ESSIA TRAINERS CERTIFIED AS INSTRUCTOR TRAINERS IN THE PSIE-PSIC SYSTEM
In the last days of April and the beginning of May, the PSIE – Professional Ski Instructors Of Europe LPT course was held in Kaprun (AU). PSIE and PSIC (Professional Ski Instructors Of Canada) are already training instructors all over the world. The specific LPT (Licensed Professional Trainer) course is specifically focused on instructor trainers, with the aim to train and deliver consistent information to train instructors on the same basis and with the same outlook.
Access to the course requires a number of criteria to be fulfilled in advance, in particular the highest instructor qualification. This may be obtained from the PSIE-PSIC system, but it is also accepted from other recognised organisations. On the Estonian side, Oliver Treufeldt, Erlend Aav, Ivo Raudjärv and Heikki Puura were invited to participate in the course, being ESSIA and also FNASI instructors of the highest category, but also ESSIA trainers and examiners. All of the above mentioned ESSIA members passed the course and exams successfully, the LPT certificate entitles them to work as trainers in Europe and Canada, as well as in all other countries as trainers in the PSIE-PSIC system.
It has to be said that the level of instructors and participants deserved each other. The coaches were the legendary Derek Tate, Jamie Kagan, Stefania Rocchi, Jonny Seale. In addition, Bogdan Nimara and Ozsváth Miklós (Ozone Skiing), former Romanian and Hungarian demoteam captains, served as observers and advisors. Anyone who follows alpine skiing developments and social media should, be familiar with these names. The course was attended by 20 participants: instructors, coaches and former top-athletes, all of them also very experienced. In the same group as team ESSIA were, for example, Snow Camps Europe promoter, Kaprun “legend” and skiing podcast leader Andy Rose, Torino olympics former Irish team rider Thos Foley (31st place in the Torino Olympics GS), former athlete and ski school owner frome French Pyrenees Martin Jones. In addition, a large number of instructors with Austria’s highest Staatlich Geprüfte Skilehrer status, ski school managers and trainers from Japan, Australia and New Zealand, France, Ireland, etc were also present.
In general, it was a great exchange of experiences rather than just colleagues and the making of new and very cool acquaintances. The whole group worked all days of course towards the goal of gaining understanding and knowledge of the PSIE-PSIC system. At times it felt like a mini-Interski version of workshops and panels. Already during the course and also in the days after the course, the ESSIA team has received interesting offers of collaboration and networking from several trainees for the future. We dare to think that something very exciting for ESSIA trainees will be born in the near future.
Team ESSIA
