Get Dual Certified

Heading into our 14th year of training skiers and snowboarders to become instructors, we are proud to offer a simple pathway in obtaining a dual certification. Fortunately, Nonstop offers a multitude of courses at a few different destinations making the entire process as simple as signing up and booking your plane ticket.

Obtaining dual certification is for those that are very keen to teach at a snow school and obtain as much work as they can get or for those that want ultimate bragging rights and boast that they achieved instructor certification in both disciplines, a pretty strong showing for a winter season.

As Kelly Evans, the Assistant Snowsports Director at Fernie Alpine Resort points out "instructors with dual certification would be some of the first people we would contact to set up an interview". Hiring a dual certified instructor can help lower overall staff overhead, by having one pro that can do the job of two pros it's a win-win. Kelly also suggests that a dual certified pro has the opportunity to get more hours in any given week than a single disciplined pro. Kelly's advise "if you have the skills, definitely go for both certifications, even a Level 1 CSIA and a Level 1 CASI is of great value, a Level 2/1 in either discipline is even that much better." Kelly also advises to keep your membership active and up to date with both CSIA and CASI, if your membership dues are not up to date, you won't be able to teach that sport.

Instructors with dual certification would be some of the first people we would contact to set up an interview.

Kelly Evans Fernie Assistant Snowsports Director

Depending on your time line and pre course skill Level, obtaining dual certification maybe possible in as little as six weeks. This very intensive program would start out in either Banff or Fernie as early as November and finish up in Fernie in early January. For your convenience we offer two back to back Level 1 training courses in Fernie starting in December. Much of the teaching skills are transferable between sports, understanding the mechanics of how the skills apply for each sport is more specific to each discipline. Demonstrating the sport is another key part to passing the exams, being able to link rhythmical turns and control speed on blue and red runs would be essential at the start of the course. With dual certification in hand you're ready to knock on some doors and get busy teaching your passion.

Spending a season to really learn, develop and prepare your skills for the exams is certainly the best possible way to go about a single sport certification let alone going for dual certification. The 11 week instructor training course will prepare you for the Level 1 and 2 CSIA or CASI exam. This course starts in January and is offered in Fernie, Banff and Red Mountain. After the 11 week course Nonstop will transfer you to Banff (if required) to start a 3 week Level 1 course to prepare you for your "other" exam. This course extends into April.

Obtaining Level 2 is a big step up from the Level 1, we recommend going for the Level 2 in the sport that you are more confident and skilled in. The advantage of taking a season to train is that you will have time on your days off from lessons to train your "other" sport. This is also a really fun way to ride with others in the course and they may be itching to teach you a few skills to hone their own teaching skills.

Check in with our team to discuss the best options to obtaining dual certification this season or any of our other courses, we are here to help, email us at info@nonstopsnow.com.

About the author

Jens has made Fernie, BC, home since 1984. His ski teaching and coaching career started full time in 1982. Jens is an active course conductor with the CSIA, a level IV certified instructor since 1989. Jens is currently the Technical Director of skiing for Nonstop Ski and Snowboard, he has been with Nonstop since inception in 2002.