While the TTride instructor programs in Canada are mainly focused around getting you your instructor certifications and your foot into the industry we don’t forget that this course has pretty heavy vacation focus to it and for many its their first time in Canada. As a result we make sure that there are lots of opportunities to get out and see what else Banff has to offer. Whenever you join one of our Canadian courses you get a pile of credits to spend on extra activities, if your on the ultimate course it’s a whopping 600 dollars worth of awesome with half of the extra activities already included. The range of activities totally varies from super Canadian things like evenings ice skating to our pinnacle event, a day heli boarding.
On the more mellow side of our events spectrum you can choose from things like a learn to curl session with the Banff Curling Club. For those unfamiliar with curling it’s essentially a huge came of shuffle board, played on ice, with beer, what’s not to love? We have worked closely with the curling club over the years and now whenever we go we have the club president come out to teach the crew all about the sport (and have a few laughs at people slipping around like bambi on ice. If you that does not get you your fix of sliding around on ice there is a skating rink right across the street from our hotel and after one evening learning we often see the group picking up skates and hockey sticks and making a regular thing of it.
Banff itself has three resorts within an easy striking distance and if you broaden your radius you can get to a stack of other resorts. One that we always make sure we hit each season is Kicking Horse Mountain Resort. Only 2 hours from home this resort has some seriously steep and gnarly terrain to go check out, stretch those legs first as the vertical descent here is next level.
If you don’t get enough riding in during the day Mt Norquay, the smaller of Banff’s 3 resorts, is only 15 minutes away from home and they are opened on Friday and Saturday nights. The bus leave from our front door and its super cheap to get an evening ticket so it’s very easy to get up there and work on your park riding under the floodlights.
While were on the topic of park riding, the CASI park level 1 course is included in our ultimate course or can be easily added on to he regular programs. We make sure that throughout the level 2 training that there’s lots of time opportunity to throw in some freestyle tactics to help prepare you for this course.
Our ultimate course also includes a standard first aid and avalanche skills level 1 course. Neither of these are needed to become an instructor in Canada but they will give you a big advantage over the competition as it looks great on a resume. The courses also give you a lot of great knowledge that will help you survive if backcountry riding is your jam. If later in your snow sports career you decide you want to spend more time getting paid to ride pow, they are also the first steps on the pathway to becoming a cat or heli ski guide.
That of course leads us to the pinnacle events of our season, a day spent either cat boarding or heli boarding, every shredders wildest dreams. For those unfamiliar with the two, you either take a snow cat or a helicopter to the top of a deserted slope and leave your mark on the blank canvas in front of you. We have already had our heli and thanks to the crew at RK Heliski its going ot be a day never forgotten by those that went. An early morning rise saw us jumping into a newly acquired TTR mini bus and setting out through the Kootney Mountains into BC. The whole experience was pretty surreal, we pulled up to their lodge as the helipad is buzzing with people doing pre flight checks, smashed a buffet breakfast and a safety talk and then its time for take off. The rest of the day is a blur of fresh lines, face shots, heli rides, baked goods, big hits and even bigger smiles. Make sure you keep an eye on our Facebook page for lots of photos popping up from this trip.
Combine all this with a full time coaching program and your pretty much guaranteed to have the time of your life, make sure you check out all our courses in Canada if you want to spend a season getting awesome with us!
-Andrew