I passed my skiing level 1 exam

and just for seven, my pin and evaluation sheet as proof ^_^

So last week a girl in reservations came up to me and told me she had a dream about me the night before. In her dream I had gone on a clinic and broken my leg. That was disconcerting, but luckily I wasn't planning on going to that certain clinic anyway.

Tomorrow and Sunday I am taking my PSIA Level 1 Alpine exam.

Today i was out in the rain (got drenched.) and was out skiing on a trail called McKenzie. It's where the world cup moguls are taking place in a week or so, so we were going through to slide on the fetus bumps that they were shoveling, to make lines for the competition. Before we got to where the moguls were, I was doing some gian GS carves (like, full on skis further than shoulder width apart and knees bending practically into the snow) and all of a sudden my right ski gets knocked in a left turn across the hill and I feel this really nasty pain in my ankle. I look down and my ski has popped off and my ski boot is sort of backward, or close to it. I thought that if I put my foot down then it would surely break my leg. So, I got it up toward my body, and made a quick right turn since all I have to go on is a left ski. and slide onto my side stopping myself with my left ski. I was lucky, because I didn't notice the bear spot right next to me which contained some nasty looking rocks. If I had gone any further I would have hit them and really done a number to my body.

It seems odd to me that through my years of instructing I haven't really owned a helmet. I had one for a little bit of time but it was uncomfortable and became too small after a season. I've been skiing without one, while always telling my students to wear them.

I don't like the styles they have today. I had my first helmet when I was a kid and it pretty much covered my whole head...but helmets today feel like you're wearing a fucking bicycle helmet. I want to get a new one, but I'm going to be picky about it this time.

On a note of the fucking horrid rain today. I stopped by the canoe outfitter and talked to my old boss. He's working on a guide book now and hasn't even thought about W2s for 2007, which is annoying because I'd like to do that stuff soon. I got a couple of fabric treatments to bring the waterproofing back to my leather park and pipe gloves and my 3 year old jacket.

for Seven: when I finish my exam I get a shiny new pin, which is bigger than the one they gave us when we signed up! i'll also get one when I take my snowboarding certification in February ^_^

felt you'd probably want to know.

On you fags.

Thanks a lot, assholes.

Earned since beginning of Christmas (12/23/07) week before taxes: $1266.08
Tips: $245

Still have another 3 days left of this pay period. ^_^

So what I like most about Christmas week and Presidents' week is that it is crazy busy and you can go a whole day by getting booked back to back for lessons, which means money.

This week I haven't had quite as many private lessons, mainly because the week didn't even pick up until the last two days anyway.

Well, another reason is because I was scheduled for 4 days straight for a 6 hour 5 kid private lesson. We start at 9:00 and go all the way until 3:00

I'm teaching 3 sisters, a cousin and the nanny how to snowboard for 4 days. I'm making about $760 off of the 40% commission I get for private lessons.

Aside from today I had a 2 hour 2 kid private lesson during my lunch break yesterday and a 1 hour, 1 person adult private lesson in the afternoon of last Sunday.

I have also been doing group lessons the last few days.

The dad of the 3 sisters gave me a $50 tip today, after saying "I'll give you a nice tip tomorrow and on Monday (the last day)" and then I was in the cafeteria getting water and he walked up and gave me a 50 dollar bill.

These people are staying in an extremely expensive hotel for their vacation and have about 30 people total with them and 15 kids are taking private lessons. Our private lessons have a cut off of 5 kids, so they had to get 3 private lessons and tomorrow 5 more kids are joining the group! so, for each group of kids, they spent about $1900.

They also bring their kids' nanny on vacation with them. She's a pretty nice girl who's around 20-25. I'm sure if I were a nanny, I'd flip shit and start beating kids...but these kids seemed OK. I don't think I'll hit them tomorrow...

If your child is a year younger than the cut off for an age specific program, it doesn't mean you can lie, because the people running the program WILL NOTICE. It's not ambiguous when your child is a head shorter than the rest of the kids in the program...oh and can't fucking talk yet.

What kind of message are you sending to your child when you make it OK to lie about their age to get them into something. Most of you only want the babysitter, and if you really want your kid to ski, shell out the extra $10 and have a private lesson for them.

To explain my annoyance, at the mountain we teach children ages 4-6 and 7-12. For some fucked up reason parents think their barely 3 year old children will do fine with the 4-6 year olds. THEY DON'T. The gap in development between a 3 year old and a 4 year old is huge, and we notice. Tomorrow there will be some parents who are going to be asked for proof of age for their children because the kids just aren't even strong enough to walk on their own, let alone ski for 2 hours at a time. They hold back entire groups from progressing during a lesson and usually wind up going back inside after throwing a fit on the hill anyway. Why put your child through that when you couldn't care less about them to begin with? We don't teach three year olds for a reason. Stop lying.

