Not Your Average Ski Schools
New England Ski Journal
March 2007
By Heather Burke
When the time comes to teach your kids
to ski, stepping away may be the best step you make. The same is
often said about teaching your spouse or significant other. There is
even a phrase, teaching a loved one can send your relationship
downhill. Resorts are ready to rescue frazzled fiancées and fried
families. Everywhere you turn, ski areas are offering teaching
programs to meet your ski needs.
Here’s a look at some New England family ski resorts going beyond
the basics in instruction from teaching toddlers to make their first
turns, to teaching your teen proper park tricks, to weeklong camps
geared toward racing gates.
Baby Steps
When
your child is just starting on snow, it’s normal to be apprehensive
about that first ski school experience. I empathize with the
motherly urge to spy on your child after dropping them off at ski
camp, but as a former ski instructor (back when ski pants were tight
and boards were straight), I remember the disruption when the
well-intentioned parent “dropped by.” Their little angel was just
fine till seeing that familiar face – then tears and trauma ensue.
Waterville
Valley in New Hampshire has dialed in on that melodrama by
adding a private parent viewing station this season. Parents can
qualm their fears and peak in on their kids unnoticed.
The kids in Waterville’s camp are having a blast meanwhile
collecting Venture Zone pins, awarded for each element from bumps to
glades that they master in class.
You
can’t talk about kids’ ski programs without mentioning 50-year-old
Smugglers’ Notch
in Vermont, the granddaddy of lesson programs. Smuggs’ impressive
“Snowsports University” has invented a program for every age and
ability. They start toddlers on snow as early as 2 ½-years-old in
their “Little Rascals” program.
Smuggs’ Adventure Rangers, for ages 6-10, is unique because this day
camp cleverly combines science and nature games on the snow with the
actual lesson, and ends with indoor entertainment that is very
educational (shh, don’t tell the kids).
Kids don’t tend to gravitate toward skinny skiing – most would pick
the pull of gravity and the excitement of downhill over Nordic. To
entice kids to try cross-country, Smuggs’ has developed “Nordic
Quest.” This cross-country treasure hunt has kids scavenging for
clues through the snowy forest on Nordic skis or snowshoes. While
playing this exciting game, they’re learning this healthy
self-powered sport.
Learning to launch
Would
a “Sick Trick Camp” appeal to your teen or tween? The name will
surely grab your young freerider or twin tipped skier.
Gunstock
offers this Base Camp for ages 8 and up to learn how to launch and
land safely with talented instructors in the Blundersmoke Terrain
Park. You can choose from an hour lesson focusing on learning one
park element or a day’s camp covering an assortment of tricks.
Committing to Camp
For those in search of season-long programs, Sugarloaf and Sunday
River in Maine both offer exceptional ski and snowboard camps.
Sugarloaf’s Bubblecuffers meets every weekend and holiday weeks, so
kids ages 3 -16 bond with their coaches and teammates while their
skills improve - whether their focus is on gates, freestyle, or all
mountain skiing.
Sunday River
has a season long recreational ski and snowboard program called
River Rats, for ages 3 -16, with similar every-weekend commitment
and camaraderie of the same kids and coach.
For kids pursuing a competitive edge, Sunday River’s nearby private
prep school, Gould Academy, provides a more intense freestyle and
race program that meets every weekend, called their GSR program for
ages 8 -19.
If
you want to send your preteen to a week of ski or snowboard camp,
Sugarloaf’s
CVA Winter Camps (offered seven times throughout the season) give
kids grades 5 - 8 everything from dry-land training and on-snow
video analysis, to campus housing. Kids will like attending the same
school as Bode Miller and
Seth Wescott
did. Parents will like that their child is receiving the private
school caliber coaching of
Carrabassett Valley
Academy without the boarding school bill or yearlong separation.
These seasonal programs need to be signed up for in advance next
fall.
Whether you want your kids to learn just the basics, or to master a
downhill discipline on the hill, these are a few innovative programs
available. Either way, letting your kids hone their own ski or
snowboard skills independently will only strengthen their love of
the sport…so your family can ski together long into the future.
