29th July 2010
This week has been pretty cool, on Tuesday it was a bad weather day, a storm came in so I didn’t go riding, the visibility was minimal so I took it as an opportunity to get some CV and cover letters done for Canadian and US resorts. I think I applied to about 26, most of the US guys have gotten back to me saying they are fully staffed or that the hiring of international staff has ended.
Unfortunately I think its going to be difficult for me to get work in any of these resorts as I need sponsorship work visa. Most of the mountains only sponsor workers who are return staff who have already worked for their mountain. I am going with the law of averages and hoping someone will see the spark in my CV and cover letter and choose to sponsor me. I would soo love to work back at Red, Banff would be cool too! Matt Arnstein works for Norquay in Canada and has a good time there, he said they sponsor people in their first winter, that would be awesome.
After getting all my applications done i remember going to the gym and then heading out to the lodge for the usual Tuesday staff night.
With the mountain being snowed on the day before Wednesday was a good riding day. We trained with Rob and it was awesome!!! We were riding about 25cm of fresh up top and it was sooo sweet, I was slashing up the powder big time!! Rob said I was looking solid and stable on my board in my new stance and that a lot of lightbulbs had turned on with my riding. Its starting to come together and my riding feels like its getting sooo much better. I have always had faith in my adaptability as a rider and Im stoked with all the training I am receiving I am really taking it on board and putting it into my riding.
I was riding on my DH2 its just arrived and Matts Ride Beta Movement bindings. As his bindings are too big for him I thought I would do him a favour and swap them out. He is pretty stoked and having ridden my new setup on Weds I am pretty happy. There isn’t much else left for me to do now except enjoy the winter.
Toward the end of the riding day on Weds I started to feel like crap...and I have had to take the day off today because I have the flu. I am slowly starting to feel better with the medication I am taking but my throat kills and its such a nice day on the mountain today. So upset I missed out but hopefully Ill be ok to ride tomo though I might take another day off just to make sure I am fit for work on the weekend.
Other little tidbits our internet bill was huge so we have to start limiting the usage in the house, Chris is back from the UK today and brought Hannah with him, definitely nice to have them back for sure! Toby and Ashleigh both decided to abandon us on their days off and have headed back home, all good!
Nothing else really! Hope alls good!
Peace and Love
Wednesday, 28 July 2010
Sunday, 25 July 2010
Weekend of teaching fun
26th July 2010
The weekend wasn’t that eventful, I was on rosta all weekend and taught for 4 hours. On Saturday I got a 2 hr private with a guy called Ryan...I managed to get my first student turning and it was awesome! In a 2 hour private with one person u can really cover a lot of ground. It was an awesome feeling. On Sunday I had a 2 hr private with 2 kids, Josh from Ireland aged 10 and the cutest little girl called Mya aged 8! We had a lot of fun! I was totally stoked on teaching and it was good. I wish I got more hours but there is a priority and we are at the bottom. I was lucky compared to the other snow sports careers guys some didnt get any all weekend, which is gutting
Nothing much else happened over the weekend...
Trained today and it was incredible everything clicked and gelled with the last few days training.
This is a boring uneventful blog
peace
The weekend wasn’t that eventful, I was on rosta all weekend and taught for 4 hours. On Saturday I got a 2 hr private with a guy called Ryan...I managed to get my first student turning and it was awesome! In a 2 hour private with one person u can really cover a lot of ground. It was an awesome feeling. On Sunday I had a 2 hr private with 2 kids, Josh from Ireland aged 10 and the cutest little girl called Mya aged 8! We had a lot of fun! I was totally stoked on teaching and it was good. I wish I got more hours but there is a priority and we are at the bottom. I was lucky compared to the other snow sports careers guys some didnt get any all weekend, which is gutting
Nothing much else happened over the weekend...
Trained today and it was incredible everything clicked and gelled with the last few days training.
This is a boring uneventful blog
peace
Thursday, 22 July 2010
Coem to me lovely DH...come to me!! :)
23rd July
JJ
Just thought I would start with a smile. Things aren’t going too bad here in lovely Ohakune. The weather hasn’t been the worst, the sky and stars are still amazing, each day I find myself breaking away from the mental mould I was in in London and relaxing more and more, and just enjoying this incredible experience. I read back on previous blogs to how petty I was being with some of the things, and how angry I got just over the way things are and it annoys me. I am in a beautiful place, with good people and doing the things I love doing, yet I still find a way to ruin my mood and complain. Early on was understandable because I had a lot of things go wrong, but the rest of the stuff like work, snow school etc... all needed time!
Just realised I wrote a blog not too long ago and not a lot has happened really. We had a day where the mountain was pretty crappy in terms of weather, so I got up at a relaxing late hour, sorted a few things out and then went to Wanganui with Jack and Adam my housemates. Adam drove, the sole reason we went was so Adam could get his nose pierced.
The drive up was incredible, this country is sooo crazy and hilly, the landscape is soo incredible! The drive yesterday made me realise how lucky I am to be here. The more I see the more I want to see. I am soooo keen for travelling around for a month after the winter taking photos and seeing more and more of this incredible place.
There wasn’t much to Wanganui itself, just another little town. Its reknown for its gangs fights, its a place Ive been told not to go to all the time. It was nice to get out of Ohakune and see another place though for sure.
We did a little shopping and then headed home. It was the RAL (Ruapehu Alpine Lifts) staff night, so we went for a couple of free beers and the night was heaving with staff. It was fun for sure I got too see and catch up with loads of friends and had a throw down!
I got up this morning regretting I went to bed sooo bloody late, I had my 3rd day of training and I just wasn’t sharp. We ran through some fundamentals of stance and balance focusing on keep balanced on our board whilst moving along the board (for and aft). Then moved onto Pivoting and Steering our board. It was a sweet day on the mountain and I feel I am progressing, not as quickly as I would like but I am progressing so its all good!! At lunch we discussed CVs and cover letters, I sent mine to Rob and it needs a bit of rework. I need to focus more on why I want to work for a particular hill and also why I would be a good instructor for a mountain.
Thats about all for now! Some good news on the DH it should be here Tuesday so Ill have a fun camber board to play with.
Thats all for now my people, peace and love!
JJ
Just thought I would start with a smile. Things aren’t going too bad here in lovely Ohakune. The weather hasn’t been the worst, the sky and stars are still amazing, each day I find myself breaking away from the mental mould I was in in London and relaxing more and more, and just enjoying this incredible experience. I read back on previous blogs to how petty I was being with some of the things, and how angry I got just over the way things are and it annoys me. I am in a beautiful place, with good people and doing the things I love doing, yet I still find a way to ruin my mood and complain. Early on was understandable because I had a lot of things go wrong, but the rest of the stuff like work, snow school etc... all needed time!
Just realised I wrote a blog not too long ago and not a lot has happened really. We had a day where the mountain was pretty crappy in terms of weather, so I got up at a relaxing late hour, sorted a few things out and then went to Wanganui with Jack and Adam my housemates. Adam drove, the sole reason we went was so Adam could get his nose pierced.
The drive up was incredible, this country is sooo crazy and hilly, the landscape is soo incredible! The drive yesterday made me realise how lucky I am to be here. The more I see the more I want to see. I am soooo keen for travelling around for a month after the winter taking photos and seeing more and more of this incredible place.
There wasn’t much to Wanganui itself, just another little town. Its reknown for its gangs fights, its a place Ive been told not to go to all the time. It was nice to get out of Ohakune and see another place though for sure.
We did a little shopping and then headed home. It was the RAL (Ruapehu Alpine Lifts) staff night, so we went for a couple of free beers and the night was heaving with staff. It was fun for sure I got too see and catch up with loads of friends and had a throw down!
I got up this morning regretting I went to bed sooo bloody late, I had my 3rd day of training and I just wasn’t sharp. We ran through some fundamentals of stance and balance focusing on keep balanced on our board whilst moving along the board (for and aft). Then moved onto Pivoting and Steering our board. It was a sweet day on the mountain and I feel I am progressing, not as quickly as I would like but I am progressing so its all good!! At lunch we discussed CVs and cover letters, I sent mine to Rob and it needs a bit of rework. I need to focus more on why I want to work for a particular hill and also why I would be a good instructor for a mountain.
Thats about all for now! Some good news on the DH it should be here Tuesday so Ill have a fun camber board to play with.
Thats all for now my people, peace and love!
Tuesday, 20 July 2010
Yo Yo Yo & So the training begins
21/07/2010
Its been a few days since I blogged so I thought I would put some thoughts down as well as what I have been upto.
Man I am tired right now, training started this week with Rob Gordon and its been an intense 2 days of riding. Yesterday we started and had a real focus on lateral balance on our snowboard whilst performing high performance steep riding. We have been told to pretty much put level 2 riding out of our mind. Level 3 is wayyy more technical and on far more challenging terrain. I have struggled through the last 2 days of training, its been hard taking all of the things I have learnt out of riding and adapting to this new style, however I have learnt loads. I am going to really try and take it on during and in my practise time of riding.
In training Rob ran through a level 3 standard lesson, and loads of freestyle work. Then in the afternoon it was carving on super steep terrain. I have been told to really work on opening up my stance, I am finding it pretty difficult but its good because it shows I am adapting to a new way of riding. I think with a couple of days of practise I have I will get this down. We had a classroom session in the morning because the weather sucked. We discussed the standard of teaching that is required for level 3 and there is a huge difference between the level of movement analysis and teaching in level 3.
