Forty Hour Work Week!!!

This week was great!  We started our new hire training at the ski and snowboard center.  On Monday we received pointers from a ski instructor at Park City Mountain Resort.  It was good receiving some good pointers and things to really work on throughout the season.

Tuesday we learned how to teach a beginner skiing lesson and how to progress from very basic skills to less basic skills.  It was a slower day but we all had a chance to practice our teaching and how to show the techniques to our peers we were teaching.

Wednesday we learned how to teach a beginner that would be using tip clamps to help them keep their equipment in a wedge shape or as I learned when I started skiing, pizza and french fries.  We also learned how to use a ski slider.  This is pretty much a walker with ski equipment attached to it.

On Thursday we learned how to help with individuals who may have visual impairments and how to help guide and teach.  We also learned how to teach someone to use outriggers.  These are what I use for my balance.  Some individuals will use them even though they stand up and we call that four track skiing.  Individuals who may have lost a limb will use outriggers as well and we call that three track skiing.

Friday we tested on our knowledge and how to use all of the adaptive equipment and then had an orientation about specific National Ability Center employee guidelines.  It was a great week learning new things and developing some good friendships with people who are just joining the organization as well.

The only bad part of the week was our extended lunch on Thursday.  Me and a friend decided to take a free run on the slopes and I was doing fine until I took a bad spill on the last turn.  On a scale of one to ten I thought my left arm was at about a seven for being broken.  I took the afternoon off and iced up my forearm and elbow.  I took a sweet picture of the bruises but it does not show up real well on the computer.  It does look pretty sweet as my first war wound on the slopes but hopefully it will be my last of the season.

Here is a quick video of the slopes today.  It is pretty short but it is a little taste of the greatness of Utah skiing.  I will post some more pictures of actual equipment and different things hopefully next week.