Skiing's becoming stranger than fiction

If you've seen the movie "Stranger than Fiction" you'll know about people becoming obsessed with numbers.  Here's a clip from the beginning of the film, which tees up the topic for today's post.

So what's the connection? Northstar's new EpicMix system has been tracking tons of numbers, and has me and some of my ski-school friends constantly comparing stats.

According to Epicmix:

• I've skied 26 days
• Racked up 228,564 Vertical Feet
• Ridden 288 lifts
• Had 148 photos taken by the Epicmix pro photographers
• Earned 44 Pins and 5,944 points

According to my lesson journal, I've taught:

• 22 total lessons 
• 44 individual students
• 1 group of awesome kids from the Pioneer Program (Their instructor tore her ACL and I got to fill in for an afternoon)
• 1 group of ten adult beginners
• 20 private lessons (a mix of individual kids, individual adults, and groups of both)

My guests journeyed to Northstar from:

• 4 from Dublin, Ireland
• 10 from Brisbane, Australia
• 2 from Texas
• 1 from India
• 1 from Santa Barbara
• 1 from Sonoma
• 7 from Silicon Valley
• 5 from the East Bay
• 2 from Marin
• and the rest from parts unknown

Now the numbers you're probably most interested in relate to what we're skiing on. With Mother Nature being a bit stingy with her natural snow, I'm happy to report that Northstar's Snowmaking and Grooming Team are the bomb!

Thanks to them, Northstar now has:

• 16 lifts running
• 26 total trails opened and groomed
• 35 features in the terrain park

The corduroy has been awesome in the morning, and the only reason I'm typing rather than skiing on my day off is that one of my students passed on a number of germs.  I don't know the stats, but I'm recording my first cold of the season.

That's all the numbers I can think of to share today, but since I'm home sick, feel free to call me at 415-601-1325 if you want to talk skiing!

Dressing children for skiing or boarding - Warm and dry equals fun!

Ski season is almost upon us, and you may be thinking about buying new gear for the kids.  So here's a repost of one of my most popular entries in the This Mountain Life Blog.
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When meeting a group of children for a group or private lesson, the first thing I do is check to see how Mom and Dad have dressed them for the day.

Heads - The most important thing is a helmet, of course, and Northstar provides these free of charge for children taking lessons. Our rental shop also has these available for a very reasonable $8 per day. Goggles are also a necessity, as they protect eyes from the sun and blowing snow.

When choosing a helmet or renting one for your child, make sure it has a functioning goggle retaining strap at the rear of the helmet. Without this, your child is likely to have his or her goggles down over the mouth area, blocking out their shouts of glee.

Hands - Wet and/or cold hands will ruin your child's experience and can make it hard to convince them that time on the mountain is fun. I prefer mittens over gloves and highly recommend those with cuff drawstrings. These can keep snow out or serve as a retention device. When putting them on, the child should insert his or her whole hand through the cuff drawstring first. The drawstring will make sure the glove stays with your child while skiing, on the chairlift, and during that walk to and from your car.

These REI "Three in One" mittens are a good option as they include a liner which can be worn solo on a warm day as well as that important drawstring.

One type of mitten I don't particularly like has a velcro closure running up the side from wrist to the tip of the child's pinky. While these are very easy to get on, one fall can clog the velcro with snow, eliminating its ability to keep the glove closed at all.

Feet - Ski boots should fit snugly, and there are some important rules of thumb for donning them.

• Only one Pair of Socks - Make sure your child is wearing thin socks and only one pair. While this may seem counter-intuitive, one thin pair provides more warmth and less pain than one or two thick woolly ones. Why? Multiple socks create folds between the shin and the soft, cushioned tongue of the boot, where your child will be applying pressure all day.  
• No Short Socks - Socks should be long enough to extend up the calf above the boot cuff. Low socks create another ridge on your child's lower shin and similar bruising can occur 
• No Underwear - While your kids may giggle at this rule, we're actually talking about inside the boots. Long underwear should not extend down over or under your socks. The seam as well as the spot of overlap creates a ridge, which we've hammered home is a definite no-no. 
• Powder Cuff Outside - Most ski pants have an 4-5 inch cuff sewn inside the bottom of the pant leg. An elasticized band goes over the outside of the boot, extending below the top buckles. The cuff keeps snow out of the boot, and off of your lower leg. You can also buy stand alone gaiters (pictured) which perform the same function.

