Welcome to episode 63 of The Ski Instructor Podcast, this week featuring Jamie Kagan and Derek Tate of the Professional Ski Instructors of Europe (PSIE). The PSIE is a sister organisation of the PSIC, Professional Ski Instructors of Canada and shares much of the same pathway and framework as that organisation. There will be tweaks to the pathway fo…

Welcome to episode 62 of The Ski Instructor Podcast. One of my big regrets of all of the previous episodes that I have recorded was the poor sound quality on the original Tom Gellie episode. So I got back in touch with Tom to have another long chat about skiing and the latest development and direction that he has gone with his business, Big Picture…

Welcome to Episode 61 of The Ski Instructor Podcast. This week my guest probably needs no introduction as you will have all seen Deb's YouTube channel http://www.youtube.com/@DebArmstrongSkiStrong but you probably haven't read her bio on what an extraordinary athlete she was in the 70's and 80's, culminating in her greatest success, the GS women's …

Welcome to episode 60 of The Ski Instructor Podcast, this week featuring an avalanche awareness special with Julian Griffiths of European Snowsports. Julian's ski school has lost two instructors free skiing in the last three years to avalanches and this episode is a summary of the police investigation report in to the most recent one, in which Joel…

Hey everyone, welcome to episode 59 of The Ski Instructor Podcast. For this episode, I had long and interesting conversation with John Eames, Director of The Off Piste and Telemark Ski Company and former telemark director for BASI. This conversation is quite telemark centric and covers John's skiing background, the rise and fall of telemark skiing,…

Welcome to episode 58 of the podcast and an interview I did with Perry and Jeff from the new Canadian ski instructor association, The Professional Ski Instructors of Canada, PSIC. We had a great wide ranging chat, talking mostly about the new organisation and their objectives but also chatting other things like Interski, attracting new people into …

Welcome to episode 57 of The Ski Instructor Podcast, this week featuring a return to the pod for Jon and Tom. Jon and Tom have gone in a new direction with their own ski instructor training company, Level Up Ski Coaching. You can find them here: www.levelupskicoaching.com Insta and FB @levelupskicoaching In this episode we chat all things to do wit…

Welcome to episode 56 of The Ski Instructor Podcast and finally, I get round to doing the Q+A episode that I promised you all so long ago. I was on a week long motorbike tour with Phil Brown of Impulse Racing and we had a chance to sit down one evening overlooking Lake Como and go through the questions that you all sent in. I want to thank you for …

Welcome to episode 55 of The Ski Instructor Podcast and part 2 of my chat with Darren Turner. I travelled to Aosta in the autumn to chat with Darren about his life in skiing, his career as an instructor and his subsequent changes of direction after skiing. Darren grew up skiing in the UK and Europe, eventually becoming an independent instructor in …

Welcome to episode 54 of The Ski Instructor Podcast. I travelled to Aosta in the autumn to chat with Darren Turner about his life in skiing, his career as an instructor and his subsequent changes of direction after skiing. Darren grew up skiing in the UK and Europe, eventually becoming an independent instructor in Serre Chevalier in France. As well…

Welcome to episode 53 of The Ski Instructor Podcast. This week I have an Interski Review Podcast for you with Derek Tate. Derek went to Interski 2023 in Levi in Finalnd and reports back on some of the seminars and on snow practical sessions that he attended. The theme at this years' Interski was the 'Guest Experience' which as many of you know by n…

Welcome to episode 52 of the podcast. This week I have the second part of a 2 part interview I did in the autumn with Stuart Bernard of Ski Focus. Stuart splits his time between working in the snow domes in the UK and skiing with clients in Tignes. We chatted about the value of indoor practice, bumps, marketing and more on bad backs and mental appr…

Welcome to episode 51 of the podcast. This episode I have the first part of a 2 part interview I did in the autumn with Stuart Bernard of Ski Focus. Stuart splits his time between working in the snow domes in the UK and skiing with clients in Tignes. We had a wide reaching chat talking about Stuart's journey to becoming an instructor, ski philosoph…

Hello and happy new year to you all. I hope that Santa brought you all new skis and lots of snow. So here we are at episode 50 of The Ski Instructor Podcast. I'm personally amazed that I have managed to find enough content to keep this interesting for 50 episodes and 80,000 downloads. For the 50th episode, which also doubles as the late Christmas s…

Welcome to episode 49 of The Ski Instructor Podcast and part 2 of my interview with Simon Jones, who is the head freestyle coach at Kimberley in Canada. Simon is originally British but now lives full time in Canada, coaching skiing in the winter and golf in the summer. In this episode we discuss the CSIA structure, client service, teaching of both …

Welcome to episode 48 of The Ski Instructor Podcast. It's been a while since the last podcast, the autumn is a super busy time for me given my role at www.snow-pros.ski This week, I present to you part 1 of a great interview with Simon Jones, who is the head freestyle coach at Kimberley in Canada. Simon is originally British but now lives full time…

Welcome to episode 47 of The Ski Instructor Podcast, this week featuring Federico Wenzel from Argentina. The summer heat here is finally fading and there is an autumnal feeling in the air at higher altitudes. I had a great chat with Federico who is working his way through the Argentine ski instructor qualifications. We touched on many topics, inclu…

