New Instructor Course

Welcome to one of the most fun jobs you’ll ever have! After you take this course, you’ll learn a few things about being a snowsports instructor and have even more fun!

Follow one of the links below to access the free course used to help enhance your on-snow training and it’s a great way to learn more about your job. So, let’s get started. Here are the steps:
Already a PSIA-AASI member? Sign in using your current member login on file. It’s the same email and password used at thesnowpros.org
Create a user account on this website
Purchase the course – don’t worry it’s free, then follow the link on the order confirmation page
Complete the course, then share your results with your snowsports school via email and download/print a certificate to share at a later time
OK, let’s get started!

 

Digital Membership Cards are Here!

Did you know you can now download and print your own membership cards in your profile at www.thesnowpros.org
http://www.thesnowpros.org/my-profile/membership-card

 

 

PSIA Certification Benefits for Homewood Mountain Resort

Homewood is giving you another great reason to get certified this season! Check it out:

  • Level I Instructors will receive one complimentary lift ticket during the 2017-18 winter season and 50 percent off lift tickets for the balance of the season for their own personal use, with no blackout restrictions.
  • Level II and III Instructors will receive unlimited complimentary lift tickets for their own personal use during the 2017-18 winter season, with no blackout restrictions.
  • PSIA-AASI Education Staff will receive a complimentary 2017-18 unrestricted season pass for their own personal use. The season pass includes unlimited skiing or snowboarding at Homewood Mountain Resort only, and will only include on-mountain perks listed below
    • 5 Discounted tickets for Friends and Family (30% off)
    • 10% off food and beverage
    • 10% off Rentals Demos and Retail

PSIA / AASI complimentary tickets can be redeemed day of, in person, at Homewood Mountain Resort’s Guest Services office located in at the North Lodge – 5145 Lake Tahoe Blvd. Homewood, CA 96141. Instructors must present a valid certification card defining their certification level, photo ID and provide an email address to receive their complementary ticket. Limit is one ticket per day per person. Education staff members can redeem their season pass by either contacting the Guest Services office prior to arrival, and have their pass mailed to them OR by stopping by the Guest Services office on their first visit.

Fall Conference Nordic Reports

By Stephen McDonald

I had the opportunity to attend, for my first time, the PSIA Fall Conference (FC) as the Telemark representative for the Western Division. I was joined by eight people representing six divisions and two Psia National Telemark Team members to make up the Telemark Taskforce. Collectively we spent three days together on and off snow collaborating to generate education materials, evaluate the implementation the new Telemark Fundamentals, and to align our national telemark standards among the divisions.

Our efforts started long before the FC began by working together on Basecamp, an online meeting and information sharing site. Starting at last year’s Fall Conference the taskforce started generating questions for a national test bank for Telemark levels 1-3. Leading up to this year’s FC the list of questions was expanded, edited, and added to an online test bank available to all divisions. By working remotely this was finished and uploaded prior to the event.

At the last FC the Telemark Taskforce generated and adopted the six Telemark Fundamentals. They were introduced to division examiners last season and published in the Fall 2017 edition of 32 Degrees (page 98).   At FC this year we looked at how the telemark fundamentals were received and how implementation was going. The consensus was that the fundamentals were a positive addition and overall were a success, although some minor refinements were needed. As a group we worked to discuss all the fundamentals and decided to slightly reword one to make it more accurately describe the use of the lead change in telemark skiing.

Most of our time at FC was spent working together to write learning outcomes for level one telemark candidates. This process began with some online learning sessions and conference calls to learn the process of writing learning outcomes and assigning learning experiences, assessment activities, and assessment criteria for those outcomes. This allowed us to jump into collaborating amongst divisions to start applying learning outcomes to the level one national telemark standards. This was a messy process that forced us to change the way our standards are written and how they can be improved to better meet the needs of everyone involved in the learning and certifying experience. The goal is to create a statement that clearly defines what one would expect to achieve upon successful completion of certification (the Learning Outcome). For each learning outcome we attempt to create a clear description of achievement and performance (the Assessment Criteria).   We then outlined activities the candidate will participate in to gain the knowledge and skills required to pass a certification exam (the Learning Experiences). Finally, we identify and list tasks the candidate can be assigned during the certification exam as evidence of learning (the Assessment Activities).

