Interski 2011 Report

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INTERSKI 2011 J A N UA RY 15 - 2 2 , 2 011 S t . A n t o n , A us t r i a

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“The environment of Interski was great and I truly enjoyed the workshops. One of the most amazing parts of the whole week was the sharing of information and thoughts amongst the groups during the workshops. Not a second was lost to talk about our sport and quite often some of the best conversations took place on the chairlifts. To have between 8 to 15 people from multiple different countries analyzing the same rider/maneuver/skill performance or concept at the same time was pretty cool.

Often we’d miss or delay the next part of a presentation due to side conversations and discussions. It is my opinion that the workshops / presentations were more than just a one-way communication of their specific country’s tactic or concept, but rather a catalyst for the flow of snowboard information and conversation. I am excited to read the reports of the rest of the TEC crew to see their thoughts, as I know they were stoked on the same level as me and I’m sure our TEC meetings this spring will come to a whole new level!

I would like to extend a thank you to our members for supporting us in going to Interski so we may develop, grow and effectively represent our regions and association as a whole.”

Mike Bray, Delegation Member

M i ke B r ay

Foreword

MESSAGE FROM THE PRESIDENT World travel is not cheap. With this phrase, our delegation set out on our trip to St. Anton as the representatives of snowboard teaching in Canada and, by extension, a system that is widely regarded as the best in the game.

What does a person do, then, if they want to have a high degree of choice in the international snowboard teaching field? If you look at the French model, their idea of a “snowsports instructor” would seem to be very different from ours. At the highest end, an instructor should not only be able to teach a variety of snow sliding methods, including skiing and telemark / XC, but also have elements of guiding experience, as well as the more “back office” skill sets, like the kind you’d need to run a snow school. Typically, a candidate would spend years acquiring this sinOur hope is that you see the value in our efforts. gle certification through their “university”.

Interski is an opportunity. In a broader sense, This is really no different than here in Canada, CASI sees this forum as a chance to draw ator anywhere else. If one wants to be unquestiontention to our methods and the high caliber of ably “In demand”, one has to have the talents the people we certify and train. You. Our feelneeded in all facets of a schools operation; on ing is that if all the nations of the world know snow and off. CASI’s highest level members what we are about, and that the membership, by have worked for years to get where they are. extension, be held in high regard. This is most When one applies for a job overseas, it is on applicable to you, as a teacher, when you travel merit, or the qualifications they possess. For the abroad, working in the industry as you go. Tramost part, those qualifications are exclusively in ditionally, membership in ISIA, the International snowboard teaching and, possibly, snow school Ski Instructors Association, meant that Level 4’s supervision. would have a “leg up” when applying for work overseas. This organization, however, seems to Imagine if a member took this skill set and expanded on it. How employable would you be have its issues. if you were not only a ski and snowboard inISIA was originally started to create a system structor, but also had a RAC, or recreational under which there would be automatic recogniAvalanche Course? How about those skills along tion of levels of certification from one member with a certificate from Selkirk College in Ski to the next. For example, a Level 4 CASI would Area Management? Take this a step further and be seen in Australia as holding their highest level work towards an ACMG and an MBA. I know and, therefore, not need additional training. This this sounds far-fetched and requiring a great deal seems logical, but what occurred to us is that the of time to accomplish, but this is the path to process of securing a job overseas is largely one “writing your own ticket”. This course of action on one and very personal. is also more in line with the course requirements in countries like France.

This is no small accolade. The pressure to perform at a high level, both on snow and in presentation, place our delegates in a situation much like candidates on course at any level of our system. This, coupled with the fact that you, our members, would want to see an exceptional “Return on Investment”, placed a great deal of pressure on our team.

As I said, getting hired for a job is a one on one process. An ISIA membership might help, but at the end of the day, it’s YOU they’re hiring. The deeper your expertise is, the more hirable you are. Starting with a CASI certification is a great start and the material we have come back with will make our courses even better. The real challenge to those of you who see this as a career, and it can be a very rewarding one, is to identify the parts of the industry that both interest you and that are in demand, and build your resume.

We hope you enjoy, and benefit from, the material we have come back with. The true “Student of the Sport” will absorb this material and everything else that comes their way, with a mind towards building their skills.

Just as it takes years to become a great rider, so too does it take an equal, or greater amount of time, to become a “Guru”, and Guru’s are always in demand!

Additionally, I would like to personally thank the members of the Team and Delegation for their hard work and dedication to CASI and the event.

Especially Dan Genge, our Executive Director and “Dad” for the journey, who kept everyone on track and Jeff Chandler, our Technical Director who is responsible for compiling everything you see here and steering the CASI ship, from a technical perspective. It is these two who on a day-to-day basis make us the well-respected organization we are.

Rob Stevens, President

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The Canadian Snowboard Delegation

Rob Stevens, President

Dan Genge, Executive Director

Jeff Chandler, National Technical Coordintaor

Andy Maclean, TEC Rep

Dave Balne, TEC Rep

Alexander Burr, TEC Rep

Jeremy Shield, TEC Rep

Luc Belanger, TEC Rep

Yukiko Kawada, Senior Evaluator

Walter Traub, Senior Evaluator

*TEC: Technical & Educational Committee 2

Mike Bray, TEC Rep

T The first Interski

During the closing ceremonies all the snowboarders did a run down the

ond trip to Interski. Our first appearance was

demo slope together. I recently found a video of that run online. Snow-

in Japan ’95 but only on the demo slope and

boarder Instructors from all over the world riding down the hill with The

only with the ski demo teams. There were no

Prodigy’s Firestarter from my Big Shiny Tunes CD blasting from the sound-

snowboard-only demos or workshops. I didn’t

system.

go to Interski ’95 in Japan but I was regaled with stories of exotic riding techniques offered by national ski instructor certification bodies

took place in 1951

from countries all over the world. Most of the

and skiing had

countries sent their instructors in hard boots

already been around for thousands of years. Snowboard-

Reported by: Andy Maclean

Norway ’99 was only snowboarding’s sec-

and carving boards. The equipment must have looked enough like ski gear that the skiers didn’t feel too nervous. In 1995 CASI was a newly

ing is not an old

formed snowboard instruction and certification

sport. To us, the

body under the Canadian Ski Instructor Alliance

people involved in the sport on a daily

so we fit in just fine. Two riders, one from the east and one from west, represented Canadian

One thing was very clear at Interski ‘99, almost every country had developed their nation’s program in near isolation. While there were some commonalities between some countries, for the most part we rode and taught very differently. CASI’s highest level of certification was Level 3 and we had freestyle and race coaching programs. Our Beginner turn consisted of extension and upper body rotation. So Exotic!

I was lucky again to attend Interski ’03 in Crans Montana, Switzerland.

Lots had changed in the world of snowboard instruction. Where the hell were all of the hard boots and how did the Swiss get so cool? It seems that they had undergone a metamorphosis in just 4 years. They showedup at Interski with an interactive manual on DVD and a program heavy with ollies, straight airs and spins. We were all impressed and jealous! The

basis, this is easy

Snowboarding in hard boots and ski suits. In

to forget. Back in

1995 CASI’s highest level of certification was

Dutch were using something called Magic sticks as a means of aiding

then a sweep of the back foot while pivoting on

zlies, llamas and moose. Imaginative as usual! The Dutch brought a small

’99 when I attended Interski in Beitostolen, Norway I was reminded of this very quickly. While snowboarding was very much a vibrant and viable part of the industry at most resorts, the global ski industry still wasn’t sure we were in it for the long haul. I got the impression that snowboarding was in the same boat as tubing and snow bikes, in the eyes of the establishment.

Level 2. Our beginner turn started with pressure balance and reducing falls during a beginner lesson. This time Norway led us on an imaginary safari on imaginary motorcycles where we saw grizthe front foot to get the board into the fall line the front foot.

It was Norway ’99 that snowboarding’s featured at Interski. Many people in CASI felt that just by virtue of the event’s name maybe we shouldn’t attend. It was felt maybe Inter-ride of Intershred

rotating slope to Switzerland. In a country with little snow and fewer hills you either learned at an indoor slope or on one these rotating carpets. We all gave it a try. I fell the first time, held onto the safety bar for dear life and melted my uniform pants into my knee. I spent the rest of the week with white hole in my red pants and a weeping blister on my knee.

should be developed for snowboarding. There

There were issues with schedule for the snowboard specific events. The

group decided that a snowboard needed better

things would be different at the next Interski.

representation at the next Interski.

For me the most interesting change from ’99 to ’03 was how each country

In ’99 the Swiss, and most other European

taught beginners. When we all got together to compare notes it was

wasn’t a snowboard specific assembly at Interski park was on the other side of the resort, snowboard demos scheduled during workshops and so on. Snowboarders got together and decided ’99 so an unofficial meeting was called and the

countries, used systems based almost entirely

discovered that most countries had similar methods to get beginners

on hard boots and carving boards. The host

started. Our beginner progression had pretty much remained the same. I

plied to snowboarding, alpine and telemark ski-

that how we all rode was much more similar than back in ’ 99. Sure we all

Norwegians had super chill we just-go-ride-and- remember that all of us Canadians felt that the manuals we passed around experience-the-mountain approach that was ap- in 1999 might have helped shape this new world order. It was also clear ing alike, more of a reflection of a snow culture.

I remember the Finns being crazy and cool and

explained it differently but it looked almost the same on snow...except the French. I can’t remember exactly what it was but it was…uh…unique. *It

throwing the best party and being amazed that

should be noted that the French seem fine now.

many Dutch start their skiing and snowboarding

The value of Interski was clear to me after Switzerland ’03. The exchange

experience on plastic conveyers.

of ideas and information had an effect on pretty much every country involved including Canada.

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Interski 2007 was in Pyong Chang, South

U.S. The fact is that adaptive ski devices that have

Korea. I didn’t go but after chatting with the Jeff been refined and used for years would probably be it this sounds like the best Interski to date. The

easier for both the instructor and the student. The

Koreans, renowned for their organization skills, US presenter, Scott, agreed that in many cases provided snowboarding with a great forum. On-

this true but these people want to snowboard. To

snow sessions, workshops and demos were

me this underlines how mature we’ve become as

scheduled with no conflicts. The venue was a sport. What large and permanent part of snow easy to negotiate the venue and the freestyle terrain was impressive. The Dutch promoted the introduction of freestyle manoeuvres at the early stages of learning. Much like the Swiss had in ’03. There was no report on Norway’s presentation but I’m sure it was unique.

Based on the reports provided by Jeff Chan-

culture we are.

The second was the stand out workshop was presented by the Czech Republic. Right from the start it was clear that this workshop would be memorable. Our presenter was wearing older equipment with angles that were anything but current. Both front and back bindings were around 30 degrees

dler and Dan Genge, Interski ’07 seemed to be angled forward. As we moved through the progresabout refinement. There seemed to be a more

sion I started to see some familiar stuff. Pressure

universal style of riding. The teaching and peda-

on the front foot sweep of the back, counter rota-

gogy, while using different terms, had similar tion. This looked a lot like CASI material from the goals and outcomes. As with other Interskis,

old days! Tom from the U.S. wondered if we were

CASI presentations and workshops were stand- being punked and we all starting looking around ing room only.

I don’t know how it happened but I was honoured to attend Interski again this year. I was keen to see the refinement and new acronyms the world of snowboard instruction would provide to address the challenges of a sport that is no longer experiencing the exponential growth of the past.

