GAP SKI INSTRUCTOR PROGRAM 2008 GAP Ski Instructor Course Review
Darren Murphy, 28 - IT Consultant, London
I decided to do a GAP course after working in IT for the last 10 years and becoming increasingly bored, I was looking for a new challenge and wanted to do something I was passionate about, I had never taught before but the idea appealed and as skiing was a massive passion of mine, training to be a ski instructor seemed like the perfect solution.
I chose the Warren Smith Ski academy GAP course after searching the internet for all GAP courses on offer, Warren’s style of teaching appealed to me most because of how technical it was and how your skiing is broken down into individual elements before being put back together again, the use of video analysis was another deciding factor, so I decided the best way to improve my skiing and to have the best chance of passing was to train with Warren’s academy, a brief chat with Warren on the phone about my level and ability and my place was reserved.
The level needed to join the course is an intermediate skier, but the most important thing is a strong passion about skiing and a desire to improve. I believed my skiing to be better than it actually was, the first morning (perfect blue skies and about a foot of fresh snow) after a warm up, was spent with about 30 people hooning around the mountain, before we had a ski off and were split into our initial groups, it became quite clear to me that my level was a lot lower than most of the others. However this didn’t matter, Warren’s coaches are so good at their jobs that my skiing improved exponentially and in the second week I took my BASI level 1 and passed!!
After the BASI 1 we had 5 weeks of training to get us to the required standard for BASI level 2 this also included shadowing with the local Swiss ski school. A typical day consisted of a 10am meeting before heading up the mountain for a warm up session, involving a lot of leg kicking, arm swinging and core activation!! It’s a pretty strange site watching 30+ people on the side of the piste warming up, and we had a few curious observers. We then split into our groups for the rest of the day where we would focus on different aspects of our skiing, on piste carving and short radius turns, off piste bumps and variables, as well as the dreaded central theme, basically BASI’s system of teaching people to ski, from complete beginner up to early intermediate making basic parallel turns. As strange as it may sound learning the perfect snow plough was probably one of the most difficult things. The day usually finished around 3:30pm with a stretching session and more usually than not a pint or two in the 1936 bar.
The last two weeks of the course we took our BASI level 2, 10 days of training and continual assessment with a BASI instructor. This was quite possibly one of the most stressful things I’ve ever done in my life, as it was something I wanted so badly! Being constantly assessed and asked to adapt your skiing to the examiners requirements resulted in a bit of a roller coaster of emotions, some days finishing totally demoralised after feeling you haven’t skied at your best, other days feeling on top of the world after giving it everything you’ve got. There was a lot of tension and anticipation on the final Friday as we all waited to find out how we’d done, when we found out that we had a 100% pass rate, everyone was over the moon, and there was a pretty big party that night.
Since passing I’ve been working for the local Swiss ski school, Ecole de Suisse de ski et snowboard. Actually putting everything you’ve learned into practice is great. The first day is quite daunting and your mind goes blank as you try and think of games to play with a group of kids from 4 upwards, you’ve got lots of tears to deal with, over excited kids that need calming down, and everything seems like complete chaos! By the end of the week you’ve got to know the group quite well and as much hard work as it’s been, when you present their medals it makes it all worthwhile.
Apart from the skiing one of the best things for me was the people I met on the course, 30 people all from different parts of the world, and different backgrounds, ranging from 16 – 50+ who formed such a good group, that had so many great nights out together, as well as plenty of banter and fun on the slopes. I’ve made so many great friends that I know I’ll keep in touch with, there’s already been talk of having a reunion this summer.
As for the future, I’m currently working out how I can get back out for another season, and to start training for my BASI level 3.
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