Monday, February 19, 2007

What A GREAT Weekend...Until.

This weekend, President's Weekend, was one of those fabulous weekend's that are just so cool to be part of...Until.

It started Saturday morning, arriving at the hill early, I got to be part of the early morning crew, setting up fences, moving poles and "ski school signs", greeting the early-riser guests, it was just fun. There's something really enjoyable about being there "backstage" when the crew is getting the show ready. From all of my days as an airshow guy, there was just something about being there with the planes ready to fly, the pilots getting briefed, vendors rolling out their goods; that bug is still with me.

So, as Saturday dawned, I was ready to go and since there were no students early, I got to run first-tracks with Beale, a heckuva a skier and awesome woman to boot and Scott (yellow vest, on the right), a student at Mizzou and a superb guy. Scott, earlier in the day, rescued me from the edge of the access road heading to the hill. Friday night, St. Louis got 1/2 inch of snow and unfortunately, by the time Saturday morning rolled around, the access road hadn't been plowed or salted. Dumb me decided it was a perfect day to try to get to the hill in my convertible (rather than taking the SUV which was just sitting there begging to be driven). So, as I'm going up and down the access road, climbing to the entry, I get stuck on a just too steep to climb section of the road. Once my forward momentum had stopped, I tried to slowly accelerate in the lowest gear I could get to and the wheels kept spinning . . . and then, I started to slide towards the edge of the road and a big ole tree-filled cliff. Freaked out??? You betcha. So, rather than accept that as my fate, I stopped with the gas and started in with the brake...not so fast dumbass. Now, I start to slide backwards down the hill...still veering towards the edge of the road. As a last ditch, I decide the only thing I can really do is put the car in reverse and drive-backwards, down the hill and try to positively control my direction. Still, no such luck but at least things weren't getting worse. As I started to slow down, my right rear tire fell off the side of the road and I stopped, dead in my tracks.

Now, to say I'm hyperventilating would be an understatement...but, here's where the star-alignment part comes in. Who should be directly behind me but Craig (L2 about to be L3 ski instructor and an amazingly great guy) and Scott (Mizzou student, from above). They were watching the whole thing and as I came to a stop at the side of the road, they met me at my car as I was getting out. To say that I was relieved to see that it was them would be an understatement. After about 30 seconds of discussing it, Scott and Craig decide it's going to be best if they push me back on the road and I drive all the way back down the hill to the church parking lot. And so that's what happened. A little gas, a whole lot of their muscle and voila...safely on the road and backing down I go. I said it to both of them before but once again, THANKS GUYS FOR RESCUING MY BACON!

OK, so, I finally get warmed up, after skiing with Scott and Beale and it's time for the first of the 6 classes I tought on Saturday. One after the other it was just fun, fun, fun! My first class was "shadowed" by one of the senior instructors, Hawkie. Superbly amazingly great guy and as good as an instructor as there is. Well, I was a little bit nervous, kind of like in flight school when the senior instructor watches you conduct a lesson, but I figured I would just do what I'd been doing and get the feedback for improving once all was said and done. Luckily for me, my first class was filled with athletic studs and everything I asked them to do was easily done by them. By the end, 9 of the 10 were sliding, wedging, turning, stopping...it was cool. One thing I've gotten into a pattern of is at the top of the learner's hill, as we're getting ready for our last run as a class, I stop everyone and give them a recap of what they've learned and ask them "OK, an hour ago when we started the class...I asked each of you if you're a skier. So, an hour ago, how many of you were skier's?" To which none of them raise their hand and I then ask, "OK, it's an hour later, how many of you are skier's now?" To which ALL of them raise their hands. It's a great thing to see them realize how far they've come and for me, it's a thrill to see that in their faces.

So, once that first lesson is done, I ski back to the "Ski School Meeting Area" and wait for Hawkie to join up. He skied up and said, "best primary lesson I've seen a junior instructor deliver in a long time...way to go". Uhhhhh, me? You're talking to me? It was so cool to hear him say that. From where I'd come as an instructor 3 months earlier to Saturday was well, quite a journey and it was cool, cool, cool to have him tell me that I was decent enough to keep instructing. He did say I was a little "verbose" in the beginning...yeah, well, ask anyone who knows me and they'll tell you I love the sounds of my voice. But that's something I've been working on and am well aware of. So, in all, the feedback was super positive and I spent the rest of Saturday enjoying being a ski instructor.

More about the weekend will be written...likely, it's above this post...in just a bit.

Thanks for reading!

1 comment:

MikeyPDX said...

Awesome, nice work. Glad you survived the vehicular ordeal.