Congratulations your one step closer to becoming an instructor and living the dream! Here are some details of our latest deals.

Instructor Internship

Most of our Instructor Internship placements for the 2012-13 season are now sold out.

We have just 5 new places left in Canada – 3 at Revelstoke and 2 at Norquay. Our internship is a full winter season program, starting in 22-Nov-12 which combines instructor training, certifications plus a guaranteed instructor job offer. – check out more information on our instructor internships here

Training courses

We released 4 additional promotional 50% off places – either on our 6-Week and 11-Week Instructor Training Courses (no employment) at Big White. So this is for you if you’re after a half price deal (aka. 50% off). These won’t last long!

Limited time only

This offer is only valid for May 2012.

How to apply?

If you want to apply for our last places on the internship or a 50% off training program at Big White email sstraining@educatingadventures.com and we will be in touch.

In the mean time check out this awesome video of Ash and the EA team over in Canada this season.. this could be you!

Getting paid to ski or snowboard is so rad. But what do you actually do? Find out what you can expect being a ski instructor for a winter season.

6 months ago Naemie was stuck in England in a 9-5 job, 2 months later she was instructing and living the dream in the powder at Lake Louise Canada! Here we ask Naemie a few questions about her season in Canada as a ski instructor.

Q: What is your full name?
A: Naemie Wilson.

Q: How old are you?
A: 25 years old (just!)

Q: Where are you from?
A:The Isle of Man. (British Isles)

Q: How did you hear about the EA Ski and Snowboard Training gap year program?
A:I found the website through google.com whilst looking for career break options.

Q: Why did you decide to take part?
The course sounded really exciting and with all the training, and the guaranteed job placement at the end – it seemed like a winner!

Q: What did you hope to learn and experience?
A: I wanted to learn how to ski, teach skiing and experience life in a different country.

Q: Had you done anything similar in the past?
A:I work in an outdoor education centre at home, so I’m used to working outdoors, although not in quite so cold conditions!

Q: What kind of ski-ing background / experience did you have? Please explain?
A: I had been skiing a couple of times, once when I was 11 on a family holiday, and twice on school trips when I was 16/17. So not a lot of time on snow before I got out here!

Q: When did you arrive at the resort?
A: We arrived in Lake Louise on the 29th November 2011 after a 2 day orientation in Vancouver.

Q: What was your first impression like?
A: The mountains were huge! The views were beautiful, and it was freezing!!

Q: Where are you staying? Please describe?
A: Our EA group was put in staff accommodation up behind the Chateau Lake Louise, in the Colleague Services Building. It is very basic and quite old fashioned. We share a room between four people, and beneath our rooms is the Stables bar, which gets pretty loud on a few nights of the week.

Q: Who are you staying with?
A: I lived with Emily and Monica, and for a while another girl called Rose. Emily and Mon are on the EA course with me, and Rose worked in food and beverage up at the hill.

Q: How many interns do you work with?
A: All the interns from the EA course work at the hill, it started off with about 30 of us, but a few people have left to return home for uni/work.

Q: Where are they from?
A: Nearly all of us EA guys are from Britain or Australia.

Q: What do you do exactly?
I am employed by Lake Louise Ski School, I work 5 days a week teaching skiing, mostly to children. And on my days off I either free ski or have a chill out!

Q: Please describe, in some detail, a typical day.
A: A typical day at the ski school involves an 8.25am line up, if our schedule up until 10am is clear, we go down to kid ski and wait to see if we get any work. If we don’t get assigned to do shovelling, we have time to free ski, and continue to check in on the hour. There is another meeting at 1pm down at kids ski, and again, if we’re not assigned any work, we have to check in on the hour but still get to free ski in between.

'Made it down 'Wounded Knee' in one piece!'

Q: What have you learned so far from the experience?
A: Ski instructing doesn’t pay well! Unless you’re a super sales person! But it’s lots of fun, and you get to ski everyday – which is amazing!

Q: What’s been the biggest challenge to overcome, and why?
A: Missing my family and friends, I wish they could have all come out to visit!

Q: What’s been your most amazing experience? Please describe.
A: The most amazing experience since I’ve been here is doing the torchlight – We were pulled up Easy Street by skidoo, holding 2 metre long bamboo poles – flares attached to each end; the flares were lit once we’d gotten to the top, and then we skied down in a ‘snake’ to the bottom – this was a performance for a party that was being held in the Ten Peaks Lodge. It was absolutely amazing skiing in the dark, whilst holding flares to light the way. Before we skied down, we all stood at the top of the run just appreciating how lucky we all were to be part of such a unique and special event.

