Pablo Escobar wrote:jonah690 wrote:I did the Basi Gap in Andorra in 2001. At the time there were not many about and it was pretty good value considering we got daily personal tuition from Basi Trainers who are some of the best teachers in the world.
We stayed in a 5 star Hotel skied every day and have both personal performance and ski school experience teaching and shadowing.
Since then every man and his dog have jumped on the band wagon with Basi and the Canadians franchising out the courses. The prices have more than doubled and im not so sure you are gaurenteed the quality these days as its a business and there to make money rather than create the instructors of the future.
I spend around six grand over three months but that iincluded gear, course and an so much alcohol I feel sick just thinking about it however it is still the best six grand I have ever spend.
Would I do the same thing again probably not.
I would take my six grand book accomadation for a full season not just 3 months. Approach the ski school about shadowing. (most run there own personal performancce throughout the weeks FOC) and then just ski ski and ski then do the week induction and then the 2 week exams like the people that dont do a gap. You get double the amount of skiing,twice as much direct shadowing / teaching experience plus probably paid for the busy weeks helping out. Should work out cheaper as well. Which ever way its a fantastic and life changing experience. Good luck to him. Make sure he gets a proper qualification though i sat on a chair lift last year with a guy who had shelled out 8 grand on a course in canada and he came out with a canadian 2. make sure its at least a basi 2 or canadian 2 that they get at the end or its no use without doing more qualifications.
The CSIA don't franchise anything, that is absolute gash. More than doubled? Yawwn. Please don't start typing stuff in to the box before you really know what you are saying. Ta.
Ok Pablo Maybe Franchise was not the best word to use. What i meant was that Basi for instance used to only run instructor courses themselves so they were in control of quality and content but now there are a dozen companies and ski schools undertaking the gap courses and training churning out a vastly increased number of instructors and Basi do the examining at the end. I admit im not totaly in touch with the Canadian system but I think im right in saying that they work in a similar way. With regards to costs I paid £3000 for my course to do the same course now is a few quid under £7000 even allowing for inflation over the 8 years thats a lot more expensive.