Wayne Naylor - ISIA Training

Most people participating on a Snoworks course are doing so to
increase their skiing ability which will bring more of the slopes and off piste area within their comfort zone. Quite simply the better you are at skiing the more fun you will have on a ski holiday.

My reasons for joining Phil were slightly are different. I have been a ski instructor in Austria and Italy for the past 15 years and, like all (well most anyway) instructors, I can, with ease, whiz around the slopes. But to get to next level on the instructors steps (in my case the ISIA award) I realized that being able to simply whiz around the slopes was just not good enough. What I needed was technique to enable me to progress in my occupation. OK, (again like most instructors) I do have some technique but, to put it bluntly, it has become slightly rusty over the years.

The criteria for passing the ISIA is quite simple (as Phil has said many times) either you are the right standard and you'll pass or you're not and you won't. You must have great piste performance, skill in variables (to you and me that's everything from knee deep powder to ice and crud), you need to ski effortlessly at speed on very steep slopes, your off piste ability will be tested to the limit and in the bumps (moguls) you simply have (that's a very big HAVE) to be able to ski the fall line at a constant (reasonably fast) speed.

Phil's ability to find the root cause of any inconsistency and come up with workable practice modules is excellent. His extremely enthusiastic style of teaching seems to have gone out of vogue in current times but after a few days with Phil and his team you'll have to ask yourself why doesn't everyone teach like this. As one of the originators of the BASI manual he obviously has the experience to teach to any level. So if you're up for the next BASI course I'd do one with Phil 1st (you can never be to prepared). What more can I say many thanks Phil.

A special cheers mate must also go to Lee (another ISTD snoworks instructor) who with boundless patience improved my bumps skiing, using piste exercises and get-in-that-line practice, to a level where I now know that I can ski any set of bumps, anywhere. Maybe still not to Lee's standard but ....

Quite simply I would recommend a Snoworks course to anyone contemplating a BASI, AMSI, ESF or any other ski instructor course.

Oh yeah I passed.