Ski Instructor Report 10th January 2012

The guests this week have had very bad weather. I really felt sorry for them, as I had a very friendly group from Ireland, in fact there was only on English lady in my group. I had a successful private lesson with a girl whose friends and taken her up mountain, to teach her to ski. Their method of teaching was to shout “Turn” at the poor lass. She was almost in tears and said that she hated skiing. Her boyfriend paid for a one hour private lesson and in that time I had her smiling and turning left and right down the beginners slope and using the lift on her own. One of our readers, Geoff, asked which instructors specialise in different fields. My own speciality seems to be instilling confidence into mature ladies with a nervous disposition. This requires no special qualification, only patience and common sense. On the other hand some instructors have attended courses on different areas of skiing. Marcus has qualified an adaptive ski instructor.. That is dealing with disabled skiers. This can range from teaching paraplegics in a specially designed chair with a mono ski under it, to deaf dumb, blind or even with learning difficulties. He is also a race coach. Ian is qualified in Snow Park techniques and off piste touring. Scott is another enthusiast on the jumps and rails. Both have great admiration for Ismael, who was once Chilean Aerial Champion. Although not a native English speaker, he speaks it well. Deane and Darren are happy to teach snow bade skiing Scott would love to teach mono skiing but thinks that only French gays from the Seventies would like a lesson. Sadly we have no native English speaker teaching Telemark skiing. But Pablo from South America is happy to oblige. Corinne and Maryanne are very good with young children. This brings me onto my topic for next week’s report; what age should you take a child skiing?