West Goes East (Far East!)

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by Doug Fagel

Our newest member school, Noyuki Academy

Hakuba Goryu Ski & Snowboard Resort, Japan.

The 2016-2017 season will be remembered as a win- ter full of ‘firsts’ for our resorts, schools and member- ship. One big first for the Western Division was bring- ing on our first international member school, Noyuki Academy at Hakuba Goryu Ski & Snowboard Resort in Japan. In December 2016 we operated our first interna- tional AASI Level 1 certification course, followed up with another course in April 2017. This brings the Western Division into the fold with a number of other Divisions of PSIA-AASI that are introducing PSIA-AASI standards to resorts and schools around the globe.

While there are other options for ski and snow- board instructor certification in Japan, the PSIA AASI teaching model and student centered approach is popular in the growing Asian Markets. Noyuki Acad- emy focuses on teaching Mandarin speaking students, and their instructors come from Taiwan, Hong Kong, Singapore, and mainland China to teach for the winter season. The director of Noyuki Academy, Perry Moon, made the trip to our Spring Convention at Mammoth where he successfully completed his AASI Level 2 Ride and his PSIA AASI Freestyle Specialist Level 2. He looks forward to sitting his Level 2 Teach this season and has his sights on the Level 3 Certification for the following season.

We are locking down plans for another set of courses in Japan in December and March of this com- ing season with both Alpine and Snowboard Level 1 Certifications to be offered. We will be looking towards offering education events overseas for in the future. We are honored to work with Noyuki Academy and helping this talented group of instructors advance profession- ally. This opportunity also gives us in Western Division a chance to ramp up our own game, and explore new and fun ways to promote snow sports.

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

Congratulations to the 2017 Nic Fiore Award Winner, Steve Evenson

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‘Weavin’ Steven Evenson has been skiing Heavenly since 1956 (the year the California side opened), first as a junior racer for Blue Angels Ski Team. His first job as an instructor was at Kirkwood in 1976, then on to Squaw for 10 years, before settling back in at Heavenly for 25 years. Steve was fortunate enough to have Nick Fiore as one of his mentors in the ski business. “He would always call me “Stevie” even in my 40’s. When I asked him why, he said “you’ll always be a kid to me.” Weavns has been a fixture in PSIA-AASI Western Divi- sion, as a Board member and examiner and has himself had a huge impact on guests and instructors and the Tahoe ski scene. Congratulations Steve!

Weavin’ Steven.

The Fiore Award honors a hard working member who
has served the Division and the membership at a grassroots level. The award is named in honor of Nic Fiore, who passed away in 2009 and for over five decades dedicated himself to help Western Division become the organization it is today.

Any member is free to nominate an “unsung hero” for the Award. Submit a nomination letter to the PSIA/AASI West office, kjereb@psia-w.org. by Jan. 20,2018 (1,000 words or less please). The Heritage/Senior committee will review all submissions and announce the recipient of the Nic Fiore Award in the spring, in time for Convention.

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

Education Events 2017-18

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Earn your Credits;
Get ready for that Exam

Fall Rally, Dec. 10-11th at Mt. Rose
NorCal Rally, Jan. 21-22nd at Squaw
SoCal Rally, Jan. 28-29th, Snow Summit & Bear

Education Rally, March 18-19th at Mammoth

Here’s what to expect:

These events will help you improve your personal skiing, riding, teaching. Come prepared to have fun, hone your skills and receive updates on divisional and national material. Help yourself with a strong training program for the season to reach your goals.

Certification Prep Clinics:

  • Overview of the skills and knowledge required for all level exams, including materials and process updates.
  • On-hill teaching presentations, teaching methodol- ogy and movement analysis with personal feedback
  • Ins and outs of demos and tasks. What they are and

    how to perform them.

  • Personal and specific feedback on your performance in relation to the National Standards.

Education Improvement Clinics:

Education clinics will focus on Ski/Ride and Teach Improvement. You are guaranteed an amazing educa- tion experience and all mountain adventure no matter the snow conditions. All topics will include personalized coaching and feedback. Topics may include some of the following (weather and snow conditions permitting).

