@jumperlass .... I don't know if you read some of the stories I posted in the original post, but there are clearly parents who do not do it that way. And I guess, if you don't know what you don't know... it's hard. I would just assume that even minor due diligence about the sport would tell even non-skier parents what was needed to get their spawn moving on the slopes safely.
As a relative newcomer, I guess what I’d say is that there really is no “minor due diligence”.
There are too many aspects of this sport for newcomers to pick up on all of them quickly. And newcomers don’t have enough experience to know how to prioritize it.
Think of how many fora there are on this site! Boots—how should they fit? What is mondo? What is flex? What do those numbers mean? What kind of ski in what length with what bindings? How do I know what gear I can safely pick up on Craigslist vs having to buy new? What’s safe?
I think for the ski naive, they either have money to throw at those questions—just pay for rentals, just buy new gear in a package put together in a ski shop—or they have a ton to consider budget wise and safety wise before you ever touch the issues of slopeside judgment and etiquette. The due diligence isn’t minor even before you get to the ski area. Decision fatigue and the time constraints of teaching yourself something new from online resources are real.
I think there are plenty of parents who would willingly sign up their kid for ski club—especially a ski club that lists lessons at the start of every outing, as most around here do—without knowing more was needed. I mean, who learns all the intricacy of soccer before letting their kid join a summer league? (I didn’t. I bought him shin guards (secondhand!) and some tall socks, made sure he had a water bottle, and sent him off.) If you’ve never been skiing, do you really know that joining ski club is any different? Should it actually be any different? I know that it
is. Heck, I even know
why it is different in a ton of school clubs. The teacher who’s paid a few hundred dollars per year to ride herd on a dozen or 25 kids on the bus and to sit at the base to be available for check-ins is basically your after school child care, not a ski instructor. They’ll help if your kid loses something. They’ll be a point of contact if parental contact is needed. They’ll make sure everyone gets back on the bus. Hopefully they’ll hit some hills and recognize their charges, call them on unsafe behavior they happen to be around to witness. But if your kid decides to ditch the provided ski lesson in favor of hitting the slopes immediately, probably no one stops him. I don’t know that that is obvious to non ski parents, who think they’ve done their due diligence in signing up for the school bus, the Wednesday 4-7pm lift pass, the rental gear, and the one meal of credit per week in the cafeteria.
And then, if someone is a ski-naive parent, are you really helping your children access a lifelong skill? or are you creating situations with tremendous risk that outweighs the reward?
It’s a conundrum. I find skiing less "welcoming" as a sport than some other activities have been. Not because skiers are unkind, but because there’s a very steep learning curve and mistakes can be financially or physically expensive.
I don’t come from a skiing family. I didn't have skier friends when I set my family on this path. I didn't know DIN or ski length or mondo. I didn't have handmedown gear or know anyone to borrow from. I didn't know how to evaluate what used gear was physically safe to let my son use. I didn't know who gave good beginner lessons or whose season pass was best for experienced skiers and whose for beginners. (We don't live near any big name resorts, but there are 4 local hills within 35 minutes of home. One is *definitely* not the place to start out, but how do you know that ahead of time? For the record, anyone in CNY, Greek Peak and Song Mountain both do good never-ever beginner lessons. Song takes a break for a cookie and hot cocoa midlesson, thus earning the undying affection of my kindergartner, but Greek has friendlier lifts and greens for that first season of getting out there beyond lessons. Lab and Toggenberg are good fun if you already know what you're doing.) I'd actually been skiing a few times, so I knew enough to know that there was more to it than that, but that was honestly quite enough to be going on with! If I had never been on skis before, would I have imagined that there was a world of other knowledge that I'd be expected to know and be able to share with my kid, as well?
SkiDiva.com is a gift, in that regard. I have read a LOT of posts here over the last two years. I have learned a lot. And I've made community friends who ski, which has also helped. (Also, we went from one stable income with the prospect of a second to two stable incomes, which gives me room to make a mistake here and there in deciding which ski club/lesson/ski to pay for.) I love skiing for myself, and I love sharing it with my family. But I have been intentionally working toward that for four years now, which is a lot more time than any other sport or hobby has required for me to feel comfortable and welcome in it.
I don't know how we help ski naive parents raise native skiers. Seeing my kids ski has inspired a friend to get her kids out there. Seeing me ski with my kids has encouraged a different friend to get the school ski club parent pass, as well. I pass on gear deals and suggestions of which lessons/hills to try. I remind my kid of safety and etiquette in front of them and their kids. It's not scalable; it's just that now I'm woven into the skier net, even if I'm still near the edges of it.
I don't know what the answer is. I think we depend on the network, the idea of a ski community. I think that parents who pitch their kids into the sport without themselves knowing how to navigate it, are trusting the essential goodwill of everyone out there to look out for each other on some level. The teacher keeping watch for frustrated or crying kids--with ski trouble or social trouble--in the ski club. The instructor teaching ski code along with technique. The other parents who stop and help their kid get her boots back into her bindings after a fall. The skiers who stop to tell ski patrol that a slew of middle schoolers are behaving like hooligans on Trail X and need to have the riot act read to them. The ski patrol who does it. But the ski naive families who want to break into the sport--even if only on their kids' behalf--are counting on us to look out for each other.
This went on a wild tangent, and my lunch break is about over. I'm pretty sure this braindump needs editing, but I hope you'll take it as is.
And, for the record,
@Iwannaski, I do think you did it right. Good job.
