[timmeh]

Hi,
I do a bit of snowboarding in Australia, which our season is genrally jun-september outside that
we have no snow and just a fair bit of sun
Anyway I was looking at diffrent solutions for a gel/medium in which I could practice and play
around with during summer.
Searching the net I found this solution "snowgel" http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HwEI5vWnTaY
which I beleive is a bit pricey for what I want it for, from chemistry class I'm assuming it uses
a super polymer absorber such as sodium polyacrylate, although that from what I understand when
reacting with water genrally becomes dry, and not wet/slippery like the "snowgel" example, can
anyone suggest what would be best for getting the desired effect?

thanks for your time!
regards
Tim

[limpet chicken]

Chop open some (unused) diapers they contain water absorbent gels, for obvious reasons.

[constant thinker]

I saw on TV that somewhere in the UK they built a snowboard park using some type of foam I think.

June-Sept is the opposite as my snowboard season. Come up to the Northern Hemisphere then you can snowboard in the real stuff.

A little more serious though, if you only want snow every so often, find an ice rink. They are always throwing snow out from when they groom the ice. In the past I've taken my pickup truck and some shovels to ice rinks. Then we've just gone snowboarding in someone's backyard hitting some box or picnic table or on occasion a rail.

Good luck.

[timmeh]

Chop open some (unused) diapers they contain water absorbent gels, for obvious reasons.

From what I understand though is that its using a sodium polyacrylate that becomes more of a crystal/hard.
I dont think it expands 100x like other snow/gel solutions otherwise the child might get a bit of a suprise when there
suddenly crushed?


The ski ring idea is a good idea, although im not so sure if they still operate here during summer. I've also seen those
dry slopes in the UK, but that foam material hits you up for 150usd per square meter then shipping. And about going to the
Northern Hemisphere I'm going to japan in January  cheap flights from Oz and awesome snow, should be great!

thanks for all your help, and if you have any other suggestions i'd like to hear them,
thanks
Tim