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Any other Ski Instructors out there? Disaster lesson stories!

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Duck_Sauce
Posts: 288 - Karma: 4,002
Disaster lesson stories!
-first year teaching
-9 year old chinese boy
-absolutely did not grasp the idea of skiing
-on the bunny hill, with magic carpet
-practicing simple J turns
-slowly makes a right hand turn, then turns so his tips are pointing up the hill
-starts gaining speed backwards
-me 20 feet away struggling to keep up
-headed straight for magic carpet going UP the hill, while hes headed down
the result was him doing a literal back flip and dumping into the ditch by the carpet

..i couldn't stop laughing. oh and he was fine and LOL'ing as well

Oct 14 2012 3:27PM
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a_burger
Posts: 5206 - Karma: 20,187
I'm not an instructor, but one time at the top of the South Ridge quad at Sunday River I was waiting for a friend when a train of beginners were coming up the lift, about 5 chairs in total. I watched as the first group all got off the chair, all make it about 10 feet before the 4 get tangled and crash. Then the next chair comes... and they proceed to do the same. By the time all 5 chairs had unloaded there were like 15 people all tangled on the ground, with the 2 or 3 instructors trying to help them up. Like 4 minutes later when my friend got there they still weren't done yet lol
Oct 14 2012 3:37PM
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Download-My-Apps
Posts: 5069 - Karma: 1,017
i had a kid fall off the chairlift once, that sucked.
Oct 14 2012 4:07PM
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JWeinstock
Posts: 3439 - Karma: 1,352
that would be a disaster
Oct 14 2012 4:09PM
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Isabelle
Posts: 947 - Karma: 1,582
Once I had to teach this 3 year old polish kid with his mom next to him translating everything, did not work.
Oct 14 2012 4:10PM
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vauban08
Posts: 575 - Karma: 119
little boy needs to pee.
i tell him to go to the side of the slope and find a nice tree and go for it.
he only gets the last three words.
it's dumping, together with strong winds.
he drops his pants right on the slope and "goes for it".



wind wasn't his friend that day. :D
Oct 14 2012 4:22PM
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J-C
Posts: 1138 - Karma: 3,683
that 40 years old lady about 5'11 250 pounds isnt able to turn or stop and is going straight on the lodge soo i try to stop her with my 5'7 110 pounds and ill let you guys imagin the end of the story
Oct 14 2012 4:47PM
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Puns
Posts: 2052 - Karma: 429
first day, everyone swears to lord jesus christ they can go up the chairlift onto the big hill, and I think this was like level 4-5 or something in ontario, so good to go. Cannot ski, cannot stop... I had to go backwards down the whole hill bent over holding his tips in pizza while the rest of the group can't stay together and they go down by themselves and wait for us but like... so much went wrongggg

it was all uphill from there.

except the skiing, that was physically downhill.
Oct 14 2012 4:53PM
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Spinoza
Posts: 12763 - Karma: 3,844
In my first year i decided a 4 year old was ready to go up to the top. his cute face and constant asking got me.
well he definitely wasnt ready.
we got to the top, i gave him too much of a buffer and he got around me, went straight fucking down the hill at max speed. i couldnt catch him.
scariest moment of my life.

thankfully his mom was at the bottom and caught him before he went into the trees (like 10ft away) hahaha
Oct 14 2012 4:58PM
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brokaw
Posts: 81 - Karma: 159
had a boy pee his pants at the top of the hill, cried the whole way down
had a girl kick off her BOOT and her ski half way up the chair lift
had a boy run into a snowboarder and cut his face (incident report followed)
had 2 mexican 13 year olds who weighed at least 215, couldn't pick them up to save my life and they sucked at skiing, so i had to take off their skis get them to stand and put them back on, constantly.
had a boy and a girl who would fist fight each other. not very bad, but kinda entertaining.



Oct 14 2012 5:10PM
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coolflash8
Posts: 3171 - Karma: 2,046
i lost hard +K

my story: this one time the owner of my mountain asked me to help ferry kids up the lift. so this kid gets on and im like "do u need help getting off" and he says "i dont know"..... so im like "what the fuck? how can he not know" so i ask again and get the same answer so im like, "this kid is a retard, he can get his own lazy ass off" so when we get to the top i say one last time "do u need help" and he says "no" so im like ok. so i ski off and he just sits his fat ass on the seat and gets a ride around to get picked up on the other side.
Oct 14 2012 5:24PM
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roddy116
Posts: 10622 - Karma: 7,396
had this one kid who was a good skier but really snide about it, and made this other girl cry, along with that she cried every time she did something wrong. She was a nice girl and all but the crying.
Oct 14 2012 5:31PM
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bgeskior
Posts: 463 - Karma: 1,552
I had a Chinese boy that would not stop trying to kick me. And he wouldn't stay with the group. It wasn't a disaster story it just made my day a lot more fun and interesting.
Oct 14 2012 6:10PM
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snakerton
Posts: 2434 - Karma: 1,977
Nothing that bad but I had a kid who dropped his glove off the chair 4 times in one day
Oct 14 2012 6:55PM
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whoa-dere
Posts: 10596 - Karma: 7,100
the kids i've taught aren't good enough to do disasters
Oct 14 2012 7:25PM
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WPoch
Posts: 1751 - Karma: 3,831
I ski there.

