Skiing acadamies proving popular

Waimarino Bulletin, Volume 3, Issue 16, 10 September 1985, Page 14 (Supplement)

Skiing acadamies proving popular

Turoa ski school's fiveday skiing academies are proving to be popular innovations. The academies — five-day training programmes for anyone from novices to advanced skiers — have attracted many hundreds of people this season. The roll for last week alone stood at 250. During school holidays each pupil skis with an instructor for a half-day session on each of five successive days. Outside school holidays during the ski season the academy sessions last a full day. Each week begins with pupils being assigned to a class according to experience and ability — and age during school holidays. Four of chief instructor John Ball's 40 staff also run a season-long race academy for junior skiers, with regular coaching building up to intensive sessions during the school holidays and the short competition season. In one day last week the ski school had 30 instructors working to give lessons to 170 beginners and almost 300 higher grade skiers. The beginners start by learning how to balance on skis and get mobile — then they have to be taught to stop. John Ball says teaching novices has been made easier by the development of

Turoa's Alpine Meadow area. It is a natural basin shaped so that skiers who start on one side don't have to worry about sliding out of control down a steepening slope. The other side of the basin brings them to a gentle halt. Besides teaching skiers, the school also trains some of its own instructors. Demand for their services has mushroomed in recent years. John Ball, Canadianborn, has worked first at Whakapapa and then Turoa for the past 1 6 years. He has seen New Zealand skiing come "out of the dark ages" in the past few years, he says. "Since the late 1 970s there has probably been the fastest growth rate ever," he says. He believes Turoa has played a key role in that growth through big publicity and promotional campaigns that have made New Zealanders more conscious of skiing. Now, fewer than half of Turoa's instructors come from overseas. "They have to be near the top level of certification in their own country before we will accept them," says John Ball. "They have to be able to make a real contribution." Some of the New Zealandborn instructors can match the imports for experience, with up to 12 years in the job.

Another result of the skiing boom has been the emergence of a small core of elite New Zealand skiers who are recognised as world-class. "The top three or four are stronger than ever before," says John Ball. "They give a lot of other young skiers something to aim at and show the others what has to be done to make it."