Your mail-in ballot for the Spring election for your Board Members will be arriving in your mailbox soon. To read candidate statements please click head over to the Candidates Statements page or just click here.

In this election your mailed in ballot must be post marked no later than February 29, 2012. If you have not received your ballot and you need more information please call Member Services at  (206) 244-8541 or by email at info@psia-nw.org.

Kathy Hand remembers Lucky Joy Lucas

From the NW Snowsports Instructor newsletter, Winter 2011-12

Lucky Joy Lucas was a pioneer in the ski industry. Yes, her first name was Lucky, but we were the lucky ones as she settled on ski teaching and gave her time and talent to us. She passed peacefully on Black Friday – November 25, 2011.

Joy will be remembered for a long list of firsts. She was the first woman ski instructor certified in the United States and on the Northwest’s first board of directors. She was the first Executive Secretary for the PNSIA (Pacific Northwest Ski Instructors Association) and set up the first office; which was a bedroom in an apartment just East of Sea-Tac Airport. This was a shared office with PNSA (Pacific Northwest Ski Association) and before that the Northwest Division was a committee of the PNSA. The first newsletter was run on a mimeograph and mailed from that office. We didn’t have zip codes then and zip codes later became another learning experience.

Joy kept the balls in the air, keeping our membership in order. She became known with affection as our Mother Superior. She organized our Symposium events where we were placed into classes per our ability to handle slopes; at the time we were the only division to provide that kind organizing. We were a hard playing group and she kept some of us out of jail, literally. I remember a “lost bus” at a Bogus Basin Symposium one year. If you do not know the story you must ask a Legend or at least an old timer.

Joy worked in the office year round, even when we were small. Summers were spent in review and organizing for the next year. When dues billings went out she was in full swing with Fall Seminars, ski school insurance billing, etc. It took three years to break someone in to help out as each thing we did usually only happened once a year.

One year she fell and they said she would never walk again. The doctors didn’t know her strength of will and of course she was back up on the slopes. Not only did she teach, but she and her late husband Jim ran the Evergreen Ski School at Snoqualmie for 18 years. She knew our organization from all sides and that made her so very valuable to us.

It Started on the Mountain was a book written by Joy. It was fun being on the committee with Joy, Kay Haley, and Willa O’Conner. The committee expanded as we went, but working from a picnic table on the water at Camano Island a book took shape. Many stories were told that wouldn’t or couldn’t make the book, but we loved every one one of them. If you have not read our organization’s history, pay tribute to Joy, purchase a book from the office and learn about our early years.

Joy was a hard worker all of her life. Her father was a Forest Ranger and she grew up in the woods, coming to Seattle every winter to go to school. She modeled for local department stores and worked ski retail among other things. Joy gave birth to 4 children; one died at age two from tuberculosis and Michael, Katie and Dave still are here along with her grandchildren and great-grandchildren. Dave carries on the family’s PSIA-NW legacy; he’s a Divisional Clinic Leader, Alpine Examiner, past Technical Team member and past PSIA-NW President.

Joy served other people and enjoyed doing that. She passed away from pneumonia brought on by a small stroke that knocked out a flap in her esophagus that controls where the air and food go. There will be a private family service at Chinook Pass to celebrate her life when the snow is gone in the Spring 2012. Remembrances can be made to the charity of your choice.
Her friend,

Kathy Hand

Published in The Seattle Times on January 15, 2012

Joy Piles Lucas born February 15, 1917, in Spokane Wash. Passed away Nov. 25, 2011. Her parents were in the Forest Service and she spent every summer at the Barlow Pass Ranger Station, near Monte Cristo and Big Four before coming to Seattle. She attended Broadway High School, where she was very active in activities, being Treasurer of the Girl’s Club, awarded the Rene B. Raymond award for the most outstanding girl athlete as well as the Candle Log award for outstanding girl student. Joy was Executive Secretary for the Broadway High School Alumni Association for more than 15 years. She was honored to be placed in their Alumni Hall of Fame. In 1938, she made her first trip skiing to the Milwaukee Ski Bowl, (now Hyak).

On the train home, she met Jim Lucas – they made a bond, he taught her to ski and they were married the following year. Joy became the first woman in America to become a Certified Ski Instructor in 1941. She and Jim ran the Deer Park Ski Lodge and ski school in the Olympics in 1940, then taught with the Seattle Times Free Ski School in 1941-42. They managed the Milwaukee Ski Bowl the year after the War, then taught at Snoqualmie Pass for 27 years, including directing their own Evergreen Ski School for 18 years – then to Ski Acres for another 14 years, teaching and training instructors for the Ski Acres Ski School. She taught for more than 50 years. She taught until she was 75 and skied until she was 80.

