If you ever ask a ski instructor why they do what they do, I can guarantee that you’ll receive a passionate and inspired answer. Ski instructors, by nature, care hugely about their career and their work because skiing takes over and is, who they are.
Ski and snowboard instructing is about as far from the 9-5, office workday routine as you can get however as much as that sounds completely glamourous, there is a lot to instructing that is nitty gritty and tough. There are many different facets of instructing. Instructors themselves come to love every single one.
So, why is ski instructing the best job on the mountain? The answer. Because it is sharing what you love with people that wouldn’t otherwise have that experience. Here, let me elaborate that sentence a bit more and give you EA’s top 5 reasons why being an instructor is the best job on the mountain!
1. Ski and Snowboard instructor’s interact with so many different guests and each and every one of them has different backgrounds and interests.
If you’re a people person in any way, meeting and sharing experiences with so many different people is truly great! Not only this but your job is to create empowering experiences for these people. You’re there to teach them, push them outside their comfort zone and improve their skiing or snowboarding. There’s so much more to ski and snowboard instructing than just taking a lesson.
2. Ski & Snowboard instructors share what they love with people that would potentially never have that experience otherwise
Having a passion for skiing or snowboarding usually comes with a want to share that with others. It starts with showing your sisters or brothers how to hockey stop or jump off that natural feature and turns into an instructing job in locations such as Canada, Japan, New Zealand and Europe. The most common person taking a ski or snowboard lesson is on holiday and that means, they there to have fun and enjoy the experience. Your job is to simply make the day fun, and teach them a few things along the way.
3. It’s a job where you can self-promote through training & development
Development and training is an important aspect of ski and snowboard instruction. The certification system, through national bodies such as PSIA, CSIA, and BASI are based on a level structure so by training, up-skilling and increasing your certifications, you increase your priority ranking, skill and pay.
4. Ski & snowboard instructors are always outside, in a beautiful environment where every day is different
Today the suns out, tomorrow morning you wake up to a huge powder dump, the next day you’re clients want to ski blacks for 6 hours, and the day after that you’re juggling eight, five year olds on the magic carpet. At the end of the day, no matter what you’ve been doing, you were outside in an amazing environment on a mountain that deserves and demands your respect.
5. Ski & snowboard instructors are active and get a good workout throughout their working life
Being active and pushing your body and skill is crucial to ski development. Not only is it good for your mental well-being, there are huge physical benefits as well.
We like to say here that ski instructing is about as much fun as you can have in a job that pays. You share your love and passion for the sport of skiing or snowboarding in a unique way. You are yourself and you share what you love with others. If you hadn’t considered giving it a go before, we implore you to give it some thought. It can be a great career break opportunity or gap year experience.
