How to ride a button lift / t-bar or drag lift
It’s one of the most common problems in snowboarding, but don’t let it become an issue for you. Learn how to banish your fears here.

Learn to ride bumps and moguls on a snowboard
Moguls are another common fear in snowboarding, but if you persevere you can actually start really enjoying the challenge that they present. Find out how to ride bumps here.

Learn how to wax and edge your snowboard
Servicing your own board can save you a stack of cash and is a good bonding experience. Learn how service your own board at home here.

Buying the right size and type of snowboard
Buying a snowboard can be pretty daunting… deciding which one to hire can be hard enough. Have a read through our guide here and make sure that you try out a few boards to get a feel for what you like.

Are Flow bindings any good?
It’s got to be one of the biggest discussions of all time in snowboarding. They are the marmite of the industry. Check out the pros and cons here.

How to become a snowboard instructor.
Being a snowboard instructor is seen as a dream job, but it’s by no means inaccessible. Here’s some advice on how to do it.

Want to know what it’s it like to be a ski or snowboard instructor?
We train hundreds of instructors every year and many have gone on to work around the world. Here are some of their stories.

Ever wanted to spend a season snowboarding?
We’ve got loads of info and options on nonstopsnowboard.com for those on a career break or gap year.

Check out some of snowboard courses, camps and holidays:
11 week snowboard instructor course
3 week snowboard instructor course
6 week ‘MTM’ off-piste course
3 week performance / development camps
2 week performance / development camps
2 week Snow Safari
2 week freestyle camp

Since 2002, we’ve trained over 2,000 ski and snowboard instructors, and plenty of those have gone on to work in ski schools around the world. Below is a list of stories about how many of them have gone on to “live the dream”…

Spike Lupton “From Graphic Designer to snowboard in instructor”
Spike chose to go on a career break with NONSTOP back in 07/08 and returns to Canada every winter to instruct in Cyprus Mountain. This blog goes into loads of detail about instructor training, as well as an insight into working in the ski school of a smaller mountain. Check out his story here.

Paul Cooper “From accountant to ski instructor”
Pauls story started back in 2004, when he came out to Red Mountain for our 11 week ski instructor course and later our 6 week course in Fernie. Since then he has passed his CSIA level 3 and returns to instruct in Silver Star every winter. Read his story here.

Ross Brown “Becoming a snowboard instructor, then teaching in Japan and the US”
Ross has made an amazing life for himself. After taking our Fernie 11 week snowboard instructor course, he went on to instruct in Japan then Lake Tahoe and has now gained his AASI level 3. Read his story here.

June Anstey “Training and becoming a snowboard instructor in Fernie, BC”
Since joining our snowboard instructor course in 07/08, June has made Fernie her home away from home, staying out in the winter and summer seasons. Read her story here.

Harriet “Training and teaching as a ski instructor in one season”
Harriet joined our early-season 3 week ski instructor course in Banff and then managed to secure a job in Norquay straight afterwards. It was a pretty amazing way to spend a gap year! Read her story here.

Nadine Wilding “A 3 week instructor course in Banff, leading to a season teaching”
Nadine took advantage of our early season level 1 ski instructor course and went on to instruct in the same season. Read her story here.

James Harper-Lewis “A typical day as an instructor”
James passed his Level 1, 2 and park instructor qualifications on NONSTOP’s 11 week Banff course and now instructs in Sunshine Village. Read his “day in the life of an instructor” here.

Mike Barnes “Gap year to full time ski instructor”
Mike joined NONSTOP in Fernie after finishing school in 2007 and, after qualifying as a CSIA level 2 ski instructor, went on to instruct at Cyprus Mountain. Read about his training and working experiences here.

Evan Bartlett “Gap year in Red Mountain”
Shortly after finishing school, Evan jetted over to Red Mountain in Canada to join our 11 week ski instructor course. There, he skied some of the best conditions and terrain in Canada and went on to pass his Level 1 and 2 CSIA exams. He now uses his qualifications to take working holidays, instructing kids in Courmayeur, Italy. Read his story here.