Snowboarders and Skier share the same patch.

Skiing/Riding Improvement:

• Skill development and tactics for steep and ad- vanced skiing/riding.

• Off-piste and bump skills.
• Tactics for the conditions of the day. • Maximizing efficiency and fun.

Teaching Improvement:

• New teaching ideas and tools, when and how to use them.

• Efficient teaching progressions.
• Improving your movement analysis.
• Understanding cause and effect and then devel-

oping a progression from those observations.

Children

  • New ideas and tools to teaching children.
  • In depth discussions of child behavior and how to

    work with all ages, stages and attitudes.

  • How to work with parents’ behaviors effectively
  • Special needs children in groups.

    More details on each of these events can be found at the links at the top of this article for each one. Also find all our events on the calendar.

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

Welcome our new Administrative Director, Kristi Prochazka

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by Mitch Dion

It is with utmost pleasure that I pass the torch on to Kristi Prochazka, my co-worker these past nine years.

Things have changed from when I first started here 12 years ago. My days were filled with collecting stacks of registration forms from a fax machine, and typing credit numbers into a processing program. Hours of filing await- ed. Social media was barely on the radar, instead we produced three printed newsletters each season. These days we are nearly an ‘e-commerce’ business.

 

 

 

What has not changed is the basic mission of the organization. Kristi is perfectly positioned to take over day to day operations of the Association. She has a complete grasp of the Association’s business. Indeed she has made her- self into one of the top experts in the country in our Association Management Software. She is extremely efficient and professional, and a pleasure to work with.

We are also lucky to have Lynnea Anderson on board. Lynnea seemingly knows every person in the Association, and her knowledge of the on-snow processes and staffing have made her critically important to our Admin team.

I hope you can give Kristi and Lynnea the same support that you have always given me.

I will be helping out during this transitional time as Treasurer. I am grateful to the many fine individu- als who have served as my ‘bosses’ on the PSIA-AASI Board of Directors. Your dedication, consistently positive energy and spirit of volunteerism have mademy time here a joy.

Kristi’s Top 3 Priorities

  1. Know our Passion and stick to our goals.
  2. Build the respect, rapport, and the ambience amongst our Western Division that engages all our members.
  3. Create an environmentthat allows the next generation of snowsport instructors to be successful.

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

Nordic Discipline News – Fall 2017

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Our Fall Festival is all Cross Country this season. We are set for Dec. 9-10, 2017 at the Tahoe Donner XC Center, which is rapidly gaining renown as one of the top facilities in the Nation. Our plan is to welcome Guest Clinician Greg Rhodes, newly selected to the PSIA-AASI National Team for Cross Country. Registration of $ 80 per day will include your trail pass. We will offer Exam Prep for Level 1, and, if there is enough interest, Level 2&3. Start your skiing year off in a great way, with ski improvement, teaching improvement and fun with your fellow Nordic enthusiasts.

For our Telemark members, our Ed Staff is working on our Divisional Study Guide, to align with National Standard.

We will be offering Tele specific clinics and exam prep at NorCal Winter Session (including a Level 1 Prep), ‘Half and Half” Day and Spring Convention.

See the Calendar for a list of the Nordic calendar events and exams.

Certification offerings will be scheduled on an ‘as needed’ basis to provide maximum flexibility to fit ev- eryone’s schedule.

For Cross Country, please email your interest to vlicon@charter.net

For Telemark, please email your interest to ski.aaron@gmail.com

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

Children’s Discipline News – Fall 2017

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Dan Ray, Children’s Chair

Children’s Lessons in our industry have never been more important. Across the Nation, there is recognition of the importance of the skills needed to teach children as being essential for any instructor. West, along with the other Divisions, will move toward requiring the

CS2 as a prerequisite for working on our Education staff, and is highly recommended for a Divisional Trainer. Our Accreditation events are offered conveniently through- out the season (see event calendar) and are the place to learn and grow as a Children’s Instructor.

 

Adaptive Discipline News – Fall 2017

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Dan Stormer, Adaptive Chair

The Adaptive Committee has been working to align with the Alpine and Snowboard disciplines, in offering our members a two day L1 examination. As a result we will no longer offer the
In House validation program. This was a very difficult decision as this option worked well for a number of candidates. 