It should be all good I just need to work hard on and off the hill. I havent been going to the gym as often as I would like, but I’ll start back up again tonight, its hard to find the time, between riding, making dinner, eating and studying to actually go but I seriously need to make the time for sure.
Level 3 hands over responsibility of learning to the pupils, Rob is purely there to coach and facilitate discussion to aid our learning.
Matt Arnstein is really taking to the training well and looking super solid on his board. He is a real good rider and not only am I learning lots from Rob, but him too. He has been riding for a couple of seasons both of which were spent snowboard instructing also. I am very impressed with him.
More impressive is the machine that is Rob Gordon, the guy is an absolute powerhouse of a rider, he is sooo solid and technically incredible. Today he did the keg to peak challenge, which is basically a 17k bike ride from the bottom of the mountain to the base of the mountain, a hike from base to the summit of the mountain, which is about 1500 meters of mountain vertical to hike, then snowboard from the peak back to the base of the mountain and run down the hill, he did it in 6 hrs. It’s an incredible display of athleticism. The kind of fitness levels I could only dream of.
Things are a bit patchy in terms of what I have been upto, but I remember my first day off in a week last Sunday being oh so sweet. I had an amazing lye in, washed everything from myself, my clothes and my room. I had an incredible bath to help my joints and muscles and spoke to my folks. Sad news at home about my uncle Dinesh, he is having an operation to remove his lymph nodes in his legs. So sad...they might be malignant so its the only option to avoid the risk of the cancer spreading. The man hasn’t been given a break in life, just constant struggle and suffering. Hopefully he will be ok coming out of surgery, I can only pray for him.
After my incredible morning I hitched up in the morning with a called Kai and a couple of his friends, I rode with them for bit, and then lost them and found Sinead and Tom Dixon, we shredded hard in the afternoon, Tom Dixon is the jibbiest person ever, so fun to ride with, he pushed me super hard and I pulled off some crazy stuff. I was surprisingly daring, I did 2 clean style 540’s, 2 switch back 3’s and my first ever front shifty back 3 of a huge cut out transition jump. It was soo much fun, he got me soo amped for riding it was amazing.
I am thinking for the sake of my body I need to relax tomo and not ride its been 4 hard days on the trot, today I practised all the stuff I learnt this week with Rob and rode with Matt Arnstein and Tony. It was a lot of fun but I am here writing this now, I cut the day short just so I could chill and get some stuff sorted for sure.
Sunday night I won a game of poker which was rad, I thought I was going to lose but when it was down to me and Tony, I took it on an all in hand I had ace high and he had 2 kings after the flop, however on the turn and the river 2 Aces came out!! I had a 3 of a kind and took the pot! It was awesome!!
Last night I went out to the Turoa lodge again, it was ok...kinda boring, you would think if i drank i might have a better time, and you are probably right, but I would rather go out and have a good night without it.
Not sure there is much else my board should be here soon hopefully!
Peace and love!
Its been a few days since I blogged so I thought I would put some thoughts down as well as what I have been upto.
Man I am tired right now, training started this week with Rob Gordon and its been an intense 2 days of riding. Yesterday we started and had a real focus on lateral balance on our snowboard whilst performing high performance steep riding. We have been told to pretty much put level 2 riding out of our mind. Level 3 is wayyy more technical and on far more challenging terrain. I have struggled through the last 2 days of training, its been hard taking all of the things I have learnt out of riding and adapting to this new style, however I have learnt loads. I am going to really try and take it on during and in my practise time of riding.
In training Rob ran through a level 3 standard lesson, and loads of freestyle work. Then in the afternoon it was carving on super steep terrain. I have been told to really work on opening up my stance, I am finding it pretty difficult but its good because it shows I am adapting to a new way of riding. I think with a couple of days of practise I have I will get this down. We had a classroom session in the morning because the weather sucked. We discussed the standard of teaching that is required for level 3 and there is a huge difference between the level of movement analysis and teaching in level 3.
It should be all good I just need to work hard on and off the hill. I havent been going to the gym as often as I would like, but I’ll start back up again tonight, its hard to find the time, between riding, making dinner, eating and studying to actually go but I seriously need to make the time for sure.
Level 3 hands over responsibility of learning to the pupils, Rob is purely there to coach and facilitate discussion to aid our learning.
Matt Arnstein is really taking to the training well and looking super solid on his board. He is a real good rider and not only am I learning lots from Rob, but him too. He has been riding for a couple of seasons both of which were spent snowboard instructing also. I am very impressed with him.
More impressive is the machine that is Rob Gordon, the guy is an absolute powerhouse of a rider, he is sooo solid and technically incredible. Today he did the keg to peak challenge, which is basically a 17k bike ride from the bottom of the mountain to the base of the mountain, a hike from base to the summit of the mountain, which is about 1500 meters of mountain vertical to hike, then snowboard from the peak back to the base of the mountain and run down the hill, he did it in 6 hrs. It’s an incredible display of athleticism. The kind of fitness levels I could only dream of.
Things are a bit patchy in terms of what I have been upto, but I remember my first day off in a week last Sunday being oh so sweet. I had an amazing lye in, washed everything from myself, my clothes and my room. I had an incredible bath to help my joints and muscles and spoke to my folks. Sad news at home about my uncle Dinesh, he is having an operation to remove his lymph nodes in his legs. So sad...they might be malignant so its the only option to avoid the risk of the cancer spreading. The man hasn’t been given a break in life, just constant struggle and suffering. Hopefully he will be ok coming out of surgery, I can only pray for him.
After my incredible morning I hitched up in the morning with a called Kai and a couple of his friends, I rode with them for bit, and then lost them and found Sinead and Tom Dixon, we shredded hard in the afternoon, Tom Dixon is the jibbiest person ever, so fun to ride with, he pushed me super hard and I pulled off some crazy stuff. I was surprisingly daring, I did 2 clean style 540’s, 2 switch back 3’s and my first ever front shifty back 3 of a huge cut out transition jump. It was soo much fun, he got me soo amped for riding it was amazing.
I am thinking for the sake of my body I need to relax tomo and not ride its been 4 hard days on the trot, today I practised all the stuff I learnt this week with Rob and rode with Matt Arnstein and Tony. It was a lot of fun but I am here writing this now, I cut the day short just so I could chill and get some stuff sorted for sure.
Sunday night I won a game of poker which was rad, I thought I was going to lose but when it was down to me and Tony, I took it on an all in hand I had ace high and he had 2 kings after the flop, however on the turn and the river 2 Aces came out!! I had a 3 of a kind and took the pot! It was awesome!!
Last night I went out to the Turoa lodge again, it was ok...kinda boring, you would think if i drank i might have a better time, and you are probably right, but I would rather go out and have a good night without it.
Not sure there is much else my board should be here soon hopefully!
Peace and love!
Thursday, 15 July 2010
Things are getting better
16/07/2010
Wow what a difference a couple of days can make, its the end of the week, and after being Kindergarden koo, I have had 2 days teaching snowboarding, and not even beginner group lessons! Check this out.
So on Thursday morning, I got to the locker room and checked out the register and I was reporting into the Winter Garden at 10am! There are 2 meeting points for lessons the Alpine Medow (beginner lessons) and the Winter Garden (Level 3 lessons and above). So meeting at the Winter Garden was an awesome start because I would be getting higher end lessons where I wouldn’t have to teach beginner progression.
I managed to get 4 hrs teaching private lessons. I was lucky with my 10am as it was meant for someone else, but because the instructor was on schedule @ 9am at the Medow he couldn’t make it up in time. All 4 lessons were with kids and 3 were very similar, it seems very common that kids turn much better one way than the other, so I spent those lessons working on making their other turns better. The most memorable lesson was with an absolute ripper, he was 8 and his name was Lochlin. He was from Auckland and rides the dome there a couple of times a week. It was so much fun teaching him because we just rode around and I helped with his riding technique. It was unfortunate because he wanted a freestyle lesson, however I wasn’t sure I was allowed to take him in the park. Turns out I could have an I wished I did. Toward the end of the lesson I told him to book a freestyle lesson, and because I wasn’t sure if i was allowed to take him in the park I didnt say to book it with me. Turns out later that afternoon he did indeed book a freestyle lesson and Stuart took him out to the park. Stuey came back from the lesson and couldn’t believe how good he was. “He’s going to go pro” were the words that came out of his mouth. Apparantly the kid was doing high end tricks on the box in the park like nose presses and change ups, things I cant even do! I was slightly gutted I didnt take him around doing that stuff, but I got another lesson for the snowschool, even though I could have got a request lesson and got a fun lesson with a cool kid with commission.
Its all good though! I had another kid called Jordan who was like a sponge, his toe edge turns weren’t as good as his heel edge, so we worked on that, and then he came back for another lesson today. I took him out, and I missed out on another request! I just cant seem to sell myself!! Oh well! It was good taking him out twice and I could really see the difference in his riding!! So much fun!
This afternoon I had a private with 2 kids who were the children of the Manager of Mt Ruapehu, I didnt know this and just went about teaching them and they did REALLY well and had such a good time. I was stoked.
