From 1990 to ’92, I was more or less the snowboarding instructional department at Sugarloaf/USA. This is not to suggest that there were no others involved, but I was there seven days of the week, doing the bulk of the trade.
At that time, I think we had 5 boards in the rental department.
In 1992, I was tasked with hiring a few more instructors. It seemed like a good idea to write down what I was doing, and had been doing, so that others could reference my past experience, without my having to talk too much.
I had the notion that someday I might actually publish, for sale, a useful text. After receiving copyright registration, I produced maybe 40 copies, some of which I sold, others were given to friends and co-workers.
Later, I produced more to be used by the Ski Industries Program at the University of Maine at Farmington.
As time passed, I gained experience, and insight into learning processes, why people learn at different rates, and the principles governing free movement on a slippery surface.
It was clear to me that the original manual needed a serious update.
And later, the realization that I should simply start over.
Which I have. It will be one part of my ‘Unified Theory of Alpine Sport’.
So the text of S:APM is in many ways dated. But it does serve as a point of historical reference, and you can get an idea of what I was thinking at that time in my development as an instructor.
Much of what I did then, I don’t do anymore. I have either found better ways to reach a particular goal, or realized that some aspects of teaching snowboarding are not as important as I once thought.
I learned a lot about skiing and snowboarding between ’90 and ’94.
Consider what I might have learned since then…
There are notes included to clarify, reinforce, explicate, or simply refute. These are set in italics at the bottom of each page. Most of these were compiled in 2005. Additional notes will have a date.
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