Ben Clatworthy's Blog

But why? It’s the oldest advertising ploy but it usually works. So what is being advertised?

Well, surprisingly its Ski Boots….

Last season Lange who manufacture ski boots named Maria Riesch as ‘Lange Girl 2009′ and she advertised their ski boots in a rather ‘revealing’ way. So, why the semi-naked pose?

Ski racer strips down for Lange

“The boots look great, Maria has a fantastic body and so the two go together really well,” laughs Nadine Carle, a spokeswoman for Lange. “She looks absolutely gorgeous!” I’m not sure that everyone is looking at the boots though!

It’s a strange combination in many people eyes but from an advertising point of view its quite the marketing tactic.

It’s the most read news story of all time on PlanetSKI.eu, a website I write for and a similar story on sex and skiing is the third most read. So what is it about the 2 Ss that promote the sport so well?

So with the success of advertising by the means of ‘sex’ is it likely we will see a rise in the number of semi-naked based adverts in the future? Well only time will tell, but I think that might just be the case.

Ben Clatworthy is the ‘Racing and Sports Correspondent’ for PlanetSKI.eu and writes for other ski publications too, including InTheSnow Magazine.

For the first time ever I headed to the Metro Ski and Snowboard Show on Wednesday for Press Day with PlanetSKI.eu. What a day it was!

Its a fantastic event, but time and time again I heard people saying, “Its a day I love to hate” and by the end of the very long, tiring day I kind of see where they are coming from. I’m quite glad I didn’t have to get up and do it all again the next day like the exhibitors.

I wrote an article for PlanetSKI.eu about what it’s like to be a newbie at the show. It was quite the experience.

We had two PlanetSKI reporters at the Metro Ski and Snowboard Show. Here’s a view from 16-year old Ben Clatworthy who’s never been before.

Standing on the platform at Earls Court I felt as if I had just stepped out of the UK and into a ski resort. To my right were two young lads wearing baggy hoodies and knitted beanie hats with the little bubble on the top and to my left was a middle aged woman and her husband, the kind of people you might find in Meribel or Val d’Isere, talking to one and other about the brilliant snow at the end of last season.

As I walked though the main doors the atmosphere and excitement hit me; one massive building, one massive ski show, hundreds of exhibitors and loads to do.

Within two minutes I had already bumped into three people I knew.

Avoid eye contect if you don’t want one of theseAs a strolled up the aisles it didn’t take long to learn that if I stopped walking for more than a couple of seconds I would be asked if I would be interested in skiing in Japan or entering some competition or other to win a free rental car.

Not making eye contect with people on the stands who were trying to sell, sell, sell was a trick I leant quickly.

I told quite a few people I knew that I had never been to a ski show before and they all said they were surprised that someone like me had never been.  Being an avid ski racer it would seem the sort of place I would reside. Not so, but why? Well the Metro Ski and Snowboard Show has always been in my half term and I am usually away training in Saas Fee then.

I wandered for over an hour, meeting the odd person, having a quick chat and then back to gazing at the various stands and shops. Time went so quickly; the hour only seemed like 20 minutes. There was quite a buzz to say the least.

In the middle of it all was a 50 foot kicker that was used for The Trespass Big Air competition and demonstration.

Extraordinary sightI had never seen anything like it before.

On the other side of the room was a 100m2 ice rink where children and adults alike were happily skating away.  It may have been Christmas!

Ready for a rest I headed to the ’3 Valleys Resort Bar’ to meet up with a few people I knew for a chat and quickly found myself chatting to some of the big people from the British ski world as it was a drinks for the movers and shakers in ski industry.

The CEO’s of the major companies were there, officilas from the resorts in the Alps had flwn in specially and various website editors, journalists who write features for papers such as The Times, The Telegraph and The Independent. It quickly became apparent that everyone knew everyone, and that they were all very happy to see one another after the summer break.  It was lovely to have a chat with the people whose articles I read in the papers each weekend and who run the web sites I love.

After more talk and networking I headed off to see more and take a look at some of the wired and wonderful things that one can buy at the show.