/claim
Oct 14 2012 7:29PM
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YoungChristmas
Posts: 1065 - Karma: 2,105
My friend got stuck with an 8 year old Indian kid who literally did not say a word. I rode the lift up with them and we tried to talk to him but still didn't answer any questions. His parents said he could ski a black diamond but it took them a half hour to get a third of the way down. Then he took off his skis and walked part of the way, slipped, fell and slid into some moguls where it took him a good 5 minutes to get up. They spent an entire 1 hr lesson going down 1 trail.
Oct 14 2012 7:31PM
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SKIU4EA
Posts: 2387 - Karma: 2,072
Going up the chair with a 6yr old, and he tells me, "I gotta go to the bathroom." So, i'm like, "alright, well, as soon as we get to the bottom we'll head in the lodge, ok?" So we get to the bottom, and he tells me, "I don't have to go anymore..." I go, "what? did you go in your pants?" .... "YEP"



I'm a park certified instructor(which doesn't mean much), but i'm teaching this kid about down rails. I catch my tips popping onto a down rail and completely eat shit in front of everybody. And he just like stares at me not saying anything, which to me is almost worse than bursting out laughing. Nonetheless pretty damn funny looking back on it.




Another kid got his tips caught in the snow getting on the chair, flipping him head-over-heals out of the chair. It really sucked he hurt his neck pretty bad and the sled had to come over. Later found out he was all right.
Oct 14 2012 7:49PM
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TChronic
Posts: 287 - Karma: 82
I was teaching a rather large group with this one other girl who im buds with. well there was this little girl that needed help getting off the chairlift and i was stumbling trying to get the rest of our group of the magic carpet. Somehow this small asian girl fell at the top and got her arm stuck underneath the chairlift. My girl friend sat with her for an hour in 15 degree weather while i tried to keep the rest of the kids calm. Interesting day to say the least.
Oct 14 2012 7:59PM
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.Jacob
Posts: 1838 - Karma: 1,160
ahhahahahhahahhah I lost so hard. +k.
Oct 14 2012 8:12PM
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Duck_Sauce
Posts: 288 - Karma: 4,002
OMG hahahahhahahahahhaaahaaa omg
Oct 14 2012 9:06PM
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Byron_tha_gr8
Posts: 4573 - Karma: 14,298
group of 16-18 Indians comes rolling up to the ski school line up, my boss knows i wasn't sick the last weekend and decided i should suffer. Me and 2 other instructors get put with them and told just to keep them alive. never even got to wedges, 2.5 hours of picture taking / trying to convince the 3 super macho guys straight lining the bunny hill is a horrible idea, due to a lack of english this point never got across. Kids crying, adults screaming at them, rental gear sprawled all over. one even stopped at the top of the carpet for a pic. Worst lesson i've ever given. So of course each tipped me at least $20.
Oct 14 2012 10:35PM
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450out.
Posts: 596 - Karma: 517
I'm not an instructor, but in SilverStar I was teaching my sister how to ski. We go up the summit, and at the top where it says tips up, she didn't put her tips up. One ski gets caught. She gets sucked under the chair, the caught ski falls off into the net, she is being dragged like 10 feet under the chair, liftee doesn't stop it. I was loling hard to say the least.
Oct 15 2012 11:20AM
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last_tango
Posts: 2635 - Karma: 2,665
most accident prone lift ever and especially during Asian invasion week.
Oct 15 2012 11:47AM
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s_a_m
Posts: 916 - Karma: 58
Im not a real ski teacher, but I've been a special Olympics ski coach for a few years. When I was 16 or something i was skiing with this kid alone (usually its always two coaches for every person) and mid run he had a seizure. He was alright, but fuck that was scary. Also, all you guys should see if there's a special Olympics ski group at your mountain and volunteer, its absolutely incredible how stoked they get on skiing!
Oct 15 2012 3:29PM
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ikindalikeskiing
Posts: 1381 - Karma: 142
this thread has so much potential! loving it!
Oct 15 2012 8:54PM
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Pikachu.
Posts: 1290 - Karma: 1,641
This is a story from a student at snowboard school.

