Australian woman new ski-school director

Press, 23 December 1985, Page 24

Australian woman new ski-school director

Edie Young, an Australian who has worked as a ski instructor in New Zealand since 1976, has been appointed ski school director of The Remarkables Ski Area, Queenstown. Ms Young, who was bom in Tasmania, is fluent in Japanese. She majored in Japanese at the Australian National University (Canberra) and taught and studied in Kobe, Japan, for three years. Since crossing the Tasman for a ski holiday nine years ago Ms Young has spent her winters instructing at Mount Hutt and has divided the off-seasons between ski instructing overseas and acting as an interpreter for tour groups and film crews. Her ski-ing jobs have taken her to Shiga Heights, Japan, Hinterglemm, Aus-

tria, and Meribel, France. She says that because she loves the sport of ski-ing it is good to be involved in

introducing it to other people. “It’s a challenge to get other people turned on to ski-ing.” Ms Young is a committee member and examiner with the New Zealand Ski Instructors’ Alliance and her teaching methods reflect the beliefs of the alliance. “The idea is to coax people into improving their ski-ing without making it technically complicated,” she said. I don’t think people can learn when they’re uptight and nervous. They have to be relaxed, happy and having a good time.” During the summer Ms Young has a job as a ski instructor in Shirakaba Kogen, Japan and will be back in New Zealand in midApril to start her new job at The Remarkables.