Interski report
	APSI participation Personally I felt the whole team performed at a very high standard and all members should be proud of the way they represented Australia & the APSI. What you need to understand is Interski is not a competition, it is a conference designed for exchanging technical teaching concepts. But having said this at an event of this size you do get a feeling of where you fit within the world stage.  I got the feeling that much of the world was interested in what we were presenting & were impressed with our performance. Australian participation at Interski included; Full team snake on demo slope Sunday 28th Full team show (3 demonstrations) Monday 29th Alpine Keynote presentation Tuesday 30th Workshop introduction lecture (all disciplines) Tuesday 30th Technical presentation (all disciplines) Thursday 1st 2 workshop presentations (all disciplines) Thursday 1st Park & Pipe show (Snowboard & Alpine) Thursday 1st Full team demonstration at the closing  ceremony Friday 2nd Alpine Keynote presentation Presenters: Richard Jameson & Steve Brown Topic: “Australia, experience the difference”. Our presentation revealed; our country, our culture, how our teaching has evolved, our philosophy, our mechanics and what it is that makes snowsports in Australia so unique. Content: Australian’s in general tend to be “Have a Go” type of skiers, really wanting to get off the beginner hill and tackle the biggest slope they can see.  A large number of our clientele will realistically only ski once in there lifetime, we try and get them going as simply and practically as possible. The ‘Australian teaching system’ focuses on experience centred learning. This system has evolved over many years; by combining the best of the past with a modern approach that is directly influenced by the expectations of all our guests. Evolution of Australian teaching: Teacher centred Student centred Subject centred Experience centred Experience centred teaching   In simple terms, Australian teachers combine the safe class handling skills and useful exercises learnt from the teacher centred years; add the relationship building qualities with customer service taken from the student centred years, combined with the professional, although relaxed two-way learning atmosphere of the subject centred years. This evolution has produced ‘experience centred teaching’ where the instructor strives to give the guest an exceptional experience that is all encompassing of the Australian alpine environment. This unforgettable experience will then become a life-lasting memory. Australian’s in general tend to be “Have a Go” type of skiers, really wanting to get off the beginner hill and tackle the biggest slope they can see. A large number of our clientele will realistically only ski once in their lifetime. We try to get our guests going as simply and practically as possible , via our easy to learn movements that translate into 3 types of ski performance; Steering, Carving and Pure Carving.’ Telemark workshop Presenter: Graham Hammond Topic: Australia – the Telemark Progression and key learning concepts. Content – the workshop emphasised our progression and the aspects we tend to focus on with stance and the key concepts of steering, pressure and edging. Nordic workshop Presenter: Warren Feakes Topic: Australia, experience the difference Nordic style Content: the workshop looked at the differences between x-country skiing in Australia and Nordic skiing world wide. Snowboard workshop Presenter: Jason Clauscen & Tim Stuart. Topic: the riding standard at levels 1, 2 & 3. Content: The start of our session was about equipment set up in relation to stance and performance. What we have been noticing is that a wide stance with high duck angles has not been beneficial to candidates attending exams. The majority of exams for instructors a turning based and the stronger freestyle stance has been affecting the skills and how a rider needs to move to get the same performance. At first they thought the APSI was against a duck stance which we are not, it is the combination of wide and duck which effects such skills as for and aft and steering. We explained the APSI certification path and what the main skills were that we focus on. The remainder of our time was spent showing the riding standard for candidates that go through our system. Levels 1, 2 and 3. Alpine workshop Presenters: Con Poulos, Mark McDonald, Matt Mohr. Topic: ‘Australia, experience the performance’ Content: The workshop allowed participants to experience the simplicity of how we teach and describe ski performance, as well as examine some traits common to all 3 performance types. Steering is the art of guiding the skis through a smooth, round turn that flows down the fall line. Although these turns have a strong emphasis on leg turning, the turn is created with the appropriate skill blending. Steering is not the same as skidding. Carving is the same as steering but with more speed, more edge angle and therefore a stronger edge grip. Pure Carving is where the tail of the ski follows the exact path of the tip, allowing the ski to cut a narrow groove (i.e. zero skidding). The skier obtains the desired turn size by manipulating the external forces to get the ski to bend i.e. ‘working the ski’. Common traits to all turns; Our basic position (stance and angulation) Turn shape  Tempo, which is similar in all turn sizes no matter the performance.  The correct choice of terrain, which is vital as this encourages the guest to let the skis run down the fall line. Thank you: Attending Interski would not have been possible without all the support that the team received during the past years leading up to the event. Although I have tried to include as many of the main supporters as possible, I do know that the commitment from others should not go unrecognised. So to all those listed below & those I have possibly forgotten, we all sincerely thank you. ASAA-For financial assistance, their training facilities, photo libraries, help with fundraising events & allowing your staff to participate APSI board of management for their commitment to the event Karbon & Ed Fortey for our uniforms KoreanAir (Cameron Brown) & Flight centre (Olivia Texier) for our flights & insurance SIA for financial assistance Dialog-information technology for financial assistance Rebel studios for financial assistance Contact & Clarendon printing for our ‘theme brochure’  SnowSports International & Hestra for our gloves Engraving systems for our name tags 2XU for compression tights Equipment by; Atomic, Board room, Elan, K2/technica, Nitro, Nordica, Salomon, Stockli, 22 designs, Wilderness Sports & Wilderness wear Also thanks to; Natural sports for our leisure clothing Global advertising for our pins Brad Spalding for his foresight with the Thredbo pro-am Thredbo Snowsports School & the Thredbo Alpine Hotel for their commitment to the pro-am  NSW tourism for their photos I would also like to personally thank all the team for their efforts at the event & to Claire for her help with the preparations. Also to Kerry, Maureen, Marg & Roberto for their support of the team at Interski. The team did manage to thank the Korean organising committee by presenting them with a signed cricket bat & Kangaroo. “Thanks for a great event”. To read more reports click here.