If you want to follow in the footsteps of our friends above, check out:

Ski instructor courses

Snowboard instructor courses

Tuesday saw the start of ‘boot-camp’, the two week build up to our examinations. Jase upped the intensity, and we set to work writing up lessons, practicing our demo turns and improving our personal skiing. Under Jase’s guidance, we all improved leaps and bounds, getting prepared for the exams.

We still found time to teach real lessons, honing in on the soft skills required to teach enjoyable and productive lessons. Also on the agenda was a day teaching mock lessons at the pub, making fool of ourselves as we went around singing the famous bear-hunt song (a routine made up by the NonStop crew last year teaching kids to get familiar with skiing on the flat).

After an exhausting week, in which our skiing and teaching skills improved no-end, we were full value for a lazy weekend, although we still managed to find energy to play football and have several late nights. Jason even summoned up enough energy to go up to Porters and teach on Sunday, while everyone else was having a well deserved lie-in, well rested ahead of a tough final week before the exams.

Here’s some footage of the crew honing their carving skills:

Ski instructor courses in New Zealand – Ski instructor courses in Canada

Being a ski instructor from the states, I’ve had my share of night skiing from California to Pennsylvania and a dozen states in between, but nothing could prepare me for a night on Broken River ski area in New Zealand.

Problem: ski area is 1000 meters out of reach in remote and steep terrain.

American solution: Tax the populace, spend years studying and weighing options, years to construct bridges, roads, guard rails and 2000 pages of regulations.

Kiwi solution: Take a day off, jump in your 4×4 all terrain vehicle and drive up the bloody hill.

I’m not kidding you! This is what happened! We were 5 deep in Jason’s 4×4 flying over boulders, blasting thru raging rivers and loving it! That’s right….my short 5 day trip to New Zealand to ski was more than just a ski trip -it was an amazing adventure! This was just the beginning. We park in what I can only describe as a clearing in woods and post-hole through the meter deep snow to a plywood make-shift mechanical device that uses old skis as brakes. Of course there is no supervision around; its ride at your own risk and did I mention that it’s getting dark? The plywood box only takes us a short distance to where  you have to hike another couple of hundred meters (with skis slung across shoulder) up steep, narrow and icy stairs to the ski area.

Alright so we are here, but where? Where are we?! Where is the ski slope and where are the lights? Jase says, “There it is mate.” pointing straight ahead to a 70’s style rope-tow with 3,4 no more than 6 light bulbs strung overhead to guide your way up the mountain. Are you kidding me?! What about the slopes? Aren’t they going to light the slopes? Jason replies, “Oh no mate. That’s it.”

At this point the tow rope is blasting skiers up the hill, but I sense something is different. Something is askew. This is not your daddy’s tow rope. This is tow rope 101 Kiwi style. To make it more challenging, you must wear a harness with a metal hook attached called a nutcracker. With the skills and timing of a professional boxer delivering a one two knock-out punch, you are expected to 1) grab the rope with one hand and 2) at the right time flip this nutcracker up and around the rope with the other. This must be done quickly or the rope will pull your fingers through crushing pulleys and possibly severe one or two fingers along the way. Needless to say I watched a few others before I tried my hand at it and after two failed attempts, I was successfully screaming up the mountain into the dark of night.

The nutcracker only works as long as you are applying pressure to keep it closed, so you can imagine how tired and strained your arms and hands get just trying to survive the way up. To add more adventure to your ride, the Kiwis have put in a midway station where skiers and boarders are jumping off the tow and more adventurously jumping on. One can not see this area of carnage until one is upon it. So there I am shooting up the mountain in the dark with achy arms. I can’t see anything, but I can hear a volunteer director of traffic shouting commands, “Ok jump in there mate….no too late jump off! Ok ready? GO…GO….GO!” by this time I’m coming over the ridge and it’s too late. I decide to give my best Kiwi impersonation by throwing an elbow to the ribs of the on-coming boarder and yelling, “Get out the way mate!”

