The Skiing Department Blog

Many people who enjoy skiing recreationally and reach a certain standard might start to think about taking steps to become a qualified Ski Instructor. This is becoming more and more popular in countries like the UK, where the standard of skiers has risen in the past several years. Meaning more and more courses and programs designed to steer people towards a Ski Instructors qualification have sprung up. Many skiers who decide to embark on this route of becoming a qualified ski instructor merely do so to improve their own skills and to teach occasionally throughout the winter months.

The other reason (and many would argue the main reason) for becoming a qualified ski instructor is to embark on a career of professional ski teaching. Improvements in conditions, pay and training have >> Continue reading

In this post, I intend to focus on the options that skiers, from the UK, have when deciding how to become a ski instructor.

The main route for ski instructor qualification, in the UK, is though BASI (British Association of Snowsport Instructors). Recently, BASI have introduced a new >> Continue reading

During the last several years there has been a proliferation of courses that specialise in the training of skiers with the aim of preparing them to qualify as ski instructors. Many of these courses are designed to improve the performance of the skiers which enables access to those who only wish to increase their skill, as well as those who plan to make a career out of teaching the sport they love.

Becoming a fully qualified ski instructor can take many years, but the first stage is to get the minimum qualification required to teach and go from there. This can be achieved fairly easily within a winter ski season (December to April in the Northern Hemisphere or June to September in the Southern Hemisphere). >> Continue reading

The debate regarding the question over ski helmets and skiing has been going on for many years. Recently, the news headlines have brought this subject to the public’s attention with the sad death of the actress Natasha Richardson.

There is debate and conflicting opinions regarding the effectiveness of helmets when skiing. Would Natasha Richardson still be alive if she was wearing a helmet? I cannot answer that question, but clearly a helmet can protect certain head collisions from causing more injury than if a helmet was not being worn.

The vast majority of skiers do not wear helmets and certainly throughout the history of skiing this has been the case. Downhill skiers have worn helmets for many years, although racers in other disciplines, such as slalom, giant slalom and freestyle have only >> Continue reading