The teaching has been going well and things in the locker room are getting better for sure. I guess when I am visibly happier, I radiate that and just talk to more of the staff and have more fun with it.
Last night there was a staff dodgeball event! It was awesome! All of the staff from Mt Ruapehu (Turoa and Whackapapa) came together to do battle! Our team – the dodgy basterds – got through to the semi’s before being knocked out by another snowschool team. Turoa snowschool dominated and Chris’ team ended up winning it thanks to some Heroics from John/Joe Lang (not sure on his first name). It was a great night, we went out to the Keg for a boogie after to some crazy drum and bass – called it quits at about midnight!
Just heading off to footie but thought I would post up some good news. Other bits are my board is stuck at Auckland customs and im going through more shipping dramas and my knee really isn’t doing well. I am really having to nurse it! I might have to see a physio tomo.
Peace and love peeps
Wow what a difference a couple of days can make, its the end of the week, and after being Kindergarden koo, I have had 2 days teaching snowboarding, and not even beginner group lessons! Check this out.
So on Thursday morning, I got to the locker room and checked out the register and I was reporting into the Winter Garden at 10am! There are 2 meeting points for lessons the Alpine Medow (beginner lessons) and the Winter Garden (Level 3 lessons and above). So meeting at the Winter Garden was an awesome start because I would be getting higher end lessons where I wouldn’t have to teach beginner progression.
I managed to get 4 hrs teaching private lessons. I was lucky with my 10am as it was meant for someone else, but because the instructor was on schedule @ 9am at the Medow he couldn’t make it up in time. All 4 lessons were with kids and 3 were very similar, it seems very common that kids turn much better one way than the other, so I spent those lessons working on making their other turns better. The most memorable lesson was with an absolute ripper, he was 8 and his name was Lochlin. He was from Auckland and rides the dome there a couple of times a week. It was so much fun teaching him because we just rode around and I helped with his riding technique. It was unfortunate because he wanted a freestyle lesson, however I wasn’t sure I was allowed to take him in the park. Turns out I could have an I wished I did. Toward the end of the lesson I told him to book a freestyle lesson, and because I wasn’t sure if i was allowed to take him in the park I didnt say to book it with me. Turns out later that afternoon he did indeed book a freestyle lesson and Stuart took him out to the park. Stuey came back from the lesson and couldn’t believe how good he was. “He’s going to go pro” were the words that came out of his mouth. Apparantly the kid was doing high end tricks on the box in the park like nose presses and change ups, things I cant even do! I was slightly gutted I didnt take him around doing that stuff, but I got another lesson for the snowschool, even though I could have got a request lesson and got a fun lesson with a cool kid with commission.
Its all good though! I had another kid called Jordan who was like a sponge, his toe edge turns weren’t as good as his heel edge, so we worked on that, and then he came back for another lesson today. I took him out, and I missed out on another request! I just cant seem to sell myself!! Oh well! It was good taking him out twice and I could really see the difference in his riding!! So much fun!
This afternoon I had a private with 2 kids who were the children of the Manager of Mt Ruapehu, I didnt know this and just went about teaching them and they did REALLY well and had such a good time. I was stoked.
The teaching has been going well and things in the locker room are getting better for sure. I guess when I am visibly happier, I radiate that and just talk to more of the staff and have more fun with it.
Last night there was a staff dodgeball event! It was awesome! All of the staff from Mt Ruapehu (Turoa and Whackapapa) came together to do battle! Our team – the dodgy basterds – got through to the semi’s before being knocked out by another snowschool team. Turoa snowschool dominated and Chris’ team ended up winning it thanks to some Heroics from John/Joe Lang (not sure on his first name). It was a great night, we went out to the Keg for a boogie after to some crazy drum and bass – called it quits at about midnight!
Just heading off to footie but thought I would post up some good news. Other bits are my board is stuck at Auckland customs and im going through more shipping dramas and my knee really isn’t doing well. I am really having to nurse it! I might have to see a physio tomo.
Peace and love peeps
Wednesday, 14 July 2010
Its all good
My last post seemed a bit doomy and gloomy, I forgot to talk about some of the cooler aspects of the snow school. The level of training is pretty sweet. Like I mentioned earlier I was trained to teach how to ski for 1.5 days with a level 4 ski instructor. It was pretty awesome knowing the school want to help develop their staff and provide more opportunity for them by doing things like these.
After morning meetings we generally have around an hour before 10am lesson line up and this time is used to run teaching clinics. I have attended 2 so far, both were presented really well - one was my Rob G around the importance of setting up the equipment of clients correctly so that each and every movement is follwed by a response. It makes it easier for the client to ride and our jobs easier to teach. So at the beginning of every lesson we need to check the clients equipment. It made complete sense. The second clinic was a couple of days ago and was presented by my housemate Chris H - supported by another trainer Jake Levy. It was a good interactive session to discuss different ways of teaching beginner progression so we dont go stale. It was well presented and I learnt a lot about different activities to bring into my teaching lesson.
Its just a little brainwave I had last night that I thought I would mention for sure.
Peace out people.
After morning meetings we generally have around an hour before 10am lesson line up and this time is used to run teaching clinics. I have attended 2 so far, both were presented really well - one was my Rob G around the importance of setting up the equipment of clients correctly so that each and every movement is follwed by a response. It makes it easier for the client to ride and our jobs easier to teach. So at the beginning of every lesson we need to check the clients equipment. It made complete sense. The second clinic was a couple of days ago and was presented by my housemate Chris H - supported by another trainer Jake Levy. It was a good interactive session to discuss different ways of teaching beginner progression so we dont go stale. It was well presented and I learnt a lot about different activities to bring into my teaching lesson.
Its just a little brainwave I had last night that I thought I would mention for sure.
Peace out people.
Koo the babysitter - What is going on??
14/7/2010
This week has been pretty interesting, its our first week on the snow school Rosta. When I say our I mean the snow sports careers guys.
In the last 3 days on Rosta I have taught twice in one of the days. Two 2 hour kids beginner lessons. I had 5 kids in the first lesson, then 4 in the next and my gosh it was tough. The first one felt like a bit of a disaster, I forgot parts of the beginner progression, and just didnt feel like I entertained the kids as well as they should have been. In my first lesson my group management was all over the show, at certain points I was scared shitless that I lost kids. It was really stressful. I didnt feel like I did a good job and was hoping I wouldn’t get another lesson after, but like London buses 2 came at once and I had my second kids lesson. But almost instantly I was thinking about what I did wrong in my last lesson and it was definitely much better! All in all I was pretty disappointed with myself when it came to my teaching, and it got me thinking about whether I am actually going to take this forward. The whole point of this trip is to discover whether I want to take snowboarding teaching further, based on my first day I wasn’t too sure but it needs more time, and i need more experience.
The other 2 days were spent taking care of kids in the yeti centre – pretty much baby sitting 4-6 year olds. Kind of gutting really because the other guys on the snow sports careers course were all getting teaching lessons. In one respect the supervisor might think he is taking care of me because supervising kids, means on my timesheet I can charge in more time at my teaching rate, where if i was on teaching lineup I run the risk of not having a lesson to teach hence I cant charge in time @ my teaching rate, but money hasnt ever been the main priority in coming out here, if I was money orientated I would still be sat at my desk at Accenture its more about getting as much experience and getting a solid understanding on how to teach snowboarding. In terms of work there is a pecking order where lessons are prioritised amongst staff based on qualifications, full time/part time, years at the snow school and I completely understand this and i completely respect that if there isnt work because we are low on this pecking order thats fine, its just a kick in the nuts when im the one who's "put in the corner" with the kids. I dont want to sound like I am moaning because I am not, when it comes down to it over here, I keep my mouth shut and do what I am told, I am just writing what I am thinking and feeling about the whole situation. I have now completely level setted my expectations that when I am on Rosta I will either get minimum pay with no teaching hours, or I will be at the kids centre that way I avoid disappointment when it happens and I get on with it and focus on the CASI 3 training. If I get teaching hours it will be a bonus for sure.
After today I felt a little let down and gutted. I have put in all this time at the snow school before we were even on Rosta just going in and shadowing, and just being a presence in the snow school, and all that ground work trying to get myself in the circle seems to have got me nowhere. All the politics and inner circles and cliques within the snowschool is such bull shit. The environment pisses me off to be honest. The end of the days are interesting as people are going on about how they've done really well, loads of private (commission based) lessons, or loads of hours teaching and Im there telling them I've been at the Kids Centre and shovelling and you see the smirk on people faces. I definately dont let it bother me I have totally accepted that I paid my way into this snow school and that I am very much at the bottom of the preverbial food chain, lets just say I expect this it in the Corporate world at Accenture for sure, but never did I expect it here. Its interesting. I am on Rosta tomorrow = lets see how it goes.
In terms of other things, I attended staff night out until midnight, had I known I would be taking care of kids all day and not teaching snowboarding I would have stayed out until much later as it was an absolutely raging night. The music was incredible, dirty bass, breaks, drum and bass, loads of mashups..I was throwing it down, absolutely loved it to pieces. I went out with Tony and Toby and it started slow, but we were in full force by 11. A bunch from the snow school were there, but I left before all the crazyiness happened.