Joy was one of the founders of the Pacific Northwest Ski Instructors Association (later PSIA-NW) and served with their board for nearly 30 years. She was Executive Secretary for the Professional Ski Instructors of America (PSIA-NW) for over 16 years and organized their Symposiums for more than 25 years. She was “Momma” to all the ski instructors in the Northwest. Her awards: Ski instructor of the Year – the Legend Award – and inducted into the Northwest Ski Hall of Fame in 1992. She was honored by the International Skiing History Association for her book, “It Started in the Mountains”, a history of skiing and ski instruction in the Northwest. In 2006, she authored, “Ancient Skiers of the Pacific Northwest”, a history of skiers who skied Mt. Rainier prior to World War II.

Joy is survived by her children, Dr. Michael Lucas (Cindy), Kate Lucas and Dave Lucas (Marla), 6 grandchildren and 6 great grandchildren. Remembrances may be made to charity of personal choice.

Published in The Seattle Times on January 15, 2012

It’s that time of year again to be thinking about the 2011/2012 Award nominations.

PSIA-NW has established a recognition committee, which was given the task of developing criteria and procedures for nominating persons for Northwest division awards and special recognition. There are many people in our organization that deserve special recognition and divisional awards. We have 5 awards which are awarded annually (if there are nominations).

For Award details see: http://www.psia-nw.org/membership/awards/

AASI Level II or III and/or

PSIA-NW Freestyle Specialists

Multi-week programs, half & all day programs

Friday & Saturday or Sunday

Ski Masters Ski & Ride School

425-392-8260

skimasters@comcast.net

The Freestyle Specialist 1 is a two-day freestyle focused certificate based program that will educate the freestyle coach through the various models for effectively teaching the park and pipe enthusiast. The participant can tap into these resources to help gain knowledge and application as an instructor working with the freestyle client learning in the beginner to intermediate zone. All disciplines welcome.

Please see the Freestyle Specialist section of this website for more information.

Location(s) and Date(s):

Mt. Hood Meadows, February 18-19
Please note that this event did NOT appear in the printed Season Guide.

2-day event, 2-year credit, Cost: $125

If you’re looking to continue your growth in the application of the teaching model and its learning partnership, this clinic is a must. The gradual release of responsibility is an instructional model and is “one way teachers can provide more targeted, individualized instruction.” (Pearson & Gallagher, 1983) We’ll apply the gradual release model in our on snow playground, understand how it fits within our PSIA-AASI teaching cycle and how it engages students at a cognitive level and helps lead them to ownership of the information we are teaching them. (You may have referred to it as, or heard others mention it by, the moniker “to-with-with-by.”)

Location(s) and Date(s):

Timberline, February 22

Snoqualmie Summit Central, February 23

1-day event, 1-year credit, Cost: $65

Want to upgrade your tether skills for Bi Ski?  We will work on: position, anticipating direction change, slowing and stopping without rolling, single tether versus double, and when to use.  Practice, practice, practice is the key for mastering this much needed skill when working with sit down skiers. Instructors need to be very comfortable on blue /green runs.

Location: Snoqualmie Summit West, this session will run from 4pm-10pm

Mt. Hood Meadows, regular day clinic session 9am-4pm

1-day event, 1-year credit, cost: $65

Scheduled roughly a month before an exam, this adaptive checkpoint has a mock exam feel. We will go over exam expectation and work on skills. You’ll be given an assessment of your readiness as specific feedback to help you prepare for your exam. Instructors should be currently teaching with a recognized adaptive program. Adaptive Level I or II members only.

Location: Snoqualmie Summit West, evening clinic 4pm-10pm

Mt. Hood Meadows, day clinic 9am-4pm

1-day event, 1-year credit, Cost: $65

Interested in expanding your understanding of working with the visually impaired client? Or an introduction to working with them? This clinic will cover assessing the clients needs, guiding indoors, outdoors and on the slopes. Additionally, you will have a chance to experience what it is like to guide and be guided.

Location: Alpental, January 20

1-day event, 1-year credit, cost: $65

This one-day clinic will delve into better understanding a drill and the skill or skills it employs. As we better understand what we are trying to develop and what skill set it is, we are then able to choose the best drill. Come prepared with a drill you like to use and if time allows the group will work through it and drill down into its nuances and skill(s) it develops. The free subscription to the Movement Matrix would be something to review before this clinic too!

Location(s):

Whitefish, Mt. Ashland, February 13

Stevens Pass, March 24

1-day event, 1-year credit, cost: $65