The company that I work for has an office in Newcastle, it's real close to where I live, in North East England.
Snowboarding in England is pretty difficult at times. Without any real mountains to speak of, unless we travel abroad we're limited to artificial slopes. And being in the North East doesn't help...
It's a good distance from our south coast so hopping across to France in the car is less viable and it's hard to benefit from travel options such as the Snow Train.
What's more, there are no indoor slopes or snowflex slopes nearby. Here's the route from Newcastle to Halifax (google reckons 122 miles - about 2 hours 10 mins):
I'm not complaining though. Dependence on plastic slopes and fridges is one of the things that contributes to our strong scene. It's all part of enjoying snowboarding from within the UK.
But check this. Our company also has an office in San Jose, CA, USA.
Imagine if I worked there? The snowboarding options are very different. Lots of resorts all accessible over the weekend. Squaw Valley, Alpine Meadows, Heavenly... Here's the route from San Jose to Lake Tahoe, google's estimate is 227 miles - about 3 hours 47 mins:
Worlds apart.
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