Queenstown fields a playground of discovery — instructor

Press, 1 June 1989, Page 35

Queenstown fields a playground of discovery — instructor

A playground of discovery is the way Edie Young, ski school director at The Remarkables and Coronet Peak, views today’s ski area as skiers become more adventurous and daring in their snow pursuits.

Edie Young has spent the last 13 years instructing at ski areas in New Zealand and overseas and this winter takes up the position of ski school director at both Coronet Peak and The Remarkables in Queenstown. After 13 straight seasons at Coronet Peak, the last two as director of the ski school, Guenther Raedler decided to stay in Europe this northern winter with his Australianborn wife, Louise. Both Coronet Peak and The Remarkables are operated by the Mount Cook Group and giving Edie Young responsibility for both ski schools is in line with efforts to create a single ski operation whilst giving skiers the

benefits of two areas for the price of one (lift tickets, shuttle bus transport, ski rental and ski school products are interchangeable). In her three years as director of the ski school at The Remarkables, she has introduced telemark, cross-country and snow boarding tuition into the ski school, and last year a parapenting school also started at the fields.

“People are fast discovering that they are not limited to downhill ski-ing on the snow. Nor are they limited by their particular age,” says Mrs Young.

“Here, like overseas, the trend is for ski areas to become playgrounds to discover all these new skiing disciplines.” This season Mrs Young hopes also to introduce some of the new disciplines to Coronet Peak, traditionally the bastion of conventional downhill skiing.

“Coronet Peak’s concave terrain has been des-

cribed as a giant snowcovered skatebowl so it must be ideal for snowboarding,” she observes.

Last season the three day “Fun Seeker” package gave ski school clients the opportunity to try their hand at some of these skills very cheaply, and Young plans to provide the same opportunities this year. She also plans to run programmes for specialist groups such as children in ski camps, advanced skiers and racers, and to offer intro-

ductory courses for those planning to heli-ski — an idea very much favoured by heliski operators.

The combined ski school will employ about 80 skiers from both New Zealand and overseas. Many of the staff will have worked for the areas before, and for newcomers hoping to join the ranks one of the key requirements will be versatility. “The ability to speak other languages, teach children and disciplines in addition to downhill skiing is always an advantage these days,” says Edie.

.Edie Young is also adamant that ski instructors should be able to relate to all their students be they four to six-year-olds in the Penguin Club (ski kindergarten), six to 14-year-olds in the junior ski schools or adults. “To learn to ski and improve ski-ing skills students must be relaxed, happy and having a good

time. A ski instructor should be able to get on the same wavelength as their students, and a really good instructor should be able to teach all ages and abilities,” she said.

A Tasmanian by birth, Edie’s experience in the ski instructing business is vast. Her fluency in Japanese, French and German has taken her all over the world ski instructing, her latest foray having been to a ski school in Hokkaido, Japan, during this year’s Southern Hemisphere summer.

Before joining The Remarkables she also spent several winters at Mount Hutt Ski Area in Canterbury supervising the beginners programme, secondary schools midweek programme, the junior ski school and the ski kindergarten. She has also worked closely with the New Zealand Ski Instructors Alliance as an examiner.