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Posted on Thursday January 20th at 10:04 a.m.
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What is Interski?
Interski 2011 dates are 16th to 21st January
Ever since 1951, friends of snowsports from all over the world have been coming together for the Congresses of Interski. In 1991 St Anton am Arlberg hosted the international Congress as the cradle of skiing. 20 years on, the Congress returns to St Anton for what is one of the most important meeting in the world of snowsports.
In 2011, more than 2,000 Congress participants will travel to Austria to contribute their expertise to the development of snowsports and to prepare the ground for the future of snowsport instruction.
A little bit of history
Exactly 60 years after previously hosting the event, the world's biggest symposium on ski instruction will return to St. Anton am Arlberg. The resort was awarded the Congress on 2 February 2007 in the South Korean resort of YongPyong, where about 2000 ski school specialists from 31 national ski instructors' associations came together for their expert forum.
This is a truly international event. It's rumored to be the third largest snowsports event in the world, following the Winter Olympics and the Winter X-Games.
To demonstrate the history of this event, here's a list of all the previous Interki Congresses.
* 1951 Zürs (AT)
* 1953 Davos (CH)
* 1955 Val d‘Isere (FR)
* 1957 Storlien (SE)
* 1959 Zakopane (PL)
* 1962 Monte Bondone (IT)
* 1965 Bad Gastein (AT)
* 1968 Aspen (US)
* 1971 Garmisch Partenkirchen (DE)
* 1975 Strbske Pleso (CZ)
* 1979 Zao Onsen (JP)
* 1983 Sexten (IT)
* 1987 Banff (CA)
* 1991 St. Anton am Arlberg (AT)
* 1995 Nosawa Onsen (JP)
* 1999 Beitostolen (NO)
* 2003 Crans Montana (CH)
* 2007 PyeongChang (KO)
Who's There in 2011?
NZSIA first attended Interski in 1979 and have sent representatives to every event since. St Anton in 2011 will be our largest representation ever - around 30 delegates including demonstrators, clinicians, lecturers and supporters. See their profiles here.
Latest from the Kiwi's
23rd Jan - Austrian Ski Clinic
Earlier this week Mark Cruden went along to see what the Austrian's were presenting on their home soil. But before you read his review, check out this little vid of Mark skiing through a series of St Anton's amazing kids facilities...
Clinic title: Overview of the Austrian Childrens' Teaching Systems
Clinic synopsis: The workshop described in detail the Austrian Childrens' Ski School system and teaching methodologies.
Our summary: The clinic began with an indoor presentation. This presentation described in detail the teaching model and progressions used by the Austrian Ski Schools to teach children from early years through to teens. The indoor presentation was excellent and set the scene well for the second on-snow part of the clinic.
Read the rest of this entry »
Testing St Anton's Kids Skiing Facilities from NZSIA Ski.
23rd Jan - Canadian Park Skiing Clinic
Pete Legnavsky went to check out the Canadian Park Skiing worhskop earlier this week. Here's a quick summary...
Clinic title: Canadian Park Skiing
Clinic synopsis: Roger, one of Canada's freeski guys, presented another progression-based clinic.
A novel way to teach sliding boxes
Our summary: I was looking forward to this presentation as Canada has a massive history in park skiing. His approach was very fresh and he fitted well in the park culture. The clinic was based on beginners in the park and the major milestones they have to pass in order to progress.
His approach to riding boxes and the bag of tricks was novel and fun. The progression would be a fairly standard procedure down in NZ.
22 Jan - Video Highlights of Gav's Ski Clinic
Here it is. A quick video highlights of Gavin's on-snow ski clinic presented earlier this week...
NZSIA Ski Clinic at Interski 2011 from NZSIA Ski.
22 Jan - NZSIA Children's Clinic
Rachel Milner's children's clinic was a real hit with the other countries. Here's a quick summary from Rache herself...
Clinic title: Skiing IS the Adventure
Clinic synopsis: How the NZSIA is working to develop educational material to suit the type of lessons people buy in NZ. Time, terrain and resources on the hill all have impact on what we can and need to deliver in order to teach a successful lesson and encourage our students to come back.
Our summary: I chose that title because I wanted to showcase what teaching skiing to kids is all about in NZ. Twenty four people showed up to the workshop from eight different countries!!!
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22nd Jan - Aussie Snowboard Clinic
A bunch of the snowboard boys joined the Aussies for their clinic earlier this week. Here's Tommo's write up on it...
Clinic title: Riding Tasks in the Australian System from Levels 1 through to 4.
