GAP SKI INSTRUCTOR PROGRAM

2008 GAP Ski Instructor Course Review

Jess Oundjian, 21 Student, West Sussex Three years into my four-year university course in Philadelphia I decided that it was high time my studies took a back seat and I spent some quality time on what I really love, skiing. I told my university that I'd be back soon, I was just off to become a ski instructor, and settled myself into Verbier for the season. The decision as to what I should do during my season was never a difficult one, as my family has known Warren since I was young and he was the first person I ever agreed to let teach me without screaming and crying.

Once I discovered he ran a gap course I knew I would take it – the opportunity to get trained in my absolute favourite sport for 9 weeks straight whilst also securing myself a means to support myself post-university was sufficiently convincing.

I was also really excited to meet 30 new people who over the course of the winter would become close friends, skiing buddies, drinking buddies and housemates. I remember on the first day, whilst desperately trying to put 30 new names to faces, one of the coaches told us that over the next two months we would be each other's family. At the time I didn't quite believe it but as the course progressed I was definitely surprised to see this family dynamic develop. This was helped by the fact that, although it is called a gap course, it was not simply a group of post A-level kids biding their time before university but a huge variety of people of all ages, nationalities and careers who combined to create an amazing group that bonded really quickly.

The training itself was awesome and very full time. We skied six days a week unless we had a weekend course in something else, such as avalanche safety or first aid, and had two video analysis sessions a week as well. The coaching definitely does not aim to coddle you along and I recall times when I skied down to a coach and was told quite bluntly "Jess, that was shit!" However, this is part of what gets such awesome results from the course and I can assure you that when you get it right, you know about it!

Since the course aims to make you a pretty badass skier while also training you up for Basi 2, we were able to do a fair bit of more freeride skiing as well as practice our snowplows on the blue runs. Generally if we worked hard at the beginning of the week on the 'less inspiring' skiing then Thursday and Friday could be dedicated to freeride and, in my case, throwing myself headfirst off a couple of rocks and trying to give the coaches a heart attack. I am still perfecting the aerial wormturn…

The coaches, Rob, Phil, Charlie and Tom, are awesome and really passionate about skiing, which definitely affects how you perform. The dynamic within the groups is very low key and relaxed while also requiring you to put your best into the skiing, if only to avoid abuse you'll get if you don't! They quickly become friends as well as coaches and there is plenty of banter to be had in 9 weeks!

As for life after the course, you'll quickly discover that there isn't one and will start planning your next season before this one is even finished. I plan to go back for my final year of university and then will be straight back in Verbier training for my next level of instructor qualification and looking into new ways to hurt myself using planks on my feet and sliding down white hills…

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