Also, lying is bad. Stop that too.

Assholes.

Canadians need to learn to fucking tip.

Old Russian ladies learn how to ski fast.

little kids are usually jewish, never ask what they want from Santa.

Jesus still hates you.

I need money to buy lunch, and my gas light turned on again today. paypal plz

we drew trogdor on the whiteboard long with "ZOMGBBQLOLKTHNXBAI"

only like 13232165487976546541321321 days to go.

So we got dumped on. I bet it was nice. I wasn't able to properly enjoy the new snow on Sunday morning on account of one of the mountain's shuttles sliding into a guard rail and backing up traffic in the morning.

Oh, and I had lessons.

In the morning I taught a 7 or 8 year old kid who was put into the level of Explorer but really should have been an Adventurer*. He was still doing a power wedge down the mountain.

In the afternoon I had a 6 year old kid who had skied only a couple of times before...He was so little I couldn't take him to the magic carpet (like those conveyor belt moving sidewalks at an airport...but up a small slope on the hill) since it was totally snowed in and the snow was so high that he needed some real hill to even get moving down the hill. So I took him up the chair lift and he could barely manage a wedge ( skis look like this: \ / ) on his own, so I put a noodle on them (a rubber tube thing that has a clamp on either end...to make sure the kiddies don't do splits) and by the end I had him doing turns and such without the noodle.

So I was busy teaching all day.

* Levels we use for lessons
from least to most advanced levels:
New to Sport (never ever)
Pioneer (can do a wedge to stop and maybe a turn or two, may need a noodle)
Adventurer (can make turns with a wedge and no longer needs a noodle)
Explorer (can ski most easy terrain and some intermediate terrain, learns how to ski parallel and use poles)
Mountain Cruiser (can ski parallel on all intermediate terrain and some black diamonds)
Diamond Hunter (Can ski parallel on black diamonds)

Saturday began my training for snowboarding. In the morning we were let loose to do as we pleased around the mountain and I got into the swing of riding pretty quick. I was carving turns on the whole mountain in the morning and I was riding pretty damn hard.

Ate lunch and went into a clinic in the afternoon and all of a sudden my legs were jell-o. It was horrible, I kept riding stiff or not holding an edge and falling like a fool all the time. I guess I'm just not as in shape as I used to be.

Back in high school I had training with a school sport starting in September and by the time the ski season rolled around I was pretty much in peak shape...and last year I guess I had still been pretty active, but this season I'm going in after not really being active in sports or anything...so I guess I'm just not in shape.

Today left me feeling just as beat up. Today I took two clinics with the snowboarding director and he's just fucking insane plain and simple. His idea of a fun run is moguls and lots of them.

If you are not a snowboarder... moguls are never your friend. EVER.

either way, we kept going back to the same trail the whole day and I kept getting more and more tired, although I was riding much better today than I was yesterday afternoon. Some of the other people in the clinic had some pretty hilarious falls.

We also kept going into the park, where I'm near useless. I'm perfectly happy in bumps or carving down a steep, narrow, chute...but I have just never spent time in the park. so I watched them have fun and hopped on a rail or something.

The other day my fiancee went on a shopping spree at my favorite ski/board shop. She got herself brand new ski boots, ski socks, a face mask, and these totally awesome gloves (they have a battery pack and heat strips in them!!) and she went skiing today with me. She hasn't gone in about 2 years and that had been her only time on shaped skis (She learned long long ago with straight skis). So during lunch I went out with her, me on my snowboard, her in her skis I got her from Ebay and I gave her a few pointers.

I had to go out in training in the afternoon so I got one of the supervisors to take her along as a guinea pig and they let her tag along and they really helped her today! She had a huge smile on her face when I met up with them at the end of the day.

She was in a clinic with 3 of the teenage volunteers (what I did when I was 13-15) who had never taken lessons before and had been taught (poorly) by their parents or on their own. They could ski the whole mountain, but were out of control and one was using techniques from the 80s with brand new skis (basically, me when I first started at 13.) So they worked on the basics and helped my fiancee with learning the new stuff. The two girls who were leading the clinic I've known for years and was extremely grateful they took her with them because they are both great instructors.

Today I feel pretty damned tired, but hell, I like it.

and since I posted a picture of my Professional Ski Instructor of America pin last week, here's the American Associate of Snowboard Instructors pin...because it's shiny.

:::NOTICE:::::
Go to the end to read the non-rant part.

::::RANT:::::
Well, this weekend was the start of training at the mountain. This weekend was ski training, and next weekend I break out the snowboard. Instead of the yearly run around of getting 4 specific clinics in during the weekend, I was plopped with a giant tool because I had signed up for the PSIA level one exam (see post about certifications). This guy is an "examiner" meaning he's an employee of the organization, and is the guy who runs these certification exams.