Clinic synopsis: The Aussies discussed stance options - duck stance vs positive angle and how they effect the snowboard differently. Then gave an intro to the turns expected at each level in their system. These are as follows;
Level 1 - intro to up-unweighted short turns
Level 2 - up-unweighted short turns increasing performance
Level 3 - up-unweighted short turns with a stronger fore/aft movement
Level 4 - retraction extension turns
Additional exercises - toe-to-toe tasks, heel-to-heel tasks... with a challenge
Interski 2011 - Aussie Task from SBINZ.
Our summary: The Australians had a great turn out with about 40 people turning up
to their snowboard clinic. We started off as one large group and briefly reviewed stance options, i.e. duck stance vs positive angles with the focus being how the pressure on the snowboard changes between the two.
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22nd Jan - Slovenia Snowboard Clinic
Mat Philips and Keith Stubbs went to check out the Slovenian Snowboard clinic yesterday. Here's what they thought...
Clinic title: Eliminating the Fear!
Clinic synopsis: The clinic concept was ‘how we can utilize educational tools to take away fear from the student' at a beginner level.
Lots of countries trying the pole technique
Our summary: The tool the Slovenians chose was a ski race gate pole. They made some adjustments to the pole such as adding a rubber disc around the pole to stop it sliding away if dropped. They also slid another fiberglass pole inside the existing pole to stiffen it up. They recommended a two-meter pole minimum.
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22nd Jan - History of Skiing Show
As part of the Interski Opening Ceremony the other night, the local St Anton people put on a History of Skiing show with old videos and live performances on the snow...
History of Skiing at the Interski Opening Ceremony from NZSIA Ski.
21st Jan - NZSIA Ski Clinic
New Zealand presented a number of clinics and one indoor lecture. This is a summary of the on-snow Ski clinic from Gav...
Clinic title: Embracing the Adventure
Clinic synopsis: The goal of the clinic was to illustrate how our system allows us to take a parallel skier who is comfortable on blue/red terrain and teach that skier to tip it up (carve on piste), to rip it up (ski off piste) or to jib it up (prepare for the pipe and park) through tactical coaching rather than movement focussed coaching, we also showcased some skill development exercises and tasks that we would use to compliment our tactical coaching approach.
Our summary: We began the clinic by outlining and demonstrating the four movements of skiing as identified by the NZSIA - fore/aft, rotational, lateral and vertical. Next we introduced the elements of co-ordination - duration, intensity, rate, range and timing.
This provided the necessary background for the clinic participants to understand how our skier had achieved a parallel turn and how we would work tactically to achieve the skier's goals - be it tip it, rip it or jib it.
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21st Jan - A $23 Million Point of Difference
A true feat of engineering...
Vertical bull wheels in action.
When the lift company at St Anton asked Mr. Doppelmayr for a lift that no one else had, he said give me a week. He came up with a 10.5km of cable with a 60m splice that carries a 24 person gondola. It has its own solar panel to power emergency communications, a couple of giant bull wheels and works like a grownups ‘willy wonkers chocolate factory', picking up and moving the gondola with its load of passengers and its attachment mechanism around the terminals then placing it back on the uphill cable for the journey up to the top of the mountain.
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21st Jan - St Anton's Impressive Kids Centres
Michel Marchand from Coronet and Remarkables went on a bit of a tour of the St Anton local facilities. He was particularly impressed with the kids centre. This is what he has to say about it...
The trainSt Anton has two different kids centres linked together by a train. The main centre Kinderwelt, catering to the lower levels, can have up to 500 kids in peak time. Kids are there for the whole day, including lunch. Inside the centre is absolutely huge! Everything is designed to be child-friendly, with lots of fun features.
Once on the snow, everything has been designed to follow ski progression, e.g. the slopes increase in pitch from 6 degrees, slowly up to 12. Almost every run has specific features, from foam trees through to cartoon characters and animals. There's even a few boxes for older kids to slide along.
Read the rest of this entry »
Jan21st - Opening Night Video
Interski Opening Night Video from NZSIA Ski
Jan 20th - Germany's Snowboard Clinics
Kyle and Benny C went to hang with Ze Germans the other day. They presented a clinic that split into two parts...
Clinic title: German technique and the way to multi-talent young snowboarders.
Clinic synopsis: An overview of the current techniques for German snowboard instructors and some new theories on teaching children.
German snowboard clinic toolsOur summary: The German workshop started with a very well organized presentation, they gave a great overview of the various clinics being presented on the day. To my surprise the snowboard team took the stage first and outlined what was to be covered in there clinics, ‘the German technical snowboard concept' and ‘the way to multi-talent young snowboarders'.
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Jan 20th - USA Telemark Clinic
The Tele boys have been getting round A LOT of clinics. Here's a review by Marti Smith of the USA's clinic from yesterday...
