Banff, Canada’s original ski town, boasting consistent cold temperatures 3 epic resorts, a 7-month winter and some of the best nightlife in the country. Sounds like a pretty good place to do a season and train to become an instructor right? We thought so and once again we have another group back in town to make the most of everything this beautiful landscape has to offer.
We kicked off our 2016 4 and 11 week instructor courses this January and course members, snowboard coaches and our in resort staff are having an absolute blast out here. It went a little something like this:
arrive-> welcome dinner->drinks->snooze->breakfast buffet->get new snowboard gear->ride Lake Louise->welcome party->snooze->ride-> another team dinner-> first day of training->yoga->training-> be awesome->learn tricks-> night out-> private session->weekend-> repeat! That’s a whole lot of good times to squeeze into one week but its great to see the group willing to step up to the challenge.
The on snow portion of this course consists of a minimum of 4 full days a week of group training a week with some of the top trainers at Lake Louise. As the lake is one of the top resorts in North America the groups are essentially getting some of the best and most experienced coaches you can find. Week one the focus was on exploration as the groups have a 4200 acre ski area at their disposal, we quickly try to get the groups riding up to a higher level so they can get in to some of the double black terrain that Lake Louise is famous for.
The skills the groups are learning are pretty multi purpose so we make sure there is a good balance of freeriding as well as time in the park. Lake Louise puts together a super progressive terrain park ranging from the smallest learner boxes right up to pro sized booters. Were definitely going to see how far we can push the group this season.
Off snow we are making the most of all the post riding activities on offer and are maintaining a healthy balance of nights out and events that will help further everyone’s riding. This week we lined up a bit of yoga to ease some sore muscles and as well as a few rounds of bingo, some cheap beverages and a couple cracks at karaoke. It’s a good thing that everyone is training for an instructor certification as no one had record label’s lining up after the show………
All in all we are off to a great start here in Canada. Here’s to more pow, new tricks and lots of good times.
-Andrew