JOHN FAHEY

People of APSI

 

Certification/s and year achieved.

CSIA Level 2, 3, 4 late 80's. CSCF level 2 late 80's. APSI Level 3 1991, and then Level 4 whenever it was automatically upgraded

 
What was training with the APSI like when you achieved your certification and how would you compare it to current times?

It's very difficult to comment on how the training was because I was young and inexperienced and didn't have much to compare it with. It seemed to me that it was a high standard and I certainly enjoyed it a lot. I have not had any experience of APSI training for many years, but from the outside it certainly seems to be going very well.

 
Which Australian Snowsports School did/do you work with?

I worked at Charlotte Pass for seven seasons (two part-time seasons during university holidays then five full-time seasons after graduating as an engineer).
After my Charlotte Pass seasons, I then moved to Jindabyne and into the roles of Training Director for the Australian Ski Areas' Association and Technical Director and Chief of Exams for the APSI. That was 1992 to 1998.

 
Did/do you also teach in the Northern Hemisphere and where?

I taught:

  • Six seasons in Canada (one at Todd Mountain, now called Sun Peaks and five at Silver Star Mountain),
  • Three seasons in Austria (one in Badgastein and two in Mayerhofen),
  • Twenty-eight seasons in USA (one in Breckenridge and 27 in Aspen, where I am still working to this day) 

John Fahey, Breckenridge 


What position/s did/do you hold in the APSI (include years held)?

I was Technical Director and Chief of Exams from 1992 to 1998 (although at some point we decided to separate those two roles to avoid any conflict, so I was not Chief of Exams for the last two or three years). I was a member of the APSI Demo Team for Nozawa Onsen 1992-95. I was Demo Team coach in 1996-97.

 APSI Demo Team, 1995 Interski, Nozawa Onsen

 
What made/makes you most proud of the APSI at that time?

First, let me say that I was (and still am) very proud of the APSI. I think we had high standards, wonderful people, and turned-out great skiers and teachers who are able to perform at a high level all around the world.

 
What important events happened during your time with the APSI?

  • Interski in Nozawa Onsen in 1995
  • Rewriting the Australian Ski Teaching Method manual
  • Introduction of Children's Instructor Certification
  • Introduction of Snowboard Instructor Training (I was actually the default Technical Director of snowboard instruction at the beginning and those were very interesting times trying to figure out how it all worked and how to teach it).

   

APSI Demo Team, 1995 Interski, Nozawa Onsen

 
With regard to your work with the APSI, what accomplishment/s are you most proud of? (share all that apply)

At the time I started, the APSI was strongly influenced by Austrian ski instruction. But up until then, most of my training had been in Canada so I probably added some of the Canadian teaching approach, which I think was a little more student focused at that time.

I tried to make the skier analysis part of exams more consistent by introducing video. Each season I videoed members of the public when they were skiing and then wrote out questions about their skiing. The same video and questions could be used in both states in order to get consistency across exams.

I introduced a more analytical approach to looking at the results of the training and exams. It seems obvious now but simple things like tracking pass and fail rates over the years was not done prior to then.

I am happy with some of the revisions I made to the Teaching Manual, although in the 30 years since then I sure have learnt a lot of stuff that I wish I was able to put in it now.

But mostly, everything that we achieved back then was not due to me - it was just a fantastic group of dedicated and skilful trainers and admin staff. An astonishing number of people who were there in APSI in the 90s are still involved in the ski industry.

 
How did the above accomplishment/s change the APSI moving forward?

I can't say because I have not been involved with the day today APSI operations for a long time.

 
Describe how the APSI compared/s to international instructor organisations at that time?

I think we had a good combination of the teaching focus of the North Americans and the strong skiing focus of the Europeans, all adapted to our unique Australian ski conditions.

 
How did/do international organisations view the APSI? Was/is there much communication/sharing of information between organisations?

I think Australian instructors were and are highly regarded overseas. As far as sharing information directly at an organisation level, I would say there was not much, but in the 90s just about all of our trainers worked overseas and so there was inevitable sharing and learning always taking place. There were also many foreigners working for Australian ski schools and this too resulted in sharing of knowledge.

 
During your time with the APSI, who were some influential/inspiring people within the organisation?

There were so many wonderful people. It started in the office where Kerry Lee Dodd was just a phenomenal president, and Robyn (I can't remember Robyn's surname) and Les Tokolyi were great administrators.

On the snow, we had so much talent both from a teaching and skiing perspective:
Con Poulos, Andy Rae, Bob Irwin, Kent Carpenter, Tina Ennis, Mark Sedgwick, Nigel Bolton, Katie Harvey, Ian Bruce, Shawn Campbell, Roger Byrnes, George Perry, Damian Goninan, Tony Fry, Nigel Rae, Tom Peters, Rod Tidmarsh, Ross Taylor, Stuart Brown, Daniel Wright, Hansi Brenninger, Mark McDonald, James Ross and so many other fantastic trainers.

 
Please share a funny or interesting APSI story from your time with the APSI.

I have lots of (vague) memories of fun and interesting times, but nothing I think anybody these days would be interested in.