OUR STORY
EA began in 2006 when two ski instructors; Eryn and Jonny were teaching in the USA. They noticed how difficult it was to break into snowsports instruction, a job which had given them so much enjoyment teaching skiing and snowboarding around the World. So they decided to fix this problem by setting up a course combining an instructor training course with a guaranteed job offer to teach in the same season.
The concept of the Instructor Internship was born, and has changed the nature of the industry ever since. Over the years we have built partnerships with the top Resorts around the World and now offer ski instructor internship courses at 30 Resorts and over 5 Countries. Added to that no other company can match EA’s global resort networks spanning Canada, USA, Japan, New Zealand and Switzerland. This means more open doors for EA interns and alumni.
We love snow and all things snow slide-able. Our MISSION is to keep providing the best ski and snowboard courses in the world so YOU get more from your season (or seasons!) in the snow.
EA remains focused on offering the best winter experience on the planet and making it easy for people to become instructors. There are lots of shiny options on the market but only with EA can you be sure you will get the goods when it comes to becoming an instructor.
To find out more about the face's behind the name, meet the team below!
Meet the team!
Founder & Managing Director
Jonny’s love of snow sports began at an early age, undertaking many skiing and travel adventures with his family. Jonny got in the world of ski instructing while studying towards an accounting and finance degree at University. He then spent time becoming a chartered accountant while combining working for Deloitte and teaching skiing in North and South America.
Although Jonny is now primarily office based he loves getting out of the hill with his family and visiting the resorts where we run our training and internship programs.
Founder & Managing Director
Eryn grew up in New Zealand and has a strong connection with the outdoors. After school Eryn completed a BSc and MSc at Otago University. His Masters Research involved a climate and snow investigation based at the head of the Tasman Glacier in the Mount Cook National Park.
He has worked as a Qualified ski instructor, kayak instructor, outdoor guide, assessor, and manager for most of his life. He is now most passionate about sharing outdoor learning experiences, and ensuring Educating Adventures continues to develop and provide great experiences around the World.
Division Manager
Chris hails from Birmingham in the UK, but after finishing up school embarked on a number of long years of winter. Chris completed 15 winter seasons across (to name a few) New Zealand, Switzerland, Canada, France and Austria, starting off as an instructor and progressing through the ranks to become an instructor trainer and team leader at various resorts, and also instructor examiner for the SBINZ. Chris now oversees EA’s instructor training/internship programs around the world. Chris feels very fortunate to have been able to use skiing/snowboarding as a way to travel to and work in a number of amazing places over the years.
Training Consultant
Born in Australia and growing up in California, Tristan now calls New Zealand home. Four years ago, he and his partner decided to make a big life change and went and travelled around the world for 3 years with the goal of living overseas. A broad business background and 25 years of snowboarding experience created the perfect fit for him as a Training Consultant here at EA. He has a passion for the outdoors and you will find him windsurfing the outlet or exploring the single track in Wanaka. (He is also much taller and tanner than Alex who also talks kinda funny).
Training Consultant
Alex has been helping dreams come true at EA for just over two years now and is REALLY passionate about sending people to amazing places to do the best job in the world. He originally hails from England and grew up skiing all around Europe, doing his first season back in 2012 in Meribel, France, and hasn’t looked back. Since that first season Alex has travelled large parts of Asia and also settled in both Australia and New Zealand, specifically Queenstown where he’s also been a program manager for EA. He’s now moved to Canada to try out the Skiing there and can’t wait to tell you about it!
Training Consultant
Ash is from Queenstown, New Zealand and is one of the people you will most likely speak to when first looking into becoming an Instructor. Ash has worked in the ski instructing industry since 2004. He is currently an active New Zealand Snowsports Instructors Alliance Trainer and Examiner in addition to his role here at EA. Ash loves sharing his enthusiasm and knowledge with others and is a regular host of our pre-season training webinars. Being an Instructor has taken him to China, Argentina, Japan, Canada and New Zealand.
Training Consultant
Ray is an avid skier and keen traveller from the United Kingdom. Having grown up skiing in Italy, France and the USA, Ray soon found himself on the road exploring different corners of the world. After some memorable months in Africa and Asia it was no surprise that the beauty of Queenstown and the Kiwi lifestyle stole his heart! Three winter seasons later (two years working with EA) have provided him with a wealth of knowledge into the snowsports industry - he is the man to help you fast track your instructor dreams!
Content Marketing Manager
Hannah is from Wellington, New Zealand and grew up skiing in the North Island. After living abroad in Japan and Canada, working as a ski instructor for a few seasons, Hannah moved to Queenstown in the South Island of New Zealand to continue instructing. After the winter though, Hannah joined our EA team, deciding that it was time to combine her passion for sport, travel and ski instruction with marketing. Hannah’s favourite travel destination (so far) is Japan but she say's there's plenty more to see and do before she can definitively title a winter.. oops, we mean winner!
Marketing Manager
Maddy is the newest addition to the EA family. Having always considered herself a beach girl, she never imagined she’d swap her surfboard for skis until she moved to Queenstown in 2017 and fell madly in love with the snow.
In her spare time, Maddy loves to explore the outdoors, plan adventures with friends, and practice yoga.
