What George Did Next - Life as a Snowboard Instructor

In my last blog I wrote about taking part in the Nonstop 11 week snowboard instructor course and then going on to work for Evergreen Outdoor Center in Japan. After Japan finished I came home (England) and had a couple of months before I started instructing at Mount Hotham Australia...

The sun peeking out over the mountains at Mount Hotham

The shoulder season

So during my time off I decided I would work to get a bit more cash but also enjoy not having to ride and teach on the snow every day, which surprisingly you miss within a couple of days. So I bussed out to Italy and did two weeks of instructing for Interski. This was more of a fun trip as Interski was the first ski company I’d worked for so it was amazing to come back and catch up with everyone. Having completed the two weeks I went and travelled around the south of England. Here I was able to catch up with a few friends who had done either the 11 week Nonstop course or had worked in Japan, and we all discussed our plans for the coming season. 

After the fun and games of Italy and travelling for three weeks around England had finished, I worked for the rest of my time before flying off to Australia!

In Australia, What's a typical day instructing like?

With Australia the season is really rather short (around 12 weeks) however they pack the lessons in so if you are willing to work then there is work for you. 

A standard day would normally be catching the bus up to the hill, changing and being ready to teach at 9am. This was the private lesson slot, so if there was nothing for you then you would have an hour to ride until 10am when the first set of group lessons goes out. At 10am all the instructors go up to the meeting area and then are assigned to the morning lessons.

From there you would go and chat with the clients and find out what their exact ability is and start to form a lesson plan in your head. Morning lessons finish at 12 and then you have a break until 1:30pm where a new group lesson goes out for another two hours, again you would all go up and be assigned to your lesson. In a single day you could possibly work from 9am (early morning private) all the way through to 4pm when the lifts stop turning, even through lunch. Like I said they pack in the lessons for a short season.

Mount Hotham also have a child specific lesson area where the day is a little different. You will be assigned the level before going to line up, from there you will introduce yourself to the children and parents and take all the information you need – allergies, phone numbers etc. You then head out for either a full day of teaching (four hours) or a half day (two hours) with the same children all day.

What pay, tips, perks, training, etc does the job offer you?

Mount Hotham had a very good incentive with their work ethic and pay. For every 75 hours you worked you would go up a pay bracket, and with Australia having a high wage it was very beneficial to get the next 75 hours. They also had an incentive for private lessons of having an extra $3.50 an hour for every request you created, not a lot but it all adds up.

Tipping is an unknown thing with instructing but it does occur and when it does it is hugely appreciated. The actual form of a tip could range from money, to alcohol to buying you lunch.

The training given at Mount Hotham was frequent and also varied. They had levels specific for those wanting to gain higher qualifications, race training and park training. All of which you can dip in and out of.

The perks of being an instructor are obviously having a free season lift pass, discounted food and drinks, staff parties every month, prizes and being on the snow everyday! But there is also the other side of it; seeing someone go from an absolute beginner to riding down greens, blues or blacks. Or teaching a six year old and getting them to turn is just such an awesome thing to see.

I was sad to leave Mount Hotham. As with any season you create great friendships, a love for the place where you are living, the end of spring riding (love slush!). However I was also excited to leave as I had already had a reply to my application for instructing back at Fernie Alpine Resort, BC, the place where it all started. All I had to do now was start my regional work to gain another visa for Australia, fly home to say hi to the family and then fly on to Canada.

An eight hour flight, a six hour wait and then the seven hour bus journey to arrive at 2am on 26 November at the small town of Fernie. All worth it just to be back in town and look around to see the Three Sisters (mountains, not actual sisters), all five bowls and of course friends who I hadn’t seen in two years.

Great to be back in Fernie with good friends

I now had around 10 days to find a place to live for the season, sort my paperwork out and hand it all in. The one tip I would say with any season where you have to find your own accommodation is look early! I was lucky enough to be staying with friends until mid December before I found a reasonably priced room. So look early and think ahead with regards to the location of the property, price compared to rough income and whether you want to lease a house and find people to live with, or the opposite, find a room in a house to rent. Both have benefits and disadvantages.

In Fernie, What's a typical day instructing like?

The way lessons are set out in Fernie is different to that of Mount Hotham. In Fernie you will be booked on and can know what you will be teaching for the next seven days. This is nice as you can tell clients what days and times you are free or if needs be a lesson can be swapped around. 

