Ask an Instructor!
Well. To be honest, not really.
And I say this, meaning no disrespect. Because my last exam was evaluated by 2 of the top trainers out there. I learned good bits of riding and teaching from both of them in training. But I feel like the feedback was really unhelpful.
It literally went like this:
Feedback - “You just lacked that certain ‘Ooomf’ “
Method for improvement - They said, “You have all the skills required, you just lacked that certain…. When you go back to Perisher, just go really fast, all the time. To the point where you scare yourself.” I kinda got what they were saying, but you see what I mean by it being non specific?
Now, I know my riding was soggy. I wasn’t happy with it. They had me teaching skiing all season because it boomed this year. Which meant every free hour I had was spent on the board making up for lost time. I ignored my favourite trainer’s advice and didn’t take rest days because I felt I wasn’t up to standard and so I rode for 140 days straight. Stupid, but what choice did I have.
However, if they can’t articulate why I fail… then why did I fail at all?
I have no problem with failing the riding. I felt my riding sucked that day (at least in the morning) but surely you have some feedback as to what you don’t like about it. For someone like me, who has committed everything to this, it’s pretty frustrating.
So I guess I’ll go and work on my “Ooomf”...
Andy, I also say this with respect, but if snowboarding is your thing and that’s what you love and want to succeed in on a professional level, why ever bother with teaching skiing? It just takes focus away from what’s important to you, in my opinion.
I get that you probably get a higher rate now that you have dual certs, but they can’t take that away from you. You’re dual cert, so you get paid accordingly. That doesn’t mean you have to teach skiing.
I’ve been in the situation where they asked me to teach skiing before (and granted, I taught minis for 3 days for the fun of it in my first ever season), but I have always told them no way! You’re so close to getting your level 3, it just makes sense to focus 100% on that.
Just my opinion.
Ya I feel you. It always sucked when they don’t really give any helpful advice. And yes I agree with Jeremy, I think you should focus on snowboarding and not teach skiing at all or maybe just a little bit during high season (e.g. Christmas).
It’s a pain when you don’t pass exams first time (trust me on this), I had to watch my friends get the higher level lessons while i strolled off to the bunny hill. The good thing is that you focus on your riding and training with a much higher intensity for longer and in the end you ride at a higher standard then you would have if you’d been given the pin and cruised. I know once I’d passed my exams I didn’t go riding black bump runs all too often whereas i’d been in a state of war with them for the previous few months.
Also it gets you thinking about your riding in a very technical way which surely helps when teaching high end riders later down the track.
I don’t know whether you can do this but I booked a number of days off a week or two before my exams which allowed me to go ride the kind of terrain I expected to be examined on and just lapped it. I recommend a companion of some reggae on the mp3 player, perhaps toots and the maytals’s ‘twenty massive hits’. Here to help!
Andy, I kind of get the feedback they gave actually.. i think, I’m no instructor but figure I’d throw in my opinion based on what you’ve said.
I especially get the ride fast everywhere, I did this from the word go this season and it transformed the way I rode in all conditions - I found many cases where I couldn’t actually go any faster such as straightlining the saddle, now that was fun. In doing this constantly throughout the season I now feel so much more confident in my abilities and just have this faith in my muscle memory to ensure that everything does it’s job. My breathing is one thing that I definitely noticed changing aswell through this as I’m now more relaxed whilst riding so it’s one less thing to think about and my breathing is a lot shallower than it used to be.
If you asked me what I added to my riding this year after doing that I could actually say it was oomf.. I’m at a point where I feel like I have my own style as I’m so calm whilst still holding onto the technical facets of my riding. Example of this during the season was one of my mates spotting me from the chair at a distance and instantly recognising it was me by the way I rode despite the fact I was in uniform he could still tell it was me and not another lifty. I don’t know maybe another example could be, think of methods.. then think of Nicolas Muller.. the way he tweaks them he just has that oomf/signature on methods over others that makes him stand out. Sure other people tweak them out that far.. but that slight pause he has as he gets the grab before pushing that back leg out is what I’m talking about.
Don’t know if I hit the nail on the head or completely missed and smacked my thumb hahaha
Cheers for the ideas guys. I always value the thoughts of my peers (instructor or not isn’t important). I enjoy getting a look into the minds of all seasoned riders because the perspectives are so different.
The deal with the skiing was, there were no spots left for snowboard instructors left. So I later heard that they hired me as a “Skier Dual Cert”. It definitely wasn’t a choice from me. I have nothing against skiing, but it was the last thing I wanted to do while I wanted to be training for my 3’s.
Next season I told them that I was going to cancel my membership as a ski instructor so I can’t be forced to ski all season again. They apologized, and promised me I will be a “Snowboarder” in the system next season. Which is cool because I know they are no longer hiring board instructors period until this skier craze ends.
@Finney - I do know exactly what you mean, and I was stoked seeing your riding last season. So when they told me to spend a whole season nuking down every run, I kind of knew what they meant and agreed to it. We’ll see what effect that has on my riding. I guess it’s just nerves, because I kind of feel like I might come back to Whis and there will be something else they don’t like. I’ve passed the park section of the riding twice now, and I know I can do it again, because I know if I can land a trick or not. But can I mogul, carve or short turn the way they want? That’s a lot harder to know if you are there, or not.
Either way, next season I will be there until the end this time. So I will have 3 exams to throw down. And throw down I shall 
Andy, great news about being employed on the snowboard side next term.