Alas I make it to the summit and immediately lock eyes with a Kiwi that gives me the biggest smile as if to say that I’m a part of the few that made it. He gives a wink and plunges into the abbess of darkness. After standing there for a few minutes, my eyes adjust to the dim lit slope and a whole world comes into focus. It is beautiful. The slope is steep and deep and skiers and boarders alike are shredding down the hill in a dance like rhythm. I turn my skis downhill and proceed to whoop and yell in ecstasy at every turn.

We skied a good two hours into the night, enjoying the next run more than the last. I found myself in conversation with various skiers that night expressing to them that this could never happen in America. Then it dawned on me that this had happened in America, albeit 70 years ago. I’m from Aspen where conveyance is a given and pampering is expected and I often wonder what it was like in those early years of Aspen when things where simpler and die hard conditions ruled the town. Thanks to my Kiwi friends, now I know. I’m not saying that New Zealand is destined to turn into an Aspen, but if you drive up the mountain and you see a valet parking sign, then you know that you’ve missed the ADVENTURE!

Kevin McDonald
Aspen ski instructor

New Zealand ski instructor courses – Canadian ski instructor courses

We have just had an email from a friend at SkiSchoolJobs.com who has notified us of some fantastic ski and snowboard instructor jobs open to you in Canada and America.  They are looking for Level 1 and 2 instructors to fill many positions in resorts such as Mt Seymour, Big White and Cyprus Mountain Canada amongst many others. There are also ski & snowboard instructor positions in the USA still available

Sponsored Visas:
For those of you who have not yet secured your visas, they have a limited number of sponsored visa spots available at Mt Seymour, so get applying!  And remember, if you are applying to a couple of resorts – be sure to tailor each application to the separate resorts.

You can find the jobs that are available online here:  www.skischooljobs.com

Good luck and let us know how you get on!

If you have not yet got your ski & snowboard instructor qualifications and are interested in getting them why not check out the range of courses that we run…

I want to become a ski instructor: click here
I want to become a snowboard instructor: click here

All this, and more, are summed up perfectly in this hilarious illustrated account of a trans-atlantic flight:  http://niemann.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/08/03/red-eye/

A few years ago I had a ‘penny drop’ moment: the journey can be fun, in fact it should be fun, it’s all part of the experience of going on holiday.  Sadly flying is pretty much your only option if you want to go from Europe to Canada (although for those with time it is possible to pay for a spot on a cargo ship) but for shorter trips there are alternatives which are way more fun and offer a much richer holiday experience. Taking the train, catching a ferry, or cycling are all far more interesting and eventful ways to travel and have the added bonus of being better for the environment. Nowadays my holiday starts as soon as I leave my front door.

A couple of links:

Amazing advice site for train travel: www.seat61.com

Low carbon travel ideas: http://loco2travel.com

The week started with Porters being closed for two days, due to strong winds and avalanche danger. Instead we headed out to Mount Cheeseman (that’s actually the name of the mountain, and not just us being funny). While waiting for the mountain to open, Alice and Sophia engaged in a game of Extreme Ping Pong (playing with full ski equipment, including helmets and goggles) hitting the ball 72 times in a row! Amazed by our achievement, we ventured onto the mountain to conquer Short Turns. Impressed by our skills, Jase turned up the heat by creating another Powder 8 competition which we won (we are tempted to say of course!). Nick had at this time already given up due to his ankle injury, which he got by falling down the last two steps of the stairs. Epic, Nick! Tuesday was also a closed day in Porters and us girls decided to go to Christchurch for some shopping. We are not really sure what the guys did, but they looked well-rested.

