The Ski Instructor Podcast

Welcome to episode 35 of the ski instructor podcast which will be the episode that takes it past 50,000 downloads.  I'm a bit late publishing this one, I've been out recording podcasts and generally doing other stuff not related to skiing. This week, I had the chance to record a lovely interview with John Greenwood, who runs the Silksworth Dry Ski Centre in the North East of England https://www.ev...

Welcome to episode 34 of The Ski Instructor Podcast and this week's interview is with Alessandro Cambon of Beau Soleil International School and Alpine Italy. Ale is a BASI level 4 and trainer but is originally from Italy.  We had a lovely chat in his home in Gryon and we covered lots of ground in this podcast including pole vaulting, life and work skiing at an international school and lots more. I...

Welcome to episode 33 of The Ski Instructor Podcast. I recently had the opportunity to speak with Federico Sollini from Subzero Coaching in Zermatt.  Fede runs ski instructor training and physical performance coaching and has worked at high levels with professional athletes as well as aspiring ski instructors. We talk at length on topics such as why national instructor instructor systems develop i...

Welcome to Episode 32 of The Ski Instructor Podcast and the one that will take us past 45,000 downloads of the pod.  Every now and then I look at the blog stats and I'm amazed by how many people are listening to this podcast. This week I have an interview with Giles Lewis of The Development Centre (TDC) in Val-d'Isere.  Giles is also a member of the BASI National Education Team. We had a great cha...

Welcome to episode 31 of The Ski Instructor Podcast.     I went to Verbier to meet up with Toby Mallock who runs both Performance Ski School and Powder Extreme. We had this chat in mid December and so some of the content relating to covid is a little out of date but there is still some great chat about off piste skiing and all things Verbier. I love these in person chats and I think the fun that w...

Welcome to episode 30 of The Ski Instructor Podcast and this winter's Christmas special. I had the chance to interview Blair Aitken of British Backcountry and we talked on numerous subjects including his skiing and racing career, Scottish skiing culture and how that has changed in recent years.  We also talk about skiing in the Scottish backcountry and the courses that Blair runs during the winter...

Welcome to episode 29 of the Ski Instructor Podcast this week featuring Alex Armand from Tip Top Ski Coaching in Les Deux Alpes in France. In what has turned out to be a very timely interview, we discuss the french state's current position on skiing, Alex's skiing history, brexit (again!), skiing in the mask age and much more. I really hope that you enjoy this interview.  Alex was a great intervie...

Welcome to episode 28 of The Ski Instructor Podcast sponsored by www.kaestle.com   This week I chat with Richard Fetherston of Snowbility, a company that specialises in inclusive snowsport.  Richard and his team work with skiers of all ages who don't thinking or learn like the rest of us.  I tripped myself up a few times calling this adaptive but it's not that, it's more in the realm of those with...

Welcome to episode 27 of The Ski Instructor Podcast sponsored by Kaestle skis. This week I am joined by Andy Rose of Snow Camps Europe in Kaprun to give us an Austrian perspective on skiing.  I know Andy pretty well and I think this comes across in the relaxed style of this interview. If you're into cats or dogs, you're in for a treat in the opening of this one before we get down to a long discuss...

Welcome to episode 26 of the podcast and one that will push us through 33,000 downloads!  Thank you for all of you that have been in touch, downloaded the podcast and been a part of it.  Thank you also to www.kaestle.com  for their kind sponsorship. This week I have a recording that was made in late July in Zermatt with Demian Franzen.  Demian is an educator for Swiss Snowsports, was on the Swiss...

This week, I travelled to Verbier to meet for a second interview for the podcast, Julian Griffiths of European Snowsport.  This podcast is sponsored by www. Kaestle.com This was something of a covid special and in this episode we attempt tomato sense of the season just gone and what skiing will look like this winter for instructors and ski schools. We also chat about the new regime at BASI. You ca...

Hello and welcome from a sunny Switzerland to Episode 24 of The Ski Instructor Podcast.  This podcast is sponsored by Kaestle Skis www.kaestle.com This week I have a fun interview with Lynn Mill of Val D Ski Instructors. Lynn is also a BASI trainer and National Education Team member as well as an ex-racer for Great Britain. We had a brilliant and fun chat about all things skiing and touched on a f...

