Dont ever become a ski instructer

B

breck-love

Member
A small story or reflection for that matter of my life as ski school dude.
I was eager for new experience and money. im so god damn sick of being a rich kid with a silver spoon and i knew a job was a must. The search for economic slavery was short and sweet. Within a few days i found a ski instructor job at keystone. the job really aroused my interests. what could be better than being paid to ski right? my ignorance was shattered after the first day. the thing is i wasnt really skiing. i was taking care of spoiled rich kids who hate being cold. imagine hours of crying, complaining and constant chatter of youthful stupidity. "i want my mommy, i hate skiing, i like apples, snakes are cool, i have a cat, feed me!" im patient but even saints cant snap under pressure. i really try to act nice and sweet to these little fuckers but sometimes i have to lay down the law and punish them with authority. " shut the fuck up and listen! your mom isnt coming and you are going to ski if u like it or not!"
the worst part of the job is spending the whole day doing pizzas, and french fries while my fellow jibbers ski off to a perfectly groomed park. sometimes i just stop stare at them as go by quietly telling myself " must be nice, must be really nice" then i look back and see six or seven little brats all over the place with scattered skis here and there. I never want to have kids!
at the end of the day i try to sweet talk the parents with bullshit to get some tips but so far its failed miserably. even if the kid is rotten i tell the parents the kid was a jewel and a real treat to work with..... such bullshit. but most of life is bulshit anyways. we are all lying to get paid and get laid.... god said that in the bible.
peace out nigs!
 
Don't teach tourists if you can't deal with cold people. Find a

way to teach local kids and get the same group over and over again so

you can actually see progression over the course of the season. It makes a huge difference. The downside is when you get one kid you can't stand, you'll have them for the rest of the season anyway.

Yes, beginners suck at skiing. If you aren't assigned a variety of

skill levels from total beginner to intermediate, your ski school is messed

up.

If you'd rather be skiing the park, quit ski instructing and get a night job that lets you ski park all day.
 
No offense dude, but if you wanna show that you're not a spoiled rich kid who can tough things out, then you should suck it up and just do your job.

Everywhere you go there are going to be shitty people.
 
oooooooomg, work, sucking? Damn, where are all these fun jobs people are out getting paid for...

i worked in the parking lot directing cars.

sure i had to wake up at 6 every day of every weekend all winter, but i got off work between 10-12 usually and i hit up the park the rest of the day
 
I taught in skiwee for 6 years. First couple of years kinda sucked, but I had a blast anyway; since we had night skiing we'd work a full day then charge till 10 or 11pm under the lights.

After a couple of years I stopped getting the lower level kids as often, ended up teaching mostly advanced skiers. Met some kids who at 12 skied harder than I did at about 18.

Best moment was when I got a single lesson, with a 14 year old kid who ended up becoming an instructor the year after. 2' of fresh, and I'm getting paid to show this kid around the mountain on a PRIME powder day...... Not many days you get paid to teach kids how to drop cliffs.

 
welcome to life

i'm a ski instructor at our hill

we teach 35 kids with 4 instructors, i want to cry some days, while my friends go over to the park

but then you look back and remember the day when you took little johnny to the park beause he got so good, and its like wow, that kids gonna make it some day and I taught him

its also prolly harder for you becasue how you were talking you've been that rich kid the whole time.

welcome to the world of working....

this is coming to you from childrens instructor of the year.

sometimes you just have to sit back and not give a shit, let the kids play in the snow, who the hell cares if they learn how to ski. just relax and look like my ski school. haha [notice the other instructor in the back, i was about to pull my hair out

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Yeah while I was there we grew it from something like 200ish kids and 40ish instructors in 2001 to doing well over 320 kids with something like 50-60 on snow instructors, with a shit ton of management on top of that.

holiday weekends were a fucking zoo.

I got alot out of it, but I'm glad I'm not teaching anymore. Teaching has made me never want kids; I want to be an uncle. Too bad I'm an only child myself..........

One thing I wish I had done while I was teaching was to get a PSIA certification. I got a PSIA/AASI Terrain Park coach cert. but that doesn't carry NEARLY as much weight as a level 1 cert.
 
