The Next Chapter...



Well the cycling chapter of my life has most likely come to an end. I have been tempted by other interests in my life and was no longer willing to put in the training time necessary to ride at the level I was accustomed. So after a long summer decompressing from the last six years of training, I am now happily employed as a snowboard instructor at Copper Mountain, CO.

Training for ski school has been a great learning experience and I have found joy in teaching students a new sport. I am mostly teaching students between the ages 6-15, with the occasional 3-5 year old and the occasional adult class. Most of the older students can pickup the idea of the sport in a day, and then only require practice, whereas with the smaller kids it is usually just a battle of trial and error and as long as they are having safe fun then the day is a success. However that is not always the view of the parents, and thus we have to explain that the sport requires fine motor control and independent foot movement that small kids don't fully develop until they are at least eight. But this is all part of the fun, coming to work every day not knowing if I am going to teach three three-year-olds or a class of 13 teens, or a few adults.

The resort life is very relaxing and I have certainly gotten my fair share of powder days when the resort volume is slow. I live at the base of the mountain so I can say that I love the commute to work.


The school has almost 350 instructors between ski and ride, and part-time and full-time, to handle the volume of busy days, but on slow days there are probably closer to 40 instructors working. The season has been down in overall volume so far, but that just makes it better for those that make the trip. We have about average snow now, but so far February has been scary warm. We shall see what the rest of the season holds but hopefully it will include a blizzard.

I will be teaching hear until the end of April, and then will be on to a currently undecided endeavor. Many ideas are being researched but no path is set yet.

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