The club ski fields in NZ divide the season into themed weeks. It seems to be a way of filling the accommodation with similar groups of people so that families with young kids tend to stay with other young families, rather than crusty old club skiers or young boozehounds. I’m not sure just how strictly people adhere to the themes. Anyone is welcome at any time – it’s not like there’s a “you must be this old” restriction on the oldies weeks or anything, but I suspect that you might find that such weeks book out quickly as all the oldies organise to stay and ski together.
As an aside, one of the upcoming weeks at Broken River is “Scone Grabbers” week. Apparently “scone grabbers” is something of an idiom in kiwi English. To someone who has survived a Catholic school education, however, scone grabbers sounds like some kind of lewd double-entendre. It sounds like one of those insults you probably shouldn’t use because it’s not politically correct, but would still raise a chortle on any men’s sporting team (and probably a women’s sporting team as well – who knows what you guys get up to). It’s all the more awkward because it refers to young children, who are supposedly known for pinching the odd baked-good. If you called an event for young kids “Scone Grabbers Week” in Australia there would be a number of disapproving letters to editors across the nation and a stern visit from the local constabulary.
Anyway, last week was Telemark Week at Broken River. For some reason, tele skiing is unusually popular at BR. There are a bunch of club stalwarts that ride freeheel gear, as well as the usual assortment of visiting skiers. In fact, tele skiing is so popular during normal operations at the field that having a special week didn’t really seem to raise the number of tele skiers that much. However, with the end of the school holidays, there were way fewer alpine skiers (or as they like to call themselves, “normal skiers”). It was a bit like the nerds at school had formed their own gang as a roving band of tele skiers menaced the field, intimidating people with our impractical bindings and frequent falls.
One of the really neat things about the week was the presence of Greg and Marti, two New Zealand Snowsports Instructors’ Alliance instructors and examiners, who spent the first couple of days giving lessons and advice and the last three days running a Level 1 Telemark Instructor’s course. Skiing with these guys was particularly interesting because they both skied with really solid technique. There are lots of good tele skiers with bad technique who can ski fast and negotiate difficult terrain. Seeing skiers with genuinely good technique was cool because they could adjust their movement to suit the terrain. Rather than imposing their style of skiing onto the hill, they could use the terrain and ski fluidly through the variety of slopes and snow conditions on offer. It was most infuriating to watch.
One of the most enthusiastic proponents of freeheel skiing at Broken River, Jim, advised me to do the instructor’s course because it provided a great foundation in basic technique. Given that my skiing is total rubbish, I figured that might be worthwhile to I signed up. Surprisingly, I passed the course (although I only just scraped through on the bits that assessed actual skiing competence). More importantly, after three days of getting precise feedback on every ski run from some very switched-on examiners, my skiing has improved a bit. It’s a bit overwhelming to think so hard about every run and every turn, but it does pay off. It also gives me a slightly disturbing insight into the lives of the ultimate players I’ve terrorised as a Frisbee coach. So, thanks Greg and Marti for your help (and no doubt somewhat strained patience), and my apologies in advance to the NZSIA. I’ll try not to suck too terribly where anyone can see me.
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