Some other good news is training is starting next Monday for level 3 with Robert Gordon. I got my boots warranted finally! I have a brand new pair of painful Ride RFL, $650 NZD boots I got for $50 thanks to Ride Warranty. The breaking in process has been so painful today but hopefully they pack out in time for training. My Ride DH2 is being delivered too!!!!! So I should be all ready for training next week. Dont mind starting training on the Never Summer and fall back on the DH if things get tough but we’ll see how it goes.
People, lets pray, for good weather, snow, snowboarding lessons and all my equipment working!
Peace and love all
This week has been pretty interesting, its our first week on the snow school Rosta. When I say our I mean the snow sports careers guys.
In the last 3 days on Rosta I have taught twice in one of the days. Two 2 hour kids beginner lessons. I had 5 kids in the first lesson, then 4 in the next and my gosh it was tough. The first one felt like a bit of a disaster, I forgot parts of the beginner progression, and just didnt feel like I entertained the kids as well as they should have been. In my first lesson my group management was all over the show, at certain points I was scared shitless that I lost kids. It was really stressful. I didnt feel like I did a good job and was hoping I wouldn’t get another lesson after, but like London buses 2 came at once and I had my second kids lesson. But almost instantly I was thinking about what I did wrong in my last lesson and it was definitely much better! All in all I was pretty disappointed with myself when it came to my teaching, and it got me thinking about whether I am actually going to take this forward. The whole point of this trip is to discover whether I want to take snowboarding teaching further, based on my first day I wasn’t too sure but it needs more time, and i need more experience.
The other 2 days were spent taking care of kids in the yeti centre – pretty much baby sitting 4-6 year olds. Kind of gutting really because the other guys on the snow sports careers course were all getting teaching lessons. In one respect the supervisor might think he is taking care of me because supervising kids, means on my timesheet I can charge in more time at my teaching rate, where if i was on teaching lineup I run the risk of not having a lesson to teach hence I cant charge in time @ my teaching rate, but money hasnt ever been the main priority in coming out here, if I was money orientated I would still be sat at my desk at Accenture its more about getting as much experience and getting a solid understanding on how to teach snowboarding. In terms of work there is a pecking order where lessons are prioritised amongst staff based on qualifications, full time/part time, years at the snow school and I completely understand this and i completely respect that if there isnt work because we are low on this pecking order thats fine, its just a kick in the nuts when im the one who's "put in the corner" with the kids. I dont want to sound like I am moaning because I am not, when it comes down to it over here, I keep my mouth shut and do what I am told, I am just writing what I am thinking and feeling about the whole situation. I have now completely level setted my expectations that when I am on Rosta I will either get minimum pay with no teaching hours, or I will be at the kids centre that way I avoid disappointment when it happens and I get on with it and focus on the CASI 3 training. If I get teaching hours it will be a bonus for sure.
After today I felt a little let down and gutted. I have put in all this time at the snow school before we were even on Rosta just going in and shadowing, and just being a presence in the snow school, and all that ground work trying to get myself in the circle seems to have got me nowhere. All the politics and inner circles and cliques within the snowschool is such bull shit. The environment pisses me off to be honest. The end of the days are interesting as people are going on about how they've done really well, loads of private (commission based) lessons, or loads of hours teaching and Im there telling them I've been at the Kids Centre and shovelling and you see the smirk on people faces. I definately dont let it bother me I have totally accepted that I paid my way into this snow school and that I am very much at the bottom of the preverbial food chain, lets just say I expect this it in the Corporate world at Accenture for sure, but never did I expect it here. Its interesting. I am on Rosta tomorrow = lets see how it goes.
In terms of other things, I attended staff night out until midnight, had I known I would be taking care of kids all day and not teaching snowboarding I would have stayed out until much later as it was an absolutely raging night. The music was incredible, dirty bass, breaks, drum and bass, loads of mashups..I was throwing it down, absolutely loved it to pieces. I went out with Tony and Toby and it started slow, but we were in full force by 11. A bunch from the snow school were there, but I left before all the crazyiness happened.
Some other good news is training is starting next Monday for level 3 with Robert Gordon. I got my boots warranted finally! I have a brand new pair of painful Ride RFL, $650 NZD boots I got for $50 thanks to Ride Warranty. The breaking in process has been so painful today but hopefully they pack out in time for training. My Ride DH2 is being delivered too!!!!! So I should be all ready for training next week. Dont mind starting training on the Never Summer and fall back on the DH if things get tough but we’ll see how it goes.
People, lets pray, for good weather, snow, snowboarding lessons and all my equipment working!
Peace and love all
Saturday, 10 July 2010
He has finally got a shift!!
11th July 2010
Consious my last post was pretty much, “i did this, i did that blah blah blah” I got kinda bored reading it over, so will try and make this one a littler more succinct keeping it down to the interesting points.
Yesterday was a great day on the hill, sunny and fresh snow, however guess what – I was on ski’s....again. We had the morning with Kyle are ski instructor and he helped us with drills to improve our own skiing and to help us teach. I found the whole concept of us teaching skiing quite bizarre and scary, but with no personal liability laws over here in NZ anything goes, you don’t have to be qualified to instruct. Due to the shortage of ski instructors and the fact that next week will be busy because of good weather and school holidays, the school need to be ready for any kind of lesson.
In the afternoon I shadowed a couple of “Discover Skiing” lessons, which incorporates, learning your skiing equipment and how to stop and thats pretty much it. Having shadowed a kids ski lesson with Katherine McKenzie a Scottish chick who I am undecided about in terms of what she is like, and an adults one with Sharni (who is super cool) I think I can do it. People perceive you as a hero when you are in the red snow school jacket so as long as you sound like you know what you are talking about then you are golden for sure.
Today I rode around the mountain in the morning it was such a beautiful glorious day. Sun was shining, snow was soft and it was super nice. I had a sweet box session in the afternoon with Matt Arnstein, he is a super nice guy, 24 and done 2 winters in Canada teaching. He is a solid rider and does some really good experimental stuff on the box. Definately more creative rider than me and it should be cool to ride more with him because hopefully some of that can rub off on me for sure!!
Thats about it in terms of what I have been upto, some other good news is I finally am on the snow school Rosta which means I might actually be teaching, hopefully I ll have some boarding lessons! I am pretty happy to get going on that front, I really want some experience teaching.
In terms of my general time in Ohakune/Turoa, its been interesting to say the least obviously the beginning was difficult with no luggage a new place, and living in accommodation which wasn’t the most settling (no internet, box room with a bunk bed) however over time, I got my shit together, moved into a new place, pushed on and received all my luggage, met more people and started making face in the snow school and riding, so its gotten much better. I wouldn’t say Im 100% yet though. Not exactly sure why it might be because I am worrying about my overall ability as a snowboarder and whether I can do the whole course and teaching, there is also my physical ability, my knees and back aren’t in the best shape so thats a worry too.
The place itself is amazing, the stars at night send me crazy, you just don’t get a beautiful skyline like you do here in the UK. Its incredible, I just stand out in the cold star gazing, not believing what I am seeing. Some of the cloud formations and the sun sets are indescribable I love it. Its a good place.
I have met some good people, but I have met a lot more who aren’t that nice either and thats what taints the place for me a little. I was discussing the snow school locker room environment with a collegue on the snow sports careers programme and it is very cliquey and there is an us and “them” vibe between the newbies and the people who have been there a while. Some of the returners don’t make an effort they aren’t really worth bothering over. I have met other returners who are just not my type of person. I cannot name names but its not the nicest environment for a new recruit to join. I am breaking boundaries and trying to meet and be nice to as many people as possible, with some sadly its not reciprocated, or they just don’t bother. Rudeness is something that bothers me greatly and I feel that sometime in the locker room for sure.
Thats all I can think about in terms of the blog right now. In terms of short term plans for life, I am more thinking about doing a northern hemisphere winters with my sights set on Hakuba Japan. I have an interview with a school called Evergreen outdoor centre in Hakuba and fingers crossed that pulls through, unfortunately I got knocked back from an amazing snow school in Niseko villiage japan so I don’t have my hopes set too high. I will try my best!
Thats all people
Peace and love - Koo
Consious my last post was pretty much, “i did this, i did that blah blah blah” I got kinda bored reading it over, so will try and make this one a littler more succinct keeping it down to the interesting points.
Yesterday was a great day on the hill, sunny and fresh snow, however guess what – I was on ski’s....again. We had the morning with Kyle are ski instructor and he helped us with drills to improve our own skiing and to help us teach. I found the whole concept of us teaching skiing quite bizarre and scary, but with no personal liability laws over here in NZ anything goes, you don’t have to be qualified to instruct. Due to the shortage of ski instructors and the fact that next week will be busy because of good weather and school holidays, the school need to be ready for any kind of lesson.
In the afternoon I shadowed a couple of “Discover Skiing” lessons, which incorporates, learning your skiing equipment and how to stop and thats pretty much it. Having shadowed a kids ski lesson with Katherine McKenzie a Scottish chick who I am undecided about in terms of what she is like, and an adults one with Sharni (who is super cool) I think I can do it. People perceive you as a hero when you are in the red snow school jacket so as long as you sound like you know what you are talking about then you are golden for sure.