Welcome to episode 23 of the ski instructor podcast sponsored by Kästle Skis.  The ski I talked about in this episode is the FX86 -  https://www.kaestle.com/en/alpin/skis/show/fx86/ This week, I chat to Josh Foster, former Ski School director at Big White and various other places but now running his own business Snowsports Unlimited.   We talk on a wide range of topics including the CSIA, the Ski...

Welcome to Episode 22 of The Ski Instructor Podcast sponsored by Kästle Skis.   https://www.kaestle.com/en/ In May I had the chance to go and meet Tom Waddington at his B&B Una Lodge in Le Châble, near Verbier.  I've known Tom for a long time but it was lovely to have the time to sit down with him and chat all things skiing.   We covered a wide range of topics including what we can learn from the...

Welcome to episode 21 of The Ski Instructor Podcast.  This will be the episode that takes us over 25,000 downloads of this podcast and I thank everyone that is taking the time to listen to these. In this episode, I chat to former BASI trainer Andi McCann who was also my examiner for the Level 3 technical exam a long time ago.  I got a lot out of that exam and some of the things that Andi talked ab...

Welcome to episode 20 of The Ski Instructor Podcast.   Firstly, I can't believe we are on episode 20 and over 24,000 downloads of the podcast and counting.  I want to thank you all for listening to my conversations, thank the guests for their time and knowledge and to thank all of you for listening and getting in touch. This podcast is with Ed Drake, former Great Britain downhill skier, Olympian a...

Welcome to episode 19 of The Ski Instructor Podcast.  This episode is a bit of a departure from normal in that I'm not interviewing a skier.  However, there is lots of ski related chat in the pod and lots of content that relates to and is applicable to skiing. My conversation this week is with Danny Miller who is a qualified Osteopath and who is halfway through a doctorate in Health Psychology. Th...

Episode 18 of The Ski Instructor Podcast features none other than Joe Beer.  I count Joe as a good friend, mentor and all round good guy.  We've skied together not enough in my opinion but every time I do, it's always a mind bending experience. We talked at length on many topics, skiing, teaching, Andorra, music, telemark and more. I hope that you enjoy listening to this conversation as much as I...

Welcome to episode 17 of The Ski Instructor Podcast. These are strange times and if you are as sick to death as I am about Corona news of one type or another, I bring you my latest interview with Malcolm Erskine of the British Ski Academy. We talk at length about the set up of the academy and how it functions before moving onto some discussion about when specific instruction turns into coaching an...

Hello Welcome to episode 16 from a snowy (finally) alps.  It's been a very weird winter here, lots of early snow and then nothing for the whole of January, followed by a wet and windy February.  Compounding that is Coronavirus cancellations all over the place in March.  As a welcome diversion, I had a lovely conversation with Dr Jim Taylor who joined me via skype on a stormy night in my office.  T...

Welcome to episode 15 of the The Ski Instructor Podcast from a cold and dry Switzerland. This week I am podcast host and also super fan as I try to contain my excitement when interviewing Taco from the Piste Off Podcast who also happens to be u14s coach at Sun Valley.  I've been listening to Piste Off for years and it's my favourite podcast. I've been looking forward to doing this podcast for a lo...

This week I travelled to Megeve to speak to Simon Butler. Simon has just won a very significant court battle with the French state over the right for ski instructors at all levels to work in France.  This series of court cases stemmed from Simon's arrest on the slopes of Megeve in 2013.  He also went to court with the British Association of Snowsports Instructors in 2017 which we discuss in part 2...

Hello from a stormy Swiss alps. This week I've got a great interview with Pete Gillespie who is the Head of Snowsports at The Snow Centre in Hemel Hempstead in the UK (an indoor real snow slope) as well as International and Education Director at the Irish Association of Snowsports Instructors. We talk about many diverse topics including skiing in the Balkans, junior race teams going indoors and ea...

Welcome to episode 11 from the very snowy Swiss Alps.  You might have heard that there has been some very serious snowfall already in the southern alps with resorts like Saas Fee, Cervinia and Zermatt getting absolutely hosed in the last week. It's snowy here also in the Western end of the alps and the temperatures are cold. Hopefully this means a good and early start to the season. This week I ha...

Hello from a very autumnal Switzerland. This week I interviewed Terry Godbout who is the founder of the Elite Skiing Facebook Group and www.eliteskiing.com I finally managed to work out how to make calls over the internet sound ok when I'm recording them and I hope that you enjoy this chat that I had with Terry as much as I did. He is a guy with a great deal of experience in the ski industry and w...