Day 4 of the 2009 PSIA National Academy started out like the previous 3 with bright sunny skies, soft now in Mineral Basin and a morning clinic with Andy Docken of Aspen Highlands resorts. Everyone in the group was holding up well as was the snow considering the almost hot sunny weather.
Mineral Basin softened up before the rest of the mountain in the morning and we stared the day there. Later in the morning session, we bounced back to the Peruvian side, skied the Cirque and a variety of other terrain.
Following another good (and free) lunch thanks to the folks at PSIA National, it was off to the afternoon elective – The Video Session. Another amazing PSIA demo team skier, Nick Herrin Director of the Ski and Ride School at Crested Butte, Colorado. Nick is an amazing skier and did a phenomenal job running and filming the video session. Video sessions typically don’t involve much skiing because it tends to take up so much time actually filming and then going into watch and critique it. For this video session we took about 3 runs and got in some good video.
Nick filmed one run on groomed terrain, one in crud and one in bumps. We were out on the slopes for about 90 minutes and then headed down to the Alpine Room (I think it was) in the Tram Building. We had about 8 people in the group and got some great feedback on each of the different types of terrain we skied. Video is such a useful tool for improving your skiing since you can actually see what the instructor sees and is giving you feedback on.
My biggest takeaway from the video session was timing of the pole plants. My skiing in the bumps looked pretty sharp but on the groomers and in the crud I was forcing the pole plants and making a more abrupt turn than necessary so needed to work on a more smooth turn initiation. The PSIA folks bring their own personal video cameras for the video sessions which is cool. The PSIA National Academy is simply one of the best events in any professional organization and it’s probably bootstrapped more than we know. This year was every bit as good as last year and the national staff who put it all together did an amazing job on absolutely everything from the opening banquet to the skiing sessions to the dinners and banquets.
Tonight there was no banquet so we were on our own for dinner. The Wildflower down at the Iron Blossom lodge had a wing special so I headed down there for 2 dozen wings and a Siera Nevada Pale ale. After letting that settle for a while, I hit the hot tub for about an hour and a half and then headed back to the room and hit the sack.
Next up is Day 5 (the final day) of the 2009 PSIA National Academy In Snowbird Utah!
April 25, 2009
[...] up is day 4 of the 2009 PSIA National Academy. Only two more days of the Academy to go and then two days of free sking before heading back to the [...]