Should Be Working

Well we still do not have enough snow to open. I'm kinda bumming. I should have been working since the day before Thanksgiving. Our ski school wants us to reschedule our days to add days later in the season, of course during busy times, to make up for the days we're missing now. If we don't open pretty soon, I'm not sure I can fit in 90 plus days into the season. I'm going to have to ask about this.

I've been spending so much time looking at EpicSki and getting friends over in MyMonarchSpace that I have neglected this blog. The real intent for this blog though is to talk about my students and how lessons go. Once we get going expect to see daily entries.

Ski Forum Filled with Great People and Links

A heckler called out "Have you seen Epci Ski? They got Bob Barnes over there." This was during my talk in front of about 100 Monarch instructors about the MyMonarchSpace (here I go mentioning MMS again). Needless to say that I had to check it out for myself.

She was right, over at http://www.epicski.com/ there truly is a wealth of information about skiing, great links to other ski related sites, and best of all some of the best snow sport instructors from all over the universe posting comments and discussing great stuff. You'll find Bob Barnes, Weems Westfeldt, Ric Ricter, and Stu Cambell and lots of others.

They have a section called EpicSki Instructor & Coach Listing where instructors from all over can register and offer their services.

In their Training and Technique section they have:

Technique
Fore/Aft Alignment
Footwork for Good Skiing
Release Timing
Tip Lead
Angulation
Anatomy of Turns
Inside Leg Extension
Elements of Edging
Absorption

Terrain/Conditions
Steeps
Ice
Powder
Skiing "in" Snow
Hopping Off Cornices

Moguls
General Tips
Active Feet & Legs
Efficiency in Moguls

Conditioning
Weight Training
Injury &Skiing

Body Mechanics
KISS Biomechanics
Movement Analysis

I found all kinds of cool links in these threads and some really great discussion going way back. And I'm just getting started. I haven't registered yet. At the moment I'm still in awe. I think there is much to learn there, especially in the practice of articulating all things skiing.

Activity at MyMonarchSpace

At this moment there are over 170 people that have joined MMS. Personally I find it a little adicting. It may wear off, but right now I keep going back to check out how many new friends I have, looking at new postings in the discussion/forum areas, and looking at the new uploads that members are posting.

I created a private group in MMS that I think our ski/ride school might use to help get announcements out to part-timers and instructors that live in other towns. I suggested to the marketing department that they register a new domain name to point to the MMS. I sense confusion about how to find it when talking to people. Currently the best way to get there is through a link on the www.skimonarch.com home page.

The effectiveness of helping students/guests to find me and book lessons on MMS has yet to be seen. It's just another piece of the marketing pie. I think I'm about done talking about MMS here. I'd like to continue looking at other instructor website/blog examples. This whole experience is turning up some very interesting online sites.

The MyMonarchSpace Intro Talk

The MyMonarchSpace seemed to be well received at the instructor re-hire orientation last Saturday. It looked like there were easily over a hundred instructors there. We sat through a bunch of policy and proceedure topics before it was my turn to talk about MMS.

I started by asking how many people knew what an online social network was. I'm not sure how many hands actually went up, but my impression was that the hands mostly belonged to the younger people in the crowd. The handout mentioned below was handed out which I used to remind myself of what to talk about next. My focus was on how the MMS could be used to help instructors promote themselves.

Our ski school director seems to be very much behind the MMS, although his focus seems to be more on how to use it as another avenue of communication. (I'm working on a "private" group in MMS for that purpose.) Hopefully the handout will provide easy instructions on where to start.

If even a fraction of the instructors joins the Snow Sports Instructors group on the MMS, we will easily have the largest group, at least for a while. As the winter goes on, I wouldn't be surprised if the Snowboarders group grows even larger.

There was actually some applause when it was time for me to sit down, which was cool. I got lots of comments afterwards about how cool the idea of a Monarch social network is. And during the talk a young lady instructor interupted for a couple of minutes to explain her perspective on "Friends" and how if they joined the MMS they didn't necessarily have to be Rick's (meaning me) friend. Aside from making me laugh a little, her enthusiasm warmed my heart. Her trying to convince people not to be afraid to sign-up was a good indicator.

A warning did come from a couple of people in the audience about posting pictures of guests without some sort of signed waiver. That kind of took me by surprise. I had not really thought of that issue. I guess I was assuming a verbal approval from my guests would be enough to allow me to post their pictures. I am even inclined to think guests will be happy that I would want to post pictures of them in my own forums. Hmmm, we'll have to think about that one.

Upcoming Posts

Some things I’ve been thinking about posting.

1. How the MyMonarchSpace presentation went on Saturday.
2. All the activity going on over at MyMonarchSpace.
3. Other blogs/ski forums I’ve been learning about (EpicSki.com).
4. Weems Westfault’s The Sports Diamond. (http://www.edgechange.com/)
5. Two new websites I have been asked to work on: SnowMonsters and NextSnow. http://www.snowmonsters.com/ and http://www.nextsnow.com/.
6. A few things I read again in The PSIA Core Concepts For Snowsports Instructors manual.
7. A friend asked me why he should blog and my response.

I think I’m overwhelming myself with too many items and it is causing me to have writer’s block. Now I’m wondering if this blog is making my butt look big.

Handout for Re-Hire Orientation Meeting

I'll be talking tomorrow for 10-15 minutes about the MyMonarchSpace. I created a handout to use at the meeting today.

It's my feeling that the MMS can be used by instructors to help promote themselves and improve by participating in online discussions and forums. As I said in earlier posts the MMS is wide open and will evolve by user contributions. I'm still looking for tricks and tips to help people sign up for bookings with me on the mountain.