The Rest of the Body -- Think Layers.

My advice here is to dress for the weather you have, but pack for all possibilities. It's always better to have it and not need it, than to need it and not have it, with some small exceptions. Northstar's Ski and Snowboard School has a children's center located at mid-mountain just below the Big Easy beginner's area. In it, we have hooks and cubbies where instructors can store excess clothing if a child needs to shed a layer.

A clothing list for the body would include long underwear, a long sleeved shirt or two if it's especially cold, a neck gaiter, ski pants and a ski parka. Try to avoid cotton shirts or thick wool sweaters; the former gets wet and stays wet, while the latter can cause over-heating.

Certain things you shouldn't put on your children:

• Hats - Your child will be wearing a helmet, and hats don't fit inside. However, you can purchase a balaclava, which does. If you're preparing your offspring for their SAT's, you can tell them that a balaclava was a garment worn originally by soldiers serving in the Crimean War and is named after the village of Balaclava in the Crimea. If you want them to love wearing it, skip that, and tell them it's a Ninja Mask.
• Long scarves - These can catch on the chairlift and are another thing for a child to trip over while they're trying to learn.
• Lift tickets on their jacket zippers! If your child is like most, they'll come to love speeding down the trails. A lift ticket flapping in one's face is an annoyance at best or at worst, a distraction which can lead to a collision.

In reading what I've written so far, I've got these final few hints and tips:

• Break out that sharpie and label everything, especially goggles, mittens or gloves. 
• Apply a thick layer of sunscreen, and if your child will reapply, put a small tube in a pocket.
• Another good pocket stuffer is a note with your name and cell phone number.  
• If your child carries their own phone, instituting a no-using-on-the-chairlift rule is worth considering. I've yet to find the iFly, iBounce or the I'm Waterproof application for my iPhone. 

Questions? Drop me a line at skiwithjay@gmail.com or call 415-601-1325.

Happy Skiing!

A lesson through a mother's eyes

That all-important introduction!

I started blogging regularly just this past November, and I'm learning a ton in the process. I'm also experiencing some surprises which stem from the power of the internet.

The latest surprise? Getting to see a ski lesson through the eyes of a mom. On March 5th, I taught a 3 year old boy named Luke and his father, Mike, in a lesson we call a "Teach your Tot."

Julie, Luke's mom, was there too, but I had no idea she was documenting the lesson with her digital camera.

A few days later she blogged all about Luke's day on the slopes using her photos to tell much of the story. Some aspects are funny, others are heart warming. The photos are great, although many of them capture a side of me I don't normally see and wouldn't post on the internet.

I especially like how she describes panicking when she couldn't find us on the bunny slope. We had gone up the chairlift about 40 minutes into the lesson (as soon as Luke was able to form his wedge and stop). I'll refrain from extolling the speed at which kids learn during private lessons here, because Julie's story has that covered.

So without further adieu, here's a link to Julie's entry.  It's titled "Ski Bum," and believe me, she's referring to Luke, not to my derriere, despite it's prominence in a couple of the photos.

Northstar visits Heavenly, 5 year old skis backwards

Today I journeyed to Heavenly in South Lake Tahoe to teach two five year olds, Kaiden and Zach.  It was the first time on skis for both of them, and the energy they show in the photo to the left never dissipated over the course of the day.

The video below is my favorite, although there are seven or eight more clips posted in this lesson album. The embedded video shows young Zach mastering skiing backwards and getting very excited about it. I think his quote is "Oh, Baby!"

So how is it that I got to teach at Heavenly, when I work at Northstar? Simple. Heavenly and Northstar are both part of the Vail Resorts family which allows instructors to teach, in uniform, at their sister resorts whenever our guest request it, and we can make the scheduling work.

Kaiden, Zach and their respective dads, Kareem and Bruce, chose to meet me at Boulder Lodge, one of three ski school locations at Heavenly. Boulder is about 10 minutes out of town and has a great kids ski school with a magic carpet, rental shop, restaurant and very convenient free parking all within a 100 yard radius.

