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Published: February 11th 2009
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OK after lots of stressing for the past week and lots of thoughts of failing I took my level 1 instructors exam yesterday and thankfully I passed!!!!
The day was stressful to say the least. We were dropped off at the mountain for 9am with instructions to meet the examiner, Dan, at the top of the mountain at 9.30am so we all got ready and did a free run to warm us up.
The morning was free skiing but we were all very conscious of being constantly assessed. In fact it was apparent as for the first time in five weeks we all did what we were meant to do when stopping and that is come to a controlled stop underneath each other. Not once in five weeks have we done this but we managed it on a regular basis yesterday...... It was that obvious we were all trying hard!!! Dan set us off with a bit of skiing with a couple of drills thrown in the first being pat your head with one ski pole and rub your stomach with the other whilst skiing - this is hard to begin with let alone throwing skiing in the mix.
An ice breaker for us all at least/
The free skiing took place up to lunchtime and went relatively smoothly although I did become confused (not hard I know) as for the past 5 weeks all I have heard from Pat and Marie-Eve is "rotation" and it is now high up in my most hated words however yesterday not a word of rotation was spoken but I did hear an new mantra of "hips" so I think I am soon to become fed up with that word since..... Joy of joys!!!!!!
We stopped for an early lunch and afterwards had to teach our lessons. We had already been assigned lessons and had agreed which order we were going in - I was to teach snowplough to parallel and was going last. When we re-grouped after lunch we found that we were going to have two instructors with us for the afternoon which threw us all but there was little we could do about it though it did make us more self-conscious for awhile. The lessons all went fine although Nicky did seem to get the rough end of it as the lessons were meant to only last 20
mins approx however he seemed to let her keep going and it must have lasted a good 40 mins.....
The worst part of the afternoon for me came when the instructor decided to throw me in his words "a challenge". We were three lessons down and we still had Dan to go before me however on the chairlift up he told me he was wanting me to teach on a completely different slope to that which I had planned. I had planned to go down an easy green run the reason being that it was wide with no steep pitch therefore easy to teach new skills on however he chose a blue run (equivalent of red in Europe) with a lot harder slope with a steeper pitch however he said he would give me time to do a quick run down to remind myself of the terrain however when we got off the lift he said he had changed his mind and piste. Thankfully for me he chose a different blue piste which I know quite well however he said that he wanted me to start there and then.... Anyway he gave me a few minutes of time to
try to plan the lesson in my head (although this didn't work as my head just went blank). The lesson was hard work as I was constantly trying to think ahead of where I was going to teach the different sections of my lesson in accordance with the pitch of the slope. Anyway I managed it without incident and it seemed to go well. I suppose it was good practice for what can happen in a real lesson however I could have lived without it yesterday and whats more annoying is everyone else got to teach their lessons as planned.
Anyway the exam ended and we were told to go back to the ski school in half an hour as he had to write up our evaluation forms. We headed back to the locker and got rid of our equipment and then headed to the bar for a swift and very tense beer. After a stressful 45 minute wait - of which 20 minutes was sat in the ski school classroom with all the instructors taking the mickey and throwing boxes of tissues on the table for when we got the bad news - we were told that we
had all passed and were given our badges etc.
The bar then called and so we headed off for a few beers with instructors in tow. A few of the guys wanted to come back to the chalet after the beer to tell respective friends and family the news however I was in no mood to leave the bar so looked at one of the other guys and could tell we both had the same
thoughts so the conversation went along the lines of:
"do you want to go?"
"no, do you want to go?"
"no, shall we stay?"
"yes, we'll stay?"
"we're staying"
"sorted!"
"beer!?"
Anyway it ended up that Sam, Nicky and I all stayed in the bar with Guy, Pat and another instructor Mark. After our fair share of beers and a few telephone calls from the chalet firstly asking if we wanted dinner and then telling us dinner was being served we got a lift home from Guy.
After dinner the rest of the guys continued to party for the night however I had another few beers and tiredness then hit me in a big way so I stopped drinking and Marie-Eve, Michael
and I all just sat playing shithead and talking.
Anyway now I have waffled on with what I classify as my main news I will re-track to Sunday and our trip to Quebec and the carnival. It was actually a really nice day weather wise although icy under foot as it had rained the night before so there was sheet ice everywhere. We headed off into Quebec with Michael following us, a swiss ski instructor that arrived a week ago and didn't know anyone so we adopted him at the ski instructors dinner. Anyway we wandered around the main carnival site at the Plains of Abraham. There were various activities going on in the area and so we walked around an ice house/castle and then got to slide down the ice slide to get out - not the most sensible option given I was wearing jeans for the day.
The week before an ice sculpting competition had been held so you were able to wander around the entries - they were more than impressive!! At this point we were staring to get hungry so Marie-Eve being Marie-Eve (she can hunt out food with no problem) spotted a "Kraft"
tent and guessed they would be giving away free cookies. We duly investigated and ate our way through a few maple leaf cookies and oreos. In this tent they also had some Wii's set up fr the public to play on so I stupidly challenged Marie-Eve to a boxing match..... I think the video speaks for itself as to why Michael and I lost!!! However we were given some more free snacks for our efforts so it was worth it.
We then wandered down through the old town towards the river so that we could watch the ice canoe race as Marie-Eve had a few friends competing in it. I have to say that this is a mad sport but was fun to watch. By this time we were all pretty much staving and Marie-Eve was insistent that we try the local specialty of Poutine so we all descended upon Chez Ashton. Poutine is chips, cheese curds and gravy so not healthy by any stretch of the imagination however I can heartily recommend it as a dish!!
The group then split up so Marie-Eve, Michael and I descended on a book store as I only had half a
book left to read out of the three books I brought with me and we then went for a hot chocolate and chill before meeting back up with the group. We walked back to the car via the ice palace which was more impressive on the outside than on the in!
Today is a day off although its Marie-Eves birthday so think her and I are going to escape at some point this morning and go and relax in a local coffee shop. Tomorrow is back to lessons with Pat until Friday when we will be shadowing another ski instructor in preparation for us teaching our own classes next week!!
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Rachel
non-member comment
well done :)
Hi well done, though I didn't doubt that you would pass for a second!!! Ice carnival sounds great but NO way would I eat cheese curds!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Also only taking 3 books?????????? I thought we discussed that!!!! Speak soon Enjoy your relax in the coffee shop Rach xx