaches us how to edge sidewards up the slope, like crabs. This proves to be hard work.
Halfway up, one by one we're shown how to turn around, stop for a moment, and then shoot down the slope. As we have no poles, we keep our hands on our knees and lean forward ... at least the other three did.
"Lean forward! Lean forward!" bawls Isdale until I finally get the message.
I don't fall over, which is quite surprising. But I find a new method of stopping – the 'padded wall' method. For a second I think I'm going to end up in someone's soup at Sezzam restaurant, which overlooks the base of the run – but I recover in time.
We repeat the procedure several times under Isdale's watchful eye, then slide onto the 'magic carpet' – skis and all – and go up to the higher beginners' slope, like wide-eyed kindergarteners venturing into the seniors' turf.
Here, the other beginners' slope is longer but gentler and we practise skiing down for a few seconds, then stopping ... repeating the drill several times. Gradually, I begin to appreciate the importance of balance, especially when you snow plough.
After a couple of successful attempts, I feel quite proud of myself, almost smug. Then I see a skier on the main slope rocket off a ski-jump, glide through the air and slip back to ground without a flutter. Show off. A few minutes later, I feel more content when a snowboarder careens into the plastic fencing ... shaken but unscathed.
Before we know it, the hour's over. We're escorted back to the change rooms and we bid farewell to our attentive instructor.
A first for Ski Dubai ... and Amna
Ski Dubai's instructors are clearly the heart of the education process. But not all of them have grown up skiing.
Amna Malek, Ski Dubai's first Emirati ski instructor, admits she'd never dreamt of being a ski instructor when she was young. In fact, she hadn't thought about snow much at all.
"When I first joined the company, I didn't know anything about snow or skiing," says the 28-year-old. "I certainly didn't think of becoming a ski instructor!"
Born and raised in Dubai, Amna joined Ski Dubai's customer service team in November 2005 after gaining a diploma in networking from New Horizon computer learning centre.
When she started, the facility didn't have a flake of snow in it. She and other staff members were shown around the bare slope and she admits, "Really, I didn't have an idea what it would end up looking like."
Then when the artificial snow began piling up, they went out on slope again. "It was amazing. There were lots of us – Arabs, Indians and Filipinos – who had never seen or touched snow before; all throwing snow at each other!"
As part of her induction, Amna – like all staff members – had to take a lesson. She opted for snowboarding but was very nervous. "I did it and enjoyed it, but I thought that I didn't want to snowboard again," she says. "But later one of the instructors started giving me ski lessons every day. I liked that more and got better."
When the opportunity to train as a ski instructor opened up, Amna had progressed well in the Level 1 programme. When approached about the possibility of being the first Emirati instructor, she admits she was "shocked" by the prospect.
"I said, 'Let me think about it.' My manager said I should go home and ask my parents. My parents were also shocked, but my father said I should think seriously about it. He said, 'Is it what you really want to do? Will you get bored? Is it something you want to do with your life?"
Of course, the answer was yes and Amna enrolled with the Snow Sport Academy, an Austrian ski school that conducts lessons at Ski Dubai.
After completing two courses, she was ready to teach her first class.
Today she conducts about three Discovery and beginners lessons a day.
Her other responsibilities include checking the lesson schedule, ensuring that instructors are assigned and arranging bookings.
"I also teach the young children. The children from 3 to 7 are the hardest. A lot of them cry at first. But I find it easier when the parents are not there. When the parents are there, they want to be with them; they keep holding them and they play up. But if the parents are not there, they are much easier and they have a lot of fun. The parents can watch from the viewing areas."
As for adults, Amna says many arrive feeling very tense. "You can see they are nervous. You can see that their body is so tense. So I tell them to relax and enjoy it. I tell them that I'll be with them the whole time; I'll be in front of them. In some cases, I even hold them and stay with them while they're learning."
So what are her tips for learning to ski?
"Stopping is the most important thing," she says, laughing. "So if you can't stop, you can't ski."
Amna adds that learning to stand up is also important – as everyone invariably falls over. "Some people have to take off their skis and get up."
Once she started work at Ski Dubai, she was surprised at how many of her Emirati friends already knew how to ski. "I would see them on the slope and I couldn't believe it; how can they ski? Maybe they took lessons when I was away, I didn't know." Amna says that people who just want to ski are tested before they're admitted on to the slope. "Many ski very well; they've been doing it a long time. And some have never done lessons but they know how to ski, including a surprising number of UAE nationals.
"Some of the locals say, 'No, no, no ... we're not going back to school, we just want to ski.' Some have experience from skiing in Lebanon and they're good enough to ski."
The testing conducted by Ski Dubai for the "minimum requirements" is purely for the sake of safety, she says.
