Skiing vs Snowboarding (August 8th, 2006)

Everyone in my lodge is training for the same exams, but we've got a mixture of skiers and snowboarders. It's been strange to see how the stereotypes of skiing and snowboarding transfer into the approach for teaching. I'd say the (positive) stereotype for snowboarding is that it's more laid back, relaxed, and encourages having fun. Skiing, on the other hand, is a more serious and technical snowsport. It's still fun (or should be), but there's a lot of important information that needs to be transfered to the students.

We're 1/4th through our CSI exams and there's a startling contrast between the skiers and boarders. The skiers are still sitting around the common table, discussing the proper progression of exercises to get a student from "gliding wedges" to "wedges with small direction changes." It all sounds terribly boring and exceedingly technical. They've been around the table for the better part of three hours.

My night has been decidedly more relaxed. I went to the gym for a couple of hours, compared songs on my iPod with another boarder, and settled down for a beer and the movie Fletch (with Chevy Chase). I'm about to spend 15 minutes reviewing some stuff we'll be talking about tomorrow and then try to find a warm spot on my bed. Meanwhile the skiers are still out there, last I heard they were discussing the proper ratio between turn size and distance or something. They know people want to have fun during their lessons, right? The snowboard training manual we've been using has a quote on the first page that pretty much sums it up for me: "Teach people how to snowboard, not snowboarding to people." It sounds like the skiers are teaching skiing with no regard to the people who are learning.

I guess I shouldn't really say anything until the exams are over though, maybe that's why the ski instructor pass rate is higher than the snowboarders.