Lilly!! First Private Lesson of the Season

Dec 8, 2008

This is Lilly! This photo was taken by Image Makers. I pulled it offline from their website here. Lilly is becoming an awesome skier. Last year she was in the Mountaineers program. She thinks her instructor was either Brad or Susan. It was a pleasure skiing with her yesterday (Sunday).  She said her goal was…

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First Lesson of the Season

Dec 8, 2008

Monarch opened on Friday with an 18 inch base. I know that doesn’t sound like much, but the coverage was pretty good. All the green runs were open and two blue runs.  The were no crowds to speak of, mostly locals enjoying opening day. I had my first lesson of the year. I was proud…

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Joined Another Site

Dec 3, 2008

Joined yet another ski website. This is called SkiSensei. See it here. I’ll add it to my list of ski blog/websites. It’s a social networking site specifically for ski instructors. I’m hoping to maybe make some friends there. Perhaps they can come ski at Monarch and maybe I could get to ski in some other…

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Movement Analysis Videos Via YouTube

Dec 3, 2008

Here’s an intersting concept. You send a YouTube link to a ski instructor via his or her blog and they post it with analysis and tips for improvement. I found this idea in practice on a blog called Free Ski ‘YouTube’ Video Analysis. The blog is by an Austrian ski instuctor named Carl Owen. PSIA uses…

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Ski Instructor Blogs

Dec 3, 2008

I’m starting to run across more ski instructor blogs. I added a new one today in my sidebar called Canadian Ski Quest. The blogger’s name is Mark Impey. It looks like he is certified with CSIA (Canadian Ski Instructor’s Association). What is interesting to me is reading the perspective of a Canadian snowsports instructor. I…

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Monarch PSIA-AASI Area Representative

Nov 29, 2008

Earlier I mentioned that I volunteered to be the PSIA-AASI Area Rep. Well I’ve been asked to be the Rocky Mountain Division PSIA-AASI Area Representative at Monarch. My job is to aid our snowsports school in growing its membership in PSIA-AASI. In exchange they will waive the Rocky Mountain portion of my PSIA dues. The…

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Ski Pro Connect

Nov 29, 2008

There’s a new site that I was invited to participate in called Ski Pro Connect. The purpose of the site is to help people find snowsports instructors. It’s just getting started so there’s not very many instructors participating right now. They’re currently running an incentive program to encourage new instructors to sign-up on their site. The…

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"Drive-To" Areas May See Benefit From Economy

Nov 24, 2008

With economy the way it is, there was some discussion about the impact to Monarch. Will guests not be able to afford visiting our mountain? Well here’s an article that says that drive-to areas may actually benefit from more visitors that cannot afford trips to destination resorts. People will still want to ski and snowboard…

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New Opening Day

Nov 22, 2008

Since we only have natural snow at Monarch and there isn’t quite enough of it yet, opening day has been postponed until December 5th. It’s kinda what happened last year. Hopefully the jet stream starts dipping further south. I read in the news that Vail and Beaver Creek opened yesterday. Curious I looked for their…

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Direct to Paralell or Wedge?

Nov 20, 2008

One of the best reasons I’ve heard for teaching the wedge is that it is a blended maneuver, one that incorporates all the skills needed for skiing well. If a student learns direct to parallel, even if they are athletically gifted, they may not adequately develop rotary skills (for one) and thus actually hinder their progress…

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Wedge or Pizza?

Nov 20, 2008

Ha! I just saw a Wiki page on how to ski. Yesterday I mentioned that the European website I added to my list of links here called the wedge a “snowplow.” I’d forgotten that it is also sometimes known as the “pizza” like it is described in the Wiki article.  Of course it all depends…

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Volunteered to be PSIA Representative

Nov 19, 2008

The other day at the re-hire clinic the supervisors passed around a sheet asking those of us who would consider being Monarch’s PSIA representative to sign -up. Before I could even think about it, I raised my hand to volunteer. They still have not made a decision as far as I know. I see it…

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