BCAS Summit 2024

I had the pleasure of joining Summit 2024 this year for the first time. To be honest I didn’t really know what to expect. But I think nothing could have prepared me for this experience. It was beyond amazing. The highlights for me:

• Realizing that we are part of something so much bigger. Seeing all these other clubs and realizing this was just BC.
• When talking with instructors from other clubs I realized how lucky we are at VISAS. We should really have more gratitude for that and for our relationship with Mount Washington. I was talking with one of the sit skiers and found out he used to be a snowboarder. I asked why he wasn’t on a Twinrider? They didn’t have one. Another instructor was talking with us how they had a learner with paraplegia in his 80’s who wanted to do stand-up skiing one more time. They tried outriggers but he didn’t have the strength in his arms. One of us suggested the Slider, but you guessed it, they didn’t have it.
• I ended up choosing ALL the sit ski options for the weekend and learned so much! Not only was I in a sit ski myself for an hour, but we also learned about thinking about the terrain from a lower viewpoint. Lastly, I spend the afternoon tethering a sit skier which is a lot harder than it looks!
• I came home with so many more tools to use in our lessons plus my own skiing improved as well.

I wasn’t the only one from VISAS there, so I asked the other ones what their biggest takeaways were. Here is what some had to share:

“As a teacher: Team teaching takes preparation about who is doing what and transparency with the student is helpful. Check in with your student often about speed, terrain, cold, washroom, all of it. As a skier: Relax more, don’t think too much about the lower joints, sing, dance & groove, have FUN. Stop giving a shit about the pole plant and how you look, just ski with your feet on up! Don’t rush turns in the middle, let pressure build up and respond with joints rather than force pressure! Many women with lower centres of gravity can end up with abrupt bottom of turns, not as round. Rounder is more relaxed.”

Jen Bowlby

“My biggest takeaway was seeing the comradery within our organization. I was in awe seeing the wealth of experience & dedication in our VISAS team and BCAS. I appreciated the VI training. It had been way too long since I experienced this training. I really enjoyed having Donovan (VI Skier) speak to us about his personal experience. This was also my first time in 15 years using a headset for communication with a VI Skier. Lastly my tip from my workshop on using terrain development is remember to play!”

Carlene Steeves

“I went to Summit for my second time. This time in a role as a Course Conductor though. I was asked to help 3 learning lessons: Sit ski for women, Tips & tricks for neurodiversity and Level 2 Assessment & development. I also participated in the CSIA Professional Development Session. My biggest takeaways are that skiing is foot to foot as we transition from uphill to downhill skis in the turns and our feet are active inside our boots. If we pay attention to our feet as we ski, we’ll notice that we feel pressure on different parts of our feet through each turn. My partner for the Neurodivergent Session was an experienced instructor who teaches adaptive skiing here in BC & Australia. Her use of balls, puppets, teddy bears and other smaller sized toys was very inspiring for making skiing fun for children. Hopefully VISAS can begin to experiment more with fun tools for our neurodivergent learners.”

Susan Plenski

“I came home with so many new tools for in my toolbox! Always great to share with other instructors from different organizations.”

Bob Milne