Powder and the 4 progressions for our New Zealand ski instructor trainees

It looks like the New Zealand NONSTOPers have had an epic second week, so much so that it took them until mid way through week 3 before they got round to writing a blog about it. You can't blame them though when you take a look at the conditions they've had in the video below. No blogs on a powder day!



So on to week 2 we go. Apologies for the delay but the fun and frivolity of life on the hill drew my attention away from the thing I was meant to be doing.

Week 2 brought us to the introduction of the 4 progressions of skiing. A topic that will consume our lives as ski instructors in the same way preschool teachers are consumed by nursery rhymes.

After a run through from Splinter (our trainer Jason) we were thrown in to the deep end to teach a part of the progression to possibly the most immature and infantile students we could find… each other. From the kea bird to the wedge we all took our place and for a first attempt it was quite impressive, a testiment to the guidance we are receiving.

With these new skills firmly ingrained in our minds some suddenly found mountain lifes simple tasks a little difficult, with Alice forgetting how to work the zip on her jacket. After about 3-4 minutes of watching her struggle with the zip showing the same hopelessness a dementia patient shows eating soup with a fork she finally gained some assistance and we were able to hit the hill again.



Free skiing was the flavour for later in the week and there was some good lines to be had within porters. There was also some time for drinking games with the porters staff and locals and for the girls a trip to Christchurch for a shopping adventure was in order.

We are not all certain why but nicks tag of ‘aspen’ was requested to be changed to ‘extreme’. A title we have not seen him fulfil as yet. But in good faith we have all complied and the expectation has been set that the ‘extreme is yet to come from him. Although in our hearts and minds he is still ‘Aspen Boy’ and always will be.

New Zealand instructor course blogs are clearly like buses... we've just got another one through from the famous "Aspen Boy". Watch this space, we'll put it up as soon as we've got some pictures to go with it.

In the mean time, if you've got any comments for our NZ NONSTOPers, go wild below...

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