Welcome to episode 46 of The Ski Instructor Podcast, this week featuring Harry McFadden part 2. Our conversation carries on and in part 2 I finally put to bed my questions about the Japanese technical champs. We also talk about China, Italy and this summer's NZ season. Finally we talk tech on where the turn comes from. I hope you are all well and e…

Welcome to episode 45 of The Ski Instructor Podcast, this week featuring Harry McFadden part 1. Hopefully this episode will be just in time for the start of the New Zealand winter and will provide some inspiration for all those heading to NZ to ski. We chat on a wide range of topics including getting your new season going, fatigue between seasons, …

Welcome to part 2 of The Ski Instructor Podcast's episode with Helen Trayfoot who is an independent instructor based in Chatel, France. This week we chat more about teaching children to ski, female representation in snowsports, teaching in a french ski school and some general technique chat, including pole swing weight. I really enjoyed chatting wi…

Welcome to part 1 of episode 43 of The Ski Instructor Podcast. This episode is with Helen Trayfoot who is an independent instructor based in Chatel, France. We chat about her twin journeys towards French nationality and full certification. We then go on to discussing teaching children to ski, which is the main focus of these episodes. New York City…

Welcome to episode 42 of the podcast and to one that I have been a long time getting round to recording. Colin Martin is a boot fitting specialist who looks after my own boots. He is based in Bicester in the UK and is always on my list of places to visit when I go back to Blighty. In this episode we chat all things feet and boots, as well as some r…

Welcome to episode 41 and this year's Christmas special roundtable chat. Joining me were Phil Brown of Impulse Racing, Julian Griffiths of European Snowsports and Steve Hindman from the US Nordic Demo Team. We chatted on a wide range of topics from topics as diverse as mince pies to the last two years running a ski business during covid. We talk al…

Welcome to episode 40, the second part of my interview with Jon Ahlsen. In this one, we go a lot more in depth about skiing and we get into detail about different national ski systems, lots (more)chat about the Japanese technical champs, an insight into the mind of a national team race coach, in depth technical discussion and a review of last winte…

In episode 39 and 40 of the podcast, I chat to Jon Ahlsen. I went to his place in Verbier and spent a wonderful 2.5 hours chatting all things skiing and life in general. Jon is a deep thinker on most subjects and I very much enjoyed getting to know him more that I already did. We chat in part 1 about summer skiing on the glacier, corparate life vs …

This week I have a great interview that I did with Dan Egan, US ski hall of famer and author of a new skiing book '30 years in a white haze' which you can find here https://www.white-haze.com Dan has featured in numerous Warren Miller ski movies and runs his own ski camps in the US and Europe www.skiclinics.com We chat about all things skiing, grow…

Welcome to episode 37 of The Ski Instructor Podcast and part 2 of this interview with Peter Kuwall. I had so much to talk to PK about that I had to extend this interview across two episodes. We carry on our interview and talk about the effects of Brexit, transcendent performance, his time on the BASI board and the long awaited living in a barn stor…

Welcome to episode 36 of The Ski Instructor Podcast and one that I have been looking forward to since I first began drawing up my list of people I wanted to speak to. Peter Kuwall is my guru, a guy who has probably forgotten more about skiing than I will ever know. We talk about how he came up in the industry, the boom years of Scottish skiing, how…

Welcome to episode 35 of the ski instructor podcast which will be the episode that takes it past 50,000 downloads. I'm a bit late publishing this one, I've been out recording podcasts and generally doing other stuff not related to skiing. This week, I had the chance to record a lovely interview with John Greenwood, who runs the Silksworth Dry Ski C…

Welcome to episode 34 of The Ski Instructor Podcast and this week's interview is with Alessandro Cambon of Beau Soleil International School and Alpine Italy. Ale is a BASI level 4 and trainer but is originally from Italy. We had a lovely chat in his home in Gryon and we covered lots of ground in this podcast including pole vaulting, life and work s…

Welcome to episode 33 of The Ski Instructor Podcast. I recently had the opportunity to speak with Federico Sollini from Subzero Coaching in Zermatt. Fede runs ski instructor training and physical performance coaching and has worked at high levels with professional athletes as well as aspiring ski instructors. We talk at length on topics such as why…

Welcome to Episode 32 of The Ski Instructor Podcast and the one that will take us past 45,000 downloads of the pod. Every now and then I look at the blog stats and I'm amazed by how many people are listening to this podcast. This week I have an interview with Giles Lewis of The Development Centre (TDC) in Val-d'Isere. Giles is also a member of the …

Welcome to episode 31 of The Ski Instructor Podcast. I went to Verbier to meet up with Toby Mallock who runs both Performance Ski School and Powder Extreme. We had this chat in mid December and so some of the content relating to covid is a little out of date but there is still some great chat about off piste skiing and all things Verbier. I love th…

Welcome to episode 30 of The Ski Instructor Podcast and this winter's Christmas special. I had the chance to interview Blair Aitken of British Backcountry and we talked on numerous subjects including his skiing and racing career, Scottish skiing culture and how that has changed in recent years. We also talk about skiing in the Scottish backcountry …