Today I rode around the mountain in the morning it was such a beautiful glorious day. Sun was shining, snow was soft and it was super nice. I had a sweet box session in the afternoon with Matt Arnstein, he is a super nice guy, 24 and done 2 winters in Canada teaching. He is a solid rider and does some really good experimental stuff on the box. Definately more creative rider than me and it should be cool to ride more with him because hopefully some of that can rub off on me for sure!!
Thats about it in terms of what I have been upto, some other good news is I finally am on the snow school Rosta which means I might actually be teaching, hopefully I ll have some boarding lessons! I am pretty happy to get going on that front, I really want some experience teaching.
In terms of my general time in Ohakune/Turoa, its been interesting to say the least obviously the beginning was difficult with no luggage a new place, and living in accommodation which wasn’t the most settling (no internet, box room with a bunk bed) however over time, I got my shit together, moved into a new place, pushed on and received all my luggage, met more people and started making face in the snow school and riding, so its gotten much better. I wouldn’t say Im 100% yet though. Not exactly sure why it might be because I am worrying about my overall ability as a snowboarder and whether I can do the whole course and teaching, there is also my physical ability, my knees and back aren’t in the best shape so thats a worry too.
The place itself is amazing, the stars at night send me crazy, you just don’t get a beautiful skyline like you do here in the UK. Its incredible, I just stand out in the cold star gazing, not believing what I am seeing. Some of the cloud formations and the sun sets are indescribable I love it. Its a good place.
I have met some good people, but I have met a lot more who aren’t that nice either and thats what taints the place for me a little. I was discussing the snow school locker room environment with a collegue on the snow sports careers programme and it is very cliquey and there is an us and “them” vibe between the newbies and the people who have been there a while. Some of the returners don’t make an effort they aren’t really worth bothering over. I have met other returners who are just not my type of person. I cannot name names but its not the nicest environment for a new recruit to join. I am breaking boundaries and trying to meet and be nice to as many people as possible, with some sadly its not reciprocated, or they just don’t bother. Rudeness is something that bothers me greatly and I feel that sometime in the locker room for sure.
Thats all I can think about in terms of the blog right now. In terms of short term plans for life, I am more thinking about doing a northern hemisphere winters with my sights set on Hakuba Japan. I have an interview with a school called Evergreen outdoor centre in Hakuba and fingers crossed that pulls through, unfortunately I got knocked back from an amazing snow school in Niseko villiage japan so I don’t have my hopes set too high. I will try my best!
Thats all people
Peace and love - Koo
Friday, 9 July 2010
Skiing...Can you believe it...I cant!!
9th July 2010
Its been a few days since my last update so I thought I would get something down. A few interesting things have happened which are definitely worth mentioning.
Every Tuesday night is staff night out as quite a few people on the hill have the Wednesday off. Chris was keen to get pretty loose/blind so we headed out to the brothel for pre-drinks, then onto Turoa lodge. Again I would like to stress the Brothel is not an actual brothel but the name of a house where a couple of Scottish sisters (the mckenzies) live. They love a good night out. We started there and I met a few new folk. After a serious pre drinking session I went on down to the lodge with Tony and had a good old throwdown. Loads of people were there, all mountain staff. It was a fun night out, a lot of socialising, a bit of dancing and general good times. Chris H definitely got to where he needed to be, he looked like he was having a top night. The snow school were out in full force, I remember throwing it down with Chloe and the crew for bit. Chloe is this rad 19 year old chick from NZ who worked as a liftie in Canada and did the Turoa Rookie Snowboard instructor program last winter. She is the nicest most down to earth 19 year old woman I have ever met and is just quality company.
By the time we got home it was around 3am and I got up the next morning far too late. To be fair I didnt have a huge amount to do, however I checked the mountain report at 11ish and found out that a couple of upper mountain lifts were open so I hitched up to the mountain. I got a ride literally from my door to the hitching spot, then 10 mins later a Mt Ruapehu mini van picked me up and took me up the hill. The weather was sooo miserable, it was rainy cold and windy on the hill and I ended up doing 2 runs because I got too cold and the visibility was terrible. Turned out to not really be worth coming up, however not feeling the guilt I would have felt not attempting to even go up to the hill and check it out made it ok. After all the reason I came to NZ was to ride the mountain so I should bloody well try my best to make it up as often as I can.
The following days riding wasn’t much better, I got up earlier and went on the snow school bus up to the hill. I had a little ride with Chloe in the morning and it was pretty average. I decided to do more shadowing and luckily managed to shadow Chris H for 3 hours in the afternoon. I really have gained a lot from Shadowing and these hours were no exception.
Some crazy news I got from Rob was that we would be teaching next week, instead of training because the snow school are likely to need us. Also to help out the school gave us the option to do skiing crossover training to become level 1 ski instructors. I jumped at the chance to do this, it would be awesome to get instruction on 1) learning skiing 2) how to teach skiing. As an instructor being dual ability increases your chances of getting employment and more teaching hours for sure. Jake (a snowboard instructor trainer for the Turoa snow school) told me a joke in the US about instructors – “what do you call a snowboard instructor that can teach skiing – a ski instructor!” It would be great to be multi disciplined and progress in another area for sure. We then found out that we would start training the next day! (Friday)
Before that I had another night out, this time with the Miro gang in my old house and Tony. It was a lot of fun. More memorable was arriving home to 2 of my housemates, and 2 girls that were staying with us, attempting to do 100 shots of beer in 100 minutes. The thing that confused me was why they started this at the end of the night instead of the beginning. They got to 32 shots and called it, they were all absolutely wasted and drinking for no other reason than to just drink. It looked pretty brutal.
What was even more amusing was seeing one of those guys up the next morning at 7am stumbling around still drunk heading to work. His name is Jack and is young and lives in MK in the UK. He works in rentals and is a good kid for sure.
My day started well, I finally received my snowboard instructors uniform, so I think I should be getting some actual house teaching now which should be ace!! I hope I look good in it!!??! After getting the coveted uniform I started on the skiing crossover course with 3 others from my internship, Laura, Matt Arnstein and Anthony. Laura just finished a winter in Bulgaria doing her BASI 1,2 and park. Matt Arnstein just got back from a winter in Canada and Anthony also just finished a winter in Canada on the Canadian Rockies course doing his CASI 1 and 2 and Park.
Our instructor is Kyle Armstrong, a sweet Canadian guy who is a Level 4 instructor and an examiner. Basically at 26 he is one of the youngest fully certified Canadian ski instructors. Its massively impressive and he is just such a nice guy.
My day pretty much consisted of learning how to ski and learning how to teach it. Its soo different to snowboarding, I found my biomechanics need a little work to adjust to the massively different body positions in skiing, I think that will help a lot, but it was a good day. We were parallel turning. I was the only one of the 4 to bail (twice) but oh well!!
After skiing I went to the gym to stretch off from all the pain i was in after skiing and Tony cooked me a mean feed and thats about it for now.
Peace and love people!
Its been a few days since my last update so I thought I would get something down. A few interesting things have happened which are definitely worth mentioning.
Every Tuesday night is staff night out as quite a few people on the hill have the Wednesday off. Chris was keen to get pretty loose/blind so we headed out to the brothel for pre-drinks, then onto Turoa lodge. Again I would like to stress the Brothel is not an actual brothel but the name of a house where a couple of Scottish sisters (the mckenzies) live. They love a good night out. We started there and I met a few new folk. After a serious pre drinking session I went on down to the lodge with Tony and had a good old throwdown. Loads of people were there, all mountain staff. It was a fun night out, a lot of socialising, a bit of dancing and general good times. Chris H definitely got to where he needed to be, he looked like he was having a top night. The snow school were out in full force, I remember throwing it down with Chloe and the crew for bit. Chloe is this rad 19 year old chick from NZ who worked as a liftie in Canada and did the Turoa Rookie Snowboard instructor program last winter. She is the nicest most down to earth 19 year old woman I have ever met and is just quality company.
By the time we got home it was around 3am and I got up the next morning far too late. To be fair I didnt have a huge amount to do, however I checked the mountain report at 11ish and found out that a couple of upper mountain lifts were open so I hitched up to the mountain. I got a ride literally from my door to the hitching spot, then 10 mins later a Mt Ruapehu mini van picked me up and took me up the hill. The weather was sooo miserable, it was rainy cold and windy on the hill and I ended up doing 2 runs because I got too cold and the visibility was terrible. Turned out to not really be worth coming up, however not feeling the guilt I would have felt not attempting to even go up to the hill and check it out made it ok. After all the reason I came to NZ was to ride the mountain so I should bloody well try my best to make it up as often as I can.
The following days riding wasn’t much better, I got up earlier and went on the snow school bus up to the hill. I had a little ride with Chloe in the morning and it was pretty average. I decided to do more shadowing and luckily managed to shadow Chris H for 3 hours in the afternoon. I really have gained a lot from Shadowing and these hours were no exception.
