BACK TO SCHOOL
Skiers of all skill levels can benefit from a little on-site training
If you thought that ski and snowboard lessons were just for beginners, think again.
Resorts are offering a wide range of lessons, clinics and programs to help more experienced skiers and boarders improve their skills on the slopes.
For instance, at Jasper’s Marmot Basin Snow School there are private lessons, adult and children’s lessons, various clinics and even sessions in the terrain park with an instructor.
One clinic at Marmot Basin gives people an instructor-led tour of the resort’s double-black-diamond terrain, while a women-only program is taught by a former Canadian World Cup ski racer.
Similar variety exists at most resorts, all with the goal of helping already accomplished skiers and snowboarders get better.
“Sometimes people are looking for something but they’re not sure what, until it gets unlocked for them,” says Wendy Reade, director of guest service and snow school at Fernie Alpine Resort.
“Then all of a sudden parts of the mountain open up for them that they may have been challenged on before, or they ski better with less fatigue in the day.”
Reade says even experienced skiers or snowboarders may have gaps in their technique that cause them difficulty in handling certain terrain at their favourite hill.
“So a big part of (a lesson) is trying to identify what’s holding a person back.”
Stewart Laver, director of snow sports at Sunshine Village Ski and Snowboard Resort, says you only need to ride a chairlift and watch other people skiing or snowboarding to realize “that everybody doesn’t look the same.”
“But if you watch World Cup athletes skiing, they look pretty much the same,” says Laver. “There are fundamental things that stronger skiers definitely have.”
A lot of problems are caused by how people stand and align themselves on their skis or snowboard, referred to as their “stance,” says Laver.
“If your stance is off a little bit it can create a limiting factor. You can’t find your balance in the moguls, or control your speed when it gets steep, or you can’t make it happen in the powder.”
An instructor, according to Laver, has the ability to look at what you are doing and address a stance problem or other gaps in your skill set.
“Everybody learns differently, so a good instructor will figure out the best way to make you understand.”
Reade adds that “as the level of the skier or rider goes up, so does the experience of the instructor” who will provide the lesson.
Accomplished skiers and snowboarders might also have an issue with tactics, even though their technique is sound, Reade says.
An example of tactics, she says, is how you actually approach your line of descent down the mountain.
It might be by using big round turns or short quick turns, or something as simple as looking further ahead down the mountain instead of just in front of you.
“Those (tactics) are not really the skills we usually talk about in skiing,” she says. “But they help us use our skills to the best of our ability. The goal is to ski the most proficiently, with the least amount of effort. Skills and tactics can provide that.”
Lessons for more experienced skiers and snowboarders also offer tremendous variety, from a private day session or group lesson, to multi-day camps or multi-week programs.
Laver says there are advantages to the longer programs.
“You have the same instructor and the same group each week. So that allows the instructor to layer the lessons, one week on top of the other. So today’s lesson gets continued next week.
“We have people who come year after year for the multi-week programs,” adds Laver, and many have made friends through the program that they now ski with all the time.
Reade says that taking a lesson when you already know how to ski or snowboard is really “an investment in your enjoyment.”
“(As instructors) there’s always a certain element of satisfaction, when we finish, that something has been accomplished.”
She says people give up their precious time and money to go skiing and snowboarding, so it makes sense they try to get the most out of it that they can.