Clinic title: Inspiring a life long passion for the mountain experience.
Clinic synopsis: A clinic to show the movement patterns and teaching approach to telemark skiing with an additional focus on emerging ski technology.
Tele presentation with huge viewOur summary: This clinic was a very well run. There were two key focuses. One was on talking to your clients getting to know them and trying to get an emotional buy in to the lesson, if they feel like they know you they will be more trusting of what you have to say.
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Jan 20th - SBINZ Freestyle Clinic
Here's a quick summary from Karl Dunham about the NZ Freestyle Clinic he and Sean Thompson presented yesterday (video coming soon)...
Clinic title: Freestyle in NZ
Clinic synopsis: 1) Discussions about our parks and pipes and NZ becoming a training Mecca for northern hemi pro teams. 2) An explanation and demos of the freestyle requirements in our level 1/2/3/Trainers cert and Freestyle One and Two exams. 3) A brief spinning progression idea and a foot-to-foot jibbing concept.
Tommo presenting the goodsClinic review: It went pretty well, if I do say so myself :)
We thought we would be more freestyle-focused than the other countries, but it turned out a lot of the other countries had more freestyle at an even lower level in their exams, which was surprising. It seems it's almost a race who can put the most freestyle into the lowest level exams!
Read the rest of this entry »
Jan 20th - Demo Night Team Photos
The whole New zealand Team after their demo
Here's a few shots from the other night, after the whole team did their demo...
See the rest of the photos »
Jan 18th - Swiss Snowboard Clinic
Matt Phare checked out what the Swiss were presenting, along with a few of the other boys. Here's what they have to say about it...
Swiss examiners presenting the Swiss Instruction System
Clinic Title: Snowsports and Emotion
Clinic Synopsis: The clinic was about managing emotions to put people in the right frame of mind to perform and enhance their experience. It is part of the ‘Performance Model' which is used in the Swiss snowboard instruction system.
Our summary: The clinic started with the Swiss team gifting chocolate to all of the participants, a great way to break the ice and create positive emotions. Then they introduced their ‘Performance Model' which is utilised within all sports in Switzerland. The model starts with Emotional, then Physical, then Coordination, and finally Tricks and Games. To demonstrate the model they began with an Emotional task where all 40 participants hugged and laughed with as many other participants as possible - very entertaining.
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Jan 17th - Full Training Week Video
The past week has been a great time for both divisions to get their clinics and demos dialed. Ski Division have been very focused on their demos, whilst Snowboard have been working more on their clinics. This 7 min vid shows the highlights of the week, so check it out...
Interski Training Week - Ski and Snowboard from NZSIA Ski.
Jan 17th - Opening Ceremony
Earlier this evening the 2011 Interski opening ceremony was held here in St Anton.
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A novel way to teach sliding boxes
All the countries gave a one run demo and our own Ski Demo Team boys performed well.
Here's a few photos from the night...
Read the rest of this entry »
Jan 17th - Interviews at Interski
Interviews at Interski from NZSIA Ski.
Jan 16th - Tele Training in Switzerland
Greg and Marti from the Telemark Division just joined us in St Anton after a short training period in neighboring Switzerland. Here's what Greg had to say about it...
We've been altitude training over in Switzerland, trying to get into the spirit of Alps-style skiing. With the inside scoop from NZSIA Examiner Neil and Sophie a Swiss Examiner, Leysin Ski Resort was a perfect place to get the legs back having come straight over from the NZ summer.
Getting the tour from the locals
Getting the tour from the locals
Tele jackets looking sharp
Tele jackets looking sharp
Coffee and slippers at 2200m
Coffee and slippers at 2200m
Jan 16th - Snowboard Training Week
This past week for SBINZ has been about preparing for the main Interski week, starting tomorrow. We've been planning our clinics, scoping the terrain and getting our legs back (for those that came from summer down in NZ), plus a bit of local apres ski culture too of course.
Thre's a load of photos from their training week...
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Jan 14th - President's Perspective
Seven of us departed Christchurch on a perfect NZ summer day and 36 long hours later we were deposited inside an Austrian Christmas card scene. The rest of the team dribbled in from The USA Japan, Scotland. St Anton is your dream European ski resort. Fur trees dusted in snow, twinkling fairy lights, Tyrolean style buildings and towering spectacular mountains. The hotel is a typical family run establishment, the welcome was warm, the dinner delicious, and the comfy bed and fluffy duvet so welcome after the so so long journey.
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Jan 14th - Ski Demo Team's First Day of Training
Ski Demo Team's first day of training from NZSIA Ski.