International Academys Ski Instructor Course

I had always wanted to take a year out between school and university, one of my main ambitions has always been to become a ski instructor. I started skiing at a very young age, so it is one of my favourite sports. I started looking at different companies to do the training with when I was in my first year of Sixth Form, to make a target for the end of the two years.

I finished school in July 2008, and took the summer holidays like I usually would have, so I was at home when I received my exam results. I went on holiday with my family to the Alpes Maritimes in the South of France, via Chamonix, where I saw part of the Tour de France in the Cuneo - Jausiers stage. This was awesome to see.

My final exam results arrived in August, and then I went on holiday with my family to Western Canada, which was vital in helping me to decide upon which ski instructor training course to do. We flew into Calgary at the beginning of September and drove to Banff. This allowed me to have a look around the town of Banff and the different accommodation options available with the different courses. Hotels in Banff were willing to show us around rooms used for the courses, helping me to decide which course I wanted to do. The International Academy (IA) (www.international-academy.com) accommodation in The Best Western Siding 29 Lodge stood out as the best of the accommodation provided.

This confirmed that Banff/Lake Louise was where I wanted to go and, with International Academy, which offered a five week November - December course, which is what I chose to do. The course included:

- Lake Louise season ski and bus pass
- Ski locker in the Whiskeyjack Lodge at Lake Louise ski hill - so you can leave skis and boots at the hill
- Transfers to and from Banff and Calgary
- Flights from Heathrow with British Airways or Air Canada
- Accommodation for the course duration
- Breakfasts seven days a week
- Weekday evening meals (Monday - Friday)
- Training 4 days a week
- 2 day back country first aid course
- 3 day recreational avalanche course
- Level 1 CSIA examination fees
- Helly Hansen International Academy ski jacket
- Accomodation in either The Best Western Siding 29 Lodge, or the SameSun Hostel

Prices for the five week November - December course start at £4150, for the 12 week course they start at £6250

To help fund this I worked in accountancy, in my home town, during October and the first weeks of November. This work provided me with a greater experience of the world of accountancy, and helping me to learn valuable skills.

I arranged my own insurance for the trip with the British Mountaineering Council (www.thebmc.co.uk), around £250 for a years snow sports insurance, although the IA offers its own insurance with a winter sports insurance company.

The 14th of November arrived, my bags were packed and I was ready to go. IA provided flights with British Airways in the cost of the course, so I got to fly from Heathrow's Terminal 5 for the first time. I met the other people who were going to be on the same course and everyone got on really well with each other.

Touching down in Calgary, we went through passport control which was easy enough as we were doing ski instructor training, not working as ski instructors. I didn't need to get a visa, as I wasn't going to be working during my stay. IA provided all necessary transfers to Banff straight to the hotel. Our rep for the course, Andrew, met us at the hotel, where we checked in and then we went for dinner so we could meet our rep properly.

We were recommended to take the first day in Banff easy, so we didn't go up to Lake Louise, but we were able to collect our lift and bus passes from the Ski Hub on Banff Avenue. This gave us a better opportunity to get to know each other, and become more familiar with Banff. The day after, we went up to Lake Louise to try out the ski area. It was right at the beginning of the ski season, so the area had a limited amount of lifts open. This was not a problem as the pistes at Lake Louise are fairly long, and gradually more runs opened until the area was fully open.

Training provided by the staff at Lake Louise was exceptional; they use a variety of training methods, as well as video analysis, so your overall skiing technique improves rapidly. The training also helps you to discover the vast amount of land covered by the ski area. The mountain offers awesome views over to Chateau Lake Louise Hotel, Lake Louise and Lake Louise Village, Temple Mountain, Valley of the Ten Peaks, Mount Whitehorn, the list is endless! There are so many different parts to the mountain and a great variation in terrain, from awesome powder in Boomerang Bowl to the bumps on Lynx. There is the opportunity to shadow some ski school lessons at Lake Louise which proved to be great help.

IA also offer a Back country First Aid course and a Recreational Avalanche course. These are really useful skills, and you also get more than one qualification
out of the course. The avalanche course teaches you how to use transceivers and correct search techniques, and how to spot potential areas where avalanches are likely to occur.

Another great thing about going to Lake Louise at the start of the season is that you benefit from quieter slopes, the main daylodge, Lodge of the Ten Peaks (is much quieter), lift queues are shorter and so are queues in the cafeteria at lunch time. During the last weekend of November and the first weekend of December Lake Louise plays host to the Bombardier World Cup Ski Racing. This is great to watch, and you can see some famous skiers such as Hermann Maier, Anja Paerson and Bode Miller around the daylodge.

