FISS Founders
Naoko started skiing as soon as she could walk and grew up ski racing from a child and through her teenage years.
With over 40 seasons experience teaching skiing, she has taught in the USA, Japan and New Zealand. She is currently a trainer/examiner for New Zealand Snowsports Instructor Alliance (NZSIA). https://www.nzsia.org/2012/06/naoko-usui-ski-trainer/ In 2023 she was selected to be on the NZSIA Tech team training towards interski in 2027.
During the summer months, Naoko is currently heavily involved with the “Instructor Training Program” at Cardrona Alpine Resort. Her primary role is training ski instructors towards their desired levels of ski instructor certification.
Previously, she also worked on a Japanese government initiative aimed to boost quality levels within the Japanese ski industry. She was awarded “Instructor of the Year” at Cardrona in 2012 and nominated in 2013 for the “New Zealand Instructor of the Year”. Fluent in both Japanese and English, she has worked as both translator and interpreter for a renowned Japanese magazine.
Her love for skiing is only eclipsed by her love for FOOD and SHOPPING!!
Sponsor: HEAD New Zealand
Kojima started ski racing when he was 7 years old and raced for the next 16 years. After which he decided to switch and took up snowboard racing and won the Japanese National Championship 3 times. He was a member of the national team for 6 years and competed at World Championship and World Cup. After retiring from his racing career he became a high school teacher. He formed the first Japanese school snowboard team and promoted snowboarding to Japanese sports education. He founded Kojima Academy in Furano in 2002 and focused on his snowboard racing program. His program coached young snowboard athletes from around the world in Japan, New Zealand and Europe. He had a total of 6 athletes that went to Salt Lake City Olympics, Torino Olympics, and Vancouver Olympics. He again enjoyed olympic success with an athlete gaining a silver medal at the Sochi olympic games.
Ben has taught skiing year round for almost 30 years. He has worked as a ski instructor, race coach, instructor trainer and examiner. He has taught all levels from beginner through to the worlds elite.
He coached ski racers to medal success at the Sochi 2014, Pyeong Chang 2018 & Beijing 2022 winter games. His athletes have won at world cup, world championships and even a crystal globe. For eight years he was a national ski team head coach, previously being a national development team coach for a number of years. He has gold medal success coaching both speed and technical disciplines.
He is a former examiner for the New Zealand Snowsport Instructors Alliance and worked for many years with instructor training programs. During this time he trained instructors towards their level 1-3 exams for BASI, CSIA, NZSIA & PSIA systems.