I have skiied for many years, too many to accurately remember my first time other than ending up in a shallow creek and not to wear woolen mittens on tow ropes! But I wanted to relate the story of my son Christopher, who tried skiing for the very first time in the winter of 2010 at Brimacombe.
I was one of the parent chaperone's for our school ski club and it was the second year that my older daughter was enrolled. I decided instead of finding a minder for him each Tuesday, I would bring him along and try to teach him to ski. He was eight that winter and reluctant to learn anything new, but I promised him it would be fun and if he didn't like it after giving it a real try, we would just sit in the chalet until his sister was done.
I didn't get him a tow lift ticket straight away as I wasn't sure we would be out there long so we walked up about a third of the way on the bunny hill (magic carpet), and I got our skiis on. I held onto the back of his coat and slowly brought him down while teaching the 'snow plow' method and how to keep pressure on each leg as he wanted to turn. The first run went well enough for him to want to try again, so we took off our skiis and walked about half way up the side of the hill again.
I was still getting into my skiis when off he went, weaving back and forth with no problem at all. I quickly came down and he asked with a smile, "could we go up to the top next?" I said "sure," and said I'd go buy our lift tickets and to wait just outside the booth. When I returned with the tows I was shocked - he had already gone to the top of the hill! I waited and watched as he skiied down with style, and stopped easily in front of me. I was stunned. Remembering the effort it took for me to learn such easy style on the slopes, I was very impressed. After a few more runs, we decided to try the chair lift, and Christopher skiied just like he'd been doing it for years. When I asked him how he learned how to ski so easily, he said he had watched the ski instructor from the Snow School! Sometimes we teach without ever knowing it's happening.
We looked forward to another season of skiiing at Brimacombe as it is a favourite thing to be able to do with so many friends at one time. We will continue to ski whenever time (and snow!) allows.
Lesley
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