There were some of the old challenges like overlapping workshops. The awesome park was a mountain away from the demo slope. The jumps built by the demo slope were “challenging” to say the least. To remedy these issues, snowboarders had an impromptu meeting to discuss making improvement for the next Interski.

Two of the workshops I attended really stood out but for very different reasons. I had a little taste of the American Association of Snowboard Instructors’ (pronounced “aussie” not “assie”) adaptive program while working as a selector for their demo team in ‘08. The number of injured young men and women returning from war zones overseas is staggering. This in turn is driving the growth of adaptive snowboarding in the 4

for cameras. As it turned out, this guy was not a member of the Czech Interski team but an ex-racer who had been teaching this methodology for many years at his own school. He had not attended any of the other workshops during the week because he was confident his methods work. This was a great example of what can happen when ideas are developed in a vacuum. Sure it works but without the introduction of new concepts and ideas there is no progression.

When you review the demo videos it’s clear that there is a global riding style emerging. Check out the workshop reports and decide whether a global snowboard school is emerging. The World Association of Snowboard Instructors was discussed at Interski ’11. In the end this didn’t prove a popular concept. Every country develops its programs and systems based on their specific needs. Every four years WASI exists for a week at Interski. This is how we make sure we’re on the right track and doing the best job possible for our clients, members and sport. It’s where we get our global update.

The World Association of Snowboard Instructors was discussed at Interski ’11. In the end this didn’t prove a popular concept. Every country develops its programs and systems based on their specific needs.

Every four years WASI exists for a week at Interski. This is how we make sure we’re on the right track and doing the best job possible for our clients, members and sport. It’s where we get our global update.

WORKSHOP REPORT:

Australia www.apsi.net.au

Reported By: Luc Belanger

Their system, as they told us, is a medley of all different techniques from around the world gathered over the years. They put a strong accent on the fact that Australia is not known for their snow but more for their beaches, and their goal is to take active Australians and bring them into snow sports.

They mentioned the “fight” to keep Australian boarders from heading to closer more desirable destinations over their own (IE: New Zealand and Japan). Their content is based mainly on the Australian environment: mostly a desert with some snow and only 5 major areas in the whole country. They mentioned the really short season and the lack of snow in general.

blending and what percentage of each skill involved is outcome dependant. I quite like the idea of skill blending; the reality is that we are always blending the skills in any type of terrain, especially in Freestyle terrain. They do not mention any components to the skills neither do they break it down in any similar way. We did not touch on the teaching side of things at all.

board division, like most countries.

Level 3: The terrain gets steeper and we start talking about carved turns as well as sliding turns. Short sliding turns on a black pitch, and Level 2 turns riding switch, up un-weighted.

No real details on the HOW of those maneuvers in our session… also all on groomed runs, no varied terrain riding mentioned at any point, which is conducive with the idea of their system being built with Australian terrain in mind.

The Certification Levels – 1 Through 4

The on-snow portion consisted of a brief overview of each level and the “tasks” to be achieved by the candidates. Something important to note is that they have a very “maneuver based” evaluation system; huge focus on what the turn should look like and not so much on specific body mechanics.

Level 1: The key maneuver for this level is a very low performance sliding turn on green runs, or easy blue. Medium sized, strong anticipated (or open) position on the board (promoting the centre of the board at all times), and some rotary movements (steering). This would be similar to our intermeThe APSI has just over 1000 snowdiate sliding turns but on easier terrain. board members; quite small compared to CASI, who has 10,000 active mem- Level 2: The expected maneuvers here are medium sized slidbers and close to 35,000 total certified ing turns on a blue slope, and switch turns on a green slope since 1994. Their association is gov- (Level 1 turns riding switch). That’s when the skill blending erned by skiers and includes a snow- starts happening (Stance and Rotary mainly) The APSI Skills Concept

The APSI has four major skills: Stance, Edging, Rotary, Pressure, and their fifth skill is what they call “blending” - the action of blending two or more skills together to achieve the wanted outcome. The number of skills

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Australia

Level 4: We briefly touched on that but it includes the following: short down un-weighed turns on a black groomer (they evaluate down un weighting as a task not as a tactic like we do), switch level 3 turns on a blue/black, and freestyle maneuvers (halfpipe riding, switch airs, board slide on a basic Reported By: rail feature and 360’s both ways). The Walter Traub level 4 also has a GS Race component, on hard boots OR soft boots set ups, candidate’s choice (they mentioned the lack of availability of the hard boot equipment and how it is not where the industry is heading as a motivation for this change). This last bit was interesting as CASI is in the process of dealing with similar issues. We did some tactics such as heel-to-heel turns and toeto-toe turns to finish it off as a little friendly contest (no Canadians won the big prize… a Freestyle Max doll).

Great emphasis on stance and binding angles and the resultant application of pressure onto the toe and heel edges. The presenter displayed diagramatically on snow how pressure narrows and widens on toe and heel sides based on binding angles.

The presenter noted that open (“duck “) stance is better suited for freestyle and freeriding as opposed to carving or fall line riding.

The presenter noted that bending of ankles on toe side does not necessarily create more edge; he suggested greater emphasis on knees and hips (larger joints) as opposed to ankles (smaller joints) for this purpose. It was suggested that to get effective edge, the rider should bend the front ankle and knee and move the hips forward on toe side and move pressure toward the back foot on heelside; so as to apply greater pressure toward the tail of the board to compensate for insufficient pressure on tail of the board, which may result from an open (“ duck”) stance.

The presenter emphasized effective use of switch riding at all levels to make students more aware of body position and various pressures.

There was a suggestion that slight foreword rotation of the upper body (fall line anticipated stance) allows for best over all riding especially at a more advanced level. Specific exercise used for this was to ride both switch and regular with lead hand behind lead hip.

Australia recognizes four basic skills: Stance & Balance, Pivoting/ Steering, Edging and Pressure Control. Our skill of Timing & Coordination is not considered as a separate physical skill but merely the application and combining of the other four physical skills. Explanation was that rhythm is neither a physical nor a riding skill.

Our session was divided into four levels of riding equivalent to our and their levels of certification, and dealt with application of

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Australia

the course skills to the Levels of riding as

Riding standards level 1-4

follows:

Skills Concept: Four major skills

Level 1: Main focal point Stance & Bal-

1: Stance: Lots of anticipation, lots of upper-lower body separation

ance Level 2: Additional emphasis on pressure

2: Edge: Ankle open to regulate edge control

and edge to control radius of turns ; turn radius and corridor gets narrower.

Level 3: Emphasis on more exaggerated edge; carving, and application of it in

Reported By: Yukiko Kawada

steeper terrain and narrower corridor.

Level 4: Variation of movement and pres- Down sure from vertical to lateral; dynamic or down un-weighted riding in expert terrain.

Level 4 Exercises Used: •

Dynamic riding (switch and regular)

•

Toe-to-Toe turns

•

Heel-to-Heel turns

•

Heel-to-Heel turns while looking uphill at all times

3: Rotation: Core rotation w/ lower body rotation. Similar to our CASI 4: Pressure: Down movement to working edge – increase pressure. Up movement – release pressure

Un-Weight: they call as retraction/extension

They started their workshop introducing various stance options such as freestyle oriented duck stance vs. freeride oriented positive stance. In both stances, still there was a separation between upper and lower body: typical Aussie stance that I am familiar with, because I have lots of APSI certified instructors as my co-workers. In my opinion that upper body position restricts efficiency in body movements, though that is what they promote.

Riding Competencies : Level 1 - 4

They put emphasis on their riding competency as more of a “task” and maneuver base. Lots of vertical movement is involved (almost too much and too un-natural at some point? IE: sudden bouncy up movement looked a waste of effort for the performance level of their turns). On heel side, flexion is happening a lot with hip joint breaking at the waist. On toe side, upper body is inclined and relaxed ankle to achieve edge control. Perhaps those body positions are related to their edge concept “open ankle”.

Level 2: Up un-weighted sliding turns on intermediate terrain (blue slopes groomed). Similar to our level 1 standard type of turns.

Switch riding is also introduced. Basic turns on green.

Level 3: Up un-weighted sliding turns: shorter radius, faster & more dynamic (fore & aft )on steeper terrain.

Intro to down un-weight concept in order to ride bumps.

Carving turns : up un-weight (don’t remember which type of slope).

Level 4: Step up from level 3 perforLevel 1: Very basic up un-weighted mance in all maneuvers (turns in both sliding turns on green /easy blue normal and switch) slopes. Centered position is mentioned Freestyle & Carving (w/race board). all the time and medium size turns.

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Australia

Strong emphasis on short radius down un-weighted turns on black slope (groomed). This is their “task” to meet the standard. Actually they call down un-weighting “retraction/extension”.

From their pressure concept there’s no way to un-weight with down movement. Also some of their demo turns looked a bit heavy on front foot, especially Level 4 short radius up un-weight turns. It may be due to their upper-body open stance, but I may be wrong…

At last, we did a few tactics like toe-to-toe, heel-to-heel for incorporating freestyle taste to freeriding, and then show off time started! Heel-to-heel turns while completely looking up hill all the way. We Canadians did not win the contest.

Aussies had a lot of turn up for their workshop. There were only three presenters and each one had a big group, though they really nailed their presentation and the choice of terrain made workshop run so flawless.

Riding Competencies for the 4 Levels

Reported By: Mike Bray

Indoor Workshop: The indoor session stressed the fact that their environment is unique. Due to this environment their resources are limited so they have taken info and knowledge from around the world and adapted it to suit their situation and needs. The snowboard association is a part of the ski association so the snowboard portion was lightly blended into the appropriate portions of the ski presentation.

The outdoor workshop portion of the Aussie presentation was to show us the riding expectations and standards for their 4 levels of certifications. It was a very methodical session. Hayden showed a demo away from us, we rode past him, he rode to us to give two angles. There was no mention of any teaching methodology on snow.

There are 4 skills in the Aussie system. Stance, Edging, Rotary and Pressure. The combination of any or all of these skills they call blending (much like our T&C but I don’t know that to say blending would cover order of skill per say?) Should’ve asked!!

Level 1

Skill goals – Stance Terrain – Green (demonstrated on blue-black run) Thoughts – Stance is separated upper to lower body, shoulders facing forward. Anticipation is not a movement or rotation of any part of the body but rather a stationary position of the upper body.

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Australia

Level 2

Skill goals – Blending of Stance, Rotary and Pressure Control. Switch riding is be comparable to level 1 regular riding.

Terrain – Blue (demonstrated on mellow blue).

Thoughts – Similar in standard to CASI except the upper body anticipation.

Level 3

Skill goals – Introduction to Steering (not sure if they consider steering to be a skill or an outcome). Switch riding is between level 1 and level to regular riding.

Terrain – Blue-Black (demonstrated on blue run for regular and switch) No reference to any terrain adaptation.

Thoughts – The goal seems to be to meet a specific style in riding on groomed terrain. Focus is on maneuvers rather than skills.

Level 4

Skill goals – Anything, Anywhere, Anytime. Switch riding is comparable to the Level 2 regular riding.