We will have a look at some of those on PlanetSKI in the next few days. I had a long conversation with Raef Bjayou who some of you may remember from the 2008 series of the BBC’s ‘The Apprentice’. He is now the face of a new motorized bag that is apparently ‘perfect’ for skiing.

I then headed for the BASI stand where I met up with Duncan Freshwater, who was the Head Coach of my ski team for several years, and he persuaded me to have a go in a sit ski playing on the new Vancouver 2010 Wii game. They had very cleverly mounted the sit-ski onto a Wii Fit board and with lots of skill apparently it was possible to ski down the course.

Sean Rose, who is the UK number 1 disabled ski racer managed to complete the whole course in 1 minute 40 seconds. Could I beat that? Well the honest answer is no. In fact I ended up on the floor with the sit-ski on top of me – much to the amusement of Duncan and about 100 people who were sitting in the café.

There was so much going on; so much so there is just too much to write. I really had to pick out some of the best bits, but the whole day was wonderful. There’s no way I could fully sum up such a good day in 800 words, but I think its needless to say that I will be back next year for more, and hopefully for years to come after that. People are happy, there is optimistic talk of the coming season and I think it is safe to say in that corner of London people will definitely be heading to the slopes this season.

by Ben Clatworthy, PlanetSKI.eu Racing and Sports Correspondent

More and more people seem to be heading indoors to ski and snowboard in the UK. Why and what’s it like?

Long gone are the days when the only option to get in some pre-holiday practice was the local dry slope on a bit of rather odd white plastic.

Across the UK there is a growing number of ‘snow-domes’. They are, in all essence, giant fridges filled with real snow.

There are now five of these slopes in England and one in Scotland.

I’ve come to ‘The Snow Centre’ in Hemel Hempstead, which is the newest one in England. The ex-British ski racer, Alain Baxter, opened the centre in May this year and what followed has been pretty successfull.

Baxter opens the slope

PlanetSKI was there for the cutting of the ribbon, or rather the skiing through it, by Baxter.

It’s a Thursday afternoon at the end of the summer holidays, +22c outside, but in here it’s -2c.

The air smells fresh and the slope is filled with skiers criss-crossing one another as they fly down the slopes.

It was an exciting sight and I felt as if I was in a real ski resort. Well, almost.

I popped into my skis and headed for the poma lift. There may be no chairlift or gondola but the whole lift operation was very impressive.

A couple of minutes later I arrived at the top of the slope, skidded round and looked down towards the bottom – admittedly it wasn’t a black run, but still considering I was skiing, for real, in England I could hardly complain.

There was even a piste basher at the bottom of the slope.

“There’s been a huge increase in recreational use of indoor slopes across the UK. Since The Snow Centre launched in May this year, bookings have been fantastic,” says Pete Gillespie who is the director of Snowsports at the Snow Centre. “This increase in participation is largely due to the superb facilities, snow conditions and teaching now on offer in the UK.”

It’s easy to forget but these slopes are also a brilliant resource to train for racing or to become an instructor.

The Hemel Hempstead piste basher

The Hemel Hempstead piste basherThe Snow Centre is already home to the UK branch of the Kandahar Ski Club Junior Training, the ski team that I race for, and they train 8 – 18 year olds most weeks on the real snow giving them the absolute best possible UK based training on a regular basis.

The Snow Centre is also the only BASI Centre of Excellence in the South of the country, it’s a good location and a much cheaper place to train as a ski instructor than out in The Alps.

I had a wonderful afternoon on the snow with some friends and the excitement of skiing on real snow in England didn’t really wear off, but I’ll be totally honest; it wasn’t quite The Alps.

Despite the images of the mountains on the wall, having only one piste did get slightly monotonous, but I really can’t complain – it’s an impressive facility with a massive potential, be it for someone learning to ski or an Olympic hopefull.

The Snow Centre offers it all.

Don’t foreget to check out the video and story of a fund raising event for Britain’s No 1 male ski racer, Ed Drake, at The Snow Centre last week.

Recreational skiing starts from £22 for one hour at weekends and ski and snowboarding taster classes start from £24.

