BASI LEVEL 1

Ally,
My posture problems probably came from a young age-I learnt to ski with my father who was an instructor himself-after me blaming him for not teaching me right he defended himself saying that at age 8 he didnt think I needed to know about "perpendicularity" to slope and "foragonal" movements-which to be fair I do remember telling him to be quiet and let me ski!
There were 2 racers on the course who actually struggled the most to get the real basics down!
Snowpack-the first aid course is a whole weekend and about £100, as I said before I have found it hard to do any shadowing as Xscape dont allow you to shadow unless you are a member of staff so be careful if you want to progress through the system-that was my initial goal too!

rossyhead wrote:
Snowpack-the first aid course is a whole weekend and about £100, !

The first aid requirement is widely misunderstood, any HSE approved first aid course is enough. I don't even think the information on the BASI site is correct, they say 12 hours which is an HSE re'qual which is what I do. A new qual' is supposed to be 24 hours according to HSE. Anyway, your local Red Cross or St Johns or college will almost certainly run a course. Or your employer can send you on a work one, some people don't want to be the official work first aider though of course.

If you want to do a focussed one then I'd do the REC, Rescue and Emergency Care version, I do that and FFH stuff as well.

My nephew did his BASI 1 through a scholarship with Interski. He did his shadowing in Meribel with an instructor he knew, while working in a bar in the evenings.

Last season he worked in Morzine, cleaning chalets and this season driving transfer coaches. The level one course has not been much use to him yet, but of course it is a start on the ladder. He needs to save the money to pay his level 2 course.
For now he's doing what he really wants to do, which is ski for fun.

Rossyhead,
The reason I wanted to know about your posture problems was because of all the stuff I said in the thread about 'why can't I turn left?'.

I think we all get used to ski-ing, walking, swimming etc. a certain way, and if we do it long enough it's very difficult to change.

I get the perpendicular bit, but what on earth are foragonal movements? And as a mother, I feel a lot of sympathy for your father!

Dids - I'm glad your nephew's having fun, doing what he likes best.

Ally

foragonal - forward, diagonal movement. Just of piece of nonsense speak beloved of nonsense speakers in the ski world whatever it's supposed to describe, the effect is to exclude people who don't know the jargon. The internet's full of similar nonsense.

Hi Ise,
Thanks, is the foragonal movement the one you do when you're pole planting, or do you do it some other time?

Ally

AllyG wrote:Hi Ise,
Thanks, is the foragonal movement the one you do when you're pole planting, or do you do it some other time?

Ally

Don't get trapped into talking about skiing in these terms, it's complete and utter nonsense and you'll only confuse yourself. Instructors should be able to talk about skiing without resorting to such utter silliness and we should ridicule those who use this sort of nonsense speak in an attempt to sound knowledgeable.

Ise,
As I've said before, I pretty much never understand what ski instructors say anyway, unless it's something like lean further foreward, or stand up straighter, and I find it helps if I have some idea of what I'm supposed to be doing, and know some of their terms, before I begin the lesson.

One of my last teachers, for example, was on about avalement going over moguls, and I only knew what she meant because I'd been studying the book beforehand.

Ally