Slightly shabby but the cheapest and most friendly indoor slope in Britain.
Rating overall
7/10
Introduction
Tamworth Snowdome was the UK's first indoor artifical snow slope - built in 1995 the slope is now showing it's age when compared to the newer 'Xscape' centres that have been appearing around the country over the past five years. However, despite its slightly shoddy interior and at times icey snow, the Tamworth Snowdome scores big points for being the most boarder friendly, low key, affordable and laid back slope in the UK.
Indoor freeriding is never going to be epic. That said the slope at Tamworth slope is wide, 170 meters long and features and exciting bend so you can get really good at carving in one direction.
Saturday night is 'ramp night' at Tamworth when a pretty big collection of rails, boxes and jump ramps are dragged onto the slope for freestyle antics from 10pm to a slightly surreal 1.30 in the morning. There's also a beginner ramp night on a Friday with chilled out coaching for those new to the scene.
The set up at Tamworth generally has something on offer for everyone. The infamous 'ramps' that Tamworth optimistically refer to as kickers or jumps - are not for the faint hearted. With not a faint wiff of a landing in sight they shoot you into the air onto dead flat landings so rubber knees and strong legs are required. If the ramps of death aren't your thing there are normally a sweet collection of jibs to suit all abilities, and an interesting half carpet / half snow quarter pipe that you have to be local to learn to love and understand.
Tamworth freestyle nights are packed with keen riders having a laugh, the scene is super friendly and very unintimidating (yo kids and gansters seem to be in short supply), making it a perfect venue for those wanting to try out an indoor freestyle night for the first time.
For beginners it's as good a place to learn as any. Tamworth has a few seperate 'academy' slopes perfect for learning away from watchful eyes and experts.