With the ski season just around the corner, now is the best time to upgrade your gear before you end up committing to another year of tatty old gear that leaves you feeling cold and damp around the edges. The Crush from Westbeach is available in Cherry, Combat Green Fairisle, Ultramarine and Brown Sugar and come in sizes XS-XL.

Spyder was born in 1977 when David Jacobs’ noticed there were limited options for ski racing sweaters. From there, the company has expanded into all types of snow sports apparel and outdoor wear. The Bromont Jacket is highly featured and well-equipped for the elements, it is available in three striking two tone designs Black/Turkish Sea (black and blue), Polar/Acid (grey and yellow) and Volano/Black (red and black) as well as a more understated Wool Blend Twill/Turkish Sea (grey).

If you are looking for a serious upgrade this ski season (and have a good chunk of cash burning a whole in your pocket) the AWA M1 from Dainese could be just what you are looking for. Available in four designs, Black-Iris, Gun-Metal, Lemon-Chrome and Stretch-Limo it comes in sizes XS-XL. What makes the M1 special is the layering system that is made up of a three-layer waterproof breathable outer shell and an insulating, packable inner jacket.

My mum always said, “never judge a book by its cover”. Well she didn’t really, she is in fact very judgmental, but I heard it on TV somewhere. The Celilo from Dakine might at first look like a rather simple jacket with not a lot going on, but hidden beneath its humble lines and solid black colour (it is also available in Lil Buck - a beigey colour) is a host of features to keep you dry and warm on the slopes.

I’ll let you into a secret, 75% of snowboarders only snowboard because it looks cool, the other 25% just couldn’t get their head round the coordination needed to control skis and poles. Even though the accuracy of these stats might be slight embellished or completely made up, how you look on the slopes can be just as important as how you perform.

As mentioned earlier in this focus this was my first time Snowboarding and I had no preconceptions about any of the products I would be testing however I was thinking have I made a mistake when pulling the Sidas Ultra Think Socks out of my suitcase while looking at what everybody else had packed, it felt like a PE Lesson at school and inferiority struck again over the lack of sock girth!

This review comes from someone who only begun snowboarding on the dry slopes last October, I received the Rome Garage Rocker in December and I have taken it for two open lessons on the dry and eight days on the snow in Valmorel France.  I have grown very attached to this board like when you get your first bike, it started off by spending more time in the air and me on the carpet and witnessed me learn to link my turns and start carving up the snow.  This has been a great all- rounder to both help me learn and it is quick and flexible enough to keep it fun

As I knew I would be reviewing Romes’ Garage Rocker board I thought It would be a good idea to review bindings from the same brand to get the best out of each product and give an optimum review.  The Rome 390 Boss Bindings are quoted as bullet proof and bomb proof but are they Alex proof now that is the real test, they are in for a few weeks of uncoordinated boarding at its very best!