For more information on prices, instruction, school holiday activities and special offers visit www.thesnowcentre.com

Ben and his Facebook

In the past few years social networking websites have become so popular that most teenagers use them at least once a day, but will the demand keep rising or like most crazes will they become a thing of the past? Young journalist Ben Clatworthy (www.benclatworthy.com) has been taking a look.

Being a teenager it quickly becomes very apparent that social networking websites are changing the way that people interact and go about daily life. I am a great user of one of these in particular, Facebook, however I am most certainly not addicted to it, or any other website for that matter.

At the end of last year Facebook launched a new chat service that automatically appeared on everybody’s account. It was this service that made me realise just how many of my friends spend a very large amount of time on the website as more often than not their name appears on the ‘available to chat list’. But is this addiction or just people taking a linking to such a service.

Everyone who uses Facebook has some critique of it and its usability. Every time it launches a new design within hours I get invited to join some group or other named ‘Bring back the old Facebook’ or ‘We hate the new look’, you get the picture, but what is it that makes people care so much about how a website looks? I know people hate change, but is there any point kicking up a fuss about a change of design!

Then there are the clever things that many people ignore or just don’t think about which crop up all over these kinds of websites. Any ideas? If you look at the adverts down the side of your Facebook page they tend to be interesting to you. Being a ski racer I love skiing, thus write a lot about it on my page and often communicate with my friends over the website making reference to skiing. Facebook knows I do this and the adverts that are placed on my page often involve skiing, be it offering me accommodation or cheap equipment. Google Mail does the same using the content in ones emails. I seldom click on these adverts but do notice how relevant they are to the individual. I wouldn’t like to comment but can’t think that such advertising generates that much profit.

How long do you spend on one of these daily?

It’s very easy to forget that before the Facebook obsession became of presence that many teenagers were already using very similar sites. Bebo was very popular for a couple of years but its rather wired and quirky features soon became a thing of the past with people dumping it as ‘their other half’ and looking for something new. I deleted my account sometime last year after getting sick and tired of its rather repetitive emails.

Before that, Myspace could be potentially classed as popular, however, I for one never used it as it simply looked confusing.  However as with anything there are pros; Myspace is brilliant for young emerging bands that want to publicize their music and make it freely available for download.

Times are changing though, Facebook may have the current monopoly for social networking but there is a new kid on the block! Used by celebs and everyday people Twitter is fast becoming a very fashionable way to broadcast your own news to ones ‘Followers’. Sounds strange, well that’s because it is. Some people say Twitter is not real social networking but more news broadcasting from an individual level. Others have said it is simplified social networking tool which is great for older less tech-savvy people. Either way it is fast becoming very popular. These days’ news channels are often beaten to ‘Breaking News’ stories by people using sites such as Twitter; an American man announced on his account that he had just seen the plane crash-land in the Hudson river earlier this year before any television channel had received the news.

I have a twitter account, but these days rarely use it. I was concerned when my ‘updates’ started showing up in Google so made it a ‘protected account’ where only my followers could see my updates; then I was told that defeated the object of the service.

Many young users of Twitter love it because they are able to follow their icons and idols from the music and film world who often produce first hand updates from whatever they are doing. The queen is now on Twitter too for any royalists.

All social network sites have one thing in common, the ability to have friends, communicate between one another and share interests with the world. Facebook exceeds these main points with applications, games and much, much more to the extent that people are starting to question whether in the next few years Facebook will become so big, with so much to do that people will become all and more addicted to its services. Just a few weeks ago the world was told of the first person to die social networking; the girl died whilst Twittering on her laptop in the bath. Will these websites soon need to carry a warning message as well, ‘Do not Twitter in the bath, whilst driving a car, swimming etc…’

Social networking websites are paving the way for the future, communication is becoming so easy and friends rarely loose contact once gone their separate ways now.  However with anything such a tool should never be ones life, just a useful addition it.

Ben is a pupil at Clifton College and a young journalist who writes articles for a range of publications. He has also been seen on the BBC reporting for both local news and also on News 24. For more information you can visit his website at www.benclatworthy.com or contact him via email at info@benclatworthy.com

This article was first produced in July 2009 – copyright Ben Clatworthy.