First Chair: Psia-aasi Podcast

First Chair catches up with PSIA-AASI National Team Head Coach, Jeb Boyd, and PSIA-AASI Director of Education, Dave Schuiling, about PSIA-AASI's certification standards and the work that’s being done with PSIA-AASI’s education leaders, including the Education Leadership Council and the National Team, to update PSIA-AASI these standards. Learn about the journey PSIA-AASI’s education leaders have taken since the 2016 National Leadership Summit to work towards increasing consolidation, consistency and cooperation for PSIA-AASI’s education and certification programs. Learn how the updated certification standards will result in a clearer, more consistent path to success for you and all of PSIA-AASI’s members.

First Chair catches up with Zoe Mavis of Big Sky, Montana, and Pete Allison, from Penn State University about how to make a living as a full-time ski or snowboard instructor. Zoe and Pete share tips on how you can achieve success. Also, learn how you can advance from becoming a good to a great instructor through education and boosting your people skills.

First Chair catches up with Scott Mellin, global VP of mountain sports at The North Face and Nick Herrin, CEO of PSIA-AASI, about the new partnership between PSIA-AASI and The North Face. Learn how this partnership will give you access to the best gear to explore the mountain environment while you’re training the next generation of skiers and snowboarders. Scott and Nick also chat about how instructors help serve as a safe gateway for access to help educate the next generation of mountain athletes. Learn more about this new partnership: https://tinyurl.com/ybdq4rjs

There’s a saying that nothing gets you in better shape for skiing than actually skiing. But what if there’s no snow, like in the summer? Then you go inline skating! First Chair catches up with Rollerblade and chats with Andy Hare, director of partnership marketing, and Myles Cotter-Sparrow, product marketing coordinator. PSIA-AASI members receive special member pricing at https://members.thesnowpros.org/products/pro-offers

First Chair catches up with Ed Younglove and Eliza Kuntz, who discuss their role as the outgoing and incoming chair of PSIA-AASI’s Board of Directors. Hear Ed and Eliza’s stories about their journey and adventures with PSIA-AASI and how their love of teaching other people to ski and snowboard and the education they’ve received from PSIA-AASI has helped them both on and off the hill.

Greg Dixon serves as the new PSIA Telemark Coach for the PSIA-AASI National Team and he shares his story about his role and how over the last two years, he’s grown as a leader within the telemark discipline as PSIA transitioned from one single Nordic Coach, to two separate coaches, telemark and cross country. Greg’s leadership, combined with his passion the sport and PSIA-AASI, will help him provide dedicated support to the telemark discipline.

First Chair catches up with Andrew Weibrecht, a World Cup alpine ski racer and two-time Olympic medalist from the United States, about the Ligety Weibrecht Ski Camps taking place this summer at Mt. Hood, Oregon. Learn how the camp's organizers have adapted to today’s new normal and will incorporate some remote indoor learning opportunities to support their on-snow summer camps. Andrew shares how he’ll conduct movement analysis and provide feedback to each student via remote video conferencing.

Eric Rolls serves as the new AASI Snowboard Coach for the PSIA-AASI National Team and he shares his story about his role as a long-term veteran of the snowboard team. Learn more about Eric, who brings an open mind to the table with his leadership background in snowsports from his years of experience as Training Manager for Park City in Utah. He also talks about how he’s been integral in the development of PSIA-AASI’s Learning Connection Model, and how he’s going to continue to serve our association as his leadership capabilities expand with coaching experience.

PSIA Alpine Team member, Jonathan Ballou, talks about the situational application of PSIA’s Alpine Skiing Fundamentals, which serve as the technical foundation for “what” is taught with regard to pressure control, edge control, and rotational control – all of which promote skiing in balance. Learn why and how PSIA uses the Alpine Skiing Fundamentals as the foundation of technical content in ski lessons. Learn how you can adapt the skiing fundamentals to various skiing situations (carving, moguls, steeps, basic turns, etc.)

First Chair catches up with Chris Hargrave at Oregon’s Timberline Lodge about how the resort reopened on for limited skiing and riding. Timberline Lodge shut down for more than two-months due to the coronavirus pandemic, and Chris shares what the resort did and is continuing to do in order to reopen and stay open.