Some crazy news I got from Rob was that we would be teaching next week, instead of training because the snow school are likely to need us. Also to help out the school gave us the option to do skiing crossover training to become level 1 ski instructors. I jumped at the chance to do this, it would be awesome to get instruction on 1) learning skiing 2) how to teach skiing. As an instructor being dual ability increases your chances of getting employment and more teaching hours for sure. Jake (a snowboard instructor trainer for the Turoa snow school) told me a joke in the US about instructors – “what do you call a snowboard instructor that can teach skiing – a ski instructor!” It would be great to be multi disciplined and progress in another area for sure. We then found out that we would start training the next day! (Friday)
Before that I had another night out, this time with the Miro gang in my old house and Tony. It was a lot of fun. More memorable was arriving home to 2 of my housemates, and 2 girls that were staying with us, attempting to do 100 shots of beer in 100 minutes. The thing that confused me was why they started this at the end of the night instead of the beginning. They got to 32 shots and called it, they were all absolutely wasted and drinking for no other reason than to just drink. It looked pretty brutal.
What was even more amusing was seeing one of those guys up the next morning at 7am stumbling around still drunk heading to work. His name is Jack and is young and lives in MK in the UK. He works in rentals and is a good kid for sure.
My day started well, I finally received my snowboard instructors uniform, so I think I should be getting some actual house teaching now which should be ace!! I hope I look good in it!!??! After getting the coveted uniform I started on the skiing crossover course with 3 others from my internship, Laura, Matt Arnstein and Anthony. Laura just finished a winter in Bulgaria doing her BASI 1,2 and park. Matt Arnstein just got back from a winter in Canada and Anthony also just finished a winter in Canada on the Canadian Rockies course doing his CASI 1 and 2 and Park.
Our instructor is Kyle Armstrong, a sweet Canadian guy who is a Level 4 instructor and an examiner. Basically at 26 he is one of the youngest fully certified Canadian ski instructors. Its massively impressive and he is just such a nice guy.
My day pretty much consisted of learning how to ski and learning how to teach it. Its soo different to snowboarding, I found my biomechanics need a little work to adjust to the massively different body positions in skiing, I think that will help a lot, but it was a good day. We were parallel turning. I was the only one of the 4 to bail (twice) but oh well!!
After skiing I went to the gym to stretch off from all the pain i was in after skiing and Tony cooked me a mean feed and thats about it for now.
Peace and love people!
Monday, 5 July 2010
Closed Days...Sad Times :(
6st July 2010
Yo yo yo, fewer blogs have been churned out which is good because it means I am busier doing other things though I still want to keep a record of whats going in the lovely little town of Ohakune. I am struggling to recollect the order in which things have happened over the last few days so I will just jot down the most memorable things and my thoughts about whats going on.
Shadowing has been going good I got a few hours with a couple more instructors. There is Dion from New Zealand. The lesson was ok it was a discover snowboard lesson which is like a beginners lesson. There were 4 girls and 2 males. As the lesson went on it was apparent the father and son Wayne and Connor were picking it up slightly quicker than the girls, so Dion pretty much split the group and I carried on teaching Wayne and Connor which was rad. I actually got to do a bit of my own teaching. And i felt I really helped them. They both had smiles on their faces and looked like they were enjoying what they were doing. I was pretty stoked to be teaching for sure. I just need to do more.
Another shadow was with a guy called Stuart he is from the UK Wales I think. He is a level 3 CASI instructor and evaluates level 1 and 2 instructors so he is definitely someone I could learn loads off. We had 2 scottish kids to teach snowboarding to. They were adorable one was 8 and the other 10, but kids really don’t have a huge attention span. Its about fun and games as it is about learning to snowboard. When teaching kids you cant explain to much, just let them do, group manage and try and correct them in the simplest way possible. The lesson was a lot of fun, Stu threw in some nice lesson fun and really made it enjoyable.
One morning I arrived in early (Sunday 4th) and Rob Gordon (my course lead) was hosting a training session for the instructors. I jumped in on it and he focused on how important it was that the clients equipment was set up correctly. At the end of the day its completely true, if when you make movements your board is not responding to what you are doing, your equipment is set up incorrectly and you need to check it. Its confusing for instructors when someone is clearly doing something yet the desired outcome isn’t happening, and its all down to tight boots, tight bindings, and forward lean set up on highbacks so the clients get response to every movement. He went on to run through how to get maximum class activity – because Turoa snow school was rated the lowest school for beginner lessons. The key theme was not to have clients just sitting down waiting for the instructor to help them, but to get them more involved. It was a real good session and a learn a little around how to teach better. After that session I shadowed Rob for a lesson, and lets just say it was pretty good, not only did he coach the class he was coaching me on how to teach. It seems like Rob is a pretty senior in the Turoa snow school, I suppose after 18 or 19 winters (whatever it is) you would be. He was pointing out to other instructors how their students equipment was not setup right as he was teaching. He was definitely interesting to watch.
The social side of things is going pretty well, I have been out and about a few times. There are a pair of sisters who live together and have named their house the ‘brothel’ and they had a pre season piss up house party. I went and met a few more of the snow school to be social, however left early as it looked like it was a one way ticket to smashville kind of event. Another night I really enjoyed was Stuey’s keg night, he won a 25 litre keg of beer at Turoa lodge and everyone tucked in I got to meet a lot more people and it was generally good times. It was a good social surprise and a cheap night for all. Prior to the keg night we had a meeting with Rob and Kyle, our course co-ordinators to discuss the plans for the course. It looks like we will start training on the 12th July weather pending. We discussed things like jobs after the winter and how we should get cover letters ready and places to apply etc... the truth is I am not sure what I want to do so I will hold off for now and see how the training and teaching actually goes. Another point of discussion was working for the snow school and just working in general. We need to demonstrate to the snow school that we are hard working etc... really make an effort. I think with the shadowing I am demonstrating that. Hopefully I hear from the cracking crew too so we’ll see how it goes.
Tony Hill arrived on Saturday, and after shadowing I went to meet him at Miro St to see how he was settling in. He seemed a little shook up with arriving etc... but he’s going to get on just fine. He is a top lad. I spent the rest of Saturday with Tony just introducing him to people in the house and in my place, let him use the internet etc..etc..We did a little shopping and then I cut him loose. Sunday was fun, after shadowing and riding I hooked up with Tony again and we cooked a curry for the MIRO St crew on Sunday. There was 14 of us and it was immense, it worked out really well and was a real nice evening. I really love the guys at MIRO they feel like good friends.
Riding has been pretty good, really getting used to the reverse camber board now, its sooo fun, however having spoken to my course coordinator Rob he is saying the board will make it difficult for me to do the course. So I am looking into buying another board out here, if that doesn’t work I might get one sent from home. I am starting to wish maybe about sticking with what I know and instead of buying a Never Summer Evo R I should have stuck with a Ride DH like i Normally do. After selling the Never Summer plus bindings for £340 i could have got a DH for £192 and got some new bindings. Oh well its the decisions we make in life. And the never summer is pretty incredible anyway. I might still buy the DH because the Never Summer I pretty much got for like £110 plus some birthday sponsorship from friends. We shall see how it all goes. Its another stress alongside my boots saga. Once the clothes saga ends there has to be something else to keep me up at night!! Basically I have sent my boots to be warrantied because the soles have separated from the boot. I got them sent yesterday and I am hoping to hear soon but with these things you never really know. Ah it wouldn’t be fun if it was easy and at least I have my clothes now. I have started thinking if I get another board how the hell Ill get all this stuff back. We’ll see.
The past couple of days the mountain has been closed due to bad weather, so yesterday me Tony and Chris went to Taupo – famous for its Lake. The drive up was soo beautiful! You really get to see how incredible the landscape is here. It is soo un touched you can tell this is a land where not many people live, its soo nice. I was really taken a back by the greenery and neutrality of the place. Every is calm and at ease with the world and its really nice. I am still adjusting, but hopefully it wont be long until I am a little more mellow. We had a pizza hut buffet and walked around town a little. The lake looked beautiful with small little islands dotted about it was really beautiful. The colour of the sky on the drive back was absolutely insane it made me believe I am in a truely special place. Tony managed to sort out all his stuff like bank stuff etc... and I bought a few bits and bobs. We headed home and went to the pub quiz. We came second!
Good news for Tony I think he has a job at the hill so he is stoked!!
Thats all for now folks.
Yo yo yo, fewer blogs have been churned out which is good because it means I am busier doing other things though I still want to keep a record of whats going in the lovely little town of Ohakune. I am struggling to recollect the order in which things have happened over the last few days so I will just jot down the most memorable things and my thoughts about whats going on.
Shadowing has been going good I got a few hours with a couple more instructors. There is Dion from New Zealand. The lesson was ok it was a discover snowboard lesson which is like a beginners lesson. There were 4 girls and 2 males. As the lesson went on it was apparent the father and son Wayne and Connor were picking it up slightly quicker than the girls, so Dion pretty much split the group and I carried on teaching Wayne and Connor which was rad. I actually got to do a bit of my own teaching. And i felt I really helped them. They both had smiles on their faces and looked like they were enjoying what they were doing. I was pretty stoked to be teaching for sure. I just need to do more.
Another shadow was with a guy called Stuart he is from the UK Wales I think. He is a level 3 CASI instructor and evaluates level 1 and 2 instructors so he is definitely someone I could learn loads off. We had 2 scottish kids to teach snowboarding to. They were adorable one was 8 and the other 10, but kids really don’t have a huge attention span. Its about fun and games as it is about learning to snowboard. When teaching kids you cant explain to much, just let them do, group manage and try and correct them in the simplest way possible. The lesson was a lot of fun, Stu threw in some nice lesson fun and really made it enjoyable.
