Always Learning

Turning Point

by Randy Malikowski

Winter 2000

If you have been to a destination resort, then you can imagine the picture of elegance that surrounds the resort. It was the winter of 1989-90 at Beaver Creek Resort, in Vail, Colorado. This was a low snow year, so the first two months were spent on man-made snow. Usually a mound of snow is is formed from the snow guns over a few days. This mound then would sit, untouched, for about a week as the excess moisture drained, then it would be spread on the surrounding run like peanut butter. This winter Beaver Creek still needed the early season snow base. The man made snow was spread out as soon as it was blown from the snow guns, keeping the moisture with in the snow. The result was a nice rock hard, smooth as glass base to ski across. Nothing could be more exciting than 45 degree temperatures and a mountain ready to ski. It was very pretty, everything on the mountain was bright, and forest green with rivers of white cutting through the pine trees.

The ski school traveled to Vail to train as a large unit with the other 1500 instructors from around the world (Beaver Creek was not open yet). It was fun skiing with such a diverse, but extremely talented group of individuals. Chris Ryman (Overall director of all ski schools in Vail/Beaver Creek, PSIA National Guru), himself even skied up to me at one point and sync skied with me during the training. He complemented me on my short radius turns. I felt pretty proud of my new Level III status as an instructor, and being complimented by Chris Ryman himself. I had just passed my Level III certification back in Washington state that last Spring.

After 3 days of training at Vail it was time to return to Beaver Creek. Dee Byrne (Northwest local, past PSIA Demo Team member, Beaver Creek Supervisor) was my group leader at Beaver Creek. Bob Peck had given me her name to look up when I got hired at the Beave. She turned out to be a good friend because of our Northwest background. Dee skied with me during the training at Vail and said she liked what she saw. I had asked her if there was anyway to help out in giving clinics to new instructors at Beaver Creek. I told her that I did training for my ski school at 49 Degrees North the last winter. She told me that they had a series of training’s that I must go through before I would be selected to be a trainer for them. She said that the training’s take as least two years, but she could have me shadow some clinics to start getting the idea of how things worked. I agreed, and was set up to shadow a pre-season clinic with Mike Porter (PSIA Demo Team Coach, PSIA National Guru). Wow, was all I could think.

The next day we took the snow; Mike Porter, eight Level II participants and myself. Mike started out with introductions and goals for the day. He introduced me as a Level III from the Northwest preparing to become a trainer. I was a little nervous to say the least, but that was the least of my worries. It was my first day on real hard man-made snow. I had never touched snow so hard before in my entire life. All that I can remember is not being able to stand up. My skis kept sliding out from underneath me in every turn. If I didn’t fall to my hip, then I would do this wild overrotation move at the end of each turn. I started the clinic feeling pretty confident, but by the end I was a wreck. I was so embarrassed that I don’t remember saying two words at the end. I did everything I could just to get off the snow. I was so embarrassed that I did not talk to Dee for a week. I was afraid she would be mad that I wasted Mike Porter’s time during his clinic.

 I was so eager to learn how to stand up when I was skiing that I signed up for the very next clinic. The clinic instructor turned out to be one of the current Demo Team members, ( I can’t remember his name). I listened intently the entire day to his instructions and completed each task. My skiing improved through the day rather well, but I still needed to know how to stand up on the ice while making turns at speed. I waited patiently at the end of the day when everyone was giving their thank you’s to the clinician. After everyone had skied away I asked the ten thousand dollar question; how do I stand up on the ice while skiing at speed? He had me ski a few turns to watch specifically what I was doing before giving me an answer. He told me to use the rib pinch technique. He gave me a mini lesson and away I skied, shaky and contrived, but in balance. It was almost like learning to ski all over again. After a winter of practice I gained more skill.

 The next winter I returned to the Northwest to pursue my teaching endorsement. I also tried out to become a Divisional Clinic Leader. That was eleven years ago now and I still can remember how humble I had become on that day. It took an extreme situation for me to understand that just because I have my Level III certification, I still wasn’t quite there yet. Already this year I have learned something new in my skiing that helped me to improve. Most importantly I learned that you must be open minded and ready to learn every time you ski or you’ll never get above that plateau.