Maneuver goals – Down-unweighted turns down black pitch. Toe to toe, heel to heel performed quickly down black pitch Terrain - Anything, Anywhere, Anytime Overall Impression The session was very simple and showcased the riding style for the 4 levels. The higher levels are very maneuver based rather than skill based. Maneuvers such as short radius turns completely downunweighted with the upper body facing down the hill. I tried to create conversation about alignment of the body for effective flexion of the lower body after almost eating it while twisted and hitting a lump in the snow. I had difficulty riding to the standard with my body in the Aussie anticipated position as well as just riding in a completely down-unweighted position for the short radius turns as it rid me of the ability to stay in a ‘mobile’ centered stance. I felt very committed to one extreme and at a limitation of where my body was to adapt and adjust. Freeride to freestyle maneuvers seem quite similar to our system at all levels.

THE DE M O S LO PE AT OPENING C ERE M ONIE S 9

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“Throug h a l l t he s e s s io ns I pa r t ic i pat ed i n , wh at I fo u n d t h e m o st i n t erest i n g was t h e fac t that n o m atter the co unt r y, o r t he l a ng ua g e , t h e c h al l en g es we al l fac e i n t eac h i n g sn o wbo ard in g ar e v er y s im ilar. Being a b l e t o s ha r e o ur ide a s wi t h l i k e- m i n d ed sn o w p ro s was bo t h i n sp i ri n g an d en c ou r agin g. It ’ s not that w e a r e g o ing t o ta k e t he se i d ea s an d sy st em s a n d fi t t h em i n t o o u r o wn , bu t r ather they hav e insp ired us t o de ve l o p o ur o w n s y st em i n way we m ay h av e n o t t h o u g h t befo re. ” Jeremy Sh ie ld , De le gat i on M emb er

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WORKSHOP REPORT:

Croatia

Being both a ski and snowboard instruc- to my thighs. I was asked to push myself tor, I was extremely fascinated by the idea up using them, the idea being he could leverof this workshop. ‘Skiers Teaching Begin- age me up as well. The poles flexed 45 dener Snowboarders’! The first question I grees, were ready to snap and I wasn’t even found myself asking was…why?! The only close to getting off the ground. He quickly practical answers I could think of were; a) re-planted his poles upright so they wouldn’t teaching a family that would like to stick as break, leaving me to try to stand up with my Reported by: Mike Bray

a group with one instructor but has skiers hands behind me gripping on to two slippery and snowboarders in it. b) There are no up-righted poles…not easy! (Limitation #1: I snowboard instructors available and the hazard most beginners would struggle with only remaining choice is a ski instructor. c) this) There is a disability with the student that

Session Theme:

would require some additional mobility and

Well, brace your-

potentially that of a skier. These would all

selves for this one!

be legitimate reasons to potentially use a

Skiers teaching

skier, wouldn’t they?

Beginner Snowboarders!

The Manipulator : One who puppeteers, controls a marionette, and his puppet!!

Once I was more or less upright, I was to hold the baskets of the poles that poked through my armpits and lock my armpits down over the poles as well. The ski instructor stood behind me holding his end of the poles in a

With great anticipation our group reached similar fashion creating what they called the its destination atop the Rendl peak on a “4-point hold”. This process would eventugentle sloping green run. Our ski instruc- ally evolve to a “3-point hold”, “2-point hold”, tor leader introduced the session theme etc. In this position I did gain a fair bit of supand quickly called out for a volunteer par- port but I also have motor skills and natural ticipant. I eagerly jumped at the opportu- snowboard movements occurring in my lownity. Before becoming a mock student I er body unlike most beginners. We started wanted to keep a clear and positive mind- into a pendulum type movement at which set to the concept. I posed the question point I began experimenting as if I were a typto our session leader of whether this is a ical student, shifting my weight over the nose potential way to teach if necessary or the of the board. The poles immediately started way snowboarders ‘should’ be taught, to nudging me with a few comments of ‘come which I was given the response “this is on, move over’ shouting the instructor from just ‘a way’ that snowboarders ‘could’ be behind. In all fairness, I’m not a small guy but taught”. My mind is open and I’m ready to you can’t lift someone up and over back to be impressed.

centered on the board and if you try to push

As I sat on the ground, two poles slid un- them directly across the board is going to der my arms and poked into the snow next kick out. (Limitation #2: Anyone of any moderate size could be quite unmanageable).

11 11

Croatia After the first 10 minutes I wasn’t feeling convinced and to be honest I was feeling a little knocked around by the poles under my armpits. I decided to surrender my student status to some other keen people in the group of whom experimented in similar ways and found the same awkwardness. The session continued and the assisted pendulum eventually moved into an assisted turn with the poles firmly gripped until finally a loose gripped pole helped guide through the turn. This is the point where the students are first given the freedom to experiment without assistance. At this point our session moved inside and I was unable to follow all of the additional conversations.

Overall, I did get some great value from the (Limitation #3: Someone who catches on concept of the pole positions for assist- and is turning in 15 minutes that is in a 2hr ing students if necessary, but most in our lesson.) group chatted about some fundamental flaws with the entire process as a whole.

Before I list some more of the obvious limitations to the use of the poles I would like to make the following comments.

With

(Limitation #4: Can only take one student at a time.)

(Limitation #5: Inability to demonstrate anything.)

slightly longer poles, a boarder could do (Limitation #6: There’s too many limitations everything the skier did, and then some, for this to be the ‘norm’ teaching tactic.) but also have the ability to demonstrate In talking to another participant at the end when necessary…and would be a boarder of the indoor I learned that the session working with a boarder…awesome con- leader had spoken to them and stressed cept!!

the fact that he believes this is the best

One of the guys in this session with me had and safest way to teach all beginner snowfacilitated a great session the day before boarders. on adaptive snowboarding. We discussed My Thoughts: Some good concepts could the use of some kind of modified poles to come out of it but the lesson was uncom-

achieve a similar result to the Croatians for fortable, patronizing and an unrealistic soadaptive students but he did stress that lution to a different problem…not enough

one of their aims is to use as little assis- snowboard instructors in Croatia. This is tance gear as possible and only when nec- going to further drive the sport and the essary, to allow the students the freedom snowboard instructors there in the wrong to ride more freely.

12

direction…into marionettes…too bad.

15

Czech Republic WORKSHOP REPORT

Clinic Title: THE Czech way of

It is not really realistic to create an independent snowboarder.

beginner TEACHING - make

Second one, “flat land movement first then apply that on the slope” is similar

beginners come back to les-

to our SAFE concept. It will work if the contents are fine, but in his case it was Yukiko Kawada very different.

sonS!

Reported by:

Andy and I attended this workshop. As soon as Turn progression the Czech way: we saw the presenter’s equipment set up we (1) On flat terrain with both foot attached. should have guessed what we were into!

- 1: Shift weight on leading foot.

The presenter, we heard from other Czech snow- 2: Place front hip over the leading foot. board team members later, was not really part of the Czech Interski team. The Czech Ski Federation - 3: Rotate shoulders and arms to the direction and sweep back foot to bring organizer asked him to do the workshop, and he the snowboard around just showed up to present his stuff, supposedly. (2) Move on to a gentle slope He did not attend any other country’s workshop.

- 1: Turning uphill from traverse: lots of upper body rotation with back foot Andy mentioned that he might be ex-snowboard sweep to direct the board. Heelside: use back hand like punching someone, racer from Czech Rep. He has published a book toeside: front hand punching someone. about snowboarding in his country.

- 2: Assisted isolated turn. Very small quick turn, more like bring person The workshop started like this: around with hands on.

The presenter, (he didn’t speak English so there All demos had huge emphasis on front foot pressure till the end of the turn was a translator with us) mentioned that it is impor- and lots of upper-body rotation. Especially on toeside, he used counter-rotatant to make beginner lesson participants come tion to swing the board around. back to lesson again. Over his past years of expeHe presented a few exercises to ensure body rotation like: rience, he found great way to do so.

• Boxing movement (punching back hand on heelside, front hand on toeHis way is to eliminate frustration of beginners side) when they are learning.

• Car steering wheel movement with front hand.

He used two methods for this.

All the workshop participants (NZ, US, SUI, SWE, FIN, CAN) asked the pre• Lots of hands-on assist to avoid falling senter if he attended any of the workshop during the week, as we felt that • Ensure the movement on flat land, then we need to help him to get more up-dated snowboarding technique. And we move to the slope.

all offered him to contact any of us if he wishes to get our reference guide.

Firstly, “assisting” goes completely opposite of our It was a little time trip to the past! “quick ride”.

13 13

O P ENING CEREM ONIE S

I can’t believe how tense I am! This is a crazy! “Calm down man!” I tell myself, “You’ve trained for this!” as I recall the one jetlag-clouded training run on this steep, icy slope this afternoon.

I go over my run in my head.

Right...left...right... left...right...left.

I’m ready! I look around at my Canadian alpine and Nordic brothers Reported by: and sisters who Andy Maclean are preparing for their run. Teams in bright coloured suits representing countries all over the world are doing the same. President Stevens is beside me. We’re joking with each other but we’re both nervous as hell! Well I am anyway. Over to the west the sun is setting behind the mountains. Two helicopters rise from the village below and slowly fly towards us at the top of the demo slope where they hover for a few moments.

The lights of the demo slope are on and bright. I can vaguely make out the beat of the music and the announcer in stadium below. He’s hyping the crowd as the countries beginning with A drop one at a time. As the B’s start to line up a flask of some sort of hard liquor is passed around. I take a little pull as the C countries are marshalled into the start.

14

“Canada!” shouts the starter. We all take our places at the top of the slope, our eyes focus on the thousands of people in the stadium below then on the telemarker that’ll drop his arm to start our run. The arm drops and so do we! Left-right-left-right-left-right, all the way down. Get to the bottom. Wave to the cheering crowd. Find the rest of the Canadian Team. A big round of high fives and bum slaps! Wow! Someone hands me a beer. What an awesome feeling!

We spend the rest of the opening ceremonies watching countries from D to U ripping down the demo pitch with close-ups displayed on the giant screen at the bottom of the slope. The crowd cheers every team loudly. The atmosphere is truly electric. No matter what anyone says, a solid run of left and right is the most important thing in the world when you’re standing at the top of that pitch.

I’ve been to Interski three times and it’s been the same every time. We all agree that a steep, water-injected pitch isn’t the place to showcase snowboarding. It’s about the workshops. Syncro just isn’t snowboarding but every time we get to the top at that demo slope things change. Just looking into the eyes of Rob, Jeff, Jeremy, Dave, Mike, Luke and Yuki on the top of that pitch, it’s clear they feel same way. At that moment, this run of left and right is the most important thing in your life, period. After all, when you riding down that pitch you’re representing every member of CASI. Hell, you’re representing Canada!

Snowboarding at Interski has definitely evolved. The workshops are amazing. And it’s a great honour having the opportunity to exchange ideas, gather information and present CASI’s technical models. No matter how much things change and evolve, the steep icy demo slope will always be there. A few runs of left and right to a euro beat in front of thousands of people seems a small price to pay for the honour of being part of such an amazing and worthwhile event!

WORKSHOP REPORT:

Fin l a n d Session Title: Terrain Based Teaching For their basic skills model they use Balance,

progress faster than through conventional teach-

Rotation, Edging, Pressure Control and Timing & ing methods.

Coordination.

