fin Posted January 9, 2015 Report Share Posted January 9, 2015 Every year we try to do a few of these and I am always amazed at how much fun they are. We have contacts at some of the ski school here in Colorado and they get a group of their snowboard instructors to sign up and try alpine snowboarding for a day. We set all the gear up before hand at the shop based from their stats we get from a sign-up sheet. This was on Wednesday at Vail. Lowell Hart was the lead on this and organized the day. Conditions where pretty darn good, if I had to complain it was almost too warm and we had some soft snow where the sun was. The thing with these instructors is: They are skilled snowboarders They tend to listen and learn fast There is no fear, as they are generally comfortable at their hill So it tends to make for a very accelerated learning curve. And in one day we have introduced 10 new snowboarders to hard-booting! We do wish we could do these around the country at more ski schools but the logistics are too much right now. Keep in mind this is their first day on hard boots. Pretty amazing to watch. And big thank you to Donek Snowboards with helping us supply them with enough boards. 5 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mr.E Posted January 9, 2015 Report Share Posted January 9, 2015 This is great! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lowell Hart Posted January 9, 2015 Report Share Posted January 9, 2015 A huge thank you to Fin and Michelle for making this happen. All participants are completely stoked to throw mind-blowing arcs and are already looking forward to next time! Cheers and thanks again, LH Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dan Posted January 9, 2015 Report Share Posted January 9, 2015 Holy smokes, those guys are railing! Did you make any converts? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fin Posted January 9, 2015 Author Report Share Posted January 9, 2015 Time will tell if we made any full time converts. But at least we raised the awareness and that s a huge start. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kieran Posted January 9, 2015 Report Share Posted January 9, 2015 the facial expressions in each toeside pic are pretty much identical. heh Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pokkis Posted January 9, 2015 Report Share Posted January 9, 2015 Fin, that is more than great. We will try to copy that here latest next season, If we found volunteers to give boots and boards for test, and some instrutors to test :) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
OhD Posted January 9, 2015 Report Share Posted January 9, 2015 Gee - they look like regular people. Really happy regular people, but not all that God-like.... You sure they were snowboard instructors? 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SunSurfer Posted January 12, 2015 Report Share Posted January 12, 2015 So, when you have near ideal protoplasm learners, what are the essential points you (Lowell/Fin) tell them that allows them to make that much progress that quickly? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Denny Posted January 12, 2015 Report Share Posted January 12, 2015 Yep, we are simply regular people. Thanks for the photos and videos Lowell. And special thanks to Fin and Michelle for bringing out all that cool gear!!!! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Denny Posted January 12, 2015 Report Share Posted January 12, 2015 So, when you have near ideal protoplasm learners, what are the essential points you (Lowell/Fin) tell them that allows them to make that much progress that quickly? Same thing we tell our students - full commitment! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Denny Posted January 12, 2015 Report Share Posted January 12, 2015 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
queequeg Posted January 12, 2015 Report Share Posted January 12, 2015 (edited) Wow - that is super cool! These guys don't look like noobs at all! A clever way of maybe earning some converts too! Edited January 12, 2015 by queequeg Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
breeseomatic Posted January 12, 2015 Report Share Posted January 12, 2015 Hmm, now if we could only have a few satellite Bomber installations and have these events at different mountains to enlighten the instructors. There is so much more to snowboarding than skidding the tail on a rocker board. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
teach Posted January 13, 2015 Report Share Posted January 13, 2015 Those are some enviable turns! Nice photos, too, and a downright great idea! Props to those who made it happen. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lowell Hart Posted January 13, 2015 Report Share Posted January 13, 2015 While we were ready to help with proven and effective exercise lines and progressions, these guys all ride snowboards a lot and have a well-developed skill set they applied to the new (to them) gear. We went to a wide, well-groomed, mostly uncrowded, gentle to intermediate pitch on which to practice, underscored some key safety components, asked them to make sure they could skid to a quick stop from any point in a carved turn series (start, middle, finish toeside and heelside) and got the hell out of the way. Participants lapped the chairlift which served those slopes at their own pace, with small groups forming and dissolving, while Fin, Michelle, and Mark Lawes and Andreas Grogger (trainers who both came over from Keystone to join in on the fun) providing demos, tips, and suggestions when necessary. To foster a strong learning environment, we did have a big screen set up in the demo room which showed plenty of images of high performance carving while folks were set up on their gear, which may have helped folks get a general idea of the movements and mechanics they might be using when blasting arcs. At the end of the day we did video review and analysis to anchor learning, identify avenues for future development, and to celebrate a great day. Which it was. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
John E Posted January 13, 2015 Report Share Posted January 13, 2015 I'm jealous. These guys look better after one day than I do after years of struggling. I guess this says a lot for high skill levels combined with the best instruction techniques. And as Denny says - full commitment. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
b0ardski Posted January 13, 2015 Report Share Posted January 13, 2015 (edited) Nice work, props for proactive promotion of our niche. I'm really curious of the demographics; 15 out of 150 instructors? How many under 30s signed up for this? Our small snow schools in the inland northwest would be lucky to find anyone to even try "frootboots" let alone convert. I'll continue to prove by example that hardboots are not limited to gates & groomers but getting instructors to show interest, let alone take me up on a tryout offer is a pipe dream. Edited January 13, 2015 by b0ardski Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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