CSIA- Colin Studying Instructor Attributes

Between Monday and Thursday last week, I learnt how to be a ski instructor.

Monday through Wednesday, we spent 2 hours every morning in one of the old lift drive buildings, which has been turned into a classroom with tables, chairs and TVs. Unfortunately, they neglected to install heaters, and as a result the Old Divide Drive building appears to be the main source of coldness on the mountain. If it weren't for this building, Sunshine would be warm all the time and all the snow would melt. But watching TV and receiving lectures in a building 10 degrees colder than your freezer does drain a bit. People were taking clothes off to go back outside!

*Please note that this is the view of one individual and not necessarily that of the Sunshine Village Snow Resort. Opinions may be exaggerated for dramatic effect. Sunshine Village offers Performance Ski and Ride lessons with video analysis in this building. Please bring extra clothing.

The rest of the days (26 hours in all) were spent doing practical skiing exercises- so we went back to basics. Kenji, our instructor for the first couple of days, taught us backwards. On the first day we perfected our perfect intermediate parallel, with perfect Stance and Balance, perfect Pivoting and Rotation, and perfect Edging. It's pretty difficult to unlearn the bad habits of 18 years of skiing, but I think I made headway by only falling over once. On the second day, Kenji lead us through a mock 'this is how we learn to ski' lesson. From learning how to carry skis, put them on, slide and stop, eventually leading to linking snowplough turns, this lesson was both very interesting and valuable. Our group of 6 included a German racing skier who took part in the Youth Olympic Camp, and is now coaching the Banff Alpine Racers team. We also had a couple of guys from Banff/Canmore, someone from Calgary, and a Birmingham chap. Then me.

The second 2 days were with one of Sunshine's most senior instructors, Jen, and her apprentice Kyle, who was being assessed as a course conductor. This part of the course was focussed on how to teach people, so applying what we'd learnt in the fridgeroom. I found this part quite a bit easier than my perfect parallel. The final day was our assessment- no morning session, and we went out to start teaching. I was the second up, and taught my class better weight shifting in therir snowplough skiing. The rest of the day, I was skiing with Kyle and the other British guy, perfecting our parallel with plenty of exercises (we weren't good enough to just act as students).

That afternoon, we met up the bar to be given our results. No-one had failed- however, if it weren't for Kyle's extra teaching, I rather suspect that there might be at least one person not collecting his badge... I was very pleased to see that Kyle passed his assessment too, although no-one really though that the alternative would be possible.

So now I'm a fully qualified Level 1 CSIA (Canadian Ski Instructors' Alliance) instructor.Anyone for lessons?