The mountain team at Heavenly was awesome and just as friendly as the gang at Northstar. The team at the kids ski school made me feel especially welcome when I arrived and throughout the day.  I checked in with Ron Blum, the children's supervisor and Scott Dickey, the Boulder Ski School Director.  Out on the hill, Rachel Richards (a great Heavenly instructor) and Travis (The magician helping kids on and off the magic carpet) made me feel right at home.  Everyone treated Kaiden and Zach just like they were Heavenly students, rather than guests who'd imported an instructor from another resort.

So a big thank you goes out to everyone at Heavenly, and to Kaiden, Zach, Kareem and Bruce.  What a great day!

The NYT has it right! Ski school should feel like play.

Big Boss Monster & Captain Baby Butterfly

One of the most emailed articles from the New York Times today is "Effort to Restore Children’s Play Gains Momentum"

I'm directing my clients, my fellow ski instructors and all parents I know to read it. I'm a huge believer in the author's view that play is extremely important to children's development.

Here's one excerpt which might prompt you to click on the link above:

"For several years, studies and statistics have been mounting that suggest the culture of play in the United States is vanishing. Children spend far too much time in front of a screen, educators and parents lament — 7 hours 38 minutes a day on average, according to a survey by the Kaiser Family Foundation last year. And only one in five children live within walking distance (a half-mile) of a park or playground, according to a 2010 report by the federal Centers for Disease Control, making them even less inclined to frolic outdoors."

The author also touches on how changes in parental behavior and the fears parents harbor are contributory to the reduction in the amount of time children are allowed to truly play, and play outdoors.

Here's a combination of quoting and paraphrasing which really hammers home to me how important play is:

"scientists, psychologists, educators.. say that most of the social and intellectual skills one needs to succeed in life are first developed through childhood play. Children learn to solve problems, negotiate, think creatively and work as a team when they dig together in a sandbox or build a fort with sofa cushions. The experts define play as a game or activity initiated and directed by children. So video games don’t count."

How does this relate to teaching your children how to ski?  The PSIA trains instructors with a battle cry of Safety, Fun and Learning!  We all can understand that children need to feel safe and comfortable in order to concentrate, but without fun, no learning can take place.  So does this mean you need to seek out an instructor who moonlights as a comedian or a rent-a-clown at birthday parties?  Not at all. With children of a certain age, allowing them to use their vivid imaginations to shape the fun can be enormously successful.

Just last week, I taught five year old fraternal twins who insisted I call them Butterfly and Monster, rather than their actual names.  My role in creating our games and adventures was primarily to kick-start their imaginations and then get out of the way.

I suggested we be ski-pirates, learning to say "Aargh" as we turned our way down the hill.  Monster quickly educated me that vikings were much stronger and better than pirates, and while we would still scream "Arrgh" and "Avast, this pizza be slowing me down," we would be "Viking-Pirate-Knights" hunting polar bears with light sabers, guns and canons.

As the instructor, I never give up my leadership/safety officer role, but it was perfectly fine for Monster to proclaim himself the "Big Boss" in charge of what we were searching for and who we were fighting as we explored the green and easier blue runs.  Butterfly changed her name several times and by the end of the day, had become Baby Butterfly, the captain-princess of the ship.

Throughout the lesson, we focused on making our sword/sabers straight after each turn to be ready to repel boarders (and yes, maybe I was tongue in cheek referring to those scurvy snowboarders).  We also took breaks from the game to play impromptu versions of monkey-see-monkey-do, have spontaneous snowball fights and grab a quick hot cocoa and cookies inside the children's center. (I'm not sure what Monster and Butterfly were thinking in the photo, but it may have been "Avast! There be just two cookies left here on the galley table!") 

What's the take away here?  I've seen parents taking the do-it-yourself route on the bunny hill, exhorting their children to stop and go with shouts of "Make a Pizza" and "Come on, show me your French Fries!" I've also seen them alternating between cajoling and commanding a crying child to get up and "ski like Daddy!"

And at the bottom of the hill, I've heard parents watching their kids' lessons and wondering if ski school is simply daycare rather than education.  "What's with the snow angels?" "Why are they taking off their skis?"

My response is that it is neither day care nor traditional education.  A ski lesson is a playful adventure which takes place on the slopes, primarily on skis, and leaves children excited to come back for more.

If they've had an adventure, I'll bet my day's wages that they've also honed their balancing movements, turn shape, stopping skills and learned some mountain safety tips as well.