Reported By: Jeremy Shield

The first thing Jussi did was lay out half a dozen

Edging, Pressure Control, and Timing & Co-

pylons, creating a corridor at the top and fanning

ordination are very similar to what CASI uses.

them out at the bottom. “The track is set, let the

A difference comes with their foundation skill:

learning begin”. With very few words from our

Balance. On a snowboard, they are saying that

instructor, the group starts to slide through the

the stance is set by the bindings and that all

pylons. It didn’t take long for Jussi to start moving

the movements made over the board are done

the pylons and creating challenges or goals. “Ok

to make adjustments to the rider’s balance (not

slide down to the green pylon and then hop over

their stance). The other difference is in what

to the red one,” he instructed. By changing the

we would call Pivoting /Steering. The actions

track and adjusting our goals he was getting us to

are nearly the same: twisting knee, ankle, and

make different movements, all focusing on creat-

foot for lower body movements; and, twisting

ing balance on our boards. To give feedback, he

the core for upper body movements. Finland’s

would create a challenge to fix a problem, instead

organization talks about the combination of up-

of giving verbal feedback. For example, if I were

per body and lower body rotation to get certain

standing too static on my board he would create

outcomes. For example, on a steep pitch to do

a situation where I would have to duck under a

a short radius turn there is equal rotational effort

bamboo then hop over a pylon, thus forcing me

from upper body and lower body, in contrast on

(the student) to make the required movements to

a mellower slope to carve large open turns the

improve.

rider would use mostly lower body rotation to get the result they are after.

What I really like is the simplistic approach. It seems to make verbalizing physical movements quite clear.

The on snow session I attended was presented

by Jussi Rasanen who is an F.N.A.S.I trainer and has a Masters in Sport Sciences. The idea was to highlight how using the right terrain and putting the student in the right situation could allow them to progress at their own rate. If done properly it was said that the student was able to

15

Finland

The theory behind this style of teaching is that, “actions speak louder than words,” something we are familiar with.

The theory behind this

The KEY to this system be able to view the

style of teaching is

of teaching is the

that, “actions speak

instructor being able to skills must be learned

louder than words,”

analyze their student’s

or modified. Third, as

something we are

performance and

the student progresses

familiar with (in our,

create the new tasks

the instructor must be

telling doesn’t ensure

with the appropriate

creating appropriate

learning). However,

increases in difficulty. If

progression for the

they are taking it to

the student is pushed

student to follow to

the next level. The

in the wrong direc-

reach the set out goals

input and feedback a

tion, or if the difficulty

for the session.

student gets from their

increases too quickly,

own body can be more then there is a good accurate and direct

chance for this system

than having some-

to backfire. The

one tell them verbally

benefit would be that

what went wrong and

in a group situation

what to do next time.

everyone could be

It is like skipping the

using the same area/

middle man, hence

track and be learn-

making the learning

ing at their own pace

process swifter for

and on very different

most students. When

skills while still being

a couple of us in the

a part of the group.

session asked about

This could be great for

how it would work with class management if less active or timid students Jussi simply answered, “the instructor is responsible to gauge the students and take the appropriate steps for them.” In his trials, this system has worked for all types of students and learning styles.

16

executed properly.

Jussi was very clear that this works with all levels if just a couple of things are set up properly. First, the environment must be safe and conducive to learning, the terrain must match the student’s ability, and the instructor must

trials. Second, basic

I think that the message being sent out is a good one. If the student is placed in the right situation by the instructor than the learning curve can be much steeper.

WORKS HOP RE PORT:

Germany Germany’s indoor workshop was very well structured and well presented. They explained what would be presented in the on snow workshop, and also explained their new project, the “Check Your Risk” (CYR) program.

Guideline of on snow workshops:

Reported By: Yukiko Kawada

•

Snow sport lessons with children and teenagers ( alpine and snowboard)

•

Skier safety training (alpine)

•

Perfect skiing on slope (alpine)

•

German technical snowboard concept

I heard after that they showed some interesting approaches for teaching children mixed between traditional progression and some play (use of games and some basic freestyle maneuvers). They believe that modern snowboarding is not all about perfect turns. From the early stage, they want to promote various type of snowboarding.

•

Technical ability for experts and high level kids (telemark)

2. Check Your Risk (CYR) Project : Risk awareness for young freeriders

1. Snowsport lessons with teenagers This project started after the avalanche fatality of 2 young freeriders in Allgau Alps and children in 2005. The aim is to prevent accidents The structure: by providing proper knowledge about • Course Level : beginner, carved avalanches and to enhance awareness of turns, different carved turns, per- avalanche risks. Target group is young fect turns freeriders going off-piste (in Europe, off piste runs are often not controlled thor• Course target oughly like North America, even if it is • Course content inside ski area boundaries). This program • Course environment is offered to local schools as a part of the school curriculum and certified trainers • Tasks (not a normal school teacher) will give this • Skill Categories : freestyle & alpine lecture. In two years, over 22,000 students skiing, turns through gates, all tercompleted this program. rain riding, safe & fair Main focus of CYR The focus is “learning effect through • Education with video footage (avaexperiences” lanche action, story from people I actually did not attend this on snow who got caught in avalanche) workshop and I regretted my choice of going to technical workshop.

17

Germany •

Show and give proper knowledge about avalanche

•

Safety awareness

Method of CYR • •

Awareness training

It will be interesting if we can start a similar type of educaTrainers are actually experienced backcountry riders tional session for teenagers who live in mountain communiand very knowledgeable (teenagers will believe in what ties in Canada. trainers will present)

•

Learn with head (think), heart (feel) and hand (do)

•

Student centered approach.

German Technical Snowboard Concept (Indoor & On-Snow Workshop)

Levels of CYR

There are a few different concepts in German snowboarding tech-

•

Basic – Level 1

niques.

•

Workshop – Level 1.5

1 : Disciplines

•

Academy – Level 2

Four main ones are Piste, Racing, Freeride, Freestyle – then di-

Basic •

90 min classroom lesson

•

Information with video: testimony by people who have experienced avalanche

•

Group work to build team spirit

•

Experimental learning: info about snowcard, holding breath as if you are caught in avalanche, slip block to simulate avalanche slide.

vided to Turns, Carve, GS racing, SBX, Bumps, Powder, Air/Jump, Pipe, Rail, Flat ground tricks.

All of those disciplines are part of snowboarding.

2 : Biomechanical Concepts Basic possibilities of movement •

Edging (lateral)

•

Distribution of pressure (fore & aft)

•

Flexion & extension (vertical)

Workshop

•

Rotation (directional/ rotational)

•

Half day including Basic (level 1)

Range of movement

•

Experiment with avalanche safety equipments (transceiver, shovel, probes)

•

Timing : when? duration?

•

Awareness of group dynamics

•

Amplitude : how big?

•

Direction : where to?

•

Dynamic : intensity

Academy •

Full day including workshop (level 1.5)

•

Training with avalanche safety equipments

•

How to read avalanche report/forecast

•

Use of snowcard

I find this project is interesting and big step up to encourage young freeskiers to get involved. In Western Canada where I am based, the accessible backcountry terrain is 18

very attractive for everyone even for local teenagers. In Canada, the CAC(Canadian Avalanche Center) offers similar type of training program : AST level 1, though these are designed for adults.

Their philosophy of snowboarding is: 1. Body position 2. Focus on ankle and knee movement 3. Execution / Motion

Germany

All those concepts

the last Interski in

at lower level neu-

Again they talk a lot about efficiency in position and movements in any kind of riding

above are laid out

Korea) and are still

tral body position is

style/snow conditions, though it is not explained enough for us to visualize what will

clearly, though I

developing in clari-

recommended, but

be the ideal performance.

got an impression

fying a few areas.

to introduce begin-

that they got some

Also both Timm and ners to turning, they

ideas from different

Vale are not from

first use pedaling as

sources and have

same federation

a tool. If it works it’s

not yet refined the

(according to them

good. If not, they

information and put

there are a few

come up with other

together to make

federations existing

solution such as in-

their own version.

in Germany).

volving rotation with

Basic information

Main change is:

core or eventually

and ideas were

they eliminated

use of upper-body.

cus on feet & knee

level.

involved turns. Just

All the movements

The German on-hill

like any other fed-

come from bottom

workshop was

erations are going

up in their concept.

presented by Timm

for that direction.

Focusing on small

and Valentin. Timm

Their concept

joint movements

there but it was not quite developed yet to show us what it means exactly.

is a snowboardcross coach, Valen-

friendly and had a great warm up / icebreaker to start the session.

promotes “move-

their workshops. It was interesting to see their approach dividing snowboarding into disciplines, not turns. Skills are presented as biomechanical movements. Terrain and type of discipline decide what type of turns, movements and performance level to achieve. Very performance oriented goals. I wanted to see more the process “how” to achieve these goals in details. Though I had fun riding with German speedy boys.

ments” and “posi-

first and avoid big body movements.

Riding position and movements are

conditions, and

also determined

disciplines, either

by terrain, speed,

focus on move-

type of disciplines

ments or focus on

(turns, bumps,

position or both,

powder, freestyle,

They explained that

whatever is suitable

SBX etc…) they

they have made

for students to get

decide what kind of

some changes over

the performance.

position and move-

the past three years

It is explained that

ments will suit to be

(after attending

together, I was impressed by their technical skill. That was why I decided to attend

upper-body focus in It depends on student’s competency turns and now fo-

tin is young but very tions”. Depends strong rider. They on terrain, snow were amazingly

Having seen their demo team riding and attended some workshops with Germans

most efficient.

19

“I believe that the value of Interski is not

methodology, but it was apparent that everyone

as much about what details we learned

was passionately moving towards engaging a

from what country, but in the possibilities

larger audience, and growing the sport of snow-

that we were exposed to and the interest-

boarding. I believe that the next few years will

ing tangents that our thoughts take when

be an exciting time for CASI, with the integration

thinking about teaching snowboarding in

of thoughts and concepts from Interski 2011,

Canada. I can’t say that any one country

that will continue to refine our approach to the

has the best system, technique or

sport.”

Dave Balne, Delegation Member

Ale xa nde r B u r r , J e r e m y Shie ld, M i ke B r ay, Y u k i k o K awa d a

20

Mike Bray, Rob Steven s, An d y Macl ean

Great Britain (BASI)

www.basi.org.uk

The on snow workshop for BASI was quite short and focused on the idea of being “stacked” over the board. My presenter (who rode with no high-backs on his bindings), took us through some very basic tactics in hopes to get the group to feel what it’s like to be “stacked”. We did some hopping between turns, jumps from the uphill edge to the downhill edge, hockey stop hops, etc…

Along those lines we also did an alignment exercise, trying to stay aligned through the turns (no upper body movements or anticipation) looking up the hill on our toeside turn to help achieve the “stacking”. The reasoning behind it was to be at the “best place” (the very centre of the board) you can be on the board to be ready for any terrain or maneuver at any time. This session left me on my appetite…but on the upside it gave us some time to shred for the Reported By: Luc Belanger last hour and a half of the planned workshop and I got my best turns of the trip!

Thanks UK!!!

