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?