INFO

Membership Prices

Lessons/Courses

Private Lessons (1 hour)

Open Practice and Coaching

Norfolk Snowsports Club is a Members Club; we are run by our members, for our members.

This means that although you do not need membership to book tasters, lessons or tubing, some of our sessions can only be accessed by taking out membership and this allows the Club to grow and gets everybody involved in the running of the Club.

New membership form

Members can become trained volunteers to help out with boot fitting, tubing, adaptive skiing and bar work and all of our instructors are volunteers as well!  Being a members club encourages our members to give back to their Club and all of our profits are put back into the slope and Clubhouse, meaning the facilities are constantly updating an improving.

Overall, we have a lot on offer for a range of ages, abilities and requirements.  There really is something for everyone.

Various discounts for Norfolk Snowsports Club members are offered by the following retailers:

*A valid NSC Membership Card must be shown at point of purchase in order to obtain any discounts offered

*Some of these offers are online only and you may need a discount code so please speak to reception if this is the case

Other benefits of being a member include discounted improver lessons, access to our regular open practice and coaching sessions and the opportunity to earn free time to use on the slope.

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Norfolk Snowsports Club promote that all children and young people have the following basic rights:

• To be valued as a person
• To be treated with dignity and respect
• To be cared for as a young person
• To be kept safe

We provide training for our staff to ensure each young person feels safe, valued and is treated with dignity and respect.

Norfolk Snowsports Club is an affiliated member of Snowsports England and follows the Snowsports England Child Protection Policy Snowsafe

2017 SnowSafe; updated Dec 18

Our Club Welfare Officers can be contacted if you have any concerns about a child or adult’s welfare or for any advice about good practice at the Club.

You can contact Emma Smith or Tom Sharpe via reception or directly via email:

welfareofficer@norfolksnowsports.com

Other useful numbers:

Snowsports England Safeguarding Lead

01509 232323 or welfare@snowsportsengland.org.uk

If you are young person and need to talk to someone you can call ChildLine 0800 1111

If you are an adult and want some advice about a child you are worried about you call the NSPCC helpline 0808 800 5000

If you think a child or adult is in immediate danger contact the Police 999

If it is not an emergency you can also contact the Police on 101 or Children’s Social Care Services 0344 800 8020 

Remember, the welfare of children and young people is paramount.

It is not your responsibility to determine if abuse has taken place,

but it is your responsibility to report it

or act on any concerns you may have.

Norfolk Snowsports Club has achieved the Clubmark as an accredited SnowSports England Club, which stands for higher standards of safety, fairness, coaching and management.  This means that the Club has achieved the operating standards in safeguarding and protecting children, quality coaching, equal opportunities and good management.

Club Equity Policy

This club is committed to ensuring that equity is incorporated across all aspects of its development. In doing so it acknowledges and adopts the following Sport England definition of sports equity:

• Sports equity is about fairness in sport, equality of access, recognizing inequalities and taking steps to address them. It is about changing the culture and structure of sport to ensure it becomes equally accessible to everyone in society.
• The club respects the rights, dignity and worth of every person and will treat everyone equally within the context of their sport, regardless of age, ability, gender, race, ethnicity, religious belief, sexuality or social/economic status.
• The club is committed to everyone having the right to enjoy their sport in an environment free from threat of intimidation, harassment and abuse.
• All club members have a responsibility to oppose discriminatory behaviour and promote equality of opportunity.
• The club will deal with any incidence of discriminatory behaviour seriously, according to club disciplinary procedures.

Privacy Policy

With the recent GDPR changes, we have up-dated our Privacy Policy to ensure that we meet the guidance.  It does mean that we are now unable to contact you, until you have opted in. 

NSC Privacy notice 2018

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FIRE EVACUATION PROCEDURE FOR VOLUNTEERS

DO NOT PUT YOURSELF IN ANY DANGER

General
Make yourself familiar with fire exits, break glass points and extinguishers
The fire assembly point is marked and can be found in the car park, against the back hedge, opposite reception. An alternative assembly point for slope evacuation is against the hedge bordering the playing field, opposite the side of the intermediate slope.
If you discover a fire:

• Raise the alarm at the “break glass” alarm point
• Do not tackle the fire yourself unless it is safe and you are trained to do so
• Evacuate the building
• Go to assembly point

