Beginning instructor training

Steve Haigh wrote:
I'm not sure you need 10 grand [I'm assuming this was GBP since you were
talking about British skiers] though to do a season though... I survived
seasons on way less than that. I did do a few weeks work, but I managed
to live in Chamonix a few years ago (1994) on about £300 a month when I
wasn't working - i.e. £300 to cover rent, food, beer, er thats it
really. OK, you'd need to set aside £400-500 for a lift pass on top of
that and money for a deposit on a flat, but you could easily do a season
in a big resort for 4 or 5 grand. If you are prepared to rough it you
could do it for less still.

Thanks for the correction. I was completely guessing with my figure
although you can rent a studio flat in Val d'Isère for about 3,000 GBP
for the season.

David Off wrote:
Steve Haigh wrote:

I'm not sure you need 10 grand [I'm assuming this was GBP since you
were talking about British skiers] though to do a season though... I
survived seasons on way less than that. I did do a few weeks work, but
I managed to live in Chamonix a few years ago (1994) on about £300 a
month when I wasn't working - i.e. £300 to cover rent, food, beer, er
thats it really. OK, you'd need to set aside £400-500 for a lift pass
on top of that and money for a deposit on a flat, but you could easily
do a season in a big resort for 4 or 5 grand. If you are prepared to
rough it you could do it for less still.


Thanks for the correction. I was completely guessing with my figure
although you can rent a studio flat in Val d'Isère for about 3,000 GBP
for the season.

Val d'Isere is one of the most expensive resorts to rent in (IMHO) -
£3000 for a season is not too bad for Val. I found Chamonix (Argentiere
in particular) to be a much cheaper place to live, I think we paid about
£100 per week for our place (slept 4 in 2 bedrooms, so we had between 5
and 8 in it at anyone time).

Of course, if you did have 10 grand you *could* blow it very easily in
over a season!

"A." wrote:

David Off wrote in message ...

snipped

David, thanks a lot for that info - I had no idea the standard of
entry into the BASI GAP course was so high!

My daughter did this course about 4 years ago. She had been skiing about
16 weeks by then having started when she was very small and we lived in
France and they went with the Recreation Centre on Wednesdays.

Before she went she did an evaluation with a BASI trainer on a dry slope
where she was asked to do things like shuffle her feet back and forwards
during the turn - it wasn't so much how well she did those things, just
how easily she adapted to trying them. Her basic skiing was evaluated
too of course and was OK.

The course itself started in Scotland with First Aid and other admin
courses. Then they went off to Pila in the Aosta valley. Most of the
course there (5 weeks I think) was spent shadowing another instructor in
a real class which is a great way to learn, but not very exciting
skiing. She enjoyed the course though and was a much better skier at the
end of it and a good instructor, especially for kids.

Why not take a private lesson and get the instructor to
demonstrate to you what level ability you need to pass
the course. I did this and found out my ability to carve
and not skid a turn at low speed let me down. It was
a valuable lesson and far cheaper than doing a course
and being told the same thing. I think we as recreational
skiers are limited in our ability to acheive "instructor level skiing
ability"due to the low number of days we have available in a season

Peter

"Mark" wrote in message
om...
(A.) wrote in message
. com...
Thanks for the feedback everyone!

A.

If you are based in Ireland, you could also use IASI, the Irish
version of BASI. Same standards expected, same trainers as BASI etc.
Leads to the International license and beyond.

You could also do a beginner instructor course with the Austrians in
November and teach for the season there. I'm also involved in
computers and thats what I did for a season. Email me if you want any
more information about IASI or anything else.

peter.creagh wrote:
Why not take a private lesson and get the instructor to
demonstrate to you what level ability you need to pass
the course. I did this and found out my ability to carve
and not skid a turn at low speed let me down. It was
a valuable lesson and far cheaper than doing a course
and being told the same thing. I think we as recreational
skiers are limited in our ability to acheive "instructor level skiing
ability"due to the low number of days we have available in a season

Good points. I do ski with trainer sometimes, I did 10-15 days last year
with a trainer and so far this season I've skied about 30 days in total
I think. The number of days required to turn the sort of things they
tell you into second nature on any slope or in any conditions is pretty
high. For me the two barriers have been years of skiing badly and
fitness, even someone skiing way less than I do could avoid either of
those traps :-) With hindsight I really, really wish I'd had more
lessons over the years.

Anyone that has the option and wants to ski well should move somewhere
they can do more and get high standard training :-) Even if you're not
aiming for a BASI level then I can't personally speak high of the
returns on good training, it's increased my skiing enjoyment hugely and
I was having a good time before. For the money spent the returns on
lessons are way better than this years skis or boots :-)

Ian

(A.) wrote in message . com...
David Off wrote in message ...

snipped

David, thanks a lot for that info - I had no idea the standard of
entry into the BASI GAP course was so high!

I'm not saying the standard of entry is high, I just think you may be
wasting your money if you are not already of a good standard. As Ace
said earlier try and get an accurate assessment of your skills.
Either spend a morning 1 on 1 with a BASI trainer/instructor, there
are a few dotted around the Alps in the English resorts like Méribel
and Val d'Isère.

There are also foundation courses at the end of the season in Andorra
which are not too expensive for a week's skiing but don't be shocked
if you find BASI require a high standard. They have had to be very
exacting to get accepted by the Alpine countries and although some
European instructors may not agree with the techniques taught they
know that BASI 1 is a very hard standard. The Eurotest (ex-Capa) and
BASI equivelen are very difficult for people who have not raced to a
national standard to pass. But as you said, you are probably not
going that far.

But 32 is not so old. I'm watching a series about trainee guides on
the French channel Arté this week and one of the candidates is 42...
it gives you a certain maturity of outlook it would seem.

(A.) wrote in message . com...

Thanks to everyone that replied to my original posting. I've got a lot
of useful information now. I've come across some courses run by
Skivolution that look like they could be useful.

Regards,
A.

(A.) wrote in message . com...
(A.) wrote in message . com...

Thanks to everyone that replied to my original posting. I've got a lot
of useful information now. I've come across some courses run by
Skivolution that look like they could be useful.

Regards,
A.

"I'm dubious about the use of [dry slopes] at my level"

Hmmmmm. You think that you will find it too difficult?

I disagree, standing up on skis on a dry slope is easier
than the same activity on snowg.

My feeling is that dry slope training is probably VERY good for
developing ski technique. I find it however, a miserable business
and have done very little of it.


The key to improving my skiing was (and is) the recognition that my
skiing was completely crap. I suspect that this may apply to other
people too.


Good luck.