Living in Banff is equally great. IA provides meal vouchers for 5 nights a week in a variety of restaurants, ranging from Canadian cuisine, to Mexican to Japanese. Usually a soft drink is included with free refills on the, the service charge is also included.

Stores in Banff usually offer 5% off products for locals, and IA has deals with several sports equipment stores such as Banff Mountain Wear, where you can get up to 25% off on sporting goods. I already had my own skis and boots, but I ended up buying another pair of skis whilst I was out there, I tried several pairs as most stores have demo skis which you can borrow for about $30 and then this is deducted from the price of the skis if you decide to buy them. This may prove to be cheaper than buying them in the UK and you can try before you buy so you get the correct skis for you. Another thing to remember is that the price marked on all items for sale is before tax, so 5% general sales tax (GST) is added onto the price when you pay.

The test for the level 1 CSIA qualification is over four days, focusing for two days on ski improvement and two on ski teaching. Everyone in our group passed. Unfortunately the last day of the test was the last full day of the course and the next day, December 19th, we were on the way back to the UK, except for one of our group who had a work visa and managed to get a job working for the ski school at Lake Louise.

The experience inspired me to return to Canada. I spent Christmas and New Year at home, then a family holiday to the ski resort of Isola 2000, where there were fantastic amounts of snow. I decided that I had to back to Canada and get my Level 2 CSIA, so the IA arranged for me to join onto the start of Level 2 training of the 12 week course. I arrived back in Banff on the 12th of February, I felt very welcome as I already knew so many people living in Banff and Lake Louise. The other people on the course were really friendly and I got on well with them, though it was really nice to already know people in and around the town. In fact two of the people from the 5 week course returned to spend the rest of the season in Banff.

Again, the training at Lake Louise was excellent, some of the ski instructors teaching us had even trained with IA. All instructors teaching us were at least level 3 qualified, and there was a CSIA Professional Development Program organised for one of the weekends, with a level 4 instructor. Training is 4 days a week, so you have three days to improve your own skiing, visit Sunshine or Norquay ski hills, spend time visiting the different tourist attractions in Banff, or spend time at Lake Louise shadowing lessons. I spent most of my weekends shadowing, this greatly improved my teaching, it's also fun. The first lesson I helped to teach was a group of about five 5 to 9 year olds, where one of them could only speak German! Fortunately my GCSE German helped me through the lesson OK! Several of the instructors I shadowed had done the IA course in previous years.

The test for Level 2 CSI is over five days, two days ski improvement and three days teaching improvement. We had the Director of the Ski School and the head of the CSIA for Alberta. It is scored in two parts technique is graded initiation, acquisition, consolidation and refinement, for Level 1, you have to score at least all at the acquisition level, and at Level 2 it has to be at consolidation level. The other part is based on teaching, which is a series of different aspects which you score either "needs improvement or meets expectations". You need to get a certain number of "meets expectations" in order to pass the teaching. The prerequisites to take the test is you have to complete an eprep questionnaire on-line before the fist day of the test, but CSIA contacts you by email to notify you of how to do this, they are relatively easy to fill out you can find most of the answers on the CSIA website (www.snowpro.com). All skiers passed which hadn't been heard of before! When you have passed the tests you are sent a membership card with your membership number on it, allowing you to access your personal page on the CSIA website and different resources such as pro deals which are offered by the CSIA.

I returned from Canada at the very end of March 2009, this was a sad experience as I had had such a great time and made many new friends. The ski season at Lake Louise ends at the beginning of May so there might be the possibility of staying on until the season's end. This was one of my biggest regrets that I didn't stay for the rest of the season at Banff/Lake Louise, this is something I really wish I had done. Most of my friends who weren't on the IA course stayed until the very end of the season, so I was slightly jealous! However I am so glad that I took the opportunity to take a gap year, I had always wanted to be a ski instructor and I achieved what I wanted. I will hopefully be able to return to Lake Louise sometime next season so I will be able to take the Canadian Ski Coaches Federation (CSCF) Level 1 qualification, as well as see some of the friends that I made there this season. I am now looking at going to Australia to do a tour of the east coast from Cairns to Sydney, which will also hopefully be great!

Robert Aspole's course was arranged with International Academy