FAQs
How early should we book our lessons?
What should we wear?
Can skiers & snowboarders join the same lesson?
Can we have mixed ability levels in one class?
Is it advisable to have classes with mixtures of children and adults?
What is the difference between off-piste & back-country?
How do we pay for our lessons?
Can we have skiers & snowboarders in the same class
Skiing and snowboarding although sharing many characteristics are two separate sports.
Combining them in a lesson would be similar to taking a golf lesson and having someone with a tennis racquet and balls turn up (Again there are similarities... both involve hitting a ball with an object).
We do have instructors qualified to teach both (just as there are some golf coaches who can teach tennis). In the tennis/golf analogy, you could hit a tennis ball with a racquet around a golf course. In the same manner skiers and snowboarders can ride together down the slope and enjoy each others company.
The problem in a lesson environment however comes when the instructor needs to present a skill to develop. The instructor will do this by describing the desired outcome and combine this with a visual demonstration. Even if the instructor can ski and snowboard, they can physically only wear one set of equipment at a time (either skis or a snowboard). If they wear skis then any skiers in the group will benefit from both aural explanations and demonstrations, whereas snowboarders in the group will only be able to get an aural explanation as the instructor will be unable to perform a snowboard demonstration on skis. If the instructor is wearing a snowboard then the snowboarders would benefit from explanations and demonstrations and this time the skiers will be disadvantaged.
As one group (skiers or snowboarders) are disadvantaged by sharing a lesson we try to discourage people from booking such lessons. Obviously we understand there may be situations where someone wants to accompany those in the lesson on different equipment but doesn't necessarily want to be taught themselves.