This year YES has arranged for a Level 2 BASI course to be offered here in Whistler.  I had the honour of joining the group for the first of two weeks to see what the British were up to.  BASI course examiner Alex Leaf came over from Europe to run the course.  The week started on Sunday with a meet and greet at the Alta Vista Chalet.  Alex was introduced to the group of 8 that were taking the course.  

BASI Examiner Alex Leaf

The BASI Group

Manuals and workbooks were handed out as Alex went over the course curriculum and the plan for the next 10 days.  The first days were spent bringing us up to speed on the terminology that BASI uses.  The 5 skills became the Fundamental Elementals, pivoting became rotation and the Fast Track to Parallel became the Central Theme.  Alex introduced the new concepts on snow as we adapted to the British technique.  Plough parallels (Christies) were explained with a slight twist as the emphasis was on stretching the leg to press on the new ski at the start.  The group started teaching on Wednesday with the rest of the week alternating between ski improvement and practice teaching.  Different teaching methods were explored such as command, reciprocal and inclusive just to name a few.  Piste shorts (short radius) were introduced on Thursday and the whole group marvelled at how short Alex's short turns were.  Friday brought about more teaching as everyone had a crack in front of the group.  

On-hill practice teaching

A relaxed moment

James leading the group

I had a great week shadowing the course and learnt a lot about the British system.  A big thank you to Alex for letting me tag along.  The group was great and open to the new ideas/terminology and the atmosphere was fun.  Good luck to the group for week two and I hope for some strong results on Friday. Cheerio!!

Meesh observing, Euro-style