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.