Question about skiing technique and its value

what the fuck is this? 2 quotes? how?

psia level 3 is ridiculously hard.  the supervisor of my ski school failed 6 times before passing this past season.  i doubt i will end up subjecting myself to that.  level 2 is solid enough and it enables you to pretty much work wherever you want.

Solid discussion. A whole page thread on ns without name calling and people just saying "threads" not bad. Haha

psia is 1. a remnant of a different time in skiing and 2. a certification for instructors who as I'm sure most of you know are not professional skiers and are frequently not the best skiers out there.

psia is actually the RIGHT way to ski, at the highest levels it is the PERFECT skiing, notice how all the high ranking PSIA instructors look flawless? In my opinion a high ranking PSIA instructor will rip way harder and look way better than any high ranking racer and/or freestyler. Maybe not in a race course or in the park but as an all arround skier definetly. And PSIA's mechanics and techinques apply to ALL skiing on ANY terrain, I dont know where you guys are getting the idea that it only applies on groomers, of course thats where it shows the most but it does not mean that the technique's used on a groomer are any different than on steep/moguly terrain.

Too be honest, I think when you take one these courses from CSIA or PSIA, you get a lot of out of them. You learn to work on technique on the flats, and some good drills.

The thing that I hate, is the ego's that can sometimes go along with this learning experience. I have heard that as you go up the levels, this ego and mentality can escalate. And, so does the price of these courses. I understand having a standardized measure for this levels and making sure you are qualified to teach but, when you are just starting out...the $400+ price tag starts you off in significant hole before you have even taught a lesson.

The right way? Mostly. Perfect? Watch out throwing a term like that around in a place like skiing. And I'd love to see how many pro skiers you've seen dubbing around groomers along side psia skiers that look so much worse. All in all I bet you wouldn't tell that much from watching them ski down a groomer. The ability to adapt those skills from psia instructors to do what wprks for ypu is what enables people to get down big mountain lines in Alaska, not flipping through notes from their last lesson about where their turn initiated.

glad you brought this up...absolute truth.  i personally think that there is a ton to learn from psia, if you are willing to shell out a shit ton of money.  my biggest beef with psia is how goddamn expensive it is to become a member.  Annual dues just went up to $125 i think and the exams are usually between $200 and $400, not to mention the cost to travel to the resorts where the exams are actually being held.  I think that to get a full cert (level 3) with some specializations thrown in would cost someone around 2grand.  and i don't know about you guys, but that is almost half a season's pay where i work. 

one advantage of becoming a member is that you get access to pro deals which can actually be pretty sweet, but i don't think the deals are necessarily worth the cost of membership.  any opinions on this last part?

its an investment. You get paid more by those resorts dont you?

it is definitely an investment...but i'm not all that sure that the return on investment is necessarily worth it.  i guess it really depends on where you work.  my resort gives us less than a $1/hr raise for each psia cert.  i think i got an extra 25 cents an hour for my level 1, which i'm sure over the course of a year doesn't even cover my dues, let a lone the cost of the exam. 

You all seem to forget that ski culture is inherently douchey.

truth...but making it expensive for people to become certified instructors ultimately reduces the quality of ski schools.  when the quality of ski schools goes down, less people take lessons and less people become life-long ski enthusiasts.  when you have less ski enthusiasts shelling out tons of cash year after year, the ski industry suffers.  then we all suffer.

 idk...i still think the big problem with psia is that it is a business.  and like any business, their main priority is profit, regardless of the impact it may have on the industry as a whole.  you ever notice how most instructors are really old?  its because they are the only ones who have the money to actually get by as an instructor and keep up with all the psia bs.  eventually all these old people are going to retire and their will be nobody left to yell "pizza" and "frenchfries".  not to mention that ski schools are the primary revenue stream for most resorts...without them a lot of resorts would go bankrupt.