VAIL By this weekend, most of Colorados ski mountains will be closed for the season. That leaves places like Arapahoe Basin and Hood River, Ore., for the hard-core or they can head to Chile, Argentina or New Zealand.And then theres England. Or maybe Scotland. Sure, they dont get much snow there in the middle of the summer or any time of year, for that matter but they do have hills, as well as something called Snowflex.A durable, synthetic material that can be produced in large sheets, Snowflex is the brainchild of inventor Brian Thomas, who first began selling it in 1996 following four years of development. From his Briton Engineering Developments factory in West Yorkshire, Thomas company supplies the material and designs snowsport centres around Great Britain.Its not like your powder in Vail, but its quite reasonable, Thomas said in a telephone interview. The advantage is you dont have to groom it, and you can make all sorts of shapes with it, so its good for rail parks, jumps and the like.Snowflex can even be shaped into moguls and youll never hit a rock on the downhill side.To date, Briton Engineering has had a hand in developing 21 projects in 14 different locations in Great Britain. A typical snowsport center will have a jump or two, a quarter-pipe, a terrain park with rails and an intermediate-level track for skiing and boarding. Larger centres might have a restaurant, a shop or other amenities. Depending on the terrain where the center is being built, other features, such as mogul fields, can be added.We usually start with the topography and design something that makes best use of the location, Thomas said. We can use the surrounding hills or start with flat ground, dig a hole and go from there.Slip & gripIn developing Snowflex, Thomas said he had to address the two main elements of what makes snowsports fun.The thrill of the sport depends on two factors: one thats slippy and one thats grippy, he said. If either is missing, its not fun.In other words, ice has plenty of slip but not enough grip, whereas early versions of Snowflex had too much grip. Thomas and the leader of the development team, Shaun Waddingham, finally arrived at a material that seemed to have enough of both, aided by sprinklers that keep a layer of water on top. It was also durable, resistant to the suns rays and incorporated a 2-inch cushion so that falling on Snowflex doesnt hurt not much, anyway.While no one, least of all Thomas, is suggesting that Snowflex is going to replace the real stuff anytime soon, its certainly better than nothing if youre a skier or boarder marooned in the Midlands of England. What kind of market might exist for Snowflex outside remains to be seen. Thomas said hes spoken to Intrawest owner of Copper Mountain, Winter Park and others but said they didnt quite get it.They couldnt think small enough, he said. When you start looking at larger areas, the price (of a Snowflex center) gets ridiculous. You have to design it carefully in a smaller space to make the best use of the materials. You cant be sloppy in your thinking.Urban areas, he said, is where the real market appears to be.The big advantage is that you can put it in a city, which is where the population is, he said. Building a center near a traditional ski area, he said, could put the Snowflex slope in the unsavory position as second-class citizen even if there may be practical applications for it in the early and off-seasons.A good introBill Jensen, chief operating officer at Vail Mountain, said he wasnt familiar with the Snowflex centres but said they reminded him of how ramps were once built in metro area parking lots in the 1960s and 70s.It was a way people could come out, take a little lesson, learn to wedge or make a Christie turn, Jensen said. It didnt survive as a business but probably had some success in introducing the sport to a broader audience.With a fair number of destination skiers at Vail hailing from the U.K., Jensen said he was all in favor of something like Thomas invention.We always look at places like this as favorable to skiing as a whole, he said. Anytime you get a non-skier or a non-rider on skis or a board, then theres an opportunity to bring them to a snow-covered mountain somewhere in the world.In the U.S., Thomas said hed love to see a Snowflex facility in a place like Denver, and is even more eager to have one in a southern city like Miami or Houston.