This process was not easy and involved a lot conversation among division representatives to convey everyone’s expectations of each certification level. Our time spent on snow made everything seem clear and then when we returned indoors it proved difficult to apply our thoughts to paper. We spent a lot of time indoors “word smithing” and finding common language. We completed part of the level one learning outcomes during the FC, but in the process learned how to apply learning outcomes to national standards. We hope to complete level 1 this season and move onto levels 2-3. Working together amongst divisions to apply learning outcomes will better align the divisions by painting a clear picture of what is involved to obtain the skills and knowledge for each certification level and how they will be tested.   Overall the experience of Fall Conference was painful, enlightening, and entertaining. Plus, I got to spend my first few days making turns for the season with some pretty good telemarkers and spent my down time hanging around many great like-minded people who love sharing the snow sports experience.

 

 

Fall Conference Snowboard Report

Professional Development Day 2017 – A day for Education, Preparation, and Camaraderie

Our Education Foundation helped fund this amazing education event to kick off the season!
Over 100 attendees spent the day in pre-season information gathering. Keynote Speaker Ron Kipp helped us to take a look at Equilibrium, Movement Analysis performance, and the ever thrilling notion of Balance. What a great start to a day of learning!  You can find some of the Speakers Presenation Material HERE

The doors opened at 8:15 AM, but eager attendees were at the doors before 7:30 AM. Newly appointed Administrative Director Kristi Prochazka signed up willing volunteers to keep the flow going.

50 year members Chris Brown and Elissa Slanger received their honorary pins during the day- congratulations to a long career in PSIA- West!
Chris Fellows, PSIA Education staff member, presented a memorable session on how to conduct a Performance Profile Assessment for Alpine skiing. Everyone was up and moving!
Injury prevention for skiers was well attended and a very hot topic- staffed by Barton Hospital
Rehabilitation and Sports Medicine.
Elissa Slanger, Psychologist, presented a very informative session on Dealing with the Fearful Skier.
Dr. Bejamin Hatchett from the Desert Research Institute opined on our Tahoe Snowpack, and what to expect this coming season based on scientific trends.

 

A great day of learning was had by all. In a post-event survey, 100% of the respondents indicated they would attend this event again!

Big Bear Mountain Resort Leadership Positions Available!

Big Bear Mountain Resort, the premier Southern California destination, is currently looking for exemplary and capable leaders to join our management team for the ski and snowboard programs.  Our resort is comprised of two amazing mountains; Bear Mountain, known for mind-blowing amazing parks, and our family-friendly Snow Summit, with its wide-open groomers.  

We are currently hiring for supervising and managing positions, preferably with staff training experience.  If you are looking to step into a supervisory role, or take on a management position, please take a look at the hyperlink below for our available leadership opportunities.

Browse and apply online at:

https://www.mammothresorts.com/jobs/bear-mountain-and-snow-summit-jobs

Joshua L Spoelstra

Director
Ski and Snowboard School
Big Bear Mountain Resort
Tel. 909 866-5766, Ext. 193
jspoelstra@mammothresorts.com

PSIA-W Education Foundation – where is the money going?

Katherine Hayes Rodriguez.

Hello Members, As your new President of the PSIA-W Education Foundation, I am excited to build on this amazing legacy of helping instructors. Twenty- three years ago, I had the privilege to work with Greg Felsch and Blaine Lomen to form and incorporate the Foundation. I am very excited about the potential of the Foundation to make a positive impact on the PSIA-AASI membership and our community.

Originally, as a PSIA-West Board of Directors, we were looking at ways to fund some new on-snow educational products (such as Children’s events) and printed materials (such as the Master Plan) without having to raise event or membership fees. Over the years, the Foundation has been able to successfully nurture these kinds of programs until they are able to financially stand on their own. Examples include Women’s Summit, the Fall Professional Development Day, and lately, training and projects that help our education staff deliver the best possible on-snow experiences to our members. We also support the membership through individual scholarships for education, accreditation, and multi-day immersion events.

Our current Education Foundation Board is committed to energizing the Foundation.

Our plan is two-fold:

Through a solid core of investments create a sustainable amount of money to take us into the future. Our cumulative fund balances are currently hovering near $200,000. We have benefited from individual donations, as well as a rise in the stock market.

