The Fledgling Snowboard Instructor

Hey!

So remember how we just had the Holidays?  You know what I was doing?  Teaching kids how to snowboard!  

I started off with a New Hire Training, then had a Trial by Fire, and just recently I went out for my certification exam! (I came in as an Uncertified Snowboard Instructor).

NEW HIRE TRAINING

New Snowboard Instructor Training

New Ski Hires right along side us

Heading off to the ENCHANTED FOREST! Aka Learning Area for Skiiers

Jason teaching us some Snowboard Progressions

Time to Ride!

More Teaching...

And a little break...

And back out we go!

So this ^ was Days 1&2.  You know what we did on Day 3?!...

Classroom stuff

All day...

But that's okay!  Because after the three days of training, I was finally ready to be a Heavenly Snowboard Instructor!

Also, although working with kids is great, it does mean that I can't take as many pictures of my participants.  There may be a little more text and less pictures in the upcoming posts...

THE TRIAL BY FIRE

(I call this the trial by fire because we didn't get to Shadow at all, and we basically jumped right in to teaching for 15 days in a row).

Morning Meeting

Christmas Present!

First Ride!  Aka my second office

Magic Carpet!  This is my main office

So I was supposed to have this day off for Interviews, but as it got canceled (and would need a day off later), I came in for work.  Fortunately, I got the morning off.  Here are some pics I took that morning:

Beautiful Tahoe

Another great view

AND!  I was in the right place at the right time and ran into the Adults Coach Manager.  CalKids (where I work) has too many Snowboard Instructors, but Cal-Adults have too few.  The adult coach manager gave me an adult lesson which means... 

Picture of my student!

I can post pictures of the adults, but not kids under 14, so WOOT for adult lessons!

Getting Certified

Changing gears, the next day I had my Certification Exam.  I had to fill out a 12 page packet relating to Snowboard Progressions and Technical Knowledge prior to the Certification Starting. 

(not pictured)

The Students! 

Day 1: Ride Test. 

 The word 'test' implies that it was really strict, but really it was just the Trainer making sure we knew what we were doing on a snowboard

Perfect Conditions.  Not pictured: Super Cold Weather

One of my favorite views on the mountain

Nevada Side view of the lake (Did I mention that Heavenly is in 2 states!)

Also, my roommates chose this excellent time to get sick.  As the certification is non-refundable, I took measures not to get sick...

Yep, that's what the living room of Employee Housing looks like...

Day 2: Teaching Adults 

I've only got one picture from this day...

Quick Pic from our Ride Break

Today each of us had a lesson we had to teach.  My lesson was Carving (aka Advanced Turning).  Lesson went pretty well!

Day 3: Teaching Children

Sadly I don't have any pictures from the excellence of 6 snowboard instructors acting like kids.  Rest-assured though, it was fantastic.

Today each of us had to teach a lesson, but we had to teach it to 6 other snowboard instructors acting like a given age group.  My lesson was to teach 5 year old girls how to jump.

(My progression was for the girls to learn how to jump like Disney Princesses.  They started out learnign how to land a jump like Pocahantas (jump in place), then they learned how to jump like Penellope from Wreck it Ralph (aka jump while moving), then they got to save Ralph! (Do a big jump while moving)

And at 1:30 we finished.  Our Trainer had a lot of paperwork to do, so I got to explore the mountain for about 2 hours.

Love this mountain

World class tree runs

AND RESULTS...

Also not pictured...

BUT I PASSED!

Which means I am at National Teaching Standards for teaching people to go from Never Snowboarding to Linking Turns.

Now to begin life as a certified snowboard instructor (aka slightly more money, and much more priority in lessons).

Enjoy!
Chris