Passo del Tonale -
IASI Level 2 Alpine Ski Instructor Course
Conducted at Passo del Tonale, Italy, between 13 and 20
January, this was the first time an IASI Level 2 course
was held. The level of competence is equivalent to the
BASI Grade 3 course. Having run two Foundation courses,
one in St. Moritz and the second in Passo del Tonale, we
felt ready to go for the big test - a qualifying course
on snow. After a slow start, bookings came in quite
quickly, resulting in a fully booked course. Derek Tate,
of Parallel Dreams, Director of Training with IASI, ran
the course with a firm, and by all accounts, a vigorous
hand (people sloping off to bed at 9.30 .... ) with the
happy result that, out of 11 candidates, eight gained
their full IASI Level 2 Award - these were Siobinan
Duggan John Corr Dawhi*, Linda Lyons*, Fiona Duggan, Liam
Williams, Colm Higgins, Tony Doran and Eric Morton (*passed
with technical merit).
For more on the trip, over to Linda Lyons:
It was January 13th 2001, Bergamo Airport, Italy - last
stop before Passo del Tonale. All twelve of the group (plus
Agnes) had arrived safely with their belongings - that is
all but one, Dave. One bag missing, containing clothes,
toiletries, ski maintenance and, most importantly of all,
specially moulded SKI BOOTS!! But P.M.A. shone through on
Dave's behalf and skiing got under way by 3.00 p.m. for
everyone with clear blue skies, plenty of sunshine and
lots of white (not pink! - injoke? Ed.) snow.
At 6.00 p.m. Derek gave us our introductory session of
what the week would entail - punctuality and dress being
of the highest importance. Sunday 9.15 a.m. by the four-man
chair lift -all lined up and rearing to go, with our key
card lift pass tucked away in pockets, not to be seen
till the end of the week. What a system. No queues either!
Cold but sunny (one could get used to this), we made our
way up the mountain to have some warm up runs with the
oranges and lemons (definitely an injoke, Ed.).
The fundamentals of skiing played a big part in our
morning and helped everyone's level of performance reach
a higher standard. Ski class finished at 3.30 p.m.
allowing 1 to 1 1/2 hours of free skiing. It was back to
the drawing board at 6.00 p.m. in the hotel for a de-briefing
session till 7.3018.00 p.m. which was followed by dinner
and a couple of glasses of wine.
Each day got better and better in all aspects of skiing,
and for all those Trekkie' fans out there, you'd have
loved to fill the 'daily log'which was a great help to
everyone and will be for years to come.
The overall review is, this was a superb course,
extremely well presented, ideal venue for what the course
was about, (maybe a few more bumps wouldn't have gone
amiss), great teaching style, video usage and and skiing
beyond parallels with Parallel Dreams trainerlassessor,
Derek Tate.
On behalf of everyone who attended and received their
IASI Level 2 Alpine Ski Instructor Award, 1 think 1 can
safely say that it was an excellent week - excellent
trainer, excellent snow and, most importantly, excellent
skiing. Even Harry Potter would have to agree that it was
worth every minute and every penny. A highly recommended
course to be attended by any wannabe ski instructor ( and
wannabe better skier).
Thank you Derek, Michael, John, Liam, Colm, Siobhan,
Eric, Dave, Genny, Tony, Fiona, and Agnes for your
company and humour on the first ever IASI Level 2 Alpine
Ski Instructor Award course. It was brilliant! Well done
everyone!
Linda.
IASI
INSTRUCTOR TRAINING COURSES
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