PSIA National Academy Snowbird Utah, 2008

PSIA National Academy Snowbird Utah, 2008 - Day 3

The first two days of the Academy were chock full of skiing, a presentation from a British ski pro on the certification programs across the pond and many other things. It’s really only mid-day three, the slopes are still open, the sun is blazing down and I took a major tumble head over heels going full blast, all out on a little off-piste` section during the morning video clinic today. I’ve had some great spills before, even some when the camera was supposed to be rolling but they never materialized. This wasn’t the most dramatic crash in the world and there was no damage done but finally one of them was captured on camera.

Just like Saturday and Sunday, Monday (today) started out eary with the wakeup call at around 6:30am. The wakeup calls here are kinda cool becuse if you don’t pick it up it stops for 5 minutes or so and then starts ringing again. By around 7:15 I rolled out of bed, hopped in the shower and then headed up to the Aerie restaurant up on the 10th floor of the Snowbird Cliff lodge.

The PSIA National Academy registration included 5 breakfasts at the Aerie. Breakfast at the Aeria was a buffet with eggs, oatmeal, bacon, sausage, potatoes, cheese blintzes, cold cereal, omlettes made to order, pancakes and french toast, fresh fruit, yogurt and other breakfast foods.

Following breakfast, it is off to rush around to get the ski gear on, get down to the Cliff lodge lockers to pick up the skis and then out to the plaza down by the Snowbird Tram where the moring sessions kick off.

Today was a video session tht started at 8:45am. It was a group of about 10 people lead by ______________________. During video sessions there isn’t to much skiing cause the person taking the video can only film one person at a time and only film about 1/5 of the entire run at one time. Desipte the lack of skiing during a video session, it is absolutely worth it to realy see how you ski and what other people are talking about when they give you feedback on how you can improve your skiing.

If I can, I’ll post some fotage from the video session. Aside from my crash, there wasn’t that much to look at on there aside from picking apart the finer points of my technique.

After about 3 hours on the slopes filming, we headed into the Alpine room in the Tram building and watched the footage. The leader of the clinic _________________ provided lots of good feedback on general issues common across the group as well as some specific feedback.

Following the video review session, I had a Bratwurst with kraut (bargain at $8.75) at a little snack place in the plaza down by the tram. Normally when the snow is soft, the sun is bright, I’ve got a lift ticket and am on a mountain like Snowbird, I’d be out there skiing in a second. Combine altitude of ~10,000 feet, getting up at 6-7am, skiing really hard, a bit of a pulled hamstring from Day 1, a major crash today and it was time to take the afternoon off. There are up to 6 more days of skiing ahead here so a little break felt like the right thing to do. My body is sore all over.

There is a dinner buffet on the house at 6:30 tonight and just realized that the presentation from the New Zealand ski pros at 5:00 which I’m going to miss cause it is already 5:15 now. Tonight should be a relatively mellow one. Dinner may be followed by some time in the hot tubs or a drink or two at the Aerie Lounge and Sushi Bar which we have yet to visit.

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