Come on Grandad

My first batch of work after returning from illness saw me skiing again with Mairead, Mark and Chris. I first met and skied with them last winter over in Val d’Isere. So when they contacted me in the autumn to say they were coming to Méribel and wanted to book, I really looked forward to this particular week.

For many years they had skied together, visited many different ski resorts and thoroughly enjoyed whizzing around on the pistes. However they explained to me that they wanted to move their skiing up to the next level, ie skiing off-piste.

Straight away we discussed both the similarities and some differences of skiing away from the groomed pistes. We spoke about the four performance threads, as previously mentioned on this blog: Physical, Tactical, Technical and Psychological. It was very interesting to hear everyone talk about what was going through their minds at the top, and later at the bottom, with each off-piste pitch. People tend mostly to concentrate on their technical performance, so we all found it refreshing being able to explore the other areas of the performance threads to see how it affected and improved their enjoyment.

Technical aspects were studied of course, however I did my best to keep things simple. The main reason being that skiing off-piste was relatively new to our three intrepid skiers; they had plenty of other things on their mind as well as technique. Simple pointers were the way forward, and they all progressed very well.

We gradually built our confidence and visited some fantastic off-piste areas including the itinerary down to St.Martin, the Lac du Lou itinerary off La Masse in Les Menuires, and we found some fabulous powder in the Mont Vallon vicinity amongst other treats. We all had a great week skiing together, awesome snow and a healthy dosage of banter. Mark proudly told me at the beginning of the week that he had recently become a ‘Grandad’. As soon as he mentioned that, I knew I had more banter material, ‘Come on Grandad, try and keep up’. ‘Would you like a hand up Grandad out of that deep snow?’ The list went on….Here he is ladies and gentlemen, the best skiing Grandad of the week…

Not bad for a Grandad is he? Live with passion everyone.

Martin  

Facing Fear

Apologies for being quiet on this blog recently, the main reason being I haven’t had a huge amount of time skiing since the last post two weeks ago. One of my biggest fears of being a self employed ski instructor is injury or illness. No work means no pay. Over the years I’ve been very lucky with injuries except for a bad back and a pulled calf muscle; other than that, all has been good. Amazing really, for a man of my age!?! However two weeks ago I left the Motherland of Méribel, to go for a week’s work back in Val d’Isere. The first couple of days were great fun with wonderful clients and fantastic snow. But I soon developed a tight chest which turned into a bit of a cough. Without going into a selfish list of ailments and things that went wrong, let’s just say I had to stop teaching pronto, and visit a doctor in Val d’Isere.

It took about three days before I could muster up enough strength to return to Méribel. But then as soon as I did, it all went horribly wrong again. Another visit to another doctor, with a prognosis of flu plus a lung infection this time. There has been loads of it around, both here in the Alps and the UK from what I can tell. However it took a hefty dosage of antibiotics and steroids to get this fella back on track. I’ve been tentatively skiing again recently, and to say I’m appreciating the job and the mountains even more now would be an understatement. A huge thanks to those instructors who covered for me, and especially a big thank you to those clients who were so understanding.

Don’t forget, you can stay up to date on another blog over on www.mh2ski.co.uk , you can also follow us on facebook and twitter as well if you like. Stay healthy.

Martin

p.s. Sorry for the shortage of photos, I hardly took any during my first two days in Val d’Isere. Normal service will resume shortly.  

If You Can, Canon Can

Regular readers may realise that I have a best mate called Canon. In fact I have two best mates called Canon. Canon (x2) and I go back many years; we’ve shared many experiences together, and I’ve certainly mentioned Canon a million times before on this blog. Without Canon my memory of how amazing the French Alps, private ski instructing and certainly Méribel would be a little more fuzzy.

But you see Canon (x2) has, how can I say it, put on a fair bit of weight over the last few years. Canon’s body weight has increased, along with associated cling-ons , and this has made the whole experience of our life together a little more tiring.

‘What the hell are you banging on about?’ I hear you cry. Let me start talking without my usual riddles. As a professional wedding photographer in the summer, I am very fortunate to have in my possession some quite amazing photographic hardware. I won’t go through the list of my collection for fear of being burgled, but let’s put it this way, my annual insurance cover of said kit would easily surpass the average car insurance bill.

To have such exposure (get it, exposure) and use of my equipment in Méribel is just amazing. But you see the thing is, it all weighs an absolute ton. In the past I’ve taught and skied with one Canon body and a couple of professional lenses in my rucksack. And to be honest, other than the odd shocker, I’ve been able to take some half acceptable photos. Which is great – but at a price. Here goes with a confession that I’d never thought I’d own up to on this blog….. I get utterly knackered as the ski season progresses.

There, I’ve said it. I get tired, very very tired. To the point where last summer I gave myself a good talking to and attempted to figure out how to improve the situation. Firstly, I realised that working and skiing less wasn’t an option. Secondly, improving my fitness had to happen, which by the way I’ve done by increasing strength through gym training. Thirdly, be more intelligent with what I carry each day. And fourthly, figure out how to recover physically better on the rare days off skis, i.e massage, stretching, less coffee etc.

Any marginal gains would be beneficial. I couldn’t help but notice that perhaps some ski instructors are sensible through the season, but few if any at all carry their mates called Canon around with them all the time. Hmmm. With that in mind, my professional kit is being kept at home almost all the time now. But that’s a problem. I’ve tried the iPhone thing where I’ve taken photos and published them on Facebook and Twitter. This is brilliant for speed and convenience, but with awful image quality in my biased opinion.

The next stage was to buy another camera (more kit to be insured), this time a small compact that fits inside a ski instructor’s jacket pocket, which is what I did just a few days before I left the UK. Let’s call this new camera ‘Canon Junior’ shall we? Junior is much better quality than my iPhone will ever be, and with similar ease of use. Plus my legs don’t get anywhere near as tired as carrying my heavy Canon ‘Senior’ kit. Bargain, job done. Or is it?

Nope. Granted I can take a snapshot very quickly and efficiently (of people taking a splat) as anyone else can. And yes, every single one of these images on this blog post have been taken by Canon Junior over the last few weeks, which aren’t too bad. And the hard drive on my computer isn’t quite creaking as much under the strain of the colossal file sizes. But being a perfectionist I know that better images can be captured by my overweight, if not obese, buddies.

But life is a compromise isn’t it? How can I possibly complain? I have two of the best jobs in the world with ski teaching and photography. Ski teaching with fresh legs carrying Canon Junior in my pocket is a pretty damn good existence compared to Ski Teaching with knackered legs lugging heavy Canon kit.

Martin

P.S. After a very busy Festive period, I’m back over in Val d’Isere for a week’s work. To be honest both Canon Senior and Canon Junior (called S100 for the record) will be coming along for the trip to keep me company !?!