Training at Fernie (George is second from right)

So at the start of the day you catch the bus and need to be signed in by 8:45am, then there is a training session at 9am every day for anyone who doesn’t have an early morning private. The session lasts around an hour but can go for a little longer, depending on who is taking it and what lessons you have, as child lessons start at 10am and adults start at 10:30am.
Once the training session finishes you head to line up and receive a class list, this slip of paper has the name of all the clients, their ages and length of their lesson (half day or full day). Again you will chat to the clients and find out their ability and form a lesson plan.

Both adult and child lessons finish at 12:30pm where you then have an hour for lunch. At 1:30pm you head down for line up again, for the afternoon both adult and child lessons start at 1:30pm but adults finish at 3:30pm and children finish at 4pm. This means that a child on a full day could be riding for 5 hours which you have to take into account, looking to see if there is fatigue and acting accordingly.

What pay, tips, perks, training, etc does the job offer you?

Fernie's pay scheme is almost the opposite to that of Mount Hotham's. You are on a fixed rate for the whole season, except for any new qualifications you gain during the season which puts your pay up. With any requested lesson you get 10% of the price paid by the client, this is a really good incentive as some lessons are up to $600. They also give you 10% of a any lesson booked through recommendations. For example as a snowboard instructor if I spoke to someone and told them of a first tracks lesson on skis and took them into the sales desk or gave them my business card I would gain 10% of that lesson price for recommending the lesson. Sweet!

The tips in Canada have been better than anywhere else, mainly because their culture is to tip, however again not everyone is aware that tipping your instructor is a done thing. For the perks, again it's discounted food and drink, staff parties, the incentive programme they have and the riding. You have training everyday for an hour and some days there is an afternoon session for three hours where real improvement can be made. A big perk for me is that the trainers I had for my Nonstop course are still here and take the sessions so it's almost like reliving the course, but I also know that the training I am being given is the best I’ve ever seen and had.

Not a bad office!

Do you have any particularly special stories from your seasons instructing?

I have enjoyed every lesson that I’ve taken out, purely because I am snowboarding and teaching others how to do it or how to improve, or how to spin or butter or anything they want to learn. Obviously you have the bad days where it’s raining or the wind has closed all but one run or it’s a whiteout. But you just make the most of what you’ve got and have fun with it and the clients will too. 

I mentioned in my last blog about the large Hawaiian man who had never seen snow, and that is possibly my favourite lesson still. But since then I have also had the chance to teach a 10 year old who could already shred the mountain and we had fun learning new things in the park, powder and piste. I also had the chance recently to teach a snowboarder who was already a Level 1 CASI but was looking to go for his Level 2 and just wanted an improvement lesson with information on what will be in the Level 2 exam. This lesson was completely different to anything I had done before but by the end of it he went away with new things to work on in his riding and new teaching techniques which I was stoked with.

What's it like "doing seasons" - community, culture, sport etc.

I am currently on my fifth season, three of which have been instructing back to back and I still love it. The chances that it gives me with travelling, meeting new people, riding new mountains, new experiences whilst working on a hill is just the best thing in the world. Yes, a season can be very tiring; the early mornings; long days of teaching in wind, snow, rain, sun; the parties. All of this can take its toll but the best thing to do is take a rest day when its your day off. Your body will thank you for it and those one or two days away from the hill can significantly improve your riding or skiing.

The only stress I find with back to back seasons is visas, and also having to apply and think about the next season whilst already on one. But again rest days like mine today give you time to look at visas, revamp your CV and write cover notes for the mountains you apply for.

What are your plans for the future?

I am currently training for my CASI Level 3 which I’m taking in March. At the end of this season I am flying back to Australia to work at Mount Hotham again. The plan from there is, if my Level 3 was a success, to come back to Canada and take my rookie evaluators course so that then I am able to get my Level 1 evaluator certification and hopefully take a Nonstop group on lessons for a week or cover anyone that needs it. If not then I am happy to just come back to Fernie Alpine resort to teach and try again at that Level 3.

And finally what advice do you have for people thinking of taking a course?

Anyone who is thinking about taking a course, the best advice I can give you is to ring Nonstop and chat to them. From that phone call I believe you will have a better understanding of what Nonstop is all about and what you want to do.

The choice of courses available is amazing, if you're wanting a gap year program they have it, if you're wanting to get into the industry they have multiple courses for that, if you want to just improve your skiing or snowboarding they have courses for that too. But the best thing about all of these courses is that they feel like a holiday.

I had the chance to work for Nonstop at the London Ski & Snowboard show and the amount of passion that Rupert, Max, Paul and Ellen all have for skiing and snowboarding is why I believe the Nonstop courses are the best, it’s all about having fun and doing what you love. Sliding down snow on some wood.

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