Category Archives: Fernie

Lessons from week 1

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!

Buy, eat, drink and enjoy!

Grocery shopping doesn’t change much when you’re in another country, you have to make a list and walk the aisle. In Fernie we buy, eat, drink and enjoy!

There are mainly two grocery stores in Fernie; Overwaitea and Extra Foods. Overwaitea is much closer to home and we earn points there, so it’s where we do our weekly groceries shopping. Like most people in Fernie the staff is super friendly and helpful.

The store is very clean and neat, light and bright. The fruits are shiny and of good quality and the veggies very fresh, we buy about 30 apples and 20 bananas a week! Some products have the same look, but there are a lot of unfamiliar products, to me at least. Good old pampers are on the shelves, so that’s no brainer! Justinus and Jano loved the Maltezers (chocolate balls), and we’ve bought a lot of those!! Other products we love are the lemonade and flapjack ready mix (it’s called pancakes here). The liquor store stock fine South African wines and beers and we’ve also bought a bottle of Amarula, divine with crushed ice. It seems that Christopher is over his diary allergy, so buying food has also become a bit easier. He is just on soya milk, lactose free yoghurt and margarine.

Converting Canadian dollars to South African Rand….. At first glance prices sounds like a bargain, 3.49 for bread, then thinking about it R35! My goodness, everything seems very expensive, especially the cheese. I guess we will go back home and be thankful that things are so cheap! At the moment, I’m buying were we get points, sale prices, marked downs and comparing like mad, but I guess it won’t take long before we are used to it, like everything in life.

Buying bulk definitely saves a lot of money, many products come in bulk. And after a week of consuming food, we’ve already opted to buy the 2kg peanut butter, 1.5 liter tomato sauce, the biggest cereal packs, 2kg mince pack (looks like a big roll of cold meat) and 4litres of milk as it’s much cheaper per unit, hooked already!

Our menu hasn’t changed much. Justinus and Eunice make the big breakfasts three times a week. Lunch is a sandwich or we eat on the ski hill. A personal favourite is the chilli soup in bread bowl at the Lost Boys Café (just as you get of Timber Bowl Express chair lift). We’ve also enjoyed scrumptious pork ribs and burgers at Kelsey’s on the hill.

Chilli Bowl another way to Buy, eat, drink and enjoy in Fernie

Dinners are basically fish, rotisserie chicken, spaghetti bolognaise, tuna pasta, readymade lasagna, and since Kerry made her delicious fettuccini, it has been incorporated in our menu. I recently bought a readymade beef roast which was very yummy, the meat was so tender it fell apart! The pork chop recipe I googled was also very good. We combine it with veggies and/or salad that Eunice makes; either a chef’s salad or juicy carrot salad.

Friday nights have always been our family night with Nando’s, popcorn and jelly babies and a movie for the kids. Since there’s no Nando’s here (in Calgary though!), we’ve been eating Boston Pizza’s BBQ Chicken and Pepperoni pizzas, it is bursting with flavor! The other alternative, McDonalds, was Christopher’s request (just because he gets a kids toy)! Hot Chocolate with cream is also a big favourite!

We eat a lot more here; we assume that it is due to the colder temperature, being very active and being in a holiday spirit. Whatever the reason, eating has always been a pleasant experience!

Cheers for now from Ankie – Go buy, eat, drink and enjoy!

Getting the Balance Right

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?

Pumped up and ready to GO!

It was in March of 2012 just after I decided to leave Private Property that the thought of doing a ski instructor course first occurred. Now the day has finally arrived. Tonight was the welcome dinner and tomorrow we will hit the slopes for our first lesson.

The trip in Meribel where I first decide to do an ski instructors course

I am sooo excited I can hardly sit still. Ahead of me lies 11 weeks of intense learning and practice. Four days a week, we will have instruction for 5 hours. That means that at the end of the course I would have had more than 200 hours of lessons.

Ankie will be doing the 5 weeks course. After 5 weeks we will hopefully both be Level 1 CSIA qualification. And after 12 weeks I will hopefully have completed level 2 CSIA.

We met our groups tonight as well as our instructors. And from what we have heard both our initial instructors seems to be a perfect fit for where we are in terms of our own skiing ability and state of mind! The Nonstop guys have clearly been doing this for a while and know how to split up the groups.

The total group of people is quite big, probably close to 100 including the skiers and snowboarders on the 5 and 11-week courses. This is going to be EPIC!

I remember when I was about 9 years old, being so excited about the first rugby game of my life that I got sick and could not sleep the night before. I can’t imagine that I was any more excited about it, than what I am about this ski instructor course.

Here is to everybody that managed to get through a very difficult life changing decision, and never looked back. I hope you also get so excited about what every new day brings, that it is impossible to image where the other road would have led.

We are pumped up and ready to go!

Fernie Aquatic Centre

One of the kids’ favourite places in Fernie is the Fernie Aquatic Centre. The Fernie Aquatic centre has two pools, hot tub, a slide, diving boards, tarzan swing and steam room. We spend most of our time in the leisure pool that is nicely heated and shallow enough for the kids to still stand.

Outside view of the Fernie Aquatic Centre

At first the kids was so scared they did not want to leave our arms, but they have progressively gained more confidence. It is also amazing to see the peer pressure at work. Christopher was curious about the slide from the first visit but could not get himself to go down. The first visit with Diane they both went down the slide and didn’t want to stop. They ended up going down on their own.

Needless to say we prefer the hot tub at 40 degrees Celsius (104 Fahrenheit) after a day out on the very cold mountain. Another great benefit of the time at the Fernie Aquatic Centre is the way the kids handle washing their hair at bath time. This used to be a mission every time, now they hardly notice water all over their faces when we do it.

The competition pool with a diving board and tarzan swing

The Fernie Aquatic Centre has a big 6 lane competition pool

The change room facilities at the Fernie Aquatic Centre are fantastic. There are a male, female and family change rooms. All equipped with 50 cent lockers, showers and toilets. There is also a swimming school and life guards on duty all the time. There are ample parking, vending machines for snacks and drinks, and a small shop selling swimming accessories.

The Fernie Aquatic Centre is located over the railway tracks from the historic town centre at 250 Pine Avenue, Fernie, BC: (Google maps have it under Fernie Leisure Services)

View Larger Map

I think the times spend at the Fernie Aquatic Centre will be some of the fondest memories our kids will take back home from Fernie.

I will updated the post with the operating times and prices later.