The fist week of lessons on the Non Stop Ski Instructor Course were amazing. I really enjoyed every minute of it. Even being soaking wet in the rain on Friday!  I already feel that my skiing ability have improved dramatically and can’t wait to learn even more!

Lessons from Week 1: Make sure your clothes is waterproof!

We continued to work on all kinds of exercises to improve our balance through out the week.  A big AHA moment for me was when I started to “force” my upper body to face downhill all the time.  As our technique improves it is becoming increasing easily to make fast turns.

On Wednesday we did video analysis of our skiing. It was interesting seeing yourself skiing.  The amazing thing is that my own perception and what I saw on the screen did not match up.  Axelle gave us some great feedback as part of the video analysis and help us practice it for the rest of the day.

There has been very little fresh snow, the last few weeks, but since Wednesday night it has been snowing on and off.  Friday was our first lesson day in a bit of powder! We had soooo much fun, playing through the trees, searching for moguls and just having a blast!

Here is some more lessons from week 1:

• Your core strength is just as important as you leg strength. You stomach muscle need to be strong to help you stay balanced no matter what the conditions throw at you.
• It is amazing the increased endurance you can get out of your body by being as efficient as possible when you ski. The better our technique gets the longer we can hopefully endure.
• The shapes of your ski’s will help you complete the turn with the right technique.

Friday our clothing was tested to the maximum with pouring rain at the bottom of the hill.  Luckily only the outer layers got wet and neither of us felt cold at all.  So this weekend we tried to waterproof everything to hopefully keep the outsides dry next time we meet the rain.

This week I also bought myself some powder skis, and got to play with them a little on Thursday! They are awesome! Looking forward to do the cat skiing with them!

Tomorrow we start week 2! Can’t wait!

The first day on the Non Stop course was awesome!  We had 4 hours of pure bliss on a beautiful sunny day.  Axelle, our instructor in the morning, was energized and got us into the swing of things quickly.

We did lots of exercises to help us focus on and better understand balancing on our skis.  With each of these exercises we had to go to the extremes as much as we could.  If we had to make turn with our centre of gravity as far forward as possible and then with it as far back as possible, then high and low.  It was all about getting the balance right.

Our first day on the Non Stop Ski instructor course was nice and sunny!

The idea was to experiment and find where skiing worked best.  It is like the ‘Get Real’ and ‘Lean Startup’ approach to start a business. Just get a MVP (minimum viable product) out there and experiment, learn what works best and get better from there! I love it!

As part of the process for the instructors to make sure all the groups’ ability are well matched, they decided to switched instructors in the afternoon. So this afternoon we were with Michelle. We did another bunch of exercises, with the same approach. The one I enjoyed was digging our poles into the ground while holding them half way down. This forced us to not use our upper bodies to make the turns.

Later in the afternoon we had a presentation about some of the other activities on offer over the 11 weeks. It all looks so exciting!  Ankie and I have signed up for a day trip to Castle Mountain resort and some backcountry skiing. I will also do an avalanche awareness course and the photography workshop.  I have also added my name to the waiting list for the cat skiing. Which has nothing to do with cats – as apparently somebody thought in a previous year…

So far the organization from Non Stop have been flawless.  Harriet, Christy, Max, Adam and Dave have been awesome.  Dave said something very interesting tonight:  “we should consider ourselves athletes”.  Since we train 5-6 hours a day 5-6 days a week, we are in fact training as much as professional athletes.

Everyday will hopefully be the best day ever! Today was all about getting the balance right. What will tomorrow hold?