Your thoughts on ski clinics.

[melchap]

Whistler runs a lot of different camps in the summer. Someone did the freestyle one summer. They've gone beyond just racing camps. Check their website next spring.

I know Whistler has summer mogul camps, but those camps involve 6 week days! That's too many days of vacation time not spent with family. I want a camp in the summer that allows me to take 4 days or less of vacation time from work.

 

[litterbug]

Alta's weekend women's clinic provides appointments with the Powder House's boot fitters the first afternoon and evening, and one of the fitters does a talk on boots and (I assume) other ski gear issues. But I think everyone, perhaps especially women, could benefit from some instruction. You wouldn't want to spend the whole time dealing with it, but between some contact with a fitter and some attention from a knowledgeable and observant instructor, a woman could come away with more information than the SO or casual salesman or bootfitter who may have put them in the wrong boot or just failed to make the adjustments necessary to make them work for her.

 

[Bayla]

I've never done an extended clinic mostly due to limited vacations days so a weekend clinic would make that more likely for me. As for single day programs, I've had great experiences with women only clinics. The ladies are really encouraging and usually honest about their ability so the group skis well together. In the mixed group, I find its the men holding things up. I think they tend to say they are better than they are and hold up the group. I've taken A LOT of lessons/clinics and my number one critique is: I think its important that the instructor make changes when necessary and get people into the right group. Probably easier said than done, but often its quite apparent.

 

[maggie198]

I've never done an extended clinic mostly due to limited vacations days so a weekend clinic would make that more likely for me. As for single day programs, I've had great experiences with women only clinics. The ladies are really encouraging and usually honest about their ability so the group skis well together. In the mixed group, I find its the men holding things up. I think they tend to say they are better than they are and hold up the group. I've taken A LOT of lessons/clinics and my number one critique is: I think its important that the instructor make changes when necessary and get people into the right group. Probably easier said than done, but often its quite apparent.

I agree with this 100%. Lots of clinics I'd love to go to are during the week. My vacation time is very limited, so I look for weekend ones. Would love a 2 day weekend clinic at a reasonable price. Some clinics are way too expensive for me.

One of my pet peeves is people who overestimate their abilities for groups. I usually state myself as an upper intermediate, upper blue, dark blue - whatever their terminology is for advanced intermediate. It's what I truly consider myself. I've seen many very low intermediates in these groups when the instructors just ask your ability rather than having ski-offs and placing the skiers in appropriate groups. It holds us up during the lesson/clinic, and keeps the group from working on the same skills or going on more difficult terrain (yes, we DO want to do black diamond trails!). For some clinics I'll go into the advanced group, but a truly advanced group may be working on skills and terrain beyond me. An example of this was some daily clinics I took at Sunday River last year. The "dark blue" group I joined turned out to be lower level skiers than me, so we had to gear most of our instruction time down to skills they needed. The next day I considered the advanced group, but they looked too hard core for me - indeed, my daughter skied that group and they did some extremely difficult double diamond trails that I'd already gone down and was happy to make it down alive. Since this was just a daily clinic, the dynamics of the group changed every day so there was no way of nowing what your group was going to be like. But luckily I had some good instructors who made sure I had some really good take-aways. I would have just liked a more homogenized group to ski with.

And I LOVE the video taping! More of this in

 

[maggie198]

And I LOVE the video taping! More of this in[/quote]

Oops, reply button got pushed accidentally. I love the video taping, it's always good to get visual feedback. And to see you're NOT skiing the way you THINK you're skiing, lol. Sure it takes more time, and extra man/womanpower, but it's extremely valuable, imo.

Mostly I've done women's clinics. Though I love them, sometimes there's too much talking and information to disseminate. My head starts to swim with all the things I'm trying to keep in mind. I've found that some of the clinics run by guys get to the point quicker with less words. This can be really constructive sometimes. Their verbal "just do this" seems to work for me, as I have a base of knowledge as to why we're doing that and what problems or issues it will fix.

 

[Allie]

I just got back from the December 2012 Roxy Ski Camp at Whistler, BC. I would not recommend it. I learned very little if anything at all. Put me off group lessons. Roxy does not adhere to the Max 4 lesson limit. You can and will have 7 or even 8 people in your class with one instructor when the camp is booked solid. Saving grace this weekend was low sign-up. There was five in my group. My instructor seemed to be just "dialing it in" and doing the minimum required. More of a social club weekend. If I hadn't had good instructors before at Whistler I would say avoid Whistler ski lessons all together.

 

[Jilly]

Allie - I'm sorry that happened. We all had good sessions last year at Roxy. Was that the first one of the season?

 

[Allie]

This past weekend was the first Roxy Camp of the 2012/2013 season in Whistler, BC. They had several women not show up or drop out part way through the second day so I interpet that as it wasn't just me not finding value in the camp.

 

[amazon_blonde]

Wow, I'm sorry to hear that Allie. I also did the Roxy camp last year and on a different weekend than most other divas. I had a great experience. I was in level 6 and my coach was a former racer who does the 3 day Dave Murray camps which I can't attend because of the timing and three days would kill me. So it was like a Dave Murray camp but all women (and cheaper). She was very good and we did several drills that I still practice. She and mountainxtc confirmed I had totally the wrong boots (further confirmed when I got new boots). I think it's great value and I like the all-women aspect. I hate video review but it was a good experience and helpful.
The only reasons that I may not do the camp again the year are (1) group size and (2) duration of camp. I would prefer more focused instruction and I wonder if I could get as much out of a shorter lesson with fewer people. Which leads to (2) that multi day camps are very difficult for me. My work is unpredictable, my DH hates skiing by himself all weekend, and two days of hard terrain is sometimes too much for me. If there was a one-day Roxy option I think I would be all over it. I would be willing to pay as much for a one day 4-person Roxy camp as the current two day 8-person camps.

 

[bounceswoosh]

I hate video review but it was a good experience and helpful.

Why do you hate video review?

 

[amazon_blonde]

Bounceswoosh ... I just mean in the sense that I don't enjoy it but its good for me (ala kids and vegetables). We do video review on occasion for work as well so my feeling isn't restricted to skiing. I just find it hard to watch or listen to a recording of myself -- I'm my own worst critic. But, there's no other way to really understand what you are doing wrong. And last year, I realized I don't look nearly as awful as I think I do ... Just a little awkward.
But the best part about Roxy for me (since I'm posting again) is not comparing myself to the boys and getting the confidence boost from that. My DH is a former competitive skier and most of our friends are awesomesauce on skiis. So being with the Roxy ladies who were so supportive (and mostly could relate to that) was nice.

 

[bounceswoosh]

Ah! I totally understand.

 

[Christy]

Alta's weekend women's clinic provides appointments with the Powder House's boot fitters the first afternoon and evening, and one of the fitters does a talk on boots and (I assume) other ski gear issues.

I LOVE this. As someone that had serious boot issues that instructors never recognized (when I got new boots my main issue, the one that I had dumped $$$ into ski lessons for, magically went away) I think every clinic should include boot evaluation.