Who is your favorite skier?
Greg Luce
PSIA-NW DCL 

I had the pleasure of presenting at the Portland offering of the 2006 PSIA-NW Fall Seminar. Although I have presented in front of peers in the past, this was my first time in front of my skiing colleagues. Not only that, I realized that the Fall Seminar is more than an indoor snow sports seminar, it is the first event of the coming snow sports season. Now I have to get some information and ideas exchanged AND I have to try and get the participants emotionally charged for their best season yet. I feared the title of my topics, Teaching I and Teaching II, may not create the Passion For the Mountain Experience that would be required.

In my quest to create a memorable experience, it dawned on me that one of the aspects that keeps me involved in ski instruction is the opportunity to meet with such a fantastic range of personalities. So, before launching into the PSIA teaching concepts as I see them, before introducing The Sports Diamond tm., and before watching some great video clips, I asked each participant a few questions. This way we could all meet some like-minded folks, get to know a bit about who we are as a group, and learn that we come to snow sports with many stories. We have all done this at times with our lessons, and I thought we would get some quick answers and at least get the morning started with an idea of who was awake. Boy was I surprised.

What is your name, where do you ski, which skis will you ski on this season, what music or program did you listen to on the drive here this morning, and who is your favorite skier? These were more or less the questions that I presented to everyone in the group. If you take the time to answer these questions yourself, right now, you may not be too surprised at the answers. If you ask roomful of 15 strangers you will be pleasantly surprised at the answers. I certainly was.

Quite honestly, I got answers that I did not expect; answers that were insightful and really helped tell the story of why each person was taking time out of his or her schedule to keep up on PSIA credits. When everyone answered the last question about who their favorite skier was, I expected to hear about the great Ingemar Stenmark, which I did and I concur. What I had not expected was to be touched by the fellow that explained that his favorite skier is his daughter because of the courage she portrayed and passed on to him as she conquered her fears on the hill. I was moved by the colleague that had lost her favorite skier, her beloved son, to an avalanche. Finally, I was so surprised and thrilled to hear, instead of Bode Miller or The Hermanator, the names of Jeff Cordell and Nick McDonald.

Those of you who have not attended a PSIA-NW event in the past, oh say, 20 years may not know Jeff or Nick. That is a shame indeed. Because when I really think about it, although I love to watch world cup ski racing and I am in awe of Julia Mancuso and Ted Ligity, Jeff and Nick are two of my favorite skiers along with Diane Robbins, Stephen “Henne” Henrickson, Sarah Richardson, Rick Lyons, Jeremy Riss, PJ Jones, and Jerry Berg just to name a few. So, take some time to reflect, who is your favorite skier, really?

p.s. Ingemar did post 92 world cup wins, 45 seconds, 28 thirds, that would be 165 podiums.