Ultimately the committee determined that a streamlined two day exam for all candidates will lead to a more consistent exam experience and a better product for our members, trainers and schools. To provide maximum flexibility, we will be offering a mix of calendar events, and more local ‘traveling’ examinations which can be added during the course of the year. We hope this system allows candidates to plan ahead, while still retaining some flexibility to change.

See the Calendar for a list of the Adaptive calendar exams.

We will work directly with any L3 candidates to set up an examination.

We are also adding an on-line pre-test requirement two weeks prior to your on mountain examination. This will allow us to reinforce knowledge that is needed for the certification, without cutting in to valuable on-snow time. Alpine and Snowboard have had great success in doing this and we want to build on that.

Adaptive Academy

Come experience the PSIA-AASI National Adaptive Academy (NAA), December 5-8, 2017, Breckinridge Ski Resort, CO. Programs are offered for all disciplines and levels and cover the latest in adapted ski and snowboard teaching methods. This is a chance to network with over 800 attendees from around the world, including instruc- tors, coaches, disabled participants, equipment vendors and expert consultants. Some of our Western stars will be working the event, including Bill Bowness, Josh Spoelstra and Katherine Hayes Rodriguez.

New this Year!

We have funding commitments for Adaptive specific certification scholarships. We recognize that many Adaptive instructors are volunteers.

The Ed Foundation will be accepting scholarship applications for your Level 1, 2 or 3 Adaptive exams. Can be submitted retroactively.

See the Ed Fund page of www.psia-w.org for more info.

Adaptive Committee changes

We have put in place a mentoring program and succession plan for our Adaptive Committee Chairs. A sitting Committee Chair will stay on for another year at the end of his/her term to work toward a successful transition.

Lastly, I will be leaving as Chair of the Adaptive Committee following November’s Ed Staff Training. It has been an exceptionally fulfilling two years. Stepping up will be Bill Bowness and Katherine Hayes Rodriguez to be co- chairs. These two have been leaders for many years. They are brilliant, hard-working and born leaders. Adaptive could not be in better hands.

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

Snowboard Discipline News – Fall 2017

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Artie Castro, Snowboard Chair

Share the Stoke

What a summer it has been.We are all still enjoying memories of last winter’s great riding, while at this moment enjoying the “Surf to Snow Event.” At AASI we are there for you in all seasons. One of the coolest things about last season was all the new faces at our resorts and in our membership. We had many of our members reach new levels of professionalism achieving certification in the Snowboard discipline, or through our Children’s, Freestyle, or Divisional Trainer Programs. Our Spring Snowboard Camp at Mam- moth attracted riders from across the country, and was an amazing combination of great riding, technical skills enhancement and fun. Thanks to Lea Logal for bringing this great education product to our membership. New this year- check out our early season Snowboard Camp at Mammoth, Nov. 27-28.

As a Board member, I can assure you that we are tirelessly looking for ways to improve things for our member- ship. The snowboard discipline has produced many of the most dedicated and passionate members of PSIA-AASI West. We are always looking for people who want to get involved and be the next generation of leadership within the organization so that we can continue to “Share The Stoke” with our members and with the many people who visit our resorts throughout the season. So with that being said, what do you want from the PSIA/AASI – Western Division in the future? And how will you help us get there?

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

President’s Message by Greg Lyons – from the Edge 2017

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President’s Message by Greg Lyons, President PSIA/AASI-West

Accept the challenges so that you can feel the exhilaration of victory.
– George S. Patton

My self-imposed challenge in 2017 is to ski at least one day every month. I was able to ski until the

The Lyons family, Kayla, Greg, Karleen and Kylee (l to r) on “The Patch”

end of April at my home resort of Heavenly. Mt Rose was outstanding for Memorial Day weekend and Squaw was open for fun sliding in June and July. In August, accompa- nied by my family, we ventured up a dirt road off Carson Pass, fol- lowed by a short hike to “the Patch”. We found snow in September near Highland Lake off of Ebbets Pass. October? Well, we’ll see where the search for snow take us.