Reported By: Walter Traub

The British Session was dedicated almost

session the BASI conductor, apparently

exclusively to Stance & Balance for every

quite familiar with St. Anton, took us to

level of riding. There was nothing revolu-

the “steep and deep”. When we got to the

tionary about it, but merely emphasis on

top there was hardly any visibility and we

upright, aligned, quiet upper body for all

all know what that spells on a snowboard.

levels of riding. This session did not seem

That’s when regrettably the premise of

to generate much enthusiasm or ques-

the BASI session IE: “quiet, relaxed and

tions from the participants.

aligned upper body”, went up in smoke

In the middle of this session the BASI

in short order. It appeared as if more of

conductor and some of the representatives of other countries : Finland, USA and Korea, being cognizant of my CASI “Orange”, expressed regrets of not having had an opportunity to attend one of the Canadian sessions due to conflicts, and were anxious to learn how CASI teaches snowboarding. I was requested to explain and familiarize them with our teaching

us were practicing the “sliding” phase of the Quick Ride progression as evident by the various “planes of balance” exercises , on display as we all switched to survival mode, while riding down a very steep section of breakable crust covered with a foot of fresh virgin powder. Well...I guess even the best of us are still human. But all is well that ends well and fun was had by all!

Reported By: Yukiko Kawada

BASI’s indoor workshop started with the history of the organization: how it grew recently in a fast pace, and achieved international recognition of their levels.

Level 3 BASI is ISIA status.

Then we moved on to the brief introduction of on hill workshop Snowboard presenter was Ben (Technical Director), he explained that BASI snowboard tries to achieve “synergetic strength” = dynamic stability as their goal of performance. This has five major components

methodology. Having had considerable

1. Mobility /flexibility

experience in teaching the QuickRide

2. Strength

method in Canada, I took great pride in

3. Coordination

honoring their request and in a somewhat

4. Balance

abbreviated manner took them through

5. Fitness

the QuickRide progression. Judging by the

session was very cut and dry, and running

He told us that he would go through all those on hill workshop. In the end, I did not go to BASI on hill workshop, instead I went to Czech republic on hill workshop

out of steam, and my interlude may have

that was very interesting and unforget-

been a way of revitalizing the session. The

table experience!

response they appreciated it.

I couldn’t help but note that the BASI

group seemed to gel and at the end of the An d y Macl ean & Yu kiko Kawad a

21

Th e Nether la nds Workshop Report www.snowpros.nl / www.dutchinterski.nl

The TEA Concept of Teaching Try Exercise Apply Not dissimilar from our “SAFE” approach and our “Whole-Part-Whole” teaching methodology. Great emphasis on student trial followed by specific skill designed exercises.

Reported By: Walter Traub

Session Title: The TEA Concept

technical model at all. For the session,

The Dutch had a big crew of alpine, nordic Pascal chose to use flexion and extension skiers, and riders in St. Anton. Although as the theme. As an exercise, we tried to

the Dutch use a variety of teaching ap- ride with stiff legs, then loose legs over proaches, the structure that they presented varied terrain to see which we preferred. was the TEA concept (Try – Exercise – Ap- Then we tried to apply what we learned to ply). To me, it seemed like a combination the next part of the run.

Reported By: Dave Balne

of components that are in the CASI teach- I feel like the TEA concept is valid, but did ing pyramid, namely theme, Whole-Part- little to develop our process or bring any Whole and Building Block.

I needed to keep reminding myself as the information was presented that there is little to no snow in the Netherlands and most people learn on outdoor dry slopes, indoor dry slopes (only a few) or indoor revolving slopes (most common). In these environments, most lessons are private, or semi private and last from 20 to 60 minutes. The presenters acknowledged that they train skiers and riders so that they can go on vacation to the mountains and have fun (sort of like Ontario!).

During the session, Pascale, the Dutch presenter, explained that almost anything could be a theme, but didn’t really explain how you arrive at that choice as the instructor. Where or when you analyze performance was not touched upon. In fact, we did not touch on the elements of their

22

new material to the table for CASI.

Session Theme: Overview of 3 levels of certification & Introduction of the TEA Concept Reported By: Mike Bray,

The indoor presentation gave insight to the outdoor workshop and an explanation of what they call ‘Plan Alpine 2018’ in which they hope to do the following: A multi-year policy plan for Alpine, Half Pipe and Big Air. Participation in LG FIS world cup as well as the Swatch TTR World Tour, manage all level games including talent games and scouting, recreation vs. competitive, scouting and talent games, create opportunities.

T he N eth erl a nds

TEA:

Try Exercise Apply

They also gave an overview for a teaching children workshop that I did not attend on snow. They broke down the left and right side of the brain to relate to children. The left side of the brain is the logical and rational side of the brain whereas the right side of our brain is sensing and feeling. We need to focus on this right side of the brain for more sensing to work effectively with children. They discussed the power of self-discovery to create motivation, self-confidence and movement over sensing. The breakdown was to use sensing games to come into a sensing focus, creating sensing goals through sensing drills. We cannot turn the thinking side of our brain off so we need to be more aware of activating our sensory side.

slopes.

They have uniquely designed their instructor levels to correspond with their clientele base. The level 1 focuses on teaching in these unique environments. The level 2 and newly added level 3 have more of a traditional focus and they use the European Alps to facilitate these courses.

They have a truly unique environment for snowboarding and skiing with I believe over 50+ (don’t quote me but the figure was at least that high!!) resorts ranging from Snow Indoor slopes to Dry Indoor and Outdoor

Apply - It became unclear at this point of when the ‘apply’ was happening as we continued to riding with small hand positioning exercises etc. The idea is to take the feelings or movements and apply them back into freeriding.

The session then moved into its focus of the TEA Concept; a teaching concept with the acronym representing Try, Exercise and Apply. This concept sounds much the same as our Whole-Part-Whole method of teaching and is introduced on their level 2 course. Stress was put on lots of riding and focusing on the theme but not individual faults.

Try - much like our ‘whole’ - a student is observed. They briefly described 7 things to look for in a rider. 1) Body weight on 2 feet 2) Bent knees and ankles 3) Hips and knees between toes 4) Standing tall (not dead straight) 5) Arms just above the board 6) On steeps keep hips stacked over board (projection) 7) Eyes (looking up) A theme is assumed before observation...try to ride with your knees bent. Give them the feeling they should have. The goal is to allow the students to try but also to know what they are developing and why thing are developing it.

Exercise - Assuming the students typically do not perform the task to perfection, now they exercise the skill. An example was given of doing some whole The Netherlands started their onsnow workshop with a run through of turns and movements (whole)…then did some static movements (part) made some corrections then put it back into whole movements. their certification levels.

Nothing new to apply to our system but always good to see another angle or focus to remind us of things we might sometimes neglect.

23

Interski School and les Deux Vieux Memorable Moments from Interski 2011 in St. Anton Austria

By Dan Genge and Walter Traub The Week of January 14th to January 22nd 2011, was a most memorable week for two “old” CASI Evaluators, amidst the ambience of the XIX Interski Congress, held in the charming town of St. Anton Austria. Interski is the forum in which the greatest talents in snowsports from around the globe display their skiing/riding and teaching techniques to the rest of the world.

It takes place every four years in a country selected at the end of each Interski event by the members of the Interski Presidium .

24

Dan Genge, the Executive Director of CASI, was part of the Canadian contingent for this year’s Interski. This was Dan’s fourth Interski and each of them was better then the previous. Walter Traub, a senior evaluator with CASI finally fulfilled his wish to on his own accompany the Canadian delegation and gain insight and experience into how the

rest of the world approaches the technical and teaching aspects of the sport of snowboarding. The two of us (‘Les Deux Vieux”) form the backdrop for the Interski School experience, which we now wish to share with you.

Austria was a great host and expanded a lot of money and effort to make the delegates and competitors feel welcome and enjoy their Interski experience. As a gesture of giving something back to the host country, the Interski organizing committee created a concept of an international snow school, the “Interski School”. The Interski School was designed to each day pro-

vide full day of instruction to high school children from neighboring Austrian towns. To fulfill this “dream experience” (as described by some of these children) the organizers requested each country to select 2 of their representatives to form the Interski School. The children arrived each day by trains and buses at 9:00 a.m. and left at 5:00 p.m.

There were about 70-80 children every day, arriving with their skis and snowboards, looking forward to the opportunity to ski and ride with the best in the world. We met them at the bottom of the Galzig Bahn, which is the largest gondola lift located in the centre of town. The children ranged in age from 12 – 18 and were divided into groups of 6 – 9 per group. They were accompanied by 3 – 4 teachers. Although the primary purpose of the Interski School was recreational in nature, the experience also served as a means for the children to practice conversational English, something they all study in the Austrian schools on a regular basis. We were therefore requested to speak English with the children as much as possible to facilitate enhancement of their English language skills.

for snowboard instruction. Early in the week, while the rest of the team was training for the “shows”, i.e. the on-hill presentations of synchronized skiing and snowboarding, that each country presents in the evenings ,Walter and Dan were requested to attend the Interski Ski School meeting on behalf of Canada to obtain all the information and instructions for this event.

We provided this information to our Coach, CASI’s Technical Director and Team Organizer, Jeff Chandler and presumed that our task was complete and that two of our TEC/Demo Members would represent Canada on the Interski School.

Canada was requested to provide two snowboard instructors for the Tuesday portion of the Interski School. We felt honored that CASI, due to our reputation abroad, was specifically selected

Tuesday morning we asked the attendants about our task for the day and as to what we could expect in terms of the riding ability of the children we were about to teach. The attendant re-

As it turned out however, workshop schedules and great demand for our Canadian instructional talent in sessions, precluded our TEC/Demo Members from being available for this task. As a result, lucky for Dan and Walter, we were asked to be the Canadian representation on the Interski School and to teach a group of children for the whole day on a mountain we barely knew!

Needless to say, notwithstanding our maturity and confident natures, we were a little apprehensive about what Our task, as the Interski Ski School, was was about to happen. to give them “a day they would never When we arrived at the storage locker forget”! to pick up our boots and boards on

Our task was to give them “a day they would never forget”!

25

plied that children up to 3 years of age would most likely move bindings and change stance settings in the middle of be beginners, but over 3 they all know how to ski or snow- a “black” run, all in an effort to allow the children to have board here in Austria! Wow! the necessary control to get down safely. To Dan’s credit and through his dedication, by the time the three children So with that in mind, we arrived at the meeting place and collected our delightful group of 14, ranging in ages from reached the easier runs, two of them were actually linking some turns. Armed with this encouragement Dan took 15 to 18 years, a mixture of good looking and well behaved boys and girls. The first thing we asked them was to his “lack-luster three –pack” back to the top of the Galzig rate their own riding ability, and of course they all declared Bahn gondola for lunch and to meet Walter and the rest of the group. themselves to be either intermediate or advanced riders.

“No beginners?” we asked. Silence was the only reply to that question. So we loaded the group on the tram and headed for the top.

26

After lunch we took a group picture.

When we disembarked at the top we did a few warm up exercises to get them limbered up, then we walked over to the edge of the slope and buckled in. Walter led the way down a “red”, “intermediate” slope, stopped 100 yards down and signaled for everyone to come to him one at a time. The children proceeded to follow Walter down the slope nicely.

That is, all but three of them, who at best could barely only side-slip! The slope ahead was intermediate but it culminated at another chairlift that only took us higher up the mountain to an area, which unbeknownst to us, could only be accessed through a narrow black run. Dan signaled to Walter to take the eleven, who could ride and stayed back in a desperate attempt to get the remaining three back down the mountain safely. So, that is how our adventure began!

In the afternoon we swapped groups and Dan got a chance to ride most of the mountain with the more advanced group. He, Dan, being younger and braver of the two of us, even took them into the park and showed them how to ride a flat and kinked box, which they all successfully achieved.

