Skiing and snowboarding through the desolation
Local athletes have proven that snow is not needed for them to shred the slopes. Although most of us would prefer a ski holiday in France, Salt-Street Productions has recently created a video at the now-closed Sheffield Ski Village. The ski site appears to be more like a war zone than a sports venue, but that didn’t stop the team from showing the potential of rebuilding an old home of the sport in Britain.
Edward Birch, who directed, produced and filmed the video, told The Telegraph in a recent interview that, “the Ski Village has gone out of everyone’s minds, and I wanted to bring it back to the forefront and get people talking about it by showing the total destruction in a visual way.
“I want to see a regeneration of this space. The ideal would be to see a sporting community back there, with skiing and snowboarding, walking, running and climbing – all the things that are important to Sheffield."
The video features Byron Haywood-Alexander, Marcus Haywood-Alexander and Andy Dods.
The Ski Village was closed after an accidental fire in April 2012. But, after that closing, the site has been victim to three separate arson attacks, which pushed it beyond repair. Despite being surrounded by graffiti and the other effects of vandalism, the athletes in the video are adept at negotiating the desolate terrain.
Sheffield Ski Village was a key piece in the UK’s lively skiing and snowboarding scene. There have been a number of rumours being circulated that there are efforts underway to re-vitalise the village, and the video aims to create support for rebuilding the site. In its heyday, the village helped train some of Teams GB’s best talent. Much of freestyle skiing team that competed at the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi – James “Woodsy” Woods, Katie Summerhayes and James Machon – all perfected their timing at the village. Olympic snowboarders Zoe Gillings and Jamie Nicholls also trained in Sheffield.
Image Credit: Darrell Taylor (flickr.com)