One morning I arrived in early (Sunday 4th) and Rob Gordon (my course lead) was hosting a training session for the instructors. I jumped in on it and he focused on how important it was that the clients equipment was set up correctly. At the end of the day its completely true, if when you make movements your board is not responding to what you are doing, your equipment is set up incorrectly and you need to check it. Its confusing for instructors when someone is clearly doing something yet the desired outcome isn’t happening, and its all down to tight boots, tight bindings, and forward lean set up on highbacks so the clients get response to every movement. He went on to run through how to get maximum class activity – because Turoa snow school was rated the lowest school for beginner lessons. The key theme was not to have clients just sitting down waiting for the instructor to help them, but to get them more involved. It was a real good session and a learn a little around how to teach better. After that session I shadowed Rob for a lesson, and lets just say it was pretty good, not only did he coach the class he was coaching me on how to teach. It seems like Rob is a pretty senior in the Turoa snow school, I suppose after 18 or 19 winters (whatever it is) you would be. He was pointing out to other instructors how their students equipment was not setup right as he was teaching. He was definitely interesting to watch.
The social side of things is going pretty well, I have been out and about a few times. There are a pair of sisters who live together and have named their house the ‘brothel’ and they had a pre season piss up house party. I went and met a few more of the snow school to be social, however left early as it looked like it was a one way ticket to smashville kind of event. Another night I really enjoyed was Stuey’s keg night, he won a 25 litre keg of beer at Turoa lodge and everyone tucked in I got to meet a lot more people and it was generally good times. It was a good social surprise and a cheap night for all. Prior to the keg night we had a meeting with Rob and Kyle, our course co-ordinators to discuss the plans for the course. It looks like we will start training on the 12th July weather pending. We discussed things like jobs after the winter and how we should get cover letters ready and places to apply etc... the truth is I am not sure what I want to do so I will hold off for now and see how the training and teaching actually goes. Another point of discussion was working for the snow school and just working in general. We need to demonstrate to the snow school that we are hard working etc... really make an effort. I think with the shadowing I am demonstrating that. Hopefully I hear from the cracking crew too so we’ll see how it goes.
Tony Hill arrived on Saturday, and after shadowing I went to meet him at Miro St to see how he was settling in. He seemed a little shook up with arriving etc... but he’s going to get on just fine. He is a top lad. I spent the rest of Saturday with Tony just introducing him to people in the house and in my place, let him use the internet etc..etc..We did a little shopping and then I cut him loose. Sunday was fun, after shadowing and riding I hooked up with Tony again and we cooked a curry for the MIRO St crew on Sunday. There was 14 of us and it was immense, it worked out really well and was a real nice evening. I really love the guys at MIRO they feel like good friends.
Riding has been pretty good, really getting used to the reverse camber board now, its sooo fun, however having spoken to my course coordinator Rob he is saying the board will make it difficult for me to do the course. So I am looking into buying another board out here, if that doesn’t work I might get one sent from home. I am starting to wish maybe about sticking with what I know and instead of buying a Never Summer Evo R I should have stuck with a Ride DH like i Normally do. After selling the Never Summer plus bindings for £340 i could have got a DH for £192 and got some new bindings. Oh well its the decisions we make in life. And the never summer is pretty incredible anyway. I might still buy the DH because the Never Summer I pretty much got for like £110 plus some birthday sponsorship from friends. We shall see how it all goes. Its another stress alongside my boots saga. Once the clothes saga ends there has to be something else to keep me up at night!! Basically I have sent my boots to be warrantied because the soles have separated from the boot. I got them sent yesterday and I am hoping to hear soon but with these things you never really know. Ah it wouldn’t be fun if it was easy and at least I have my clothes now. I have started thinking if I get another board how the hell Ill get all this stuff back. We’ll see.
The past couple of days the mountain has been closed due to bad weather, so yesterday me Tony and Chris went to Taupo – famous for its Lake. The drive up was soo beautiful! You really get to see how incredible the landscape is here. It is soo un touched you can tell this is a land where not many people live, its soo nice. I was really taken a back by the greenery and neutrality of the place. Every is calm and at ease with the world and its really nice. I am still adjusting, but hopefully it wont be long until I am a little more mellow. We had a pizza hut buffet and walked around town a little. The lake looked beautiful with small little islands dotted about it was really beautiful. The colour of the sky on the drive back was absolutely insane it made me believe I am in a truely special place. Tony managed to sort out all his stuff like bank stuff etc... and I bought a few bits and bobs. We headed home and went to the pub quiz. We came second!
Good news for Tony I think he has a job at the hill so he is stoked!!
Thats all for now folks.
Thursday, 1 July 2010
What a turnaround
30th June 2010
Well despite the obvious issue of missing my first day yesterday, overall the day was not bad at all. I sorted out so much so I am pretty stoked with life right now! So after leaving the library making my rather depressing post I went to the bank and managed to open an account and deposit the cash I have been carrying with me in there, which was a huge relief. I then joined the gym and called DHL. They told me my bag was pending customs clearance and they were working on getting that done. I was told to call back in the afternoon. When I went home I got my mobile SIM card so I am online and hopefully that will help loads with work and shifts. I let the relevant people know my number and then Chris Hazeldine sent me an amazing text saying there was a room spare at his home! Internet my own room sounded incredible. I bit his hand off and we met up in town to discuss logistics. Then went to the gym. It was good to go to the gym and the knowledge that almost everything was sorted is sweet. Now I can focus on working on the hill and getting some riding done.
After the gym I went home and made my last dinner and told the guys at 101 Miro Street that I was leaving, and most of me was like – why am I leaving MIRO Street? The guys are so nice over there and at least it was a shared house, I have seen a lot worse since I have been here and the rent is really good? I managed to settle in, and now I am moving again? I guess the appeal of my own space, and the internet and living with 2 qualified instructors here helps a lot though. I am paying a lot more in rent but it is worth it I think. After dinner 2 of my new housemates came to pick me up in their van and took all over my stuff over to the new place. I settled in and now I have too much space. It will be ok when my clothes arrive on Friday 1st July.
I went out for staff night out to the Turoa lodge, it was pretty banging, I went down with all of the guys from MIRO street after I finished packing. It was fun but I didnt stay too long, had a little boogie and spoke to a few people and then left with a couple of my new housemates, Danielle and her French boyfriend (I have forgotten his name!!!). Danielle is Canadian and is uber nice. I think she is from BC you could tell. Most people from BC are nice people you know.
I got home to my new bed and tried to get some sleep for my first day at work.
1st July 2010
First day at work was interesting, but quite dull I have done no riding yet and this was very much a run through of the expectations of us on management and management on us.
Woke up in the morning and made sure I was heading to the right place by going with Chris. I didnt want to miss this for sure!! We jumped on the bus to Turoa mountain and all met up in the locker room. On the bus I sat next to a girl from France called Francise and she was working at the snow school as a snowboard instructor. We talked the entire journey and she was a real nice chick. Her story was that she worked as an opear in Canada Whistler with this family and whilst the kids were at school she would just ride. She then followed them to the US and did a winter there. She is an American Level 2, and NZ Level 1 instructor.
Interestingly in the locker room, Rob Gordon was there and as we were looking around for seats (when I say we I mean all his interns) and he said it would be politically correct for us to stand as we are rookies. It was an interesting comment for sure. I thought working with a team of snow sports instructors wouldn’t be that political at all, but the day went on it became more and more apparent.
We got separated in the locker room between inductions and people who were already on Rosta for teaching. In the induction room there was a combination of newbies and returners. We blitzed through the itinerary which consisted of going through their expectations of us as employees and what we expect of them as our bosses. We then went onto to discuss the companys mission statement and how we at snowschool can help them achieve that. There was other health and safety stuff we did but the funniest thing was the POOs section. The analogy is you were sitting in a Jacuzzi with another guy who just dropped a turd, if you don’t talk about it and the Jacuzzi just gets more and more shitty, so you gotta get the poopa scoopa and deal with it. The metaphorical poos were the issues we had with working at Turoa and the management wanted to clear them up. Most of them were pretty trivial, the 2 I remember having thoughts about were 1) Jug fines – if you are in your instructor uniform and you bail, you get jug fined. It was raised up as something that stifles progression because people are afraid to mess up because they get laughed at. I kinda agreed but the more jovial people disagreed and said it was more a social thing. The jug fines stayed anyway. 2) “Us” and them – The point was raised that we as workers of the mountain were very much a separate entity to REL the company which owned the mountain, this issue didnt really get covered it just digressed onto the Us and them stigma between snowschool and the rest of the departments. Snow sports people have been branded as SMUFFs (Smug MotherF*ckers) because they (i should say we, however I don’t feel part of the snowschool yet) are perceived as being people who think they are better than the other departments. I don’t know the take on this but based on my first day it seems cliquey between return staff and the new staff don’t seem to have a chance. I didnt really see any of the returners make an effort to talk to the new staff or anything so I can see why other departments would think that. It didnt break my heart its just a shame, I left the office to get away from pretention and politics, but it appears it definitely exists maybe not at the same level here in the locker room.
After work I got home and went to Miro St to check up on the old house and see how they were doing, they invited me out that evening, so I went to the gym made a sick chicken omelette and then popped out to Kings bar. Was fun to catch up with the old house!
