Pro Ride Camper Rosie attended a 12 week snowboard Instructor course and after gained her CASI Level 1 & 2 Qualifications, applied and was accepted as an employee for Whistler Blackcomb Mountains. Here is the daily life of a snowboard instructor in Whistler!

Your day starts pretty early and you’re up and out before the sun’s up. You start to recognise the same faces at the bus stop with their travel mugs of coffee and it’s hard to resist inwardly smirking at the thought that your day is going to be a lot more fun than theirs. Once in the locker room the banter with your colleagues commences; shenanigans from the previous night, what the weather’s like, where the sweet spots on the hill will be today, and the on-going argument of rocker v camber… It’s still dark outside when you emerge and a small crowd of instructors has gathered at the bottom of the gondola. The upload is filled with cheeky cups of coffee and bites of breakfast, you tube clips of skiers crashing into fences, lesson and technique tips, and giggles at previous blunders. It’s a great time to pick the brain of those instructors and trainers you admire. At the top you gaze around picking out the fresh POW and corduroy slopes, watching the last groomers creep up to their huts. You strap on your snowboard and then your day truly begins…

At Whistler the instructors are very fortunate to have an extensive training program that includes these wonderful morning sessions where you get to ride the slopes before the public, watching the sunrise and getting the fresh lines. For some it’s a chance to check out the conditions, pick up some specific tips and tricks from a more experienced instructor, or simply bomb the hell out of slope and blow away the cobwebs of the night before. As well as the morning sessions, full day training sessions are held by some of the highest-level snowboarders in Canada. On a day off you can usually find a session to suit your current level and interests. Unfortunately while teaching there isn’t always the opportunity to push and improve your riding, but the optional training can give you that.

But training and personal riding aside, the teaching is awesome too. I remember learning how to snowboard as a teenager. It was pretty frustrating – I had been a good skier and returning to the bunny hill felt like a back step. It took me a good few days to learn how to turn and have that ‘click’ moment when it fell into place (yes I was a slow learner…) so the instructors needed to be very encouraging to keep up my motivation through those early days. Now I see the teenagers I teach go through the same frustrations, and it’s my role to keep them upbeat and recognise their daily achievements. Teenagers are a funny mix – they all learn at different speeds: some need pushing, some need to take it slow, some need constant encouragement, and some just need to be left alone to do it themselves. As an instructor my role is to read the group and give the individuals what they need whilst organising the group as a collective. It’s about multitasking and embracing a little bit of ADHD! Ultimately I want the people I teach to want to come back for more because they’ve had fun, pushed themselves and achieved something new.

It’s not always a great day though. Unfortunately with kids, and teenagers, lessons can swing both ways. You will never hit the mark for every single student, 100% of the time. But that’s because we all have our individual styles of teaching and people learn differently. So that’s ok. I try not to let a bad day of frustrations bring me down, I just try and learn from it. As instructors we are generally working by ourselves, but in a resort like Whistler there are multiple people who have had very similar experiences and can give you advice or a different perspective. Learning how to acknowledge my teaching style, but still accept and embrace my ability to change with experience has been an important journey I have shared with my colleagues.

I’m very fortunate to get a variety of lesson levels throughout my season so I never get bored. I still get the same thrill at seeing a beginner’s first turn as in my first winter and am constantly trying to find ways to simplify those steps. One of the best ways I’ve found to help my students is almost to mimic their body positions and riding so as to feel in my body what they are feeling and then be able to give them physical pointers to help them out. Then once a student is at a certain stage it is down to mileage: powder, ice, bumps, groomers, trees, steeps… Anything and everything. The students have such a great day going all over the mountain that they don’t realise what they’re actually achieving. Only once they have stopped thinking too much about the riding will I get them to think once again and start to refine their skills at a higher level. For me, the different groups, levels and personalities I teach are what keep it interesting and keep me coming back for more.

The work is not always regular and predictable – there are busy and quiet weeks. And the pay is not always great. But that’s not the point. With such a big snow school here in Whistler it’s easy to make friends and before you know it you are recognising faces everywhere around town. Whistler almost has a university town feel to it – friends are never more than a short 10min bus ride away, and everything is right here. There are the party people, the locals, the season Aires, and the families. I have had many a random unexpected evening making new friends and hanging out with old. It’s a bubble, but it’s a good bubble. And of course there is still the Pro Ride Snowboard Camps Family. Even five years after my original camp with the crew, I am still welcomed and accepted by Karen, the coaches and the campers. The coaches at Pro Ride have become friends and are some of my closest now here in Whistler.

I never expected to be doing this. Every year I say it’s my last and that I’ll go get a proper job and settle down, but here I still am. And I love it.

For more information on Snowboard Instructor Courses in Whistler please visit our Instructor Course Program Page or contact us via or ph/whats app