Two hours and gallons of perspiration later Dan had the three weak riders side-slip, pendulum, power pendulum, and reverse f.l.e.c. their way down the mountain.

Dan played the role of a man for all seasons by playing parent, instructor and mechanic. He got on his knees to

Walter in turn now had the pleasure of instructing the more challenged threesome. The conditions got worse as the day progressed and the children got tired. This made Walter’s task even more challenging. He resorted to various games and competitions to challenge and distract the chil-

dren from the scary conditions and from thinking too much about what was under their feet. These included; side slip races , who can go the slowest on the steep pitches and the fastest on the gradual ones?; how many turns can one make within a certain distance?; how steep can you make a power pendulum! ; how low can you ride?; “Simon Says” and other games. Before they knew it, we were down at the bottom of the mountain and two of them, the girls, were turning comfortably both ways and loving it. The boy was even happier. He mastered the power pendulum on the steeper sections and straight running in flat terrain and was convinced that he was turning all the way down the mountain.

Good for him, for after all he could hardly sideslip just that very morning.

it takes many years to get this good”.

The children laughed heartily, Walter Most importantly we all arrived in one said, and this bit of Canadian humour piece back at the Galzig Bahn gondola made them feel even more at ease. by 3:30 p.m. with smiles and great All in all it was a great experience both memories. That is when we heard the for the children as well as us, but it accolades from the children, that this also brought to mind that we should was a “dream experience”. not take certain things for granted.

We met with some of the other classes So, this experience should serve as a and gave out CASI Interski pins, stick- reminder to us all to; ers, etc. We even had enough pins for every child who participated that day!

Now it was time to say goodbye and hugs were had by all.

One thing for sure the children would be guaranteed to sleep well that night starting as soon as they got on the train or bus. We were also certain that they would dream only in English.

So there! Mission accomplished! Yea Canada!… Eh!.

pride in representing our country and wearing the CASI uniform. We were honoured to have the opportunity to teach foreign teens how to ride, while sharing with them our passion for the sport. Hopefully we can do it again in 2015, in Argentina, where the next Interski will be held.

A big “Thank You” to Jeff Chandler and all members of the Canadian CASI Demo Team and to the Interski for giving us the opportunity to ex1) know the mountain before taking a perience this event first hand and we look forward to sharing on snow with group to the top; all of you the knowledge that we have 2) never believe what a student may gained through this experience. tell you about his/her riding ability, do a ride-off first, even if you have to Yours, forever young, Les Deux Vieux walk up the out-run of a slope to find Dan and Walter out their ability level.

3) Never share a room with anyone without bringing a good set of ear plugs, just in case they don’t realize that they snore;

As for us, Les Deux Vieux, we too Regrettably in this case we were not were bushed to say the least and if not only misled by the children and their for Dan’s snoring we too would have teachers as to ability levels, but were slept soundly. no were close to a beginner slope to When we had a moment alone Walter test their abilities. related that he was asked by the class As to the snoring, well, frankly Walter if all Canadian Instructors were as old never asked. as us, to which he replied, “Only the Would we do it again? In a heartbeat! good ones. Because if you’re not good It was a great experience! We took you don’t last this long and after all 27

30

Norway www.s nowsp orts norway. no Sess io n T i t le : Constant M ot i on Norway’s Interski delegation consisted of three disciplines (Alpine, Tele, Nordic) and as such I only attended the indoor presentation. Interestingly, snowboarding is a fourth discipline, but it was not represented in

The Basis of the Technical: •

tion/Edge Regulation/Torsion and Rotation

any of their material or presentations. Based on how Alpine, Tele and Nordic all shared nearly identical “technical platforms” and terminology, I

Basic Principles Balance/Dynamic PosiRegulation/Power Control/Timing

have assumed that their snowboarding system follow suits. The follow-

Individual Custom:

ing material is excerpted from the pamphlet that they distributed during

•

the short lecture.

The theme of their on-snow presentations consisted of these main points.

•

Skiing is all about being in constant motion.

•

The workshops will focus on building a movement-related good “platform” for creating dynamics. This is done in Alpine and Tele by focusing on awareness and self-experience through the use of contrasting exercises.

Taking account of Body Build/Physical/ Mental/Conditions

levels system with prerequisite “practice hours” between each level. I wonder what implications a more stringent requirement on practice teaching would have on course success, and

•

Distinguish between style and technique:

teaching in our country

•

Mental/Physical/Technical/Who you copy

(especially moving from

•

Appropriate movement in relation to terrain.

Positive Practical Coaching:

level 2 to 3 and 4)?

The second insight that I gained was how they approach the teaching;

The teaching method that focus on what to do

specifically the empha-

(positive), values that focuses on “students”

sis put into individual-

having a good experience. This means that

izing/customizing the

•

Teaching is based on PPC (Positive Practical Coaching)

•

[Find] Appropriate solutions with respect of terrain and solutions

teaching focuses on what students do well.

technique for the student

•

Individual, dynamic position

What we will achieve is that the student has

and the current condi-

•

Distinguish between technique and style

had a positive experience from the ski school

tions/terrain. Although

and would like further instruction, while the

I think that we address

•

Make the student aware of solution and when and where they are

student is aware of and has had their own un-

this at our higher levels

appropriate.

derstanding of techniques: What this means is

in CASI, and now too

that students are able to teach themselves and

with the QuickRide, I

obtain a faster development and better results.

believe there is room for

Additional key points/considerations include:

a greater integration of

Their system consists of 4 levels (unsure if all apply to snowboarding also) Level 1 Ski Instructor: 7 day course Level 2 Ski Instructor: (prerequisite 50 hrs practice) 7 day course Level 3 Ski National Teacher: (prerequisite 200 hrs practice) 14 day course Level 4 International Ski Teacher: (Prereq. 200 hrs and Level 2 in 2nd discipline) 18 Day course The technical platform of their alpine skiing: “Create and optimize the dynamics of our skiing. We look at the importance of proper motion at the right time when skiing.

•

Positive mindset/Body language, Inclusion, Engagement

•

•

these concepts within our course and written content. The “who do

Playfulness, Safeness, Time for trying,

you copy” concept is in-

Insight, Self-experience, High activity

triguing, since we cannot

Sending/Receiving on different channels,

expect every person to

Empathy, One at a time, Positive/Constructive Feedback I believe there are a couple notable points that CASI can consider from the Norwegians. The first thing that stood out for me was the

28

organization of their

ride the same way, but at times I think we get caught up in this thinking, and expect everyone to look the same when we ride.

Reported By: Dave Balne

31

New Zealand (NZSIA)

www.nzsia.org

Reported By: Luc Belanger

The New Zealand folks put on a good workshop – they were good presenters with lots of experience. I found many similarities in their material as to how they introduce people to snowboarding, and how they progress them through their system. The big difference is how they run their courses, how long the courses are, and what the candidates are evaluated on. NZ has experienced a consistent growth in snow sports over the last few years; lots of investments from resort owners, big international events, popular training ground for North Hemisphere ski and snowboard teams. 38% of their total snow sport visits (200,000 total) are snowboarders, an exceptional ratio compared to the rest of the world. The popular trends for programming are the following; privates, high performance programs, freestyle lessons and kids specific programs, all of the above mentioned being more than just your generic group lessons.

They attribute this trend to the public wanting more for their buck in today’s tough economic times.

New Zealand Level System

•

Level 1 is the Fundamentals

•

Level 2 is Exploration

•

Level 3 is Performance

The trainer’s cert is very similar to the Level 3 with added terrain difficulty (steeper/more challenging) and the introduction of pedagogy. Their “skills” are Balance, Edge, Pressure, Steer. Balance being the foundation of them all and always present in the riding, and blends with the other three skills as needed (depending on the wanted outcome). All of the skills combined equals performance.

The evaluation of the candidates on course is very much task or maneuver oriented, and not so much based on body movements or body mechanics.

Level 1: Fundamentals

The material included is very similar to ours. It promotes an aligned and centered stance right from the start and promotes lower body steering right from the first turn (the basic skidded turn). They do not promote any kind of front foot pivot for the first turn. Board performance is low.

Level 2: Exploration

The NZ Level 2 introduces a “progression” to carve turns; developing a “strong edge”; slowly increasing the “tilt” (edge angle) to start feeling the edge grab more and more. The part that I found the most interesting in the Level 2 is the promoted awareness that as you build up “the tilt” the sidecut plays a larger part in the steering; therefore the candidate should adjust the amount of steering as the edge angle increases. More tilt = less steering movements.

NZ has a total of four levels, which was a big change for them in the last four years - they used to have two stages only, and the tasks for each were Level 3: Performance quite extensive. Now they have Level We really start to crank the speed up at this point as we are looking for more 1, 2 and 3 and their Level 4 is the dynamic movements on more challenging terrain.

Trainer’s cert. They label their levels as such: 30

New Zealand (NZSIA) Carving, freeride and freestyle are all incorporated in this level; including down un-weighted turns (a task in their system, and not just a tactic like we use nowadays). The freestyle standard is the same as CASI; basic box/rail, 360’s in the fall line and switch riding. They split the skills in 3 components (the same components for all skills): Power: The specific movement needed for a given task “the power movement” Timing: When should you start engaging that power movement and how long it should last Range: The range of the power movement (IE: short, powerful moves or long finesse moves).

Their riding analysis is very much skill based like CASI.

Teaching

Trainer’s Cert (Level 4):

The teaching strategy used by NZ is very “Whole-Part-Whole” like. Identify the symptoms, determine the cause and formulate an improvement strategy. They use and promote something called the verbal analysis; it tests the ability of the candidate to ask questions, leading questions, that will lead them to a conclusion of where they are sitting in terms of ability before coming up with the lesson content.

A good Q and A exercise, I would compare it to the series of questions we usually ask when we pick up the clients for a lesson. The evaluator has to set up the scenario with the rest of the class before putting the candidate on stage and compares the candidate’s results with the actual scenario set in the first place.

More Performance!

The riding standard here is very similar to the Level 3 with added terrain challenge and therefore speeds. Where the difference is here is in the teaching side of things. Pedagogy is introduced here - teach how to teach. We did not get into that part very deeply. A good concept presented to us was “the coach approach”. The coach approach is essentially a way to raise awareness, create responsibility and create self belief through asking questions. This is pretty much exactly what we try and achieve with our “ask questions” teaching strategy in Level 3 and 4 pedagogy, putting some responsibility on the candidate to self reflect on their performance, check their technical understanding and to be 100% aware of what they are doing or not doing.

On the whole, great system with progressive ideas and good presenters.

Session Title: The Coach Approach The Kiwi’s have an approach very similar to CASI’s in terms of

point on the course. There was not much

certification and even terminology. Adam Dooney, Director of

discussion about the teaching standards

Coach and Sport Development, led the session, which was

for this level.

broken into two main parts. The first was an overview of their standards and level system. The second half focused on how Reported By: Dave Balne

they develop and train their trainers using the “coach approach”.

At the Level 3, the acceptable riding standards, maneuvers and terrain increases in challenge. Candidates are expected to

The NZ system has three levels of certification plus a trainer’s

“strong edge” or carve (not sure of what

cert. Riding and teaching standards are comparable to CASI,

terrain choice), and perform their board

with a heavy focus on performing maneuvers.

according to the situation (steeps, powder,

On the level 1 course candidates must demonstrate safe group management and

ice, crud, bumps, trees). The bigger

perform a skidded up-unweighted turn using steering with the ankle and knee to direct the board into the fall line.