Today was a cool day got up bright and breezy, went up to the hill and was riding the new board on the hill for the first time. Was very excited!! Got to the locker room, serviced the board ready for riding, sorted out a few things with HR and then just got out there. I met up with Helen, Chris and Celeste (Celeste works in Chris and Helens hostel – a pretty rad 19 year old chick just living the dream). It was SOOOO good to be riding again, but it was tricky getting used to the reverse camber, I am determined to master my new board over time.
Met up with Chris and we had some jibtastic fun times before going in for lunch. We met up with Laura and our last run before going in for lunch we dropped a couple of 4/5 foot cliffs and she broke her binding! Then when we were down at base Chris noticed a massive crack in his board from his 540 bail. His tail pretty much was ready to fold so Laura and Chris left me.
The weather came in in the afternoon and it was overcast on the mountain so I decided to shadow a 2 hr lesson from 1pm to 3pm with Francise. It was a good lesson and it gave me the confidence to know I could do it for sure. It was a 6 person 2 hr lesson and I wasn’t allowed to help or teach as I was a “shadower”! After the lesson we played on the fun box for a bit in the park which was next to the lesson area.
Turoa mountain is pretty amazing looking, unfortunately there isn’t a lot of snow on it, the hiking and touring looks incredible and I cannot wait for my training to start mid july and go out with Rob who knows the mountain so well.
After the box session it was back to the locker room. I asked for more shadowing hours and the snowsports director overheard my request which was good. He also overheard I shadowed today and that was good because it shows even though I am part time I am keen and hopefully with a few more shadow hours under my belt he will put me on the rosta sooner. Because I due to start teaching mid July but right now it is school holidays which means it could get uber busy and they would need more instructors. In which case I could be top of the list as I am in the locker room every day getting to know the instructors and showing my face.
Also keen to help lift ops crack ice off the lifts in the morning from 6am-8/9/10am so I can get some more hours and help more departments out. I have signed up for that already. The hours will help my pay too! I am thinking of asking rentals if I could help them with some servicing so I can get better at that too. I will ask tomorrow!
Got home from a pretty good day and now I am here. Thinking I am going to go out tonight and meet some more of the crew but I am fully settled now and am pretty stoked on being on the mountain. My clothes will arrive tomorrow and then I will be complete.
Peace and love people.
Well despite the obvious issue of missing my first day yesterday, overall the day was not bad at all. I sorted out so much so I am pretty stoked with life right now! So after leaving the library making my rather depressing post I went to the bank and managed to open an account and deposit the cash I have been carrying with me in there, which was a huge relief. I then joined the gym and called DHL. They told me my bag was pending customs clearance and they were working on getting that done. I was told to call back in the afternoon. When I went home I got my mobile SIM card so I am online and hopefully that will help loads with work and shifts. I let the relevant people know my number and then Chris Hazeldine sent me an amazing text saying there was a room spare at his home! Internet my own room sounded incredible. I bit his hand off and we met up in town to discuss logistics. Then went to the gym. It was good to go to the gym and the knowledge that almost everything was sorted is sweet. Now I can focus on working on the hill and getting some riding done.
After the gym I went home and made my last dinner and told the guys at 101 Miro Street that I was leaving, and most of me was like – why am I leaving MIRO Street? The guys are so nice over there and at least it was a shared house, I have seen a lot worse since I have been here and the rent is really good? I managed to settle in, and now I am moving again? I guess the appeal of my own space, and the internet and living with 2 qualified instructors here helps a lot though. I am paying a lot more in rent but it is worth it I think. After dinner 2 of my new housemates came to pick me up in their van and took all over my stuff over to the new place. I settled in and now I have too much space. It will be ok when my clothes arrive on Friday 1st July.
I went out for staff night out to the Turoa lodge, it was pretty banging, I went down with all of the guys from MIRO street after I finished packing. It was fun but I didnt stay too long, had a little boogie and spoke to a few people and then left with a couple of my new housemates, Danielle and her French boyfriend (I have forgotten his name!!!). Danielle is Canadian and is uber nice. I think she is from BC you could tell. Most people from BC are nice people you know.
I got home to my new bed and tried to get some sleep for my first day at work.
1st July 2010
First day at work was interesting, but quite dull I have done no riding yet and this was very much a run through of the expectations of us on management and management on us.
Woke up in the morning and made sure I was heading to the right place by going with Chris. I didnt want to miss this for sure!! We jumped on the bus to Turoa mountain and all met up in the locker room. On the bus I sat next to a girl from France called Francise and she was working at the snow school as a snowboard instructor. We talked the entire journey and she was a real nice chick. Her story was that she worked as an opear in Canada Whistler with this family and whilst the kids were at school she would just ride. She then followed them to the US and did a winter there. She is an American Level 2, and NZ Level 1 instructor.
Interestingly in the locker room, Rob Gordon was there and as we were looking around for seats (when I say we I mean all his interns) and he said it would be politically correct for us to stand as we are rookies. It was an interesting comment for sure. I thought working with a team of snow sports instructors wouldn’t be that political at all, but the day went on it became more and more apparent.
We got separated in the locker room between inductions and people who were already on Rosta for teaching. In the induction room there was a combination of newbies and returners. We blitzed through the itinerary which consisted of going through their expectations of us as employees and what we expect of them as our bosses. We then went onto to discuss the companys mission statement and how we at snowschool can help them achieve that. There was other health and safety stuff we did but the funniest thing was the POOs section. The analogy is you were sitting in a Jacuzzi with another guy who just dropped a turd, if you don’t talk about it and the Jacuzzi just gets more and more shitty, so you gotta get the poopa scoopa and deal with it. The metaphorical poos were the issues we had with working at Turoa and the management wanted to clear them up. Most of them were pretty trivial, the 2 I remember having thoughts about were 1) Jug fines – if you are in your instructor uniform and you bail, you get jug fined. It was raised up as something that stifles progression because people are afraid to mess up because they get laughed at. I kinda agreed but the more jovial people disagreed and said it was more a social thing. The jug fines stayed anyway. 2) “Us” and them – The point was raised that we as workers of the mountain were very much a separate entity to REL the company which owned the mountain, this issue didnt really get covered it just digressed onto the Us and them stigma between snowschool and the rest of the departments. Snow sports people have been branded as SMUFFs (Smug MotherF*ckers) because they (i should say we, however I don’t feel part of the snowschool yet) are perceived as being people who think they are better than the other departments. I don’t know the take on this but based on my first day it seems cliquey between return staff and the new staff don’t seem to have a chance. I didnt really see any of the returners make an effort to talk to the new staff or anything so I can see why other departments would think that. It didnt break my heart its just a shame, I left the office to get away from pretention and politics, but it appears it definitely exists maybe not at the same level here in the locker room.
After work I got home and went to Miro St to check up on the old house and see how they were doing, they invited me out that evening, so I went to the gym made a sick chicken omelette and then popped out to Kings bar. Was fun to catch up with the old house!
Today was a cool day got up bright and breezy, went up to the hill and was riding the new board on the hill for the first time. Was very excited!! Got to the locker room, serviced the board ready for riding, sorted out a few things with HR and then just got out there. I met up with Helen, Chris and Celeste (Celeste works in Chris and Helens hostel – a pretty rad 19 year old chick just living the dream). It was SOOOO good to be riding again, but it was tricky getting used to the reverse camber, I am determined to master my new board over time.
Met up with Chris and we had some jibtastic fun times before going in for lunch. We met up with Laura and our last run before going in for lunch we dropped a couple of 4/5 foot cliffs and she broke her binding! Then when we were down at base Chris noticed a massive crack in his board from his 540 bail. His tail pretty much was ready to fold so Laura and Chris left me.
The weather came in in the afternoon and it was overcast on the mountain so I decided to shadow a 2 hr lesson from 1pm to 3pm with Francise. It was a good lesson and it gave me the confidence to know I could do it for sure. It was a 6 person 2 hr lesson and I wasn’t allowed to help or teach as I was a “shadower”! After the lesson we played on the fun box for a bit in the park which was next to the lesson area.
Turoa mountain is pretty amazing looking, unfortunately there isn’t a lot of snow on it, the hiking and touring looks incredible and I cannot wait for my training to start mid july and go out with Rob who knows the mountain so well.
After the box session it was back to the locker room. I asked for more shadowing hours and the snowsports director overheard my request which was good. He also overheard I shadowed today and that was good because it shows even though I am part time I am keen and hopefully with a few more shadow hours under my belt he will put me on the rosta sooner. Because I due to start teaching mid July but right now it is school holidays which means it could get uber busy and they would need more instructors. In which case I could be top of the list as I am in the locker room every day getting to know the instructors and showing my face.
Also keen to help lift ops crack ice off the lifts in the morning from 6am-8/9/10am so I can get some more hours and help more departments out. I have signed up for that already. The hours will help my pay too! I am thinking of asking rentals if I could help them with some servicing so I can get better at that too. I will ask tomorrow!
Got home from a pretty good day and now I am here. Thinking I am going to go out tonight and meet some more of the crew but I am fully settled now and am pretty stoked on being on the mountain. My clothes will arrive tomorrow and then I will be complete.
Peace and love people.
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