I’m sure you’ll riding will see you through on the first exam that you book onto. Your challenge now is just to put the exam to the back of your mind and ride hard shit while throwing in the odd back 1.
Once that pesky exam is out of the way I recommend you sign up for your park 2 if you haven’t got it already. It’s a super fun course, super mellow and you get to try lot’s of new tricks. I tried my first McTwist on the big quarter at the bottom of the black park during mine 
. Spotted the landing then caught the bloody toe edge, every time!!!!!
Oooo you have done the Park 2 exam? You’re the first person I’ve met that’s done it!
Did you pass it?
It’s actually next on my hit list.
After the level 3’s are finally done, I want to start training for my park 2’s.
I loved the park 1 course and knew I could pass it before I signed up. And I feel like training for the Park 2’s is basically gunna be just me having fun in the park. Just with some specific tricks in mind.
I love freeriding but I’m officially over thinking about it. I’m sure I’ll go back to enjoying freeriding once exams are over but I don’t even want to know about level 4’s for a long time. But the Park 2 just sounds like fun to me!
So was it difficult?
Was it the same as it is now? Because when I look at the trick list, I’m thinking “Oh yeah, I can do that, and that, and oh crap that’s gunna take a while”. I can actually do all the tricks listed but it’s more doing the spins on large jumps… that could take me a long time (that’s kinda my weak link in the park). Rails don’t phase me, I would just have to polish a few tricks up.
How was it for you? Oh, and what kind of teaching is it? Skill based or trick based? Or something else? Sorry for all the questions lol.
All this talks making me want some lessons!
What are private lessons usually worth?
Super interesting chat lads, keep it up! Also, whats the general tricklist for level 1s and for level 2s??
@mattyp: At Whis it’s 600 or 700 bucks for a whole day.
Regarding the park 2, easily the most fun course i’ve ever done. Although riding park in mid April at half nine can be frightening!
Assuming it hasn’t changed that much from when I took it, the following would apply.
It rewards being solid at the basics rather then being able to do one or two banger tricks. If you could do the following you’d be in great shape for the riding.
Being able to do,
1) three different 180s with grabs on 10-15ft jumps.
2) solid 3s frontside and backside over 20ft jumps.
3) get onto features frontside and backside (50-50 or boardslides, lipslides, whatever)
4) perform boardslides fairly consistently
That’s not an explicit list or anything just my impressions. It kinda matches up with the material you might normally teach in a high end park lesson eh. When I signed up for the course I was initially worried I’d be in with a group of whis locals chucking nines, it wasn’t like that at all, just a bunch of us who were all solid but not spectacular, after about half an hour it’s like riding with friends in the park.
The teaching side is structured a little differently in terms of learning manoeuvres rather then skills. Although I taught the manoeuvres by breaking them down into component skills and passed above standard so you won’t find it so different to normal teaching methods I shouldn’t think.
The only other thing is something which I think is shared across most CASI courses is that the examiners like to see you taking feedback on board and trying to make positive changes.
I found it super fun riding with the examiner and the other candidates, we’d all try and land new stuff, all take spills and we all had our relative strengths and weaknesses. It was cool to see the examiner trying tricks he’d never tried before just because one of the candidates wanted to try it.
All this talks making me want some lessons!
What are private lessons usually worth?
Hey mattyp,
Regarding the lessons, my advice would be to just do group lessons, there is ample scope to receive personalised feedback on the key things that will help your riding during a two hour group lesson.
If you want to learn tricks high end group lessons aren’t a bad way to go. Firstly there are less people normally and they’re way cheaper than private lessons. Also if you can get to a level where your normal riding is solid technically before rushing into the park then you’re in great shape to learn tricks without taking the normal snowboarding approach (trial and error) which has three properties, FUN, pain and slowness. (+hilarity).
Loving this discussion. I’d just like to comment that I think it’s great that instructors need to be able to teach a wide range of snowboarding skills. Even though I’m a fairly average rider, I’ve been at it for a lot of years and my observation is that initially lessons were focussed very much on just basic piste riding. I went to Buller about 3 years ago and took a group lesson. While looking for my group, I read all signs for each group level that listed the expected skills and was really surprised to find they included a lot of freestyle, not just “can ride confidently on black runs”. I think this is the great strength of snowboarding. I used to think skiing was more versatile but I realise now that skiing is only more versatile on mobility around the mountain. Snowboarding is more versatile on the thing that counts - having fun.
All this talks making me want some lessons!
What are private lessons usually worth?Hey mattyp,
Regarding the lessons, my advice would be to just do group lessons, there is ample scope to receive personalised feedback on the key things that will help your riding during a two hour group lesson.
If you want to learn tricks high end group lessons aren’t a bad way to go. Firstly there are less people normally and they’re way cheaper than private lessons. Also if you can get to a level where your normal riding is solid technically before rushing into the park then you’re in great shape to learn tricks without taking the normal snowboarding approach (trial and error) which has three properties, FUN, pain and slowness. (+hilarity).
I actually agree with Aidy.
If your day off is mid week. If you show up to say 3 Wednesday 9am lessons consecutively you will most likely get the same instructor. (tell your first instructor if you like him that you want to come back each week) repeat work with the same instructor will usually get you some good feedback, even with other newbies in the lesson. Those 3 lessons will be a bargain compared to a private.
(Actually you should be able to tee up something with Andy Aitken??)