Taking a Break

Late Spring Morning in the Mountains

The season has ended and time to give skiing a break.  
The season ended well for me with two highlights.
One, Andreas Ruttkiewicz, a cohort in VISAS, offered to video my lessons.  It turned out that he became my mentor, director, story board creator, camera man, and editor.  We did some preliminary takes one afternoon to find out what we needed to make it work.  Then we spent a day doing the video.  Andreas, who has an Ultralight Flight School, is putting together the final video in his  precious spare time. I am waiting on pins and needles for the result.  If all goes well we should publish in plenty of time for the new season. Who knows? It may be on YouTube for those down under this winter season, July?
And the other highlight involved a mother and her  two kids, boy about 8, and girl 10.  The mom I found, just starting down the beginner hill, fallen on the snow and two snowboarders trying to help her up. It was a cluster problem, so I swooped down and offered to help.  The two kids were in a similar situation just further down the hill.  
Because I love the opportunity to teach, I offered them a lesson and was accepted.  They had arrived too late for Snow School lessons and thought that they could muddle through on their own, being good hockey players. My progression took 2 hours and by the end, they were racing down the cat track at full speed under complete control.  The girl is a natural athlete who did everything I showed her perfectly first time. The boy was a little awkward, trying to make the skis act like his hockey skates.  He fell a few times but once he learned how to get up he just popped up.  The mom was happy because this saved their Spring break holiday.  As I have mentioned before, hockey  players are the easiest to teach and it is still true.
For me it was another great, enjoyable, feel-good situation.
My skiing related goals for the summer are to publish the video and make some minor manual revisions. Like in the manual, re-arranging lesson one and putting the alpine instead of the cross country skiing code, etc.
Anyway, have a good summer, keep in shape. I'll contact again in the fall. 
AlanR.