We've just finished Slide, which is the main UK trade show for wintersports. It's in Manchester and for the first time to our knowledge is before the main European and American shows. So we're getting to see the 2011 product before anyone else in the world, sort of.

 Clothing

Clothing-wise, it's been a slowish year for sales and, though the designers could never have known this when putting the ranges together through last summer, they just happen to look a lot safer than the lurid designs from recent seasons. That's a recession for you... The 80s retro look is still around - plenty of purple - and lime green carries over from previous seasons. Apparently men are buying bright pants, which is livening up the slopes at last. We saw Peak Performance, Patagonia, Westbeach and Salomon at Slide. All looked relevant; nothing too baggy, nothing too tight. Lots of stretch fabrics and also keen pricing, especially Patagonia. Peak had some mighty fine women's styles without going too St Moritz, with thoughtful multi-layer systems which didn't make my bum look big, mainly because I'm a 15 stone male. Westbeach retain ownership of their bright colourways and have brought pop art style into their trademark stripes. With prices at around £120 for decent technical kit there's genuine enthusiasm for the brand right now.

Hardware

Trends seem to be rocker everywhere - both snowboard and ski. I reckon that'll calm down in a year or two, but for the moment it's available from basic piste skis right through to specific park snowboards. It certainly works to make fat skis more nimble, and it also works to make skis and snowboards with pronounced sidecut less catchy. But will it make buying skis more catchy? I'm not holding my breath...

What else? Well, I like the look of some of the powerful piste-oriented skis, around 75-85mm underfoot. Salomon have their Enduro, like a Tornado but more woody-looking and even beefier, K2 have the Aftershock, Head the Titan, complete with slightly bonkers electronic KERS tech at £570 explained further here, Volkl the evergreen AC30 and a tweaked Racetiger with a bolt in the tail that you twist to stiffen it up. Fischer have a range-topping series of shiny-looking C-Line series skis, including the Progressor 10 (£790 with adjustable binding plate which increases or decreases the stiffness underfoot), RC World Cup (£850), Viron 8.8 (£690) and ladies My Style (£600). Blizzard - recently back in the UK - have slashed their prices and look strong in this area of the market in the £450-550 area.

All are late-teens turn radius skis with beefy sidewalls underfoot and strong integrated binding systems. Rossignol have some news here too - see below.

Walk mode and grippy soles are almost everwhere. The core ski mountaineering brands are producing more freeridey versions of lightweight boots: Scarpa have the Maestrale (£450), and Black Diamond are weighing in with four-buckle and lighter three-buckle touring options from £400.

But it's the appearance of several mainstream bootmakers with their freeride-oriented boots that's causing most chat. Tecnica have a Pebax-built offering called the Agent BC at £425, which looks and feels pretty good, as does Atomic's Tracker, also on a 98mm last. But the biggest noise was around Salomon's Quest, with prices starting at £250 and going up to £400, with interchangeable soles, Pebax construction in the upper end and based around the best-selling Impact last. Atomic's Tracker has the same walk mode, which doesn't look like it has the flexibility of a pure touring boot, but should perfectly suit the hike and ride generation.

New in the world of boots, at least for the UK in any depth, is Dalbello. They're landing hard with a full range, from raved-about race model, through to yet another tourer, this time with and innovative tongue release clip to allow increased flexibility whilst retaining the foot in place. The lairy Blender and useful-looking Voodoo all share the three-piece construction. Prices are bang on the button too, after their purchase by the K2 group of companies. They share similar construction with the Full Tilt range, but with a more mainstream approach to graphics and range positioning.

Volkl's range looks frankly stunning; a softer ski dropping in below the Mantra should offer a useful lift to everyone who's legs fall off after a day on Volkl's brilliant but potent freeride skis.

Another set of outstanding skis, though with a question mark over some stiff-sounding price increases, was Scott. A Fall-Line benchmark ski, the Mission, gets more pop and skis more 'livelily', according to a couple of trustworthy retailer types who've had a whizz already. It also looks outstanding, though the mainly-white Pure freeride swallowtail, otherwise unchanged, was the looker of the show for me. More Scott reviews here.

What else? Rossignol, after what can only be described as about three years of wandering around with their thumbs in their collective jacksie, have relaunched the ski range with wood cores throughout. There's now a simplified freeride range which looks like it means it and a truly brutal-looking Zenith range with squared-off tips, no complicated Mutix changeable radius faff and a wideish-bodied top model - the 85 - (£650) that should charge like the Light Brigade, though hopefully not delivering a glorious but untimely end to the rider. We like the sound of the intermediate-friendly Alias, priced from £300, again with rocker for ease of use. It's skis like this that persuade people to invest. 

There are some genuinely clever ideas in boots, with Atomic's LiveFit flexible panel in the shell, and Tecnica's Airshell in their popular Phoenix boot. Both are pitched to appeal to the more recreational skier, but these are the folk who need to be encouraged to buy, rather than rent. Giving them respectable performance without foot pain is a great place to be - these products start at £180. Fischer's Progressor boots look to expand on their growing popularity, with decent performance coupled to a good flex and the offset stance that more people are falling for.

Overall, what's looking good? I'm giving 'Range of the Show Season So Far (with option to change my mind after ISPO)' to Atomic, by a short head. Their balance of models, pricing, boots, innovation and plain common sense coupled with winning looks and concepts looks spot on for the upcoming season. Now we have to try it all out...

Read more of Richard's blogs:

The trade shows reveal all, world previews of 2011 gear!

Stop calling me up...

The snow is getting us fired up...

Christmas cards delivered by ski

Are the biggest players in the industry thinking straight?