If you have been wondering how a big air contest can take place in London, a city and thus area which is known for art, music, the Queen and many other things but not for snow or snowboarding, you might be interested in some behind the scenes information.
After the scaffolding for the gigantic 32m high ramp has been installed over the past weeks, the snow crew has taken over the place this Thursday; well funny as it is, led by a snow master from the Netherlands.
Yes, the Netherlands. However, although coming from a country also not famous for snow sports, Martijn Oostdijk has been responsible for the snow at London Freeze from the first event on and took some time to explain how everything works on the venue right next to the iconic towers of Battersea Powerstation.
„We blow air together with water on high pressure under a tent and cool it with nitrogen. Obviously, this is a very expensive way, but as we don't have snow here in London, that's the way it has to be.“
Nine massive trailers of nitrogen are used on Thursday to lay the foundation for the first events like the “Battle of Britain” and the first training session for the World Cup big air on Saturday.
The whole process has an outcome of 229 tons of snow which will be topped by another 130 on Friday, obviously always produced during the nights, to ensure the best possible snow conditions you can have facing temperatures around 15 – 17 °C during the daytime.
“Although it's pretty warm and humid here in London and always difficult, we are pretty sure to have perfect conditions on Saturday”, says Oostdijk optimistic.
Check out this short clip!!!