Instructing is the most challenging job on the mountain and you shouldn't do it unless you like working with kids. It seems like that would be obvious.

I have a pretty good time as an instructor.

I usually get off at like 4, smoke a blunt then ski until 10, then try to get laid.
 
i work with kids at a summer camp. if they suck, don't tell their parents they were good. tell them they need to stop being huge dickfucks and let you do your job. parents can influence how they act so hard. definitely necessary.
 
Yeah, when i got a ski instructing job it was so much fun for about the first month. Then it got really annoying when were the only one working and had to do lesson after lesson in 0 degree weather. But it was a ton of fun when you got kids who were nice and actually listened to you...
 
ya at least you work at keystone so the end of your shift doesnt coincide with lifts closing...

on the other hand, if you want to teach better skiers, get a level 2 cert...obviously you know this, but they wont usually condemn a level 2 pro to the kids' ski school all day. im gonna get mine as soon as i move to aspen next year, i doubt i could handle more than a couple weeks of babysitting...

well, i know i cant, i did it all year on the east coast...
 
i did that this year but i quit after the first lesson i gave. it pissed me off knowing that it would interfere with my real skiing
 
word, im a ski instructor, and if you are friendly to the kids, they are sso fucking funny they say random shit its crazy. and if you have kids over teh whole sesason its so rewarding to see them go from not knowing how too put skis on to seeing them ski a blue square as lame as that sounds
 
i kinda liked snowboard instructing but im not about to go back and teach again. i think it helped me think about more of what my body's doin while im riding. helps me stay in control as far as styling things. plus ive met a ton of awesome people from doin it. but the kids part can get repeditive...
 
Definitely! I've been teaching snowboarding for 8 years now. The best part, are my returning clients. The people I have taught from the beginning. I've become a basic babysitter for their kids, and their kids rip! So I spend the day trolling the mountain with some awesome grommits.

So yeah, when you first start teaching, it is TEH SUCK. You get shitty, whiny, bratty kids. But after some years, you climb your way up the ladder, how every job works, and it's a blast. I work full time, get paid good money, and spend my days chillin on the hill. I couldn't ask for a better job.

My greatest moment was when someone I had taught a few times, came back shredding better than me. And I was busy all day, so they booked a lesson with me, just so we could ride together for an hour. Nothing has stoked me more.

And if you know how to sweet talk the customer before the lesson even begins, you get that handshake at the end with a $20 in it.
 
word we work 2 lessons at 2 hours a day and get paid for 8hour days it is so sick mad good money for a 17 year old
 
dangg

we get paid shit

when i work the childrens program i get paid by the hour, but only like minimum wage, and then only per lesson.

but get a free pass and food/shop discounts
 
I was a ski instructor and trust me it makes a big differnce when you get to teach the same kids. I absolutely loathed teaching kids that i didnt know, bunch of babies. but when the days rolled around and i got to teach the same kids and watch them progress it makes a huge differnce.
 
I absolutely love ski instructing. One of the most rewarding things I've ever done, because you start off with some little kid who is crying about their mommy, and by the end of the day they are loving it and say they want to be just like you. Maybe you're just a crappy instructor haha. But seriously, every new instructor has to deal with the brats, you just gotta make a name for yourself. I taught kinderski for a little while, and then for the main part of the season I taught moguls, park and halfpipe. Sometimes I was the park ranger and i literally skied park while waiting for people who needed to be brought through. Sure, I'm not the greatest park skier but I'm certified to teach it and I'm better at teaching the stuff than the park rats. I love it when I see one of my students actually become better than I am at park and become instructors and stuff. I didn't instruct this year, and I think 4 or 5 of my previous students are now instructors. SO damn rewarding. I love it. haha.
 
K, so that came off as a major claim. Some are still better than I am teaching, but most won't do it so I usually stay in the park giving pointers and watching/ giving small demos while the others will take the kids up the lift/back into the park so that they get more park skiing in.

I actually still love teaching kinderski though. haha.
 