"It's very important to be able to turn and avoid people and emergency stop. Imagine if someone is in front of you and you cannot turn? Some people can only ski straight and do the snow plough."
Ski Dubai gets a lot of European and GCC guests, she says, but also many groups from Asia. "We have a lot of tourists from India," says Amna.
"Yesterday there were 46 Indians, a corporate booking, who had never seen snow before. My manager told me there is a ski-slope in Kashmir, but most people have never skied."
One of her most memorable moments on the job was when a European guest was blown away by the experience.
"He may have been from Italy or France ... I'm not sure, but he was jumping around and saying, 'It's real snow! It's nice snow! It's very big, and it's so different!' He'd never seen the snow, maybe. Maybe he had one idea in his mind and he was expecting this and experienced something else," she recalls.
And her ambitions?
"Now I want to do more training ... to get a certificate to teach people at higher levels. That's it for now," she says. After a pause, she then adds, "Maybe competing in the Olympics in racing!"
Safety and ski patrols
Marchand, who grew up in a French ski resort near the Switzerland border, oversees the entire operation at Ski Dubai.
He says lessons are an important part of the business. In its first year, 75 per cent of Ski Dubai's customers visited the Snow Park; in the second, the figure was 60 per cent went – the rest opting to ski or take lessons. Demand for lessons increased so much that an additional beginners area was introduced.
"When we were setting up the facility, we identified that most of our customers would not have the ski culture," he says. "Any other indoor facility would have five maximum instructors – we have 29! Our Snow School is the big thing here.
"The idea is that you come here, you discover the snow then go to the Snow School – we want to teach visitors the ski and snowboard culture."
In terms of safety, he says this was taken into account even during the design stage of the project.
"Since the early stage of the project, we've used the best professionals from all over the world: from the designer to the supplier," he says. "The focus on the Snow School is also an important part of safety. A basic lesson is cheaper than a general pass. The reason for this is that we want skiers to get good professional advice, because that's the way you really enjoy skiing."
"We teach you how to manage your minimum requirements and then, it's your choice to go slowly or quickly."
"We want people to enjoy skiing – and the best way to get that is to have professional training. All our instructors are certified by the Snow Sports Academy – a renowned Austrian organisation. They come here to assess and train our instructors.
"Then there are the patrollers – we have 6 full-time. In any other slope in the world, you would never see so many patrollers, but that's an adaptation to local market, which needs a lot of information."
The patrollers are all trained by the US National Ski Patrolling federation (NSP). Their job is to check on safety equipment, patrol the slopes and communicate with the guests (eg, speaking to them when they're going too fast) and manage an evacuation if an incident occurs.
Ski Dubai ticket holders are covered by insurance, while the facility has a partnership with Emirates Hospital in the event of a mishap. Two paramedics are always at hand and an ambulance is stationed at the facility.
Marchand says the environment at Ski Dubai is a great launching pad for overseas skiing trips.
"Say you're a local family and you'd like to go to one of those big European ski slopes. So you reach the bottom of the mountain and it looks so impressive, so big. Ski Dubai is the perfect interface before a resort like this – you get used to skiing, the vocabulary, using the chairlift, the whole experience. So once you're confident enough, then you can go to the big resorts."
The learners
So what do the skiers think of it all?
Ben Pratt, a Dubai-based environmental engineer from the UK, decided to learn how to ski when friends of his also showed an interest.
"It had a nice ring as a conversation starter: 'I learnt to snowboard in the desert'. It's only a 20-minute drive from work and relatively cheap.
I had friends who were interested in doing it too," he says.
"The lessons were well organised, starting out with the Discovery lesson and then the beginners lesson on the learners slope to build up the basic skills and confidence, before moving on to the main slope."
He says the most difficult part is "having the confidence not to think you're going to continually fall over. Yes, you will fall over, but you need to get over the fear of falling - and it doesn't really hurt, it just bruises your ego a bit!"
But this is soon forgotten once you get going, he adds, describing the feeling of zooming down the slope as "exhilarating". Since then, he has also taken the Discovery skiing lesson. "I hadn't skied before but I have subsequently taken the Discovery lesson in skiing along with my girlfriend. It was OK, but not as fun as snowboarding."
He says there's a positive mood on the ski slope and no signs of arrogance. "I've never seen any fights and everyone seems genuinely happy to be out there."
Andrew Kurbatoff, a Dubai-based urban planner, also leant to snowboard at Ski Dubai. "My girlfriend skis, I snowboard. I tried skiing once, but due to a lack of instruction didn't enjoy it much. Now that I can snowboard I don't ever see myself putting on skis."