Wednesday the skies cleared and the winds settled down to let Porters open again. Busses with hundreds of school kids arrived early for a taste of the snow and life as a skier. We were thrown right into it again and with our instructor jackets on, we paired up with real instructors and got to teach. We don’t know how it happened, but somehow Sophia ended up with her own group of teenage boys. Epic! Alice and Nick were actively catching their students to stop them from hitting the fence. Only one little tiny mini note to that, they both had students three times their size putting their strength to the test!

Thursday we paired up with each other to teach a group. Sophia & Andrew, Nick & Jason together and Alice went for a free ski. While Jason was playing “head, shoulders, knees and toes” with his part of the group, Nick was constantly running after his kids to stop them from hitting the fence. Andrew and Sophia had the slightly more distracted kids and they both looked like they had been through a marathon at the end of it. But everyone was still smiling.

In the evening we prepared for the epic night, “Aspen Extreme” night, themed around the 1993 ski movie. Everyone rocked their best retro gear (including one-piece suits) and joined the shots-rewarded movie quiz. Not more shall be said about this night, other than this: Alice ended up packed into a snowboard bag she had just won for best cougar outfit.

Nick’s friend Kevin arrived Friday from Aspen only 24hours after Aspen Extreme night and unfortunately missed out, but more than made up for it with great Cougar/Ski-instructor stories at the dinner table.

Saturday, a day we had all waited for. The All Blacks were meeting the Wallabies (translated, New Zealand vs. Australia in Rugby) in Christchurch. More than 20 Porters staff and skiers had tickets and the tone was set for a great night! We started by eating Chinese (quite unrelated really, but very tasty), and then we took our seats. Although Munchkin was hoping for a miracle, the All Blacks won 20-10 and it was exciting to see them in action, especially the Haka at the beginning. Unfortunately they had their backs against us while they did it, but that didn’t seem to bother the girls too much.

On Sunday night everyone slowly recovering from the rugby night. It rained in Springfield all day, and snowing on the mountain. The guys headed to Broken River for a night ski in the powder while the girls stayed in, to lick their battle wounds from a tough week. Ready for another one, bring it on!

New Zealand ski instructor course

Canadian ski instructor courses

Canadian snowboard instructor courses

5) The Sno Deck

Pitched as “the winter alternative to skateboarding”, this is one of the many attempts to motorise a board. Unlike its competition, the Powerboard and the Snowcarver, this lacks speed… well, unless you forget about the motor and point it down a hill. But, if you do that, just make sure there isn’t a stream at the bottom of the hill (see 50secs in).

4) Yibb

Fact: Hands are heavy.
Fact: You can’t rest your hands on a regular snowboard.
Fact: Binding are expensive.
Solution: A snowboard with handles.

3) New Snowboard Design

This “freerides like a snowboard”, gives you “freedom like a surfboard” and allows you to do “tricks like never before”…. I’m in, where do I get one? And do the Flow bindings come with it? Even better!

Check out the video here.

2) Storm Snowboards

Myth: You have to be strapped in to turn
Myth: You have to turn to slow down
Myth: You have to face sideways to ride
Myth: You have to stand to ride a snowboard
Myth: You are perfectly sane if you think that riding a snowboard with no bindings and a foot break is the way forward.

1) Bulldog’s “Hybrid Ski”

This one’s courtesy of Whitelines, who I’m sure see more whacky ideas than most, as every hair brained snowboard inventor and their dog approach them for exposure. It’s not original thinking to try and turn skis into a snowboard; splitboards are an awesome invention. But Bulldog’s “hybrid ski” is a little more bizarre… and doesn’t seem like the most enjoyable thing to ride. I know, let’s progress snowboarding by reducing riding capability… but make it look really exciting by adding a hard-core metal sound track. Genius:

And finally…

We’ve got to give a mention to another ski to snowboard invention. It didn’t quite make the top five. As sketchy, out of control and unstable as the Deuce Snowboard looks, you’ve got to give props to the guy for putting his life on the line and getting a bit of speed up:

Want to know more about this ground breaking technology? Check out this “Disrupting the Snowboard Industry” article.