I loved being a acrobatic coach. Although some kids pissed me off, I had so much fun. None of my kids would forget me either!
 
i got offered a job at a local hill called west mountain. such a shithole. their chairlifts are slow, uncomfortable, and break easily. as in you fall to the ground from the charilift because the chair gives out. and the runs are short, flat, and repetitive. conditions are bad at their best, and the mountain is home to thousands of hardcore gapers and just plain terrible skiers/boarders. i can say that west has stepped it up in the last year with a better park and has drawn some new talent, but has also led to more injuries and stress to us experienced skiers having to deal with hundreds of little kids and terrible skiers/boarders invading the park that shouldnt be there. and they were offering me minimum wage to deal with little kids whose job was to make your job seem impossible. so i decided to stay away from west. maybe gore will need some help next year...
 
its called a compound sentence. try using one. they are made with conjuctions. "and" is an example of a conjunction.you use extrenuously verbose adjectives and adverbs to make your sentences sound smart. you talk with simple sentences. it sounds super dumb.
 
idk i have fun with some of the little kids cuz there funny and the stuff they say is really funny

but you do get some that keep falling over and it sucks picking them up every five seconds. i did get stronger tho becasue of holding up all these fat kids. My worst expierence is when i signed up for a comp at the hill i worked at and i was about to start my warm up runs but my boss stoped me and made me work. i still got to compete but i only had two runs and i hadent hit the jump before. i was so close to quiting
 
your problem is that you are working in colorado. if you taught on the east coast, you wouldn't have to teach rich pricks on vacation.
 
and you sound like a tool using words like verbose and extrenuously to attempt to show off intelligence. this is fucking newschoolers, not an english paper.
 
haha word same here

i was stoked on working at ski school this coming season, i got hired and everything last season but got injured right after so i didn't get to do it :/ i should just be a lifty lol.
 
Just go into it with a more positive attitude. Be animated, be a person that kids will love and be gravitated towards, be a kid. If they're having fun so will you, and if you still get that one kid that's unbearable you can lightheartedly bitch about it with your coworkers, because you're all in the same boat anyways. It's a job, no job is perfect but you gotta make the most out of what you're doing and just enjoy it. You can't change everything around you but you may be able to change yourself.
 
working as little as 8 hrs a week doesnt really entitle you to belittle someone who is just venting his frustration, and he didnt say work in general sucked, just the rotten kids, and at least if you direct cars you can be blazed out of your domepeice all morning.
 
i was an instructor this year. got a free seasons pass, 7.15 an hour, free hot chocolate. i didnt really like instructing, very hard at points. i did love the free seasons pass tho
 
i like turtles.

no but seriously, do as my friend did. when kids start complaining take them down the diamonds. that will shut them up real goood.
 
depending on where exactly you live, look into other mountains in the area...... jiminy's not exactly the "best" but it seems a step up from west..... catskills, adirondacks, there's a bit of skiing not overly far from the west mountain area.....
 
bahahahahahahahahah that's funny, most east coast skiing is anywhere from 2-6 hours away from one of the richest and biggest metropolitan areas in the world.... NYC.
 
i was a "helper" for two years, i would get paid like 8 bucks an hour, free pass, but i wasn't old enough to get my level one so i couldn't really teach, in other words a bitch. but yeah, dealing with spoiled kid fuckin sucks when you know there is a park just waiting for you.
 
.... exactly. the key is to find the switch in your head that turns you from "loud funny ridiculously awesome ski instructor dude/dudette kid" to "professional badass", and be able to flip that instantly when you've gotta talk to the parents at the end of the day, or your bosses, local news crews, etc.....
 
if you have the right mountain its not that bad. i patrolled this past season at a small hill called plattekill. because its a pretty tiny operation, i (and other people who were regulars and employees) got to do basically whatever we wanted, especially since my boss was mad chill. i could ski in the woods, build jumps on the trails, even take rakes and shovels from the lift shack to work on the miniscule, pathetic area they called a park. all they asked was that i took off my patrol jacket when i went in the woods. i skiied for free and responded to a total of four accidents over about 25-30 days. it can be a really sweet deal if you have the right mountain, i cant imagine this happening at any large resort. so maybe something for you guys at the smaller mountains to look into, especially if your strapped for cash
 
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