Having surfed during his youth in his native Australia, Kurbatoff says learning to snowboard was not too difficult. "I spent a lot of time skating and surfing growing up, so am used to the whole standing sideways, balance and turning thing. By the third lesson I was confident to go down the slope. I guess after six sessions on the slope I was comfortable with linked turns and [going at high] speed."
His most important tip for novices is: "Watch out for other newcomers."
The reason he says this is because of an incident he witnessed at Ski Dubai. "It was probably during my third lesson; we were on the slope and one of the young guys in our group lost control and smacked into another beginner. I haven't seen either one of them since."
As for now, he's keen to try his newfound sport elsewhere. "I wanna try it on a real mountain. I would love to go to Iran for a snowboarding trip; a friend from work went earlier this year and his pics are amazing. I am also planning a holiday to Austria ... this New Year's vacation."
Pratt has also considered snowboarding in Iran or Lebanon "because they're local, interesting and relatively cheap."
After about 25 trips to Ski Dubai, Kurbatoff says he's had "no major injuries thus far, knock on wood. Given my age, and lack of regular exercise, I always try to stretch before snowboarding, even if only for a few minutes".
Pratt stretches his hamstrings, arms and shoulders prior to snowboarding. He too hasn't experienced any injuries. "Only bruises from falling over," he says.
A native of sunny Queensland, Kurbatoff rates his most extreme snowboarding experience as "surviving three hours inside that place. No matter how much I rug up, the cold always does me in before the fatigue."
"Buy some decent gloves," is Pratt's advice for newcomers. "And just enjoy yourself."
So what's his greatest achievement in skiing/snowboarding so far?
"Still being in one piece!" he says with a smile. And as for those in the gallery who say they'll "never" ski, Mumbai-based businessman Srikumar is adamant: "They must all try – all of them!"
Having never skied before, he and 30 of his associates were recently "made" to ski while attending a conference in Dubai. "I loved it, it was wonderful. I'd like to do it again and would recommend it to anyone."
IT'S COOL in the desert
The first indoor ski-slope in the Middle East, Ski Dubai features five runs of varying difficulty and length, a freestyle zone, a snowboard area and a snow park where youngsters can ride toboggans, bobsleds and tubes. The temperature is normally between -1Þ and -20ÞC, but luckily admission includes cold weather gear!
Opened in December 2005, it features a 400 metres L-shaped slope, which is covered with at least one metre of snow – 6,000 tonnes in all. The left side of the slope is a run designed for professionals and the facility is equipped with chairlifts and tow-lifts.
Every evening, 30 tonnes of fresh snow tops-up the slope. The process is similar to the way artificial snow is made at outdoor ski resorts.
Chemical-free water is put through a chiller to cool, then pumped through pipes to 'snow guns' on the ceiling. When this chilled water is blown out into a sub-zero environment (between -7Þ and - 80ÞC), it crystallises and becomes snow. To insulate the chamber, the facility has a roof 5 m higher than the ceiling, 23 blast coolers that chill the air and glycol tubing throughout the floor, which keeps the base of the snow solid.
Soon Dubai will have not one, but two ski-slopes. Situated in Dubailand, Dubai Sunny Mountain Ski Dome is due to be completed in 2008 and will include a revolving ski-slope, artificial mountains, a penguinarium, an aquaria with polar bears, a snow castle, ice-rink, snow maze and ice-slide.
Snow, what next?
Ski passes:
These are issued to people who are able to ski; otherwise they will need to take lessons. Included in the price are skis, poles and boots for skiers, or a snowboard and boots for snowboarders. Also included are disposable socks, trousers, jacket and helmet (for children under 13).
Participants must provide their own hats and gloves (can be purchased at ski-shop). Lockers are available for rental.
Two-hour pass: Dh150 adults/Dh130 children (up to 12)
Full-day pass: Dh270/Dh220
Snow Park entry: Dh60
Lessons:
These include all the equipment as is provided with ski passes. Beginner and Level 1 lessons are conducted on a private slope for safety reasons.
Intermediate lessons are conducted on more challenging ski runs. Group lessons are conducted for 8-10 skiers or snowboarders of similar ability. Sessions typically last for 90 minutes. Complete novices can start with a one-hour 'Discovery' group session, in which they are familiarised with the equipment and the basics of skiing or snowboarding. Lessons must be booked two weeks in advance and participants must arrive at lessons one hour prior to commencement.
Children 3 and over can participate in the Polar Bear Club, designed to teach youngsters about being in the snow and skiing, with an emphasis on safety and enjoyment. Private lessons for up to three people can also be organised.
Discovery lessons (1 hour): Dh130 adults/children
Group lessons (90 minutes): Dh175/Dh155
Contact: (04) 409 4000 or booking@skidxb.com
Website: www.skidxb.com
