I have always wanted to board on Christmas day and despite being in a country with slopes this year it was still not to be: however I did manage a session on Christmas eve!

As it was our first Christmas away from home Kat, Emily and I couldn’t think of a better way to spend Christmas eve than boarding. So we got up at stupid o clock in the morning and headed for Bears Town, a resort near Seoul. Sam had decided he wanted to come along for the ride, and never having snowboarded before, it was going to be an interesting day for him!

We arrived at the bus stop in Seoul and got chatting to a Korean girl, who’s English name was Katie. She was an English teacher in Seoul and ended up spending a while riding with us – or rather falling over with Sam!

When we arrived at the slope the first thing we realised was that there was no snow anywhere but the slopes – the entire resort was made with ‘real’ fake snow. In France they often have snow machines but I have never seen a resort made entirely out of fake snow – probably because all the other resorts I’ve been to are massive compared to Bears Town.

Emily and Katrina were pretty nervous about boarding as they hadn’t been for quite a while, where as I was just excited to get going! But the first thing we had to do was take Sam to a very small slope and amuse ourselves with his first ever attempt at snowboarding. He actually did remarkably well standing up and heading down the slope without too much trouble. By the end of the day he had almost mastered turning. Much better than my first time – it took me a week to learn to stand up!

The ‘fake’ snow meant the conditions were fairly good – snowboarding when it is icy is a nightmare – and a fantastic day was had by all.

The resort was fine for a day trip but not somewhere I would wish to go back to; it was too small. I could get from the top of the biggest slope to the bottom in around five minutes – a feat you could never achieve at some of the resorts in France. Plus I have never been to a resort with soooo many people! At peek time the queues for the lifts were huge!

I took the video below on my way down the largest slope. It’s not the best because I was trying very hard not to fall with my camera in my hand and subsequently was going much slower than I would have been otherwise – honest!!!

* Posted by j150vsc on 27/12/2006.