So you’ve heard that you can make a career out of an instructor and want to give it a crack. Our Canadian/NZ Resort Manager Andy has been training instructors and high end riders for 22 back to back winters, becoming one of those fabled career instructors you hear about. Have a read below to get some of his insight into what you should know before taking the plunge into an instructor training course.
Is an instructor course right for me?
Hands down the best decision I ever made was doing my level 1 instructor certification. Its lead to a life chasing snow around the world having years with over 300 days on snow, free lift tickets, hookups on snowboard gear, training with some of the best in the business, free heli and cat ski days, getting paid to ride powder, the list of perks goes on an on. There are lots of us living the dream that people imagine when dreaming of life as a ski instructor but keep in mind its takes a lot of work to get here, like most sought after jobs lots of people try but lots drop out along the way. Before you start down the path ask yourself a few questions to help you decide if you want to give it a crack.
Am I good enough?
Before you start out you should definitely be pretty comfortable with your sport of choice. Blue runs should be second nature and black(North America)/red(Europe) runs should not make you weak in the knees. If your pretty comfortable exploring the mountain on your own then your on the right path but don’t worry if you are not, there are lots of courses you can take to bring yourself up to speed like our 2 week performance courses in Banff and Meribel.
Am I in this for the long run?
If you want to make a life for yourself in the mountains an instructor course is an amazing place to start. You get to improve your skiing, learn your home resort inside out and meet some amazing contacts along the way. Skiing is definitely a case of who you know not what you know so make sure that when you start training that you head to a resort with reputable trainers as they are going to be the ones helping you get a job after your course. Be prepared though that while its super achievable to do a level 1 and 2 course in one winter that you will continue your training for a very long time. You can expect to take another 2-3 seasons to pass a level 3 exam and it can take the better part of a decade to complete a level 4 certification. If you are looking for a quick fix in the mountains as a gap year or career break there better ways to do it but don’t worry we have you covered there as well. TTR has a stack of shorter courses for a more casual rider and season long courses that focus more on ski improvement rather than instructor training. You could even throw your name in the hat to come and work in some of our chalets in France.
Is it the best job on the mountain?
That totally depends on your outlook, being an instructor is a long term investment into your time in the mountains. Your first few years wont be the glamour you were dreaming of when you signed up but if you work hard and stick it out it will be. Your first few winters you will be putting in the hard yards on the learner slope while you up skill and grow a client base. You will be picking lots of kids up off the ground, hanging out on learner slopes on powder days and doing whatever other tasks your snow school asks of you like helping out with lifts or managing a toboggan slope. The plus side of this part of your career is you get an endless supply of people coming to you to learn a new sport, its pretty cheesy but its very rewarding watching people get their first turns dialed thanks to you. Once you get through that stage lots of opportunities start to open up and you can specialize to teach what you want when you want. For example my on snow gig in NZ involves 3 days a week of hitting big jumps with a crew of youngsters, 1 day of teaching other instructors to do the same and then 3 days a week off to ride for myself, pretty ideal set up if you ask me.
What’s the training like?
It’s a pretty rad time that’s for sure, any reputable training course will split your time between developing your riding fundamentals, helping you grow as a teacher and all out charging around the mountain. The level 1 portion of a course will help you rebuild your riding from the ground up, despite how good you feel about your skiing there are probably some technical flaws in there so those get ironed out right away. Regardless of the which country you certify in the level 1 is geared up to teaching new riders so the beginner slope will be your home base for teaching development. Level 2 will help you take you clients up the mountain onto green and blue slopes so your workload will have you doing a lot more skiing at that point. I strongly recommend anyone doing a season to get their level 1 as it gives you a great base of skills to push your own riding. If you realize instructing is not for you we have lots of courses that will move on from instructor training to developing some high riding for yourself, basically your given a ripper of a coach and they charge around making you do cool stuff.
Am I going to get rich?
At first definitely not, its like any job, you start off on the bottom and have to work your way up. Instructing jobs pay better than most on the mountain but you wont be working the same amount of hours, basically you will be as broke as the rest of the staff but you have way more time to ride. Once you become a level 3 or 4 you start to get a solid 40 hour a week workload plus there are lots of opportunities to earn commission. Take Lake Louise for example, if you put in your time and generate enough sales you can ear 40% of any lesson you sell. Consider that a full day private lesson goes for $500-$600 and you can start earning some serious cash on top of your regular wage. This of course is going to take you a few years to get to so come prepared into your first few seasons with large savings or the drive to get a second job.
What’s the best certification system?
Everyone will love to toot their own horn and say that they are the best but its all the same thing with different vocab. Most systems will have levels 1-4 but they might be labeled differently, on top of that there will be lots of specialization courses you can take like race and freestyle certifications. When considering where to train you should look at what other courses are offered within the different systems, the cost of getting to a higher level and what countries you can take courses in. Luckily for you all the organizations we work with, CASI, BASI and SBINZ offer exams across the globe so wherever you end up there are opportunities to continue your training. It terms of finding jobs you will have the same sort of opportunities, outside of France most snow nations are super welcoming and any reputable snow school will seek to have a diverse workforce from different systems.
Alright I’m sold what course should I look into?
This totally depends on your timeframe and budget. Our Canadian courses give you options to either train for the season and come back to work next winter or do a shorter course and jump straight into work that winter if you have a visa. NZ is an amazing place to train if you want to get certified over summer and start working the following winter, this one works well around uni students as you can smash out a level 1 during the summer break. Chat to any of our course advisors about your specific situation and we can get you onto a program that works for you.
Actually instructing sounds tough, I just want to charge around and jump off stuff.
Luckily we have you covered there as well, check out our shorter performance and park courses, snow safaris and all mountain instructor courses where you get a level 1 then spend 7 weeks using those skills to push your own riding.
New Zealand Instructor Courses
Canada Instructor and Performance Courses