On the Level 2 course there are a series of maneuver-based assessments that a candidate may be asked to perform. These include flatland 360’s, 50/50 on a small box, straight air on a natural jump, ollie (clean), frontside 180’s off the heel edge and backside off the toe edge, nose and tail rolls. From what I gathered, it is up to the evaluator to decide when and where a maneuver should be preformed and can ask for it at any

concepts evaluated are timing, range of movement and power. For the freestyle competencies, a candidate is expected to be able to perform frontside and backside 360’s cleanly in the fall line, and demonstrate pivots and pressure control on boxes.

31

Level 3 Instructors are able to attend the

(before or after the event). An important

It was mentioned by someone at this point

Trainers Course (there are only about 20

point that got brought up was to let the

that a student couldn’t analyze (think) and

trainers in NZ). The riding expectation is

students create the dialogue. Use their

perform (feel) at the same time (which was

to perform everything from the Level 3

words so that they have greater buy-in. If

actually the topic of a session by the Dutch

above standard. There are several teach-

the students say they need

ing exams that are required at this level:

to “dig” their edge in more,

•

then as an instructor, we

Teach to Teach – present to group a part of the course

•

Technical Clinic – Increase the knowledge of the group

•

Movement Analysis – • •

from that point forward as digging the board in. We need to follow the students lead here.

Once the group explored

lesson plan

questioning a little further,

watch the group and follow the

Adam had us do a move-

The Coach Approach was the best part of the NZ session, and perhaps one of the highlights for me at Interski. It is a questioning based system that seeks to create an internal awareness for the students and have them seek to solve the problem (imagine the Guided Discovery method of presentation taken to the next level). Adam explained that an increased awareness leads to more student responsibility, thus becoming more engaged, increase their confidence, self belief and create a greater sense of value for the lesson. Adam went on to explain that by this process, the student was more likely to “buy in” to the development and help foster longer-term development as compared to an instructor just telling a student what to do.

On snow we had a brief discussion about different types of questions that we could ask (open, closed, leading), how much detail to the question is really needed (its relative to the students level of awareness), and the timing of the questions 32

should refer to carving

watch video once and create a

“coach approach”

The Coach

ment analysis (A and I) on a rider that we had not

Skiers later in the week).

The question the NZ boys put

Approach

to the group at the end of the

was the

the Coach Approach concept

best part of the NZ

session was: Did we think that is something that could be taught to lower level instructors? I think yes, for sure! This started me thinking about how

session, and

we could begin to incorporate

perhaps one

all levels of our instructor and

of the high-

the manual for yourself. There

seen ride. In partners, the first person (the student) went for a run, while the other partner (the instructor) looked away. The “instructor” then rode down to the “student” and using

lights for me at InteRski.

only questions, needed to find out what went well and what they felt needed improvement. There is some strategy on the part of the instructor to get to the results, and the trick was to not impose our own thoughts on the process. Asking the right questions and listening to the answers was paramount (and challenging).

The end product was a correction, or plan for the next student trial that came from the student with guided questions from the instructor.

For the next part, the instructor followed the student to see if the student was improving their performance. Ask more questions, but don’t put words in their mouth, after all, they lead the dialogue.

a better use of questions at evaluator training. Check out is a good start to the use of questions in a lesson, and we always suggest to use questions, but when was the last time you critically analyzed how you use questions and the long term implications that you may

have on that rider?

Slovenia

Session Title: No Fear

Reported By: Jeremy Shield

The Slovenian session, put on by Luca and Uri, was centered on the fears often experienced by a beginner snowboarder, and a tool that they use to reduce or eliminate those fears. The use of this tool will allow students the ability to progress through the early stages of snowboarding at a faster rate with less injury. The result being, that the student will stay in the sport and ideally return for more lessons.

The two major stumbling blocks where fear can be a barrier are: first time side slipping; and, first time turning. Students are often anxious or afraid during these steps for two reasons: lack of stability; and, fear of picking up speed.

To overcome these barriers of fear, we used a pole, approximately 2.5m long and just a bit thicker than a bamboo.

In the case of stability/balance, the pole is held (horizontally) by the student and the ends of the pole are used as an extra point of contact to the snow for better balance. Before we put the pole to use, we were asked to form a circle with the other group members, and to stand on one foot. Balancing there on one foot, we were then instructed to lightly touch the person’s shoulder beside us with only the tip of one finger. Instantly, with only the slightest contact, we became more stable. The idea behind the pole has the same principle: it’s not a crutch to

www.duds.si

lean on, but rather an extra point of contact for

Once the student is sliding on their own they are encouraged to leave the pole at the lift and put on some miles.

stability.

When making the first turns, the moment of fear tends to be committing to the fall line just before switching edges. Once

With side slipping, the student holds the pole

again, the pole comes into play. The first turn is done with the student holding the pole at one end and the instructor at

across their body at the stomach height. This

the other. With the instructor at one end of the pole it allows them to walk the student through the motions of a turn as

allows the instructor to also hold the same pole

well as give the student stability and confidence in that moment of fear (switching edges). When the student is ready to

to help stabilize the student’s position. The

turn on their own they hold the pole in the middle, and across the nose of their board. By touching the pole to the snow

benefit to using the pole was said to be two-

lightly on the inside of the turn it helps to add stability and balance. Also the little bit of drag from the pole on the inside of

fold: first, by not holding their hands and having

the turn would help to rotate the upper body in the direction of the turn.

a little space between them it created more

The final exercise we did to prove their point (of how the pole can be used to overcome fear) was riding snow skates

independence for the student; and second, the

switch. Without the pole, it was quite funny to see these professional snowboarders struggle down the bunny hill. Once

distance between student and instructor allows

we were given the poles, and used them the same way a beginner would to help turn, it proved to me that there was

the instructor to have a better view of what the

definite merit to the use of this basic tool.

student is doing.

33

Switzerland www.snowsports.ch

Reported By: Dave Balne

Session Title: Slope Tricks The Swiss had a great session with a big focus on park riding. I missed the indoor presentation since it conflicted with the Norway presentation, so I had to do some catching up as the session was getting started.

The on snow session began with the lead-

In smaller groups we did a quick “get to

nical model, which looked like a bisection

ers placing several boards in a giant “+”

know you” game (often overlooked in

of the earth’s crust. At the centre of the

formation on flat ground. They described

many of the other sessions) and then did

model was snow. The next layer was the

this as the four “rooms” that we were go-

an “open start” warm-up run on a blue

riders’ tools (turn, edge, pressure). The

ing to go through before we could

next layer was the main move-

go snowboarding. This first room

ments that a rider could perform

was “attitude.” We needed to

(Rotate, Flex, Incline/Angulate

have a positive attitude before we

(lateral and fore/aft). The final outer

could begin riding. We got to know

layer was the “families of form”

the others in the group (about 50

which I basically understood as the

people!) by exchanging hugs and

application of everything. The main

high fives. The next room was the

forms as I understand are Off Piste,

“gym”, where we checked our fit-

Fundamentals and “kickers” or

ness. We did several muscle poses

park. Since all the models were in

and pointed to distant beaches.

French, German or Italian, I needed

We then moved to the “Coordina-

to rely on the instructor’s broken

tion Room” where we did a couple

English to translate the concepts.

of fast paced partner games.

This is my best guess as to where it

Finally, we headed to the “Trick

went from here…

Room” where we challenged a

The “Families of Form” are then

partner to perform a trick with their

broken down further into their own

board off. The combos quickly

models. The “fundamentals” for

got intense (switch back 3, switch

example have a similar “earth’s

nose press, switch front 5). I later

crust like shape” with riding as the

learned that the 4 rooms are part of

core (side slipping etc…). The sec-

a larger teaching philosophy that is

ond layer is made up of Wheelie,

incorporated into all their teaching. Great warm up and solid intro to the

slope getting a feel for the snow.

program.

We then did a little overview of their tech-

Speed Check, Absorb, Push/ Pump, 360’s on snow.

35

Switzerland Team CA SI w i t h t e a m S w i t zerland

The third layer is called “combos,” which I understood to be any two or more moves from the second layer.

This led us to try to isolate the moves from the second layer (wheelies, speed checks etc…). Once we were able to isolate the moves on green groomers, we split into partners and were given a challenge. The instructor handed out a page from their manual that showed a combo of moves. Daniel, from the Netherlands, and I were asked to perform a “backside 180 to switch tail-wheelie to switch pop frontside 180.” The photocopied page had a multi frame image of the maneuver and a couple tips in German to get us going. It also listed the prerequisite fundamental moves that were required before we tried the combo.

This was a pretty cool concept, and fun to try to put together “impossible” moves that with a little practice started to flow together nicely. Try it out with your friends next time you find yourself on super mellow terrain. In talking with some of the Swiss pros later, they talked about a sort of instructor competition where they are given a green run and asked to perform flat land tricks. Word on the street is that someone was able to do a cork 7. Good luck, let me know how it goes. This got me thinking that it would be interesting to add more elements of this into our courses. Flatland tricks are great to establish and challenge riding skills, require no special terrain (think minimum terrain, maximum challenge), and would easily fit into a skills concept such as CASI’s.

The second half of the session progressed into the park. After an inspection run, we broke into partners for a game of HORSE on some of the nicest jumps that I’ve ever been on. The large tables were perfectly manicured and felt effortless to consistently land in the sweet spot. We were given a cue card that had a series of boxes to check off after each run. We aimed for the book of 180’s (all 16 180’s – regular fs, bs, switch fs, bs, off the toes or heels, nollie or ollie). Challenge your friends flatland, then small features and work your way up in size and rotation.

36

“...fun to try to put together “impossible” moves that with a little practice started to flow together nicely.”

Switzerland WALTZES & WHEELIES

Reported by: Alexander Burr

The Swiss version of our Canadian pyramid is a sphere of spheres, a very cool way to The Swiss have a very mature ski culture layer skills or maneuvers and terrain or parc and the snowboarding side of their national features. With the Snow as the center, each organization has benefitted considerably. layer adds to the riders possibilities. With the Like many other nations the Swiss boarders final layer or the crust being the individual share the burden of producing and up keep- form or style. A particularity to me was the ing the content of their guides and manuals concept of 3 plans of sliding: Forwards, with their other snow-sport organizations, sideways and on an edge! Another cool they use a common pedagogical resource. combo of ideas presented was what their idea of our inclination/angulation for edging This workshop was the one that most imis and how the sphere model can allow pressed me, both in content and presentation. On snow the first half was dedicated to them to see angulation in what we call a nose or tail press. the presentation of their technical breakdown and the second to its application in Tommy had us think of the combinathe stunning St-Anton park. tion of 2 layers of the sphere , in this case So on my 3rd day in St Anton, second day on the slopes, on a different mountain from the first, I approached the top of the Rendell area. After unloading, a beautiful blue sky greeted the 40+ participants. Not having participated in workshops yet I was very excited to hear what the Swiss had to offer.

During a very dynamic warmup and after lining us up in a massive circle, the presenters split the participating delegates into 4 quadrants, each representing the personal, social, professional, and methodological elements involved in teaching and learning snow-sports.

sliding(while weelieing ) and turning(waltzes), to have us do simple presses at first, a cool variation was the tip press while moving facing into or against line of travel(see pic 4).