When I snowboarded (2 years ago) I was pretty good and loved to hit double blacks on the mountain with my friends but wanted to get a bit better so i took a day of snowboard school. My instructor was super cool and since i was the best one at lessons (no one good ever does them), it was going to be just me and him. When we were about to head out another instuctor comes up and says "this kid says he can do double black no problem", so we get another kid, nbd. So we head up to the top of the mountain after some warm up runs and he seems alright, but after we took a short (5min) hike to the first dubble black the kid drops down over the small cornis (sp?) and then freaks out and says he cant do it. He sat there for like 30 mins while the instructor tried to talk him into sliding down. Then after 30 mins he finally got down somehow and we diched him to a lower group. The instructor was just cussing him out under his breath for the rest of the day. it suckd
Oct 15 2012 9:26PM
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BrewskiJr
Posts: 5738 - Karma: 1,478
I got head from a girl in high school ski club.(18 no worries). But it was a disaster because she find swallow.... I hadz a sad. : (
Oct 16 2012 9:43AM
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SwagasaurusRex
Posts: 635 - Karma: 333
wait im pretty sure you aren't an instructor at Buck....
Oct 16 2012 9:55AM
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seward
Posts: 5233 - Karma: 2,174
how do you know someone's a ski instructor??

dont worry, theyll tell you.
Oct 16 2012 10:09AM
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dan1080
Posts: 1293 - Karma: 913
I taught years ago and never had anything too crazy out of the ordinary except snotty little brats etc...but this one girl was going up the chairlift with her group and i was on the chair behind her; small child must have somehow slid threw the bar and she caught him and literally held onto him as he dangled between her and the ground for about 700 feet before the chair got to the top.  SHIT WAS NUTS!!
Oct 16 2012 10:16AM
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SwagasaurusRex
Posts: 635 - Karma: 333
I know him in real life.
Oct 16 2012 10:55AM
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rzarector
Posts: 590 - Karma: 70
I once had some fat austrian dude plow down my chubby 8 year old indian student.
the kid was fine but she cried all the time anyways and her mom asked me a bunch of really dumb questions.

I was also teaching an 8-week park course and there were 2 asians who could barely ski and were too young for the course that signed up. around week 5 I was still teaching them to hit flat boxes straight and on the last run of the night the smallest asian fell off the side of the box (1ft drop) and refused to get up, or answer me. he was completely fine, the little bastard just wanted a ride in the patrol sled. and it wasted 45 of my free time after the lesson was over.
Oct 16 2012 11:08AM
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Ryguy920
Posts: 898 - Karma: 207
So great
Oct 16 2012 11:21AM
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oil.
Posts: 2255 - Karma: 1,254
this is why i did ski patrol instead of ski instructor. ha i couldn't deal with kids all day.
Oct 16 2012 11:23AM
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manzear
Posts: 843 - Karma: 849
I was teaching, and this kid was on the bunny hill his entire time skiing with his school. So, his last 5 visits.

We would do a test towards the end of the day and let kids take the lift to go on the bigger hills. This kid was alright at turning but, he would get going entirely too fast and not slow down or stop in control. I was just doing the testing but, I recognized the kid from previous weeks. I took him on the big hill and he was turning but getting out of control. I told him, he would have to stay on the bunny hill. I could see him start to cry and walk away slowly covered in snow from the fall at the end of his run. He was a bigger kid so, I felt bad that he would have to on the bunny hill with the younger kids.

I felt bad and asked him to come back, told him to slow down and stay in control, gave him his Green sticker and off he went.

The next hour I had a private lesson, this really young kid, like 6 years old. He was an awesome skier. Lots of turns down the big hills and would carry good speed. I was letting him lead and following him the whole way down. Out of no where, he gets blind sided and taken out. Snow is everywhere and when he finally stopped sliding, I get him up and I can see his tears starting to come. I look to the other guy that nailed him, sure enough it was the kid that I gave the green sticker too.   
Oct 16 2012 11:47AM
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TOAST.
Posts: 7268 - Karma: 33,305
haha true
Oct 16 2012 11:51AM
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Ribss.
Posts: 3442 - Karma: 3,344
Yeah, thats when you let the kid suffer.
Oct 16 2012 12:35PM
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N.L.
Posts: 2420 - Karma: 2,744
grown man had boots on wrong feet...
Oct 16 2012 12:54PM
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jmasterp
Posts: 1976 - Karma: 233
Same, think of anything that could go wrong in a lesson. It has happened to me. I had a group of 9 year old triplets, and we have levels, and one of them passed and the others weren't, needless to say, many tears were shed. The owners son was in my group and he was terrible, after I didn't pass him, he gave him the next level and told me that I should've known. More to come.
Oct 16 2012 1:21PM
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Shza.
Posts: 425 - Karma: 92
I ski sr every weekend and I swear every week is Asian Invasion week..
Oct 16 2012 1:54PM
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LoathesRaisins
Posts: 3612 - Karma: 4,735
Basically this at my home mountain too.
Oct 16 2012 2:27PM
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GuacamoleMane
Posts: 1421 - Karma: 2,013
there is one week that is all the british kids, it is absolutely hilarious.
Oct 16 2012 2:54PM
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J-C
Posts: 1138 - Karma: 3,683
oh an other one i had this little kid about 8 years old for 8 week long course soo at the first course i ask him if he likes to ski. he looks at me and literally tells me to fuck off ended up being the longest course of my life
Oct 16 2012 7:30PM
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Shza.
Posts: 425 - Karma: 92
I remember that from last year. We tooled on them soooo much
Oct 16 2012 11:13PM
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last_tango
Posts: 2635 - Karma: 2,665
About one week out of the year its really bad. The whole lift line will be 75% Asian. I have no idea what the flying fuck sunday river does for marketing for Asians and its clear that they do some sort of marketing to pull that many numbers for asians. Last asian invasion week we stopped the lift over 100 times in one day because they sucked that bad. Protip for you is ride white cap this year. Chutzpa and hardball are cut top to bottom now.

