Slopestyle action comes to the West Asian desert for the first time at the UAE

With a huge 2022/23 calendar still ahead of us, the competition season in the northern hemisphere has already started indoors in the first week of October, where constant, reliable conditions in ski domes in some non-traditional ski and snowboard nations provide perfect possibilities to have early season events.

SnowWorld Landgraaf (NED) hosted the FIS level season opener from 6-7 October with two snowboard slopestyle competitions. 46 competitors from 11 nations made their way to the Netherlands for these events, where they competed in a park designed by the world-renowned Schneestern company - known by many as the designers and builders of several spectacular Olympic slopestyle courses, including the most recent iteration at Beijing 2022.

With Landgraaf kicking the FIS-level season off on a high, the next stop indoors is a very special, brand new, and hisotry-making venue, as Ski Dubai will be holding their first ever FIS Slopestyle competition at the Mall of the Emirates from 17-18 October.

While the outside temperature in Dubai will hit highs of  of +35 C during competition time next week, a perfectly chilled park at the Mall of the Emirates is being prepared by Jacco Bos, who is also involved in many rail events throughout Europe.

Competition will be preceeded by two days of FIS Development Camp action, after which around 20 Emirati will done the bib together with peers from SLO, NED, GBR, GRE, MKD and other nations for two days of competition.

These competitions are an ideal opportunity for athletes from outside of traditional snowsports markets to get involved, gain experience and earn much needed early season FIS points, beginning a path that could lead to Continental Cup or even World Cup action later in in their careers, while also bringing new athletes and energy into the international competition field and spreading the the love of snowsports to new corners of the globe.

Despite the fact that the UAE is a country that has never seen any natural snow, freestyle disciplines are becomming increasingly popular in the country after high-profile, showstopping turns by the halfpipe, slopestyle and big air athletes at the last several Olympic Winter Games, and a visit to the Mall of the Emirates facility by non other than Shaun White (USA) last season.

With this enthusiasm as a foundation the UAE federation, as one of the newest members of our FIS family, is working hard to develop winter sports in their region. And with other indoor snow slopes built or being built in the same region of the world, the Dubai slopestyle competitions may very well be a start of a future tour of snowboard and freeski events that may be lead to the corwning of the King and Queen of the Desert Snow.