Monday - Lessons / Goodbye Michael: Monday was the last day my housemate Michael was around. He flied back to Blighty on Tuesday to go back to work so he could travel during the summer with his girlfriend. Everyone was sad to see him leave, he was a big personality, and my only snowboarder back up in the Rack Shack! However I didn't have too long to be all melancholy as it was straight back to work. Monday I had a sweet bunch of little snowboarders, the kid who stood out most was Dodge. He seemed to have some learning disabilities and I had been warned by other instructors that he can get out of hand when too tired.
It turned out to be a great lesson. Initially he wanted assistance with everything. Carrying his board, doing up his bindings, a helping hand whilst riding. I refused to let him take the easy route! My background in the CADS teaching methods really helped me facilitate his learning by increasing his independence. Theres no reason to help him with everything, he just needed the confidence to know it was within his ability to do all these things. By the end of the lesson he was fully capable of taking the magic carpet up by himself and attaching his snowboard without help. Even small steps like this can prove, not only to others, but to himself, that he can do things. May be it won't be the conventional method that works for everyone but thats beside the point - it can still be done. Plus I would argue that children are the best source of creativity and finding new solutions. They aren't restricted by embarrassment, or the limits of how it 'should' be done. If there is goal they want to achieve, they will find a way within their ability to do it.
Tuesday - Called Into Work: My regular day off but they needed extra bodies to work to accommodate a school group arriving for the week. I had a small group of snowboarders from Edgewater (small town 45 minutes down the road.) who I took for their ski field trip of the year. They were fairly strong riders on easy terrain and they really wanted to go to the summit. So after lunch I promised we would go to the top together. So after lunch we make our way up the chairlifts, and on the short CAT tracks to the next chair it seems my boys have forgotten how to snowboard! Not only that, one starts getting anxious and starts telling me how he's afraid of heights. Time for a change of plan I thought, or I'm never going to get these boys down safe and happy. Thus we drop into Sun Bowl, tear it down in our sturdy heel-side side slip and even start playing around with jumps and fresh snow. We did a great job going down fast that we got back in time for the kids to be let go and free ski for a while.
Wednesday - Kicking Horse Trip: I mentioned this briefly last week and posted a picture but heres another!
That was a steep hill, with so many black diamond, gnarly runs! 178 in total, with crazy deep snow, rocks, and tree runs accessible via a gondola - good thing too as it was tipping it down with rain at the bottom but thankfully transitioned to snow higher up. The ladies I was with weren't as strong a riders as me so after a couple runs together and lunch I headed out solo to shred. It was all fun and games though. On the journey to the resort our coach broke down literally 5 minutes from the resort we could see the chair lifts! As staff on the coach it was our jobs to keep the guests informed and satisfied as we found a solution. We called Kicking Horse, local colleges and bus providers to try and find alternative ways to the mountain and within half an hour we had struck gold - 2 coaches on route to save the day. After some stiff conversations with stressed guests and organisation of the group, we successfully delivered 50 guests, plus skis to hill and had them ready to ski with passes in no time. We all needed a coffee after that though.
Thursday - Staff Trivia Night: With ice skating and bonfire on the lake thrown in too!
Friday: St Paddys Day: Funky costumes on the hill and the first day of the 3 day long music festival High Notes! Lots of live music kicking about which is a nice change when sitting down with a nice pares-ski beverage. Otherwise, nothing special.
Saturday / Sunday: Saturday was possibly the wettest day I have ever experienced at a ski resort, and guess who was out there working hard in it, all day.. I think all the instructors accepted that it was just a unpleasant day so resorted to the one thing that would guarantee child happiness - SNOWBALL FIGHT! It was crazy! Never before have I seen all the instructors collectively participate in snowball fights with each other, their kids and even other instructors lessons too. It was so fun and created a wonderful, playful, happy atmosphere that kept everyone smiling. Despite the weather.
Sunday juxtaposed Saturday completely. Roaring sunshine all day was a welcome relief, I didn't want to have to take my uniform hime again to dry them out. I find it strange to ask the kids if they want to go inside for water and a cool down rather than warm up during a ski lesson!
Sunday was enjoyable as I had a returning client from the last couple weeks snowboarding with me again. She comes every weekend thanks to the special discounts offered to her tribe. You see, Panorama is built on Shushuap land. The ancient territory of the native Shushuap people. So in order to build on and use their land we give discounted tickets and lesson to them. Which is nice because you finally get to build a relationship and witness improvement.
Sorry for the wait, hope you enjoyed the data dump. Until next time! xx
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