First Chair catches up with PSIA Alpine Team member Ryan Christofferson about new online learning opportunities that are available to all PSIA-AASI members. Check out how Western has set up and structured their digital learning opportunities and how you can hop in and continue your online learning this month on courses such as Alpine, Snowboard, and Telemark Remote Movement Analysis. Visit: https://www.facebook.com/pg/PsiaAasiWest/events/ View more PSIA-AASI online courses: tiny.cc/stayhomelearn

First Chair catches up with Erin Farrell, Katie Feucht, Deanna Swanson and Blake White about new online learning opportunities that are available to all PSIA-AASI members. Erin, Deanna and Blake share their experience about what it’s been like to participate in this Remote Movement Analysis 101 – Observation and Evaluation session and how it’s helping them continue their online learning. Visit: www.psia-nw.org/events View more PSIA-AASI online courses: tiny.cc/stayhomelearn

AASI Snowboard Team member, Chris Rogers, talks about the practical teaching applications of Snowboarding Fundamentals – which can be described as the combined movements of the body (flexion/extension and rotation) and Board Performances (pressure, tilt, pivot, and twist) that relate to the actions of the board and its interaction with the riding surface. Learn how movements of the body interact with Board Performances to create fundamental relationships of snowboarding and how you can apply these fundamentals in practical teaching progressions to facilitate deeper learning.

First Chair catches up with Gates Lloyd, director of the snowsports school at Colorado’s Arapahoe Basin about how the resort reopened on Wednesday, May 27 for limited skiing and riding for the rest of this spring season. A-Basin shut down for more than two-months due to the coronavirus pandemic, and Gates shares what the resort did and is doing in order to reopen this month.

First Chair catches up with Pete Allison, Jill Chumbley, Rick Lyons and Dave Schuiling about how PSIA-AASI is drawing ever closer to strategic alignment and how all PSIA-AASI divisions have adopted a 6-point scale to measure assessment criteria. This means that instructors training for certification, resort trainers, education staff, and divisional examiners will all be working out of the same assessment “tool box”.

First Chair catches up with PSIA Alpine Team member Ann Schorling about her work on the People Skills Fundamentals, one of the main tenants of PSIA-AASI’s Learning Connection framework. People Skills encourage an empathetic approach to students and their needs, and it promotes a relationship based on trust and respect. Ann chats about how incorporating people skills into your lessons can help you make decisions based on your student’s needs, motivations, and goals. Check out PSIA-AASI's webinars that will help you identify people/interpersonal skills as a separate, trainable, essential skillset. tiny.cc/stayhomelearn

PSIA-AASI and Volkswagen share a common passion for spending time outdoors in the winter and a focus on a sustainable future. Will Gock shares how VW provides all PSIA-AASI members and its eight divisions with access to the mountains and the outdoors in all types of weather with their vehicles that have 4Motion All-Wheel Drive. You and your household members are eligible to receive a special Partner Program pricing: http://tiny.cc/VWPartnerProgram

PSIA-AASI’s Educational Excellence Award program recognizes those exceptional few members who authored PSIA-AASI educational materials over the years and have added significantly to, and possibly even changed, the educational direction of PSIA-AASI. The Awards and Recognition Committee recently named Lane Clegg as the recipient of this award. Lane talks about the what it means to him to receive this award and all the instructors who have inspired him along the way. Learn more: www.thesnowpros.org/news

First Chair catches up with PSIA Alpine Teach Coach Michael Rogan about the PSIA Alpine Team training event that was held at Snowbasin earlier this season. Hear from Michael and Paul Guimond from Atomic on why it was important for the PSIA Alpine team to demo Super G skis and compare that experience to their skiing experience on slalom skis.

First Chair catches up with PSIA Cross Country Team Coach Emily Lovett. With only one term under her belt, Lovett has established her expertise, and she is now a leader within the cross country community. She understands not only the sport, but also the business side of cross country skiing. Her familiarity with encouraging participation will be a valuable asset as PSIA-AASI continues to provide more support for the cross country discipline.