We started out being quizzed on the useless technical jargon the organization is apparently in butt-lust for and explained that we needed to read the manual to know the "right" words and definitions. Either way, the "lesson" he gave us was bullshit and useless, since this "exam" is a type of thing where if you can manage to get your shit to be in the toilet bowl, you're coordinated for the pin they give you for passing (seriously, that's all you get).

I'm all for learning about your profession to better yourself, but why am I being taken away from my regular training, from allowing me to get back into the swing of things after a summer off... to sit at a table listening to some guy froth at the mouth about how many cocks he had to suck to get to where he is today. I couldn't care less about the prestige or whatnot this pin gets me, as long as it gets me a job somewhere else next year. I'm dishing out over $300 of money I don't have to get this and they are going to pretend like I'm useless until I get this pin.

You may notice I keep saying pin. literally, it's a lapel pin. It's the little emblem of the organization, apparently it's worth $97 a year in dues and a $135 exam. Nice pin.

I'm also getting certified in snowboarding. At least the snowboard school manager tells me straight "oh, everyone there who takes the exam passes...they sort of want you to". And that's how it is. I've seen some piss poor morons get certified before.

the thing that really gets me is that the skiing supervisor team is totally in butt-lust for these certifications. Some kid walked in yesterday morning asking about a job next season. He wore his fucking other mountain uniform jacket, with the name tag still pinned on and a PSIA pin in it (of course) they drooled over the kid. He was some strange high school kid, who was looking at the local community college or something. And instead of saying "well, give us your email and we'll send you a message when we figure out our hiring fair for next winter" they sweet talked him and raved about the kid for a half hour. They forced one supervisor to get certified. Here he is, being treated like a kid while every 15 minutes he has to ski aside and yell into the radio to his underlings about lessons. I don't think a pin should dictate what position you have. Yes, it's nice national standard to teach by. Teach by it.

Although I gripe, I do understand how it is useful to maybe move up in the organization. there are three levels of certification. Each level certifies you as being proficient enough in your skiing and teaching to teach beginner lessons (level 1 certification) intermediate lessons (level 2) and advanced and expert lessons (level 3). Each one is more technical and requires more proficiency in the sport as well as knowledge of what the fuck the body is doing...But to get all in a tizzy because some person passed an exam somewhere else? I can tell you right now that the kid is pretty much hired next season, putting another person who may be even better at skiing and teaching out of the way because they may not be certified. I don't like that. If they want us all certified, then they will pay for the training and our yearly dues, just like any other professional qualification. There are jobs out there who will pay for college courses so that you can move up the corporate ladder, yet here I am technically an "independent contractor" making $8.25 an hour after 7 seasons of employment (which, coincidentally is also the same pay new hires are given). pre-season training is not paid, but it's required..so although I've gotten my "you are officially employed from ...." letter, I'm not getting paid until mid to late December, when I finally get to work. I only get paid for lessons I teach, so if I show up for work and do the usual busy work that they demand of us every morning and afternoon before and after lessons go out and come back in, if I don't teach a lessons, I don't get paid for that day.

There's currently an impasse with our union contract, so maybe one day soon we'll get fair pay.

it's a state owned mountain and you'd figure that we'd get state pay. No, a state employee of comparable position starts out at $9.50 an hour (not $8.25) and the pay goes up with each year of employment...yet somehow I'm stuck with starting pay?

Also, my supervisors decided that this season would be a good time to tell us that those who are certified and those seeking it will be given preferential treatment to private lessons (where we make a 40% commission on, instead of hourly pay. meaning, they are nicer and people want them). I find that wrong and probably slightly illegal. If they aren't providing training than I don't feel that they should give any type of preferential treatment to anyone with a certification. I think it should be whoever is most qualified. Why should I be overlooked just because some 16 year old kid's mom paid for him to get certified this season and I can't afford it? That kid has never taught before this season and is probably too socially awkward to deal with the costumer. The client will have a miserable time and will leave the sport. Skiing has a high rate of people who just never come back, and it's usually the mountain employees' fault.
::::END RANT::::

There are things wrong, and I may rant, but ultimately it is a job I like and that's what keeps me coming back year after year (this is winter #8). I work with kids and they are pretty cool. Despite being stuck in training, I did manage to teach a lesson this afternoon. The kid was 4 years old and screamed incoherently the entire time. I did likewise and we both had fun. I didn't teach him a damn thing I learned earlier today in my "training" because it's bullshit to push that stuff on kids. He was happy, and that's the true end result that the industry wants. He's going to come back during Christmas with his parents and say "I want to go skiing again! it's fun! they have a room with toys and the teachers don't yell at me!" not "i learned that all movements originate in the ankles and are supported by the movements of the knees, hips and lower back"