Accounts
Nate is our EA Accountant and works alongside Jonny to ensure EA’s books are kept up-to-date. Nate Joined EA at the beginning of 2017 after moving down from Canterbury where he received his Commerce degree and subsequent Chartered designations. Nate enjoys skiing during the winter, and fishing and cricket summer. Nate claims he is probably the least travelled person around the office, having only skimmed Eastern Australia, looped Japan and visited a few pie shops in the North Island. He can be found reconciling piles of 1YEN coins or muttering about spreadsheets.
Reviews from EA Alumni
"Work has been good - so much better than an office job. The best moment teaching is when it suddenly clicks for someone and they get the hang of it! I've made loads of amazing friends and I'm thinking of doing a second season in Canada for sure."
"Its been really good so far. Training has really helped me and I passed my level one! Made amazing friends here and even managed to find myself a girlfriend. As for instructing its been pretty good. Very busy but its nice to be earning more money. Although I don't think it will be a career choice for me. As of now I am just treating this as a vacation and its been really fun."
"Been awesome so far, I’ve loved every second. I passed the level 1 which I was so happy about I’m now thinking of going for my level 2 at the end of March. Starting work was fun and I think went smoothly, favourite teaching moment is too hard as there’s been so many, I’ve really enjoyed it when I’ve seen people progress massively."
"Teaching wasn’t as I expected it to be. I really enjoy it so much more than I thought and really wanna pursue this as a career. I think one of my favourite moments of teaching so far was with this kid I was teaching for the day. He’d been doing everything really well and picked everything up pretty quick. We were going up a chairlift and he said to me that skiing might be his new favourite sport. This to me was so great to hear because that’s what I really love about this line of work, getting the chance to pass on that love of skiing and really see people develop and start to love it themselves and have fun."
"A piece of advice, if like me you were looking into this program but not sure if you are gonna do it, just take the plunge and do it, you won't regret it! Cypress is a beautiful mountain with a huge variety of terrain and mountain views on one side, and ocean views on the other, truly no other resort is quite like it, as for EA, these guys are with you from start to finish, making sure you have visas, accommodation, orientations all set upon arrival, they give you everything you need and are willing to help out as much as they can. I cannot recommend this program highly enough, it's incredible and if you can, you should do it"
"The powder is insanely deep, on Tuesday I was skiing in powder 1m deep and it’s just generally wicked in the trees as well!! Teaching has been awesome, my favourite moment was teaching an 8-year-old, I had him on the first day he'd ever skied. I then had him on and off over the next 4 days, and on his final day, I was able to teach him to ski parallel down steeper intermediate slopes which was absolutely awesome!"
"Well to start off, the trip to San Francisco was a lot of fun. I really enjoyed getting to know the other EA members before we arrived at the resort. Once arriving in Lake Tahoe, everyone settled into their condos, it was nice to be close to everyone for the first two weeks, it allowed us to socialize and build great friendships. Our two-week training was very informative and educational. We trained for two weeks on snow before we took our exam. I felt very prepared to sit the exam. We also got to know our trainers very well throughout training. Getting paid to snowboard is so amazing...I do not want to go back to my other job! Everyone who has a passion for the sport should at least try this out for a season!"
"My experience with EA Ski and Snowboard was amazing! Teaching snowboarding was so much fun, it's the best job I've ever had. We started off with 3 weeks of intense training to get us prepped for doing our CASI Level 1. The trainers were so great and they understood that on powder days we should get some free riding time. The 3 weeks training is so encompassing that it even allowed a few of us to also get our CASI Level 2 later in the season. Some of my favourite moments from the season were learning a tonne of new park tricks and the amazing powder day we had on Boxing day. I can't wait to get back on the mountain for next season and start teaching again!"
“I chose to do the ultimate plus programme because it would give me the best chance at getting an instructing job in the future. I enjoyed my time doing the course so much! I learnt such a lot, and being able to ski every day if you wanted was the dream. Being able to actually work, and get stuck into the instructing industry was awesome, and helped me learn even more about different ways to teach and adapt to suit different people. My plan is to finish my degree at university and then travel back to NZ to do another season, and then go from there to either Canada or Japan for the following season.”
"Amazing season experiencing a new environment away from "normal life" can completely change ones perspective on what work really is. Thank you for giving me the opportunity to inspire other people to follow their dreams. I had loads of fun and would definitely recommend EA to a friend. The EA Rep support in resort was excellent and the guided training was the most beneficial for me.”
WHY CHOOSE EA?
Guaranteed paid instructor job offer
3000+ instructors qualified
30+ resorts across five countries
World-class training
Options to suit all ability levels
No previous teaching experience required
Your safety & security
Liability Insurance
EA Ski & Snowboard is a division of Educating Adventures Limited. To protect both our company and our customers Educating Adventures Limited has combined liability insurance incorporating public and products liability and professional indemnity cover. Our underwriters are QBE.
Legal
Educating Adventures Limited banks with Clydesdale, NAB, Citibank and the Bank of New Zealand. Our accountants and taxation advisers are Deloitte.
Financial Security
Educating Adventures Limited has an Air Travel Organisers License (ATOL) with the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA). Educating Adventures Limited ATOL number is ATOL 9231. ATOL protects customers from losing money or being stranded abroad. It does this by carrying out checks on the tour operators and travel organisers it licenses and requiring a financial guarantee called a bond. If a tour operator goes out of business the CAA will make a refund to the customer or if the customer is abroad they will arrange for the customer to finish their holiday and fly home.