If you’ve seen some wacky snowboard inventions, paste them in the comments below!

NONSTOP Snowboard instructor courses and improvement camps

Ski instructor courses and improvement camps

Following some more work on our personal skiing on Monday, we visited Broken River, another local ski field, on Tuesday.  The weather in the morning did us no favours. The snow felt awesome but, after a couple of runs skiing by touch in zero visibility, we decided to take refuge in the lunch hut.  This isn’t as basic as it sounds – lots of space, warm, free tea and coffee, cooking facilities etc. – and friendly locals.

Shortly after lunch, the clouds lifted almost instantaneously, a big cheer went up, and everyone (all 30 of us) rushed out to enjoy the fresh tracks in dry powder in bright sunshine.

On Wednesday, we experienced our first lessons from the other side of the fence.  Sophia got a head start on the rest of us as she was allocated to an early lesson, shadowing Swedish instructor Andreas, and being given plenty of opportunity for some hands on experience.  Unfortunately, the expected busloads of children from local schools failed to appear, the rest of us still got the chance to observe another beginners’ lesson, with occasional opportunities to pitch in and help the slower learners along – a valuable experience.

During a brief free skiing session, Sophia took over from Alice and attacked Bluff Face again – with her face:  Bluff Face 1 Alice & Sophia 2.

On Thursday, the group split up, with the girls deciding to work further on their personal skiing at Porters, while the guys went off to Craigieburn Valley ski field.  We were joined by Martin (2009 Nonstopper, now working at Porters, aka God).  Although it hadn’t snowed for a couple of days, we still found plenty of fresh tracks, and the terrain and weather were both awesome. Check it out in the video below:

Then on Friday morning, the busloads of schoolchildren did turn up and we each had a class to follow and get involved in.  For a couple of us, that wasn’t enough and we stayed on to give a few more hints (hopefully not too misguided) after the lessons were over and the real instructors had gone on to their next lessons.

Friday afternoon was another session on personal ski development.  After a few weeks of frustration as we all had our tried and tested (?) techniques dismantled and reconstructed, we’re now beginning to see the benefits.

In the evening, we all celebrated “UK Day”.  Under God’s guidance, the British staff at Porters decided that we ought to have a national day to celebrate and 30^th July was chosen, as the day England won the ’66 World Cup – not such a popular choice with the Welsh and Scots, but still.  Jason, our resident Aussie, celebrated more than most – which was just as well as he didn’t have much to celebrate on Saturday night!

Stay tuned for more updates from our New Zealand Ski Instructor Course.

Join NONSTOP Ski & Snowboard on Facebook.

Find out all about our ski instructor courses here and snowboard instructor courses here.

After an in-weekend, we were all itching to go skiing again and see whether our skis had survived our first attempt at tuning them. Monday saw us each receive hour-long private lessons from our magnificent teacher, Jase. We all felt our skiing come along leaps and bounds, and we also had a chance to rip up the slopes of Porters. To Alice and Jason, this meant swapping skis, with a different make of skis on each foot and then act surprised when it went a bit pear-shaped. After a hard day’s skiing, it was time for the weekly staff night at Springfield Pub. Although it couldn’t match the excitement of the horse-rapping the week before, a good time was had by all, especially Alice. Fortunately for some, Porters was closed the next day, giving people a chance to nurse their hangovers and catch a bit more sleep. However, there was no rest for the wicked, as we had a very productive day doing some indoor lessons. I mean that quite literally, as we took it in turns to teach each other how to ski on the carpets of Springfield Pub. This proved to be the first of two ways we discovered this week in how to make a fool of ourselves in front of large groups of people.