Building Evacuation

• For building evacuation the preferred assembly point is on the far side of the car park opposite the main door
• Calmly direct people to nearest emergency exit and to assembly point
• Check nearest toilets
• Assist any disabled people but do not use the stair lift
• Close all doors on way out if safe to do so
• Report to the Fire Marshal, who will be wearing a hi viz jacket, to confirm which areas you have cleared
• Do not re-enter building until all clear is given
• Prevent others from re-entering the building

Slope Evacuation

• For slope evacuation the preferred assembly point is against the hedge bordering the playing field, opposite the side of the intermediate slope. An alternative point is on the far side of the car park opposite the main door
• Direct people on open practice to the bottom of the slopes and from there to the assembly point on the playing field via the patio or over the nursery slope (if no lessons) depending on which is the least crowded route
• Adults on lessons on the nursery slope to be bought to the bottom of the slope one at a time within each group, asked to remove their skis or boards and make their way to the assembly point in the playing field via the nursery slope and intermediate slope
• Children on lessons on the nursery slope as point 2 above. In addition help younger children to remove their skis. Parents can be directed to follow the group’s progress across the nursery and intermediate slope by walking along the patio and meeting their children on the playing field. Instructors to escort children
• Tubers should be asked to leave their tubes if they are on a flat area and walk to the assembly point or if on the slope asked to walk their tubes down, leave tubes in an area away from the exit route and go to the assembly point
• Do not allow the gate to the main slope and nursery slope to become over crowded. It should be used to exit the slopes only. Anyone wanting to access the nursery slope to go round via the intermediate slope
• Do not re-enter the building until all clear is given
• Prevent others from re-entering the building

The Executive Committee is made up of 12 Club Members 

On 18^th January 1968 the Eastern Evening Newspaper reported the return of “a very happy group of teenagers” “triumphantly displaying the ski awards they had each received during a Norfolk Youth Service holiday course in Norway”. The group, led by Ivan Palfrey and Nancy Clarke, told reporters that they were keen to start a Club and by March 1968 Norfolk Youth Ski Club was formed with affiliation to the Norwich and Norfolk Association of Youth Clubs and also to the Ski Club of Great Britain. Membership was 10 shillings a year and visits were arranged to practice on the Crystal Palace dry ski slope and a further snow trip was made to Auffach in Austria.

In July 1969 Ivan Palfrey arranged a stand at the Royal Norfolk Show to promote interest in skiing and early in June 1971 Ivan instigated the building of a small ramp with a section of plastic ski matting which was used to demonstrate ski techniques at the Suffolk show. This was so successful that the project was repeated in 1972 at the Norfolk and Suffolk shows.

At the same time Wensum Lodge sports hall was used for pre ski training exercises and discussions were underway to set up a small ski ramp inside the barn at Wensum Lodge.

In July 1972 the constitution of the Club changed to include anybody interested in skiing and the Club became the Norfolk Ski Club.

In 1973, with a £2000 loan from Barclays bank, a new slope was constructed outside Wensum lodge using scaffold poles and wooden boxes and the skiing surface was the original interlocking “plastic” matting. Equipment consisted of wooden skis with screwed on steel edges and cable binding and leather lace up boots. The Club had 21 members, conducted 160 lessons and had a turnover of £784.

The following year saw the then committee debating at great length how the £300 surplus should be spent!! Things were progressing quickly at this time and quite fortuitously one of our instructors, Jenny Mayhew, whilst conducting a lesson with David Potter, was informed that there was “a piece of land with a natural slope” in Whitlingham Lane which may be of interest for the future expansion of the club. David Potter was then the president of Whitlingham/Hewitt Rugby Club. A keen skier, he helped with the negotiations with Crown Point Estate (the landlord) to use the land for our first slope on the present site. By 1976, we had a main slope which extended from just above the trees adjacent to the current mogul slope to the bottom of the existing main slope. Again the surface was “real plastic” mat, purchased by Ivan and Roger Mayhew from Newcastle. At that time, annual membership was £2 and the cost of a course of five lessons was £1.00 (yes “one pound”).

Skiers at this time had to walk up the slope as we didn’t have any type of lift, but life was made much easier in 1978 when club members built the first lift. (Yes, totally designed and totally constructed by members!).

