Snowboard instructor course - a week in the life
Ever wondered what the typical week on a snowboard instructor course is like? Well think no longer! Thanks to Terra for this great update from Level 1 exam week in Banff...
Monday Feb 6th
Today’s the first day of our Level 1 exams – at least it was for the skiers. As snowboarders, our exams are a day shorter in length, so while the skiers prepped and crammed, we were boarding the bus to spend another sweet day at Lake Louise under bluebird skies and a blazing sun.
Most of the day was spent practicing our teaching skills on the bunny hill, although we did go on some occasional runs through the park every now and then. We had fun throwing challenges are each other during our fake lessons – I was almost flattened when I tried to catch both Steve and Joe as they ‘caught’ their toe-edges in the snow. Mark, one of our instructors, put out a challenge for us to no-board up the T-bar: a feat a lot harder than it looks. Only Melina made it all the way up – the rest of us stumbled, tripped, slipped and got dragged around. We rode with Emily and Damien (founder of Rocky Mountain Military) for a little bit at the end of the day; originally, I had thought that our group was reasonably fast – until a blur of Damien straight-lined past us and disappeared off the visible face of the mountain. We saw him later throwing some sick tricks in the park with Emily, even with a rib protruding where it shouldn’t have been. That night, the Dancing Sasquatch missed us because no one was going out and, for the first time in a while, the inn was able to enjoy some peace and quiet as we all took an early night in to prep for the next day.
Tuesday Feb 7th
Exam day 1! I’ve never seen so many people at breakfast before – everyone, even Ben & Steve, were on time for the early bus up to Norquay. As a prank that none of us understood, Emily had encouraged us to completely mask up with goggles, beanies and bandanas before we met our evaluators. However, as we were wrapping up, Rich (one of the two evaluators) came to get us and spoiled the surprise. As soon as we stepped outside we got the joke: you couldn’t see any part of Rich’s head as he wore a black helmet, black goggles and a black bandeau that covered everything so that he ended up looking like a ninja in a CASI jacket. The morning of Day 1 was spent mostly on exercises that allowed Rich to evaluate us and improve our riding. We spent the afternoon going through each section of a Level 1 structured lesson and learning/fine-tuning our teaching skills. We also learned some butters and flatland tricks on the side. The day ended with a quick workshop and evaluation – all of my group had done pretty well. Altogether, I had way more fun than I had ever expected or hoped for on an exam day and I can’t wait to hit the slopes again tomorrow.
Wednesday Feb 8th
Exam day 2! Once again, everyone got to Norquay bright and early. Because of the cloudless skies, we were able to watch a beautiful pomegranate sunrise on the bus ride up – good start to a brilliant day. We started the day with a warm-up run, practising the butters that we had learned the day before; we then did some carving and edging exercises that gave us a chance to shred with some speed. The rest of the day was spent mostly on practising teaching different sections of a lesson to each other even as Rich hovered and gave feedback. By the end of the day, everyone in my group was confident enough for our last exam day (‘evaluation day’) that we decided we wanted to spend the rest of our time with Rich shredding. Melina and I both landed a method – something I’ve always wanted to be able to do. Laughing and hi-5ing with high spirits, we headed into the lodge for a few more quick workshops and an evaluation before heading back. Today was another sick day to reckon with that completely defied my expectations of an intimidating and boring exam day.
Thursday Feb 9th
Exam day 3! After a quick warm-up, we each picked a section to teach and be evaluated on – I was the first to go and the pressure was on. However, I shouldn’t have been worried because according to Steve: “You killed it!” With the nervous tension that had been building up throughout the morning gone, and with the sun turning the snow to glitter and warming up the sky, I felt the stirrings of another awesome day building up in my bones. We each taught 2 different sections in the morning and part of the afternoon. Feeling confident about the sections we each taught, we spent the remaining 1-2 hours of our 3-day course with Rich shredding, laughing and having fun. We ended the day with a couple park laps and headed in to find out if we had passed. Rich left us to our own devices with a vague “no one here should be on any pins and needles,” – and none of us were. Good thing too, because none of us needed to be – everyone, skiers included, had passed. We’re all now officially CASI/CSIA certified snowboard/ski instructors!! Congrats everyone! That night Banff could hear us once more as we celebrated our success at Eddie’s Burger, Devil’s Gap and Hoodoos. The Nonstop crew took over the town. Again.
Friday Feb 10th
Today was a hangover day spent on the bus because… we’re going to Revelstoke! All of the snowboarders, with 1 exception, and 2 skiers turned up. When we arrived, a bunch of us headed to the aquatic center (water slide, diving board, heated pool and hot tub included) before going out for dinner. I grabbed some yummy Indian food for take out and watched snowboard films and comedy with some of the other guys and went to bed early in preparation for what was to be an insane day on the slopes tomorrow.
Saturday Feb 11th
After a sunny spell that lasted all week in Banff, we were all ready for Revi’s infamous powder runs. Though there weren’t powder stashes just lying around, we still managed to get some fresh tracks as it had been snowing all night and all day. Revi only has about 2-3 lifts and a gondola but the mountain and terrain was absolutely massive and even just the groomed runs took forever to get down. Brian, one of our instructors and the ‘Emily’ of the trip, pointed out a groomed run filled with huge rollers, Pitch Black, that took at least 10 minutes shredding at high speeds to complete. By the time we got down to the bottom, we were all panting and sweating as we felt our legs burn. First run down, an entire day to go. Let it rip. The morning flew by as we raced through trees, dropped unseen cliffs and sprayed one another with more snow than we had seen for a week or more. Lunch was spent recounting the awesome morning and letting our exhausted legs recuperate. Then we shredded the afternoon away. Utterly spent, we took the bus back to Revelstoke Lodge and hung out watching TV for a bit before heading once again to the aquatic center. After hitting up a rail jam that was happening in the middle of town, I headed back with my temporary roommate, Olive, and promptly fell asleep.
Sunday Feb 12th
It had snowed another 10cm the night before so we were all pumped to get on an early bus for the slopes. As soon as we arrived, we were off like a pack of wild wolves. I’ve never ripped through the trees at such high speeds before – it took riding through glades to a whole other level. I spent rest of the day in the trees under the Ripper chair, shredding the same area yet finding new shit to do each and every time. After yet another unbelievable day at Revi, we boarded the bus that sped us back to Banff, literally speeding, and into the throws of another night out in town. I’d have to honestly say that this has probably been one of the best weeks yet at Nonstop and I can’t wait for more to come.
-Terra