At least the British kids are polite when they fuck up and miss load the lift and they don't fuck up as much but they are scary as fuck on the slopes. They only go straight down the mountain.
Oct 16 2012 11:48PM
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FrysNation
Posts: 491 - Karma: 471
this one time my brother and were skiing. We were just heading back to the lodge i was a little ways in front of him when i heard this crash/thud noise. So i turn around and i see my brother holding his head and kids ski next to him. It turns out some 10 year old little shit who was on the chair lift with his instructor had kicked off his ski at my brother. It was pretty funny. oh yeah my brother was fine just a small bruise.

Oct 16 2012 11:50PM
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rrawdog
Posts: 28 - Karma: 35
I've worked for two years at a small midwestern ski hill that gets TONS of customers from Chicago. I had a normal day of teaching 5 year olds pizzas and turning when my boss stuck me on a 10 person group lesson. Which consisted of 10 IT professionals. All Indian. As my fellow employee put it,"You have a group of 7-11's". The lesson consisted of me picking them up as they lacked the ability to stop or turn. we took the lift (on the smallest 100 ft long hill because we have to teach the chairlift) and we made it down ONCE in an hour and a half. Noticing at the begining that they all had very nice gloves, jackets, and phones, and all were very polite and listened well, I recieved no tip, they only asked me where the largest chairlift was. And that is the worst story of last years season.
Oct 17 2012 12:13AM
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james6345789
Posts: 4763 - Karma: 465
bunch of pussies
Oct 17 2012 12:18AM
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Skiingsnow
Posts: 1567 - Karma: 797
haven't had that many bad incidents but a couple that stand out;
in my first season teaching we were on the bunny hill learning how to turn better and one of the kids decided he didn't want to be in the group any more, so he simple skied off, i guess he was thinking i wouldn't be able to catch him
so i told the group (8 12 year olds) to follow us to the bottom and i just bolted after this kid, caught him, literally had to pick him up and put him over my shoulder, thankfully it was our last run of the morning so with him still over my shoulder i waited for the rest of the class to get to the bottom, apologised to them that there was a shit head in the group and walked into our lunch room with the kid on my shoulder, being my first season i had no idea how to discipline kids so my boss straightened the little fucker out.

and in my season just finished i had a level 5 class (should be able to ski basic parallel down a blue) and we were given a late comer who hadn't skied in 2 years, this poor kid, felt so sorry for him, we get to the top of the bunny hill to do our compulsory warm up run and the kid had completely forgotten how to ski, couldn't stop or turn, i had to move him from a level 5 class to a level 2 class, saw him at the end of the day and he was super stoked that he re-learnt how to ski, happy ending.

I have also had a fuck ton of lessons in whistler where the kids rock up saying they are intermediate or advanced which are the 2 top levels in the department i work in. We go for our warm up run and they absolutely fucking suck, its funny because they are usually around 15 or older and try to convince me to let them stay in the group and because they are not spoilt 10 year olds with their parents nearby i dont have to be sympathetic with them, usually my response is something along the lines of " dude if you cant get down a blue run how do you expect to keep up with your mates?

all you kids on this site that say there is no proper way to ski: come to my lesson and ill fuck you right off to the magic carpet if you look that shit skiing down the run XD
Oct 17 2012 12:42AM
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californiagrown
Posts: 9794 - Karma: 2,014
question:

if i had my kid take a lesson- when, and how much should i tip? do i need to consult the kid before i tip, do i ask you how it went? is the tip a percentage, or just is $5-10 pretty standard?
Oct 17 2012 1:35AM
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