Things improved in 1981 when the first batch of Dendix was purchased. Luckily, this coincided with an upsurge in the number of skiers and interest in skiing nationally, so with extra income from the greater demand for ski lessons, the club was able to build on its previous success. At this time too, the Norfolk race team was started. The small group of racers was originally trained by Brian Fearn (who learned to ski at the club and went on to become a B.A.S.I. trainer) and thenunder the guiding eye of John Williams. The team and individuals have gone from success to success over the years, always featuring highly in the Eastern Region Ski Association (top overall ERSA team for the last three years) with several Norfolk racers going on to compete at national and international level.

When, in 1986, Whitlingham/Hewitt Rugby Club vacated the site, the Club took on the lease for the whole area and soon plans were in place for our first major development – a new club-house and skiing area, which was financed with borrowed money – a number of club members actually stood as guarantors for the £100K taken on and even then we could not afford a bar!! A ski club without a bar was unthinkable, so again fifty members dipped into their own pockets and each loaned £100 for five years to build it.

In 1991 using our first lottery grant of just under £300K, we were able to upgrade the facility to such an extent that the club was chosen to stage the All England Championship in 1993 – an event which we hosted again in September of 2001 and 2005 and more recently in 2010 and 2014.  It was during this period that the Norwich Southern By-pass was under construction – this was significant as we were able to extend the length of the main slope using some surplus soil from the construction work.

The club has progressed in leaps and bounds in recent years in addition to the normal teaching programme and the “taster” sessions which have always generated a significant income for the club, there has been a move towards providing members with more slope time which encourages individuals to improve their technical skills- (not to mention the “fun” aspect of skiing). Ladies Club, Men’s Club and Junior Club now feature highly in the activities enjoyed by members. Additionally there has been a strong growth in the numbers of snowboarders at the club and specific sessions are available for the boarding community.

Another facet of the Club’s activities of which we should all be proud is the Adaptive Skiing programme. This provides an opportunity for people who have a physical or neurological disability to take part in our sport and was started by Dick Eves. With some extra funding from the local authority, we have been able to purchase some specialist equipment from the USA and we now have a group of members who work regularly in this area. It is hoped that with time, the club will become a centre of excellence in this field.

The Club has continued to grow and 2005 saw another development of the Club’s facilities opened to members. Sport England, through the National Lottery, provided almost £700,000 of funding with Local Authorities: South Norfolk Council, Norwich City Council, Broadland Council and Norfolk County Council – providing grants toward the overall cost. Norfolk Ski Club invested around £700,000 through its development fund. The new developments on the site, which Briton Engineering Developments was commissioned to design and build, included a second ski slope, a fun park with jumps and a quarter pipe, a totally recovered nursery slope, all with the Snowflex surface system. The new ski and boarding facilities are serviced by 5 new travelator lifts, which were supplied by Bruckschlogl to ensure that skiers and boarders get to all areas on site.

The clubhouse was also doubled in size as part of the development, increasing the changing/storage areas to cope with the increased demand for the club’s facilities and including the Ivan Palfrey Suite, named after the Club’s founder. As Club Chairman and Director at the time, Barry Spouge said at the official opening “We are pleased and very proud to have created a national sporting development, which will continue to provide its members and the general public with a superb ski & snowboard centre that will be the envy of many other clubs throughout the UK”.

If you are visiting us from afar, we are pleased to advise you of local campsites and hotels.  

Please be aware that Norfolk Snowsports Club does not make any representation as to the accuracy or suitability of any of the information relating to the following accommodation and does not accept any liability for the conduct or content of the companies.

Campsites

Whitlingham Broad Campsite – 2 minute drive away

Whitlingham Lane,

Trowse,

NR14 8TW

www.whitlinghambroadcampsite.com

07794401591

Norwich Camping and Caravanning Site – 5 minute drive away

Martineau Lane,

Norwich,

NR1 2HX

www.campingandcaravanningclub.co.uk

01603 620060

Hotels

Holiday Inn Norwich City – 5 minute drive away

Carrow Road,

Norwich,

NR1 1HU

www.ihg.com

0871 423 4876

Caistor Hall Hotel – 6 minute drive away

Caistor St Edmund,

Norwich,

NR14 8QN

www.caistorhall.com

01508 494998

Holiday Inn Norwich – 9 minute drive away

Ipswich Road,
Norwich,
NR4 6EP

www.hinorwichhotel.co.uk

0871 942 9060

De Vere Dunton Hall Hotel – 10 minute drive away

Ipswich Rd,

Norwich,

NR14 8PQ

www.qhotels.co.uk

01508 470444

For additional hotels in Norwich, check HotelsCombined