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First ski instructor experience

BASI GAP Course

Between shadowing lessons and celebrating Christmas and the New Year, the past weeks have been an absolute blast for Altitude Futures Gap Course students.

Ski school shadowing – week 1

The first week started off with a group meeting explaining what we should expect from the lessons and which instructors we would be aiding for the two weeks of our first ski instructor experience.

“Shadowing”, as the name suggests, means to follow like a shadow. The BASI Gap students joined the group lessons with the Altitude instructors so we could learn teaching techniques and gain experience towards our BASI Level 2. We were lucky enough to be shadowing Polar Bear lessons for the first week with Sindy and Amy, our students were children aged 3-5 and were just getting their ski legs.

The Polar Bears spent a lot of time spilling hot chocolate and being pushed up the magic carpet, things didn’t always go smoothly with kids falling left, right and center. It was amazing to see the kids get more confident with their skiing and to see how quickly they learn! Our instructors also constantly gave us helpful feedback and tips.

The week was topped off with a delicious home cooked Christmas dinner prepared by the chalet chef, Javier.

Ski school shadowing – week 2

After a good weekend rest we began our second week of shadowing. This week we changed groups so that we could experience teaching different ages and levels of skiing.

We shadowed ski instructor Tess Lawson who was teaching adults Level 3-4. We found that the techniques for teaching adults are quite different from when you teach children. Often Tess would set drills through out the course concentrating on practice and focusing on individual improvement.

Our New Years Eve was spent in Place Centrale with thousands of other poeple; everywhere we looked we saw fireworks and champagne bottles!

Highlights of our first ski instructing experience

The highlights included building friendships and connections with the customers and instructors, we shared their excitement when they learnt new skills and improved. Iain as the Altitude Polar Bear also makes our list of highlights. Just imagine a giant Polar Bear on the slope stumbling and swaying around being charged at by small children! All in all another great two weeks on the Altitude Futures Gap Course!
Author
Tess Boller and Liu Wenxin

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