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When it comes to the youngest years the determinant here is the degree of psychophysical development of our child. The youngest students in our school are 3 – 4 years old. Willingness to learn, interest, and the ability to understand and repeat the movements shown to the child by the instructor are key. We teach the youngest by maintaining a balance between skill acquisition and fun. We are well aware that the key is to keep your child interested in further learning.

– Don’t dress your child in clothing that is too thick; he or she does a lot of physical activity during class. Dress them appropriately for the weather of the day!

– Waterproof pants are necessary. Children often lie in the snow during lessons and their clothes quickly get wet. Don’t tuck the aprons of your snow pants into your ski boots. When the ski boots are fastened, they cause pressure and quite a bit of discomfort.

– Pay attention to the gloves. They must be waterproof and the right size. They must be easy to put on and yet not fall off. We do not recommend woolen gloves – snow sticks to them and they quickly get wet. For longer activities, alternate gloves are often useful. Gloves also play an important protective role for your child’s hands.

– If it’s a sunny day, sunglasses that fit under your helmet may be useful. The snow reflects the light and it can be very disruptive during class.

– A balaclava under the helmet is not necessary. The helmets we provide have insulation.

– Ski goggles are not necessary. – Ski goggles are not necessary. In addition, they often evaporate which only makes learning more difficult.

– Youngers often want to drink during activities – take a thermos of tea or a bottle of water with you.

– In the initial class, you will learn safety rules, nomenclature, and become familiar with the equipment you will use in class.

– The next step is to learn how to put on the skis and the position used when moving on a flat surface, climbing and riding.

– Then, on a slope with a slight incline, you will practice climbing and first plow slides with speed control and stopping.

– The next stage you’ll get to is learning how to ride the ski lift. This will allow you to practice plow arcs (turning while plowing) and fine-tune controlled plow slides in more space and on sections of slope with slightly steeper gradients without constant climbing.

– Once you’ve mastered the plow technique you’ll slowly transition to parallel riding – first into slanted slopes and then into parallel turns.
This stage requires a slightly faster ride and is only introduced in people who have good control over their plowing technique. Our training process ensures a smooth transition from plow driving to parallel driving without sudden leaps in skill.

– Parallel riding requires more technique and coordination. Here, you and your instructor will focus more on the details, and it is through these details that you will be able to correctly execute the stunts while parallel riding. You will learn how to ride a chute, make turns with different radii, or parallel braking. When you have mastered the above to a reasonable degree you will begin to learn to edge ride!

Górka Szczęśliwicka is equipped with a highly efficient snowmaking system. It is activated when temperatures stay below -4°C. The slope is equipped with 6 snow cannons, which are able to snow the entire slope in just a few days at appropriate temperatures. Many times the snow cover was so heavy that it lasted until April!

The snow cannons located on the slope are supplied with water from a special tank, which is fed to them with hoses similar to those used by fire departments.

The cannons are equipped with special nozzles that spray water under high pressure. The sprayed water freezes in the cold air, resulting in artificial snow falling to the ground.

Whether water or snow will fall on the ground is due to the resultant of two atmospheric factors – air temperature and humidity. In Warsaw the average air humidity is over 85%, which makes the cannons can be used at temperatures below -4°C. Interestingly, when humidity is below 30%, artificial snow can be produced from temperatures as low as 1°C!

The needlepoint spread on the Hill is a mat made of plastic “brushes” attached to a metal frame. The bristles of the brushes are about 10cm high. An irrigation system is located under the mat. It is responsible for spraying a mist of water floating over the slope, which you often see in pictures from the Hill.

The water greatly enhances the sliding of the skis on the mat. It is not sprayed non-stop – irrigation is turned on based on demand. Sunshine, humidity, and air temperature, as well as the number of skiers on the slopes all affect how long moisture stays on the “brushes”. Water is usually turned off at intervals of about 10 minutes for a duration of 1-2 minutes.

Learning to ride the needle? There are several benefits from training on this surface. The first and most important is that we can ride on it and gain skills even when the temperatures are too high for snow. Second, even “hydrated” brush generates much more friction than snow. This makes sliding down them about 30 – 40% slower than on snow.

Training basic stunts like climbing, plowing – controlling speed and stopping is much safer and easier to learn just on the green mat. This is because skis accelerate much more slowly and to lower speeds than they do on snow. For the same reason, we experience less painful falls. Transitioning to parallel driving, where you are already moving faster, is also easier especially for people who are afraid of speed at first.

I took my first steps on the dry slope – how will it be on snow? The transition from mat to snow is usually several minutes of instruction with an instructor. This is because the skiing technique is identical. After a few sessions on the dry slope, developed muscle memory ensures a very quick transition to riding on snow and most importantly – the most difficult, or first steps and potentially most painful falls are already behind us then offset by learning on a “slow surface”.