Conscientiously fund worthwhile projects each season. Our target is to ‘give back’ to the membership roughly 10% of our accumulated reserves each season. The math is simple. The more money we have the more we can responsibly distribute back to the members of the PSIA-W

On tap for this year:

• Sponsor the Oct. 14 Professional Development Day

• Provide individual Scholarships for deserving members

• Assist with funding for staff uniforms

• Create a fund to help volunteer Adaptive Instructors re-coop costs of certification

• Spruce up our ‘brand’ with a Foundation pamphlet and signage

We would appreciate your consideration of making a charitable donation to Education Foundation. A donation will directly support your fellow PSIA-W members in their pursuit of professionalism and excellence.

Please join me in thanking my fellow Ed Foundation Board members who give selflessly to our organization:

Blaine Lomen, Vice-President
Artie Castro, Treasurer
Dave Sutherland, Secretary
Nick Treat, Director at Large

This July 30th marked the 20th anniversary of the tragedy in Thredbo, Australia. In the dark of night 2 buildings collapsed under a mud and snow slide, killing 18 people. Two of those wonderful people were my very great friends Mike and Mariam Sodergren. This particular year because the anniversary year ends with a zero we purposely have Mike and Mim in our thoughts even more often. I hope you do too.
– Barclay Moore

This article appeared in print in our Fall Edge Newsletter in September 2017.

Congratulations to our Lifetime Members!

 

Jorg Dutschke

Jorg Dutschke came to Alpine Meadows in the era where Werner Shuster was actively recruiting Austrian and French instructors. Born in Germany, Jorg was attending engineering school with Jurgen Wetzstein, Shuster’s brother and ski racing on their college circuit. Jorg was 25, and wanted to see the world, so thought he would give Alpine Meadows a try ‘for a season.’ Fifty years later he is still a fixture at Alpine Meadows.

Jorg’s highlights include working at Mt. Puller, Australia for 17 seasons as a year round instructor. He was Chief examiner for the Australian Ski Association for 3 years, and an Australian delegate to the 1983 Interski. His passion for rac- ing continued, many time a U. S. Masters winner in his age group. He helped start and ran a Master’s Race program at Alpine Meadows from 1988 to 2005. He was
a pace-setter for NASTAR races at Alpine Meadows, and put his electronic engi- neering background to good use helping with race timing.

He is a PSIA-AASI West Level 3 instructor. While Jorg has retired from in- struction, he is still a presence at Alpine, helping bus skiers to the Lodge.

Carol Levine

Carol’s career as an instructor and staff trainer has been a tour of some of the greatest resorts in the West: Sun Valley, Alta, Beaver Creek, and finally here at Squaw Valley. Her credentials include 8 seasons as a member of the PSIA Demo Team (1980-88) and Trainer/Examiner for PSIA-Northern Intermountain and Rocky Mountain. Carol also served as a Training Manager in Vail & Beaver Creek Snowsports Schools and holds a PSIA Level 3 certification and USSCA Coaches Level 2. Carol’s presence in Western Division has been greatly appreciated by our members at such events as Women’s Summit, and the Professional Development day.

Roger Engstrom

Roger’s snowsport career started on a lake in northern Minnesota. It was
the early 1960’s, he was water skiing when he met and impressed the owner of
the Minneapolis chapter of the Blizzard Ski Club. Working for the Club helped him improve his own skiing and learn how to teach others. While in college he taught nights at Buck Hill, a small Minnesota ski hill (Top elevation: 1,211 ft.; base elevation: 949 ft.) until 1979. Roger’s day job, computer engineering for a large international company, kept him busy, but his Full Cert (1967 in Central division) credential allowed him to keep teaching wherever his work schedule took him.
He spent a season at Stratton in Vermont, then 20 years at Hunter Mountain in New York. At Hunter he met and worked with Michael Rogan and Robin Barnes.
In 2001 he followed Michael and Robin west and began teaching at the Heavenly Ski School. One of his peak experiences in the industry was attending the PSIA National Academy at Grand Targhee. No matter what PSIA-AASI division he was part of, Roger has enjoyed the combination of friendships and ski training that the Association made possible.

This article appeared in print in our Fall Edge Newsletter in September 2017.