After the anguish of a closed day on Tuesday, we received just reward in an amazing powder day at Porters. After several warm-up runs to rediscover how to ‘pow-pow’, we decided to head up to Bluff Face, the steepest run on the mountain. It was at this point that the clouds mercifully gave us a break for a while, leaving us with a perfect powder run and a chance for Alice to get acquainted with the snow. In return for the crater left in her wake, she received a rather large face full of snow. Round 1: Bluff-face 1, Alice 0. After the exhilaration of the perfect run, I was brought back down to earth with a bump, when the lift stopped and I stupidly dropped my pole. Penalty: a round of Pimm’s for the girls. After lunch, we took Bluff-face a step further, and undertook a twenty minute hike to get to the top of Allison’s peak. Another glorious powder run ensued, giving Alice another chance to get cosy with the snow. This time, Alice was prepared for the onslaught and responded with a fantastic head butt. Round 2: Bluff-face 1, Alice 1. As it was a tie, victory was handed to Alice for KO’ing the mountain with a slap and a head butt. To be continued…?

With all of the fresh powder falling around us, the timing of the avalanche course on Thursday was perfect. We learnt how to use transceivers, running around the top of the mountain trying to recover a buried transceiver. Jason’s transceiver somehow ended up a metre and a half under the snow after somebody dug a hole down to China in order to ‘simulate a real-life situation’. I wonder why he is now plotting against me now…? After skiing around looking at safe-spots, potential avalanche slopes and the effects of wind, we dug holes where we analysed different layers of snow. We all went away with a good understanding of avalanches, which will serve us well in the future.

On Friday, we made our way down south, to Lake Tekapo and the nearby ski fields. First up was round-hill and our first encounter with the dreaded nutcracker lifts. These lifts are basically rope tows which we attach ourselves to using harnesses and a metallic device called a nutcracker. As if this was not tough enough to master, we decided to make our first attempt on the longest and steepest one in the world. Several attempts later, we were all up, although we were too exhausted to make a decent attempt of what was a difficult run, especially in flat light. Full credit goes to Andrew who decided once was not enough and went back up with Jase while the rest of us decided to hone our café-skiing skills. After we all tired ourselves out, we headed into Lake Tekapo, where we saw a magnificent turquoise lake and bore witness to a phenomenal sunset. Not content with what was already a great day, we discovered our second way of making fools of ourselves in front of large groups of people at the backpackers lodge. This came in the form of a board game called Cranium. The highlights included Sophia, Jason and Jase bouncing around pretending to be Telletubies and Jase trying to demonstrate Hot Pants by stripping down to his underwear and pretending to be a woman. Andrew and Jason eventually prevailed, winning the game and we finally decided to head to bed to catch some rest ahead of what proved to be our best skiing day of the trip so far.

There were a few weary eyes as we took the long access road and a few were feeling a bit cranky from the early start. After a few minutes that was all forgotten about while we skied down never-ending fresh tracks, having the time of our lives. Inspired by the movie ‘Aspen Extreme’, we held a powder-8’s competition (two skiers skiing one-behind the other, forming figure-of-eights). Jase and Andrew won after myself and Jason stopped to watch and applaud Sophia’s epic crash during her and Alice’s attempt. As the runs on-piste started to get clogged up by other skiers, snowboarders and a random snow-tricyclist (what is that about, anyway?), we decided to push the boundaries (don’t worry NONSTOP, it is perfectly legal in New Zealand!) and found endless fresh tracks which we willingly indulged in. After what was unanimously agreed had been our best powder day, we went back to the metropolis of Springfield to watch the rugby, where the Aussies, much to Jason’s delight, smashed the Springboks.

Sunday was a rest day, which meant a much deserved lie-in and a bit of free time. The guys decided to have a ski tuning session, talk about the rugby and generally relax while the girls went off to Christchurch to have a manicure and pedicure. All they really cared about though were the massage chairs. I could swear they were recruited in Christchurch as salesmen judging by the way they were drooling over them! A nice relaxed day was the perfect way to recover from a hectic but amazing week in New Zealand, although we still found a way to make further fools of ourselves by playing another round of Cranium in Springfield Pub!

Until next time
Nick

Ski instructor courses in New Zealand – Ski instructor courses in Canada – Snowboard instructor courses