We where then asked to combine it all and try to pull of the fabled crown trick of this session the “switch nollie to tail press cab 270 out”, the group then baulked a bit but all succeeded in the end!

The session then moved over to the park in the Rendell area, it is a marvelous park built by European park consultant group “Q Parks”.So after getting comfortable with balancing on our tails and noses we teamed up 2 by 2 play a game of horse(or skate) with a The presenter in my group was a young guy named Tommy, who seemed to see the checklist of maneuvers provided on a sheet of paper, to try and accomplish. Tommy entire mountain as his playground, favoring the natural terrain of his native land over man explained that the flatland base manoeuver combined with a park centric teaching made parks. stream was how the Swiss were trying to

keep the interest of younger customers acute, favoring a return rate.

They stress kids independence and safety in the parks in their courses because, they say, its where the kids go today.

With a goal of improving retention they have moved, this year with a new system and course material, towards having multiple lessons before introducing the turn. This seems to mirror the CASI “SAFE” concept and QuickRide.

Save the fact I was fighting a stomach bug at the time, this was my favorite sessions and teaching system, that I learnt about at Interski.

From what I gathered the Swiss instructor training program is as follows Level 1–1 week

Riding based

Level 2–1week

Riding based

Level 3–2 weeks

Riding based

Level 4–2 weeks Freeride(backcountry) -Buisiness based Level 5

Tourism & Law

-Buisiness based

The Swiss workshop was my favorite of the Interski. Their flat land approach to beginner snowboarding seems like the most fun and avant garde way to progress in the early days of a snowboarders lessons. I have added a few more flatland maneuvers into my bag of teaching tricks. And I think you should try to as well.

37

USA:

Reported By: Dave Blane

www.thes n owp r os .or g

The US gave a keynote lecture one afternoon, and there was one point that struck me as an interesting difference between our systems. In the US, instructors teach first, and then get certified. In speaking with one of the demo team skiers after the presentation, the thought was that it was the responsibility of the individual schools to train their staff towards the Level 1, which is only a regional standard. This means that different regions have different standards to the level 1. The benefit is that each region can customize the product to the region, but it also allows some discrepancies when an instructor is trained in one region and then wants a job in another. Is it a better approach? When we ask new potential instructors to shell out $300 plus to teach without knowing if they will like it or want to continue. Maybe there is something to be learned here?

Session Title: They All Want to Ride Park

The Americans are facing the same challenge we all are - retention. The problem is: how do we keep kids coming instructor should be a part of our sport

Reported By: Jeremy Shield

back for more lessons? The session Gregg put on showed how

encouraging and

and its culture, at

they have rebranded and adjusted their beginner progression

high fiving, simply

the earliest stages,

to be relevant to what kids today want. So what do they want?

creating a fun and

then I do believe

According to Gregg, they all want to be like Shawn White, well

energetic atmo-

they will stay in-

maybe not freckly red heads, but sick park riders!

sphere. This energy

volved and continue

The shift is quite simple really. Instead of straight running to get

is contagious; if the

to take lessons or

off the chair (boring) they are getting ready to 50-50 a box. Rather instructor starts than just side slipping, they are board sliding a rail. A pendulum is it the group will not just a pendulum, but rather sliding down an S box, and so on. spread it.

Technically, these maneuvers are taught the same as they always In my opinion, the have been, it’s just the sales pitch that has changed. One of the

re-branding of the

steps to help this sales pitch is drawing in the snow. Following an basic maneuvers explanation, the instructor would actually draw out the feature in

could definitely work

the snow for the group to hit.

hook people. It

The second part of the session was all about “stoke is no joke.”

might be a bit of a

Part of the instructor’s job is to create the stoke factor in the group. It starts right from the first time the instructor meets the student. If the student feels out of place or awkward than it is hard to get them to feel that “stoke factor.” Something as simple

gimmick, but it is something that a certain demographic will definitely buy

as showing them how to hold or drag there board like a “snow-

into, and if it keeps

there is more likelihood for them to continue on learning it.

If we can make

boarder” will allow them to feel like they are a part of the “culture” them coming back, of snowboarding. If the student is able to connect with the sport, then why not?

Stoke factor doesn’t stop there; throughout the lesson, the 38

someone really feel what it means to be

at least continue to snowboard.

USA:

Session Theme: Adaptive Snowboarding The US adaptive program has been years in process and combined effort from the original adaptive program and the US snowboard instructors. They now have 3 levels of certification.

Level 1 – 3 day broad based course

Reported by: Mike Bray

1.

Riding based on skills needed to perform with equipment

2.

A focus on common problems/disabilities

3.

Movement analysis on using equipment

Level 2 – 4 day module based on choosing 2 of the 3 following modules (2x2days)

The difference with someone with a disability is that the ideal is likely to be different from that of someone with a full functioning body. In this case we adapted ourselves to see how we could have the best outcome or ideal under different circumstances or disabilities. We did not use any equipment or aids during the session. They made it very clear that the use of aids, outriggers etc is a use only when necessary situation. They want their students to be as much like someone without a disability. I assume that there are situ-

1.

Cognitive

2.

Physical

avoid negative outcomes.

3.

Sit Down

We followed up with an indoor session to talk

Level 3 – 2 day module + an overall level 3 course Candidates do the missing 3rd module from their level 2 as well participate in an overall level 3 cert course.

ations where aids may temporarily be used to

about the different aids used, when and who they are used for.

1.

limb issue exists

I was really excited to be able to take part in this session. I wasn’t just interested in Adaptive, but rather looking at snowboarding from a different angle than I may normally.

Outriggers – most commonly used when a

2.

Two bamboo poles with an innertube section tied from the end of one pole to

The session started with a simple explanation on how they break adaptive riding down simply into:

the other. This can be wrapped 1 ½ times

1 – What the board can do

around student to control the core- most

It can bend, it can turn and it can tilt (the fixed)

commonly used on students with muscular issues

2 – What the body can do.

It all depends on the person (the variable) Though the board is not necessarily completely fixed due to different shapes and technologies it still bends, tilts and turns. The mind and body is so much more complex and plays a huge role on

3.

one with no use of half the body 4.

second side of student) – many uses

ment. One limb, two limbs…we are all snowboarders that love more than just the plank attached the attitude, the videos…you get the point! This is something we should always be reminding

Riderbar (like a railing along one side of the board and does a 90-degree around

how the board can be affected. There was also a big focus on creating the snowboard environto our feet. We love the mountains (hills), the snow, surf de neige, the feeling, the talk, the park,

Tethers – most commonly used for some-

5.

Snow-Wing (aka Board Bunny) – many uses but I have not seen one yet

ourselves. We need to make sure we are creating an environment and not just looking at the skills

Again, a super cool session that wasn’t picking

that someone is or is not performing and whether a movement or task is looking pristine. We

at details of riding or teaching but moreover a

must keep real to our main goal of having fun and this means everything that our sport positively

tap into the brain of how we perceive riding and

evokes!

the mental and/or physical advantages we all

Scott and Josh ran us through many different common disabilities scenarios to have us think

have or don’t have. We need to be conscien-

about how we mentally need to adapt and also physically adjust ie. ride with no mobility from the

tious of everyone’s physical and mental abilities,

knee down on one leg. When I am teaching my instructors or simply teaching a student myself,

most of the time of which are not necessarily as

I go through a similar process. I watch my student and then without them watching, follow them

obvious or on the surface.

down trying to mimic their movements to better understand the different feelings they might be experiencing. This way I have a clearer idea of how to develop them to the ‘ideal’.

39

USA:

TECHNOLOGY TO THE RESCUE Indoors, the American delegation presented their AASI system and the PSIA. Again this was an example of the national organizations from other nation coexisting in one form or another, for the greater good. All 4 snowsports organisations in the US use the same educational model. They offered 5 on-snow clinics and I chose the technologies based one.

Noting the difficulties most often seen in beginners the Americans ran a technological or equipment based workshop I attended. With the chance to try out some of the newest camber and rocker combos(they brought demos from Burton and Never Summer) every participant in the workshop I attended was riding some form of new rocker or flat board tech. The idea was that marketing and sales could go hand in hand at helping the industry

Reported by: Alexander Burr

maintain itself thru the peaks and valleys of 21st century economies. While according to global board sales from Burton, Rocker and flat tech boards are exploding in market share in North America, the same can not be said of board sales in their other markets, where classic cambered decks still rule the sales charts. So the new tech gets associated with the new problem for the American snowboard instructor: Obese and sedentary customers from the video game generation looking for the password or cheat code to progress to the next level.

All in this workshop agreed that snowboarding can be streamlined to be less painful or difficult but that unfortunately, this lengthens the learning curve. Then comes this new ROCKER tech... according to the American presenters and the Burton LTR rep on hand this small reshaping of the board is the holy grail to getting snowboarding quickly. Throughout the session they used all genres of terrain to try to prove that rocker made it all easier. The New Zealand delegates asked many questions on the potential downside of rocker vs camber boards, and the Americans seemed standoffish about any such disadvantages. While I agree that rocker seems to add a lot of ‘cheatability’ to the feel of the ride of a board and that the board Jasey Jay Anderson used to win gold with was cambered between the feet

40

they say it leads them to have to lean further into the

My 4 year old daughter’s board is rockered and

turn before the board engages the snow especially

has raised edges, and she’s progressing faster that

on firm or packed snow. On the other hand the float

what I’ve seen with young kids on classic cambered

increase in powder of a rockered nose is undeniable.

boards, it helps and widens the relaxed neutral position on a snowboard, which will then in theory

but had rockered tips, and that the noses of most

The American keynote speech spoke of the increased

worldcup downhill skis have different contact

revenue in the life cycle of a customer, the younger

length when flat(shorter and more maneuver-

he start visiting resorts, the more often he returns and

The Americans have a 3 level based system with no

able) on snow or tilted on edge(longer and more

the more he spends during each stay. Their 4 sports

national standard in technical nor tactical material.

stable). But to echo the NZ guys: its not the end

common goal is to “Inspire lifelong passion” Seeing the

They do use the same educational model across the

all in learning to snowboard more easily. I would

annual skier visits declining across North America, I feel

country shared with their other national organiza-

tend to say that the orientation of fiberglass on

any potential advantage must be taken to help maintain

tions . They do have a national Demo team though:

a board and the thickness of its weave have a

our business level. The Americans have included the

that become their Interski delegates. They seemed

greater impact on board ride and feel. Many in-

freestyle focus in all of their teachings from beginner to

to be talking about moving towards a national tech-

structors I know feel like they must use more edg-

expert, without forgetting the classics, to offer continuity

nical standard in the near future.

ing as compared to traditional cambered boards

to older customers/instructors. Change must be slow

to achieve the same level of board performance,

but constant.

improve our return rate.

Thank you...

Interski 2011 provided us the opportunity to meet, share, exchange, and compare our philosophies with those of the other snowboarding nations.

With the information and insights gained, we’ll work to continue to improve our own programs.

I’d like to thank the Canadian Delegation and supporters, as well as the CASI membership for supporting our efforts in Austria. Our goal was to represent you on the world stage, as some of the best snow professionals in the world. My hope is that we did that successfully.

Jeff Chandler National Technical Coordinator

Thank y ou to our supp ort i ve partne rs :

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