Welcome to episode 29 of the Ski Instructor Podcast this week featuring Alex Armand from Tip Top Ski Coaching in Les Deux Alpes in France. In what has turned out to be a very timely interview, we discuss the french state's current position on skiing, Alex's skiing history, brexit (again!), skiing in the mask age and much more. I really hope that yo…

Welcome to episode 28 of The Ski Instructor Podcast sponsored by www.kaestle.com This week I chat with Richard Fetherston of Snowbility, a company that specialises in inclusive snowsport. Richard and his team work with skiers of all ages who don't thinking or learn like the rest of us. I tripped myself up a few times calling this adaptive but it's …

Welcome to episode 27 of The Ski Instructor Podcast sponsored by Kaestle skis. This week I am joined by Andy Rose of Snow Camps Europe in Kaprun to give us an Austrian perspective on skiing. I know Andy pretty well and I think this comes across in the relaxed style of this interview. If you're into cats or dogs, you're in for a treat in the opening…

Welcome to episode 26 of the podcast and one that will push us through 33,000 downloads! Thank you for all of you that have been in touch, downloaded the podcast and been a part of it. Thank you also to www.kaestle.com for their kind sponsorship. This week I have a recording that was made in late July in Zermatt with Demian Franzen. Demian is an ed…

This week, I travelled to Verbier to meet for a second interview for the podcast, Julian Griffiths of European Snowsport. This podcast is sponsored by www.Kaestle.com This was something of a covid special and in this episode we attempt tomato sense of the season just gone and what skiing will look like this winter for instructors and ski schools. W…

Hello and welcome from a sunny Switzerland to Episode 24 of The Ski Instructor Podcast. This podcast is sponsored by Kaestle Skis www.kaestle.com This week I have a fun interview with Lynn Mill of Val D Ski Instructors. Lynn is also a BASI trainer and National Education Team member as well as an ex-racer for Great Britain. We had a brilliant and fu…

Welcome to episode 23 of the ski instructor podcast sponsored by Kästle Skis. The ski I talked about in this episode is the FX86 - https://www.kaestle.com/en/alpin/skis/show/fx86/ This week, I chat to Josh Foster, former Ski School director at Big White and various other places but now running his own business Snowsports Unlimited. We talk on a wid…

Welcome to Episode 22 of The Ski Instructor Podcast sponsored by Kästle Skis. https://www.kaestle.com/en/ In May I had the chance to go and meet Tom Waddington at his B&B Una Lodge in Le Châble, near Verbier. I've known Tom for a long time but it was lovely to have the time to sit down with him and chat all things skiing. We covered a wide range of…

Welcome to episode 21 of The Ski Instructor Podcast. This will be the episode that takes us over 25,000 downloads of this podcast and I thank everyone that is taking the time to listen to these. In this episode, I chat to former BASI trainer Andi McCann who was also my examiner for the Level 3 technical exam a long time ago. I got a lot out of that…

Welcome to episode 20 of The Ski Instructor Podcast. Firstly, I can't believe we are on episode 20 and over 24,000 downloads of the podcast and counting. I want to thank you all for listening to my conversations, thank the guests for their time and knowledge and to thank all of you for listening and getting in touch. This podcast is with Ed Drake, …

Welcome to episode 19 of The Ski Instructor Podcast. This episode is a bit of a departure from normal in that I'm not interviewing a skier. However, there is lots of ski related chat in the pod and lots of content that relates to and is applicable to skiing. My conversation this week is with Danny Miller who is a qualified Osteopath and who is half…

Episode 18 of The Ski Instructor Podcast features none other than Joe Beer. I count Joe as a good friend, mentor and all round good guy. We've skied together not enough in my opinion but every time I do, it's always a mind bending experience. We talked at length on many topics, skiing, teaching, Andorra, music, telemark and more. I hope that you en…

Welcome to episode 17 of The Ski Instructor Podcast. These are strange times and if you are as sick to death as I am about Corona news of one type or another, I bring you my latest interview with Malcolm Erskine of the British Ski Academy. We talk at length about the set up of the academy and how it functions before moving onto some discussion abou…

Hello Welcome to episode 16 from a snowy (finally) alps. It's been a very weird winter here, lots of early snow and then nothing for the whole of January, followed by a wet and windy February. Compounding that is Coronavirus cancellations all over the place in March. As a welcome diversion, I had a lovely conversation with Dr Jim Taylor who joined …

Welcome to episode 15 of the The Ski Instructor Podcast from a cold and dry Switzerland. This week I am podcast host and also super fan as I try to contain my excitement when interviewing Taco from the Piste Off Podcast who also happens to be u14s coach at Sun Valley. I've been listening to Piste Off for years and it's my favourite podcast. I've be…

This week I travelled to Megeve to speak to Simon Butler. Simon has just won a very significant court battle with the French state over the right for ski instructors at all levels to work in France. This series of court cases stemmed from Simon's arrest on the slopes of Megeve in 2013. He also went to court with the British Association of Snowsport…