Last season offered up its own challenges, with its record- breaking precipitation and snowfall. It was also a huge year for the Western Division. Our membership topped 3,300 and we had the most members ever seeking to improve their skills and qualifications through certification. Best of all, the preparedness level of candidates was impressive. Congratulations and great job to our members and their trainers!

Please welcome Kristi Prochazka to her new role as Administra-tive Director of PSIA/AASI-W. She has been a critical piece of the
western office team for nine years, and is well prepared to further contribute to the success of our division.

We are also grateful to Mitch Dion for his many years of outstanding leadership of the Western office. His caring and respect for all of our members, members resorts and stakeholders in the snowsport business set a very high standard. Mitch will continue with the Western office as the treasurer. He continues to provide excellence in his new role.

Much of the work of the Association is done by volunteers. Allie Ace and Jamie Marso-Tanner have joined the Membership Linkage Committee, which will act as a conduit for information between the membership at large and the national organization. In addition, congratulations to Jamie for being the recipient of last season’s “Rising Star” award. Heidi Ettlinger, in addition to her roles as a Western Director and a National Team member, is also volunteering for the Education Leadership Committee. This committee is made up of education and certification leaders from across the country and is do- ing critical work toward consistency among, and making new learning products available to all divisions.

We welcome the PSIA-AASI National Board of Directors meeting which will be held in conjunction with our NorCal Winter Session at Squaw Valley this January 21-22. We appreciate the efforts of the National organization to come out west and interact with our membership. Take advantage of this opportunity!

Enjoy the challenge in life. – Greg

This was published in print in the Fall 2017 Edge Newsletter.
The Edge is a publication of the The Western Division of Professional Ski Instructors of America (PSIA-W) and the American Association of Snowboard Instructors (AASI-W) covering California and Nevada. We are one of nine divisions that make up the American Snowsports Education Association (ASEA).
PSIA was founded in 1961 to develop a standardized system for teaching and to unify instructors throughout the country in the disciplines of: Alpine, Nordic, Snowboarding, Adaptive.
The Edge is published two times annually. The opinions expressed in this publication are those of the authors, and are not necessarily the policies and opinions of PSIA/AASI Western Division.
For advertising submissions and information, contact our office:
PSIA/AASI Western Division 9709 Highway 267, Suite B, Truckee, CA. 96161
phone (530) 587-7642
fax (530) 240-6252 info@psia-w.org
For all membership inquiries, check out our website at www. psia-w.org or contact our office for additional information.

Alpine Discipline News – Fall 2017

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Bryan Schilling, Alpine Chair

When asked for the solution to society’s woes, Henry David Thoreau famously quipped: “Simplicity, simplicity, simplicity…” Well that quote has always stuck with me, partly because it’s brief (and redundant) enough so that a ski instructor like me might remember it, but primarily because it rings true to my experience about life, and more importantly – about skiing. As instructors we work hard to put things into simple terms for our guests. Straightforward makes sense. This season our new members will have one simple, affordable choice for Level 1 certification; a two day module. With input from trainers, resort operators, and accessing best practices from other PSIA-AASI divisions, we are working hard to implement this pathway to Level 1 certification. I believe this simplicity for prospective members portends many positives. We have revamped the exam outline to be engaging and experiential education-based. Resort Trainers will be relieved of the burden of administering the “in-house” certification, allowing them to focus on candidate engagement over evaluation. A simpler format decreases the ‘barrier of entry’ cost for the candidate and administrative cost to the PSIA-AASI West office. What isn’t changing is that there will still be level one tasks, demos, movement analysis and teaching. The national standard is still the standard. In conjunction with this change, as PSIA-W Education Staff training will focus on pedagogy with a capital P, the method and practice of teaching. This means facilitating ‘experiential education’ approaches to learning outcomes (not just lecturing on them.) Simplicity applies to all levels of certification, it’s what great instructors intuitively do. So, there you have it – simplicity in a nutshell – we are back to the basics again. So grab friends, spouse n’ family – tell them there is never a better time to train (or re-certify!) as a level one instructor! Can’t wait to ski ya on the slopes!

-Bryan Schilling

 

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