EA’s 2013 Ski instructor Course Scholarship winner Victoria Gorman has begun her experience of a lifetime to become a ski instructor at Tahoe in the United States. See below for an update on how it's all going:
What are the other EA interns like on the program?
Have you made good friends?
My EA program has open the doors to meet people from all over the USA as well as people from New Zealand and even from my home country (Australia). Living together with the other interns for the first three weeks gave us all the opportunity to get to know one another and form friendships that will last a lifetime!
What is your favourite part of the course so far?
Skiing from the instructors at Northstar. They have so many seasons and their skiing is excellent, it was a privilege to be able to learn from them. One of my instructors had worked in Australia before and knew some of the instructors I had worked with at Charlotte Pass Ski Resort. The ski instructing community is definitely a small world! Another thing I really enjoyed was sharing my cultural background. Many of the other interns have never met an Australian before, so I’ve had a great time teaching them about kangaroos, koalas and vegemite.
What are you looking for to the most for the rest of the season?
I am looking forward to gaining more teaching experience through my work and shadowing other instructors. I am also looking forward to getting into backcountry skiing (through the avalanche course at Kirkwood – as part of the Internship Plus program) and learning to snowboard.
Has your skiing ability improved?
Through the initial three week training period my skiing has definitely improved! The instructors broke down the skiing process and even went back to basics in order to get rid of any bad habits we had. At the start of the course by balance was uneven, rotary movements were in the upper body (instead of primary in the lower body), my edging was uneven and I had uneven pressure on both ski’s. My three weeks of training help to correct these issues. I feel more confident in my skiing ability and feel ready to start training for my level two. Learning to correct my own skiing also helped me to identify problems in my students skiing through the use of movement analysis models.
Are you looking forward to starting work as an instructor?
I am looking forward to starting work as an instructor at Northstar. I have been assigned to the children’s ski school in the Super Stars (4-7yr olds) section. We are just about to go into the Christmas holiday’s period, so I am anticipating long & busy hours. After all this training I am really looking forward to starting work as a ski instructor and applying all the information I have learnt.