In Ireland, there are plenty of people who are really into snowboarding, especially college students attending DCU (Dublin City University). After all, it's not like these Irish sports enthusiasts can exactly hang out at the beach during the summer. The summer's average daily high temperature is about 60 degrees.
With summers that are so chilly, you might think Ireland would get cold enough during winter that the surfaces for snowboarders would be piled high with fine powder. Well, not quite. The average daily winter temps in Ireland remain up there in the low 40s.
It's like having six months of early spring and six months of late fall. What's going on here? Dublin is just as far north as Moscow. But maybe you remember from school: The Gulf Stream. The North Atlantic Current.
Sometimes it snows in the mountains of Ireland up to 30 times per year. But the snow usually doesn't stay long, and there have been years where it doesn't snow at all. So what's a snowboarder to do?
Aidan Coughlan was determined to do something. He returned from his first snowboarding experience in Europe eight years ago, and he was enraptured. So Aidan created a web site, irishsnowboarder.com, which attracted nearly 900 members. He organized ways to get snow made as often as possible at a mountain in Kilternan, both for slopes and half pipes. He started an online equipment store. The DCU snowboarders joined in. Aidan Coughlin is now seeking help to maintain the web site.
Still, sometimes they have to use fake snow, and sometimes it sounds sad. One forum poster wrote of the fake snow: "Ouch. Just back from freestyle Sunday in Kilternan, and I'm proof that what you can do on snow just does not happen on the dendex (i.e. fake snow)... I just took spill after spill after spill. Believe me, if you are going up there after time on the snow give yourself at least 5-10 runs to readjust, ('cause) I didn't and I paid the price. Bad fall on my shoulder, hand, etc. Still though, I'll be back there next Sunday!"
So, Ireland doesn't have the greatest snowboarding on the planet - just some of the most loyal and dedicated snowboarders.
Sources:
www.irishsnowboarder.com
www.dcusnowboarding.com
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Climate_of_Ireland