How the whole concept will be received is still an unknown. I'm not even sure how many of our instructors even use email, let alone get involved with online social networks. The younger instructors are probably more apt to embrace the idea.

A couple of instructors so far have brought up the point (online and f2f) that they don't want anything that will just take up more time and create more work. And of course, naturally ski/snowboard school management does not want to create more work. I can totally understand that. But on a personal instructor's level, it's no skin off my back if other instructors don't want to take the time to market their own professional services by taking advantage of a such an easy to use and accessible means as MyMonarchSpace.

Getting Ready for New Season(s)

We have our re-hire employee orientation coming this Saturday. It's where we are officially re-hired for the new season, we go over all the policies and procedures important to us in ski/snowboard school, and get our uniforms and lockers. Most of us leave our boots and equipment at the area then as well. It's also a cool time to get reacquainted and say hi.

Later on we have required reorientation clinics on and off snow. These help to refresh our memories. I find that when we all get together and start talking and sharing, it all comes back pretty fast. You hear statements like, "Oh yeah, I remember that!" It seems like a lot of the younger or not as experienced instructors hesitate to speak up if they have questions or don't know the answers. Then on the other hand it seems like some instructors will continue to add and add more and more until we're beating a dead horse. Not that that's a bad thing, it's just an observation.

Off-piste over on Alpenglugen got me started on this blog entry. I thanked him for the quick quiz he has over there. I too forget the PSIA terms but remember the ideals. I think blogging is helping me a lot to get back into it. I'm feeling much more prepared this year than in years past. On the physical side though, I remember in years past feeling that first slide of the season on skis and thinking, "this feels just like yesterday!" For me, it shows the power of muscle memory.

There were some comments in off-piste's entry about skiing all year, switching from the Northern and Southern hemispheres. I'm one that would love to do the back-to-back seasons in the Northern and Southern hemispheres. I'm sure that the experience raises you up to a much higher level of professionalism, that is, as commenter sharpm said, if your knees can handle it.

Last year about this time I was seriously contemplating going to New Zealand for their winter after our winter to teach. I found the whole passport-work-permit-visa-having-enough-money thing too difficult for me at the time. Now that I know more about it, I'm hoping to take the right steps to make it happen for after this season. That is if I can also get past the am-I-going-to-miss-summer thing.

My Contact Form

Want to get a hold of me. Fill out this form. I answer emails.

Monarch Back Country Skiing, Article in Denver Post

Greg Ralph, director of Marketing at Monarch Mountain, was interviewed by the Denver Post in an article about back country skiing in Colorado. Monarch actually has numbers on how many people have been taking advantage of skiing the back country at Monarch. We really do have some exciting back country here. Let me know if you need someone to help guide you to the hike-to terrain. If you want to get booked on the Snowcat Tours (I've been on them, and they're always an experience you never forget) you'll have to contact the Snowcat Tour people which you can do from the Monarch website. Let me know if you want someone to go along with you on one of their tours. I'm always up for that.

More on MyMonarchSpace Social Network

I'm very excited to see MyMonarchSpace (Monarch Mountain's social networking site) growing as fast as it is. That's a screen shot of the home page of it on the left. I understand we are the only ski area in Colorado to implement such a site.

When you're not signed in you see lists for New Members, Videos, Games, Music, Blogs of the Day, Most Popular Members, Groups, Events, and a Photo Gallery. When you register and then sign-in, only the stuff that pertains to your account (what you've signed up for, your particular member friends, etc) shows up on the top page.

The only way to send a message to one of the members in the Monarch social network is to register. It's very simple to register and does not require that you go through the whole process of creating a profile. It seems that most people are registering anonymously. That's okay, but for my purposes, I'm choosing to make myself identifable and to even encourage contact. You can find my profile by searching for RickyB. I've also created a Group called Snow Sports Instructors on the site. I'm hoping it will help visitors looking for instructor profiles.

I very much want to ask people that visit the MMS site to contact me and even book some time with me at Monarch. The MMS is actually designed to be an online social network, not really set up to facilitate private bookings. But I still think instructors can use it further promote themselves. After all, one of the most powerful means of promotion is networking, both online and on snow.

It will be interesting to see how Monarch's online social network evolves. Since it's a web 2.0 app, it's the members themselves that change and make the space.

My Schedule Displayed to the World

Here's my schedule using Google Calendar. I'll be able to make updates to it from my cell phone! I think I'll place a permalink to it in the sidebar so people can find it easily. I'll try to keep it updated. Right now you can only see entries in the Month view. I guess I need to go back and fill in the Week view for more details.

Thanks to Off-Piste over at Alpenglühen for suggesting Google Calendars. I was actually in the process of creating my Google Calendar when I received notification that he had commented!

Filled Out My 2007-2008 Schedule Today

Today was the deadline for filling in our 07-08 work schedule for ski/snowboard school. I've signed up for 90 days which is the highest level for full-time instructors at Monarch. I'm pretty sure I'll be working more days than that. They don't necessarily have to hire me again, but I'm counting that they will. After 17 years I'm getting to know the place a little.

Just in case you'd like to see when I'm working you can download a copy of my schedule here. As of today I'm available on all the days marked with an "X" and by special arrangement on all the days that are still blank and marked with an "O". All the days marked with a "P" are program days that I might already be working (I've requested to work these programs, but I've not been assigned to them yet). But please email me ahead of time and I'll do my best to get you fit in. I know this current display method is kind of clunky. I'm looking for a better way to show my available days, but this is the quickest way right here, right now. This is the actual schedule that I submitted for approval. Please call or email ahead and let me help you get set up with lessons or whatever you want on what ever day you can get here.