Carinthia is a premier destination (and training ground) for freestyle lovers and athletes. This collection of terrain parks (you’ll hear me abbreviate as “parks”) is not only geographically distinct from Mt Snow proper, but also a culture and animal unto itself. This animal was the impetus for the most challenging (and rewarding) ski teaching lesson of my career to date.
3 tw/een boy friends wanted to get better at park and ungroomed sliding. Their parents bought them a 10 week series of private lessons on Saturdays through my current home mountain: Mount Snow.
When the lesson request came in, it caused a bit of an issue in staffing. This required:
- The instructor needed to be available for 10 Saturdays in a row without prior commitment to other clients
- The instructor needed to be park certified
- The instructor needed to ski
- The instructor needed to be willing to take a 10 week series with tw/een boys that would occur largely in the aforementioned “destination park grounds” whilst serious competition teams and athletes trained there simultaneously
Many of our park certified professionals have seasonal development groups out of the Training Center. Many of our professionals have recurring private guests with lessons booked far in advance that conflicts with a schedule request of that kind. Many of our ski professionals want nothing to do with the terrain park.
I checked boxes 1-3 without issues. #4 took some soul searching. I’m not a freestyle expert. I feel like an imposter in the park. I’ve not taught a series this long before.
I felt proud my manager(s) thought I would be a good fit and ultimately I decided to take this lesson as a growth opportunity. I am SO glad I did AND man did I grow!
My intent is to share my reflections from this experience through the lens of PSIA-AASI’s teaching and people fundamentals (hopefully on a weekly basis or so). So if you’re interested, please tag along while I get psyched for the upcoming season!
