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punctuate its incline like a ruffled carpet. At the foot of the slope, a cluster of kitsch chalets house a ski and board hire area and gear shop. The bar-cum-clubhouse even features wood paneling and a fake fireplace-along with the blast of breakbeats and a boisterous young clientele. Nursing a hot chocolate in the bar, Needham explains that not everyone sees the fascination in surfing a giant toothbrush. "People in other countries can't work out why we ride dry slopes, because they're so intrinsically dangerous," he says. Imagine a chain link fence covered with plastic bristles "that can rip your fingers off if you catch them in the hollow centers at 30 miles an hour." He proudly raises a bent pinkie. "Like that!" As well as wearing full protective gear, some boarders will bind their hands with electrical tape to avoid injury. But most of the regular dry slope riders seem unfazed by the thought of injury and, as skateboarders, are used to riding and falling on hard surfaces. "Our jumps are a solid permanent single shape," Needham continues. "With snow, the jumps mutate as the snow melts. Plus, snow is 20 times faster. This stuff rides like slow ice. It doesn't grip when you try to turn, but you don't go forward fast either. It takes a lot of adjustment, but you get used to it." Before Needham and his wife, Katrina, st�rted giving snowboard courses at Hillingdon in 1991 , boarders weren't allowed on the slope. At the time, some tabloid n�wspapers even campaigned to ban boarders on the grounds that they were irresponsible and a danger to skiers. Other boarders facing similar opposition took extreme measures to find ride time. Tudor Thomas, editor of White Lines magazine, recalls getting up in the pitch-black, early hours of winter to sneak runs on his local dry slope in North Wales. The initial fanatics persisted in efforts to kick-start scenes at their local slopes. Then in 1988 Needham, Cocking, Eddie Spearing and five others founded the British Snowboarding Association (BSA). The BSA has done its best to help regulate the sport, developing instructional procedures for both dry and snow' slopes. As a result, most of England's 80 dry slopes now cater to snowboarders, offering instruction and specialist nights. Funding for the BSA's activities, which include the organization of the British Snowboard Championships and the British Dry Slope