Snowboarders go to school

Ruapehu Bulletin, Volume 13, Issue 602, 5 September 1995, Page 15 (Supplement)

Snowboarders go to school

By

john

Bache

"A lot of people are unaware of the higher-end snowboarding tuition that we offer," said snowboard school head Louisa Muir. "Riders can specify what it is they want to learn. They can train gates or in the pipe, whatever they want. We are offering one deal where snowboarders can come to Whakapapa for five weekends and have four hours of instruction on each Saturday and Sunday, all from the same instructor. If there' s anything at all that you want to improve about your snowboarding, just come and see us, and we should be able to arrange something." Already this season some of the country's top riders have been at Whakapapa for the Snowboard Instructor' s pre-qualification course. The course was run by Graham Dunbar, Chris Scholes, and Whakapapa' s own Louisa Muir and attracted a healthy attendance of 23 people. "The standard of riding was really high" said Louisa, "although some of them were so used to going fast they had problems doing a slow demo turn." The snowboard students now have one month to hone their techniques before an exam in late September.