Awesome Early Season Lessons
I had Christmas in Arizona with my family but once I got back, I was teaching lessons at Cascade and they were really fun. Two in particular were really cool and I’ll share them here.
On Saturday, I came in and found out I had a requested private lesson. That’s always great. I had a blast with both Brett and Jack and we even did another lesson in the afternoon.
Then on Sunday (New Year’s Day), I ended up with two awesome lessons!
Little Zoey
The first was with Zoey, who was a very well spoken 7 year old. She was quiet at first but that didn’t last long. She had loads to say.
Her first couple runs were good but we were working on getting skis more parallel and the first 1-2 things I tried had just minimal success so I wanted to try some more. When I asked her to follow my tracks, she’d kind of cut them short and not really do it. At the end of a run, I decided to ski backwards and try to watch her more. She thought it was funny that I was doing that and she started following my tracks. I gave her instant feedback and praise on the turns she was doing well and her skiing got better.
We did that until the end of the lesson. They then hired me for another hour a little bit later. We did some more runs on Schoolmarm and then headed up to the top of our mountain. I then proceeded to ski backwards from the top to the bottom for 3, long runs. I don’t think I’d ever done that before but it was working, so I kept it up.
She did great controlling her speed. I’d catch her sometimes but she was able to slow herself down when she had to and in the icy spots. She was smiling all the way down and just really did awesome. Her skiing improved and I think she left there liking skiing even more.
On two of those long runs, we were able to have her dad and brother join us. On private lessons, we get to skip ahead in line and as we were doing that, her dad and brother were next in line, so they joined us. Zoey thought the beads and bras in the pine tree on the way up were really funny. I don’t think any of them had ever seen that before.
Elyse
The other lesson yesterday was with a mother named Elyse who had skied 20 years ago and wanted a lesson since her daughter was in a lesson. I helped her get her boots on and get them comfortable and we went through a beginner lesson since I wasn’t sure if she had remembered anything and things have changed a bit in 20 years.
She got it and got it quickly. By the time we came down, she was instantly linking turns. At the end, I told her she nailed it and I think she was surprised that we were already done. The hour flew by and she was at a level where she needed to take what she learned and put some miles on it.
I was just really happy to get someone back into skiing again – that made my day. Maybe she’ll start skiing with her daughter for years to come. I’m humbled to have played a part in making that happen.
I even had a lesson with another guy who was retired and wanted to learn. He got tired right away but I think he’s brave for getting out there. I suggest he go with shorter skis and then later found out he took that advice and was skiing a bit in the afternoon. The shorter skis were better for his hip.
I Love What I’m Doing
It has been 10 years now since I started teaching skiing. On days like yesterday, I was the ranking veteran there, which still seems kind of weird to me. I had other instructors asking for advice from me and I was able to take part in a number of great lessons. The previous weeks I helped train the new hires and then this week I coach the next batch of PSIA Level 1 Exam candidates.
I’m thankful I’m able to help others and share what has become my passion with them. There are lots of great people I meet skiing and it was all because I decided to take the step to do it. Don’t pass up small chances in your life because they might lead to greater things and they might be some of the best decisions of your life!