Q: Did anything funny / strange / unexpected happen to you? If so, tell us about it!
A: I managed to lose both of my big toenails due to ill-fitted ski boots! I spent the first month and a half of the season in absolute agony!

Q: How do you think taking part in this program will benefit you in the future?
A: It’s opened up my mind to wanting to live and work in different places around the world. It’s also given me more confidence in myself that I can achieve what I put my mind to.

Q: What do you hope to do in the remainder of your time there?
A: I hope I’ll get to visit a few places in and around Alberta, and I also hope to continue to improve my skiing in my final weeks.

Q: How do you feel about leaving and going back home?
A: I’m missing my friends and family a lot, but at the moment I’m not quite ready to go home; I would like to experience a Canadian Summer as I’ve heard so much about it!

Q: What are you planning to do next – work, university, etc.?
A: I’m planning on returning to work to save up some money, and then I’ll have to see where life takes me next!

Q: Would you recommend this program to other teens? If so, why?
A: I would recommend this program (not just to teens – I’m 25!), as it gives you the opportunity to work in a ski school as soon as you pass your level 1 CSIA exam, so you’re thrown straight in at the deep end and gain much more experience. It is a very expensive program though, and you don’t earn much money while you’re here, so as long as you go with the intention of just having fun and enjoying the experience for what it is then you’ll be fine!

Q: What do you think makes for an idea gap year experience?
A: Do something you’ve never done before or something you love doing – either way it’ll be an exciting experience! Moving to another country is slightly scary, but getting to experience a different way of life is amazing.

Q: Why did you decide to do a gap year now as opposed to at any other time?
A: I took 6 months unpaid leave from my current job because I was ready for a career break. I love working outdoors, and I wanted to improve my skiing, so i thought this would be a perfect to opportunity to do both. Part of me does wish I had done it earlier in my life though.

How can you become a ski or snowboard instructor Like Naemie?
Naemie took part on EA’s Instructor Internship – email sstraining@educatingadventures.com or fill out our instructor starter kit on the right hand panel of this page (scroll up a bit higher).

Its been snowing bucket loads of powder on EA’s Ski Instructor Courses at Lake Louise Canada. Naemie is having the best year out, heres here latest update out in the snow.

The season here at Lake Louise is well underway, over halfway through in fact! It’s scary to think that we only have around 7 weeks left! Time has just flown by – way too fast! We’re currently experiencing a massive “dump” of powder, so the skiing is amazing (although it’s fairly challenging not to fall over – as James demonstrates here! haha). We’ve been doing lots of tree runs and going off piste to find fresh tracks!

A few Monday nights ago we met the 11-week EA crew, and went downstairs to the stables to have a few drinks and a dance. We’ve seen them round and about in the lodge and they all seem to be enjoying themselves!

During our Level 2 Training we have focused on moguls, intermediate parallel turns, separation, carving and park. Level 2 Training is a massive step up from our Level 1 Training, it is much more challenging and demanding, but twice as much fun! During this time I’ve managed to conquer my fears of riding the Poma button lift, skiing ER7 and Whitehorn 2 – which I’m very pleased about!

The Blue Ball was held on 27th February – this is a night put on for Ski School where the dress code is blue! It was a fantastic night, and everybody made a special effort to stick to the blue theme! I went for a traditional blue Mexican outfit!

Emma signed us up for a torchlight event – without really knowing what it was. I’m so glad she did though! We were pulled up Easy Street by skidoo, holding 2 metre long bamboo poles – flares attached to each end; the flares were lit once we’d gotten to the top, and then we skied down in a ‘snake’ to the bottom – this was a performance for a party that was being held in the Ten Peaks Lodge. It was absolutely amazing skiing in the dark, whilst holding flares to light the way. Before we skied down, we all stood at the top of the run just appreciating how lucky we all were to be part of such a unique and special event.

ski Instructor course

I’ve had to say farewell to my other big toenail a couple of weeks ago, it managed to hang on a little longer than the other, but it finally decided to fall off! As well as the loss of my toenail, I’ve also had to replace my skis, as they came completely apart down one side the other day! I’m not doing too well when it comes to ski equipment, as I’ve already had to replace my ski boots! However I have been able to upgrade my skis for a new pair that are much more suited to my level of skiing, as my first pair were more of a beginner set of skis.

Update you soon!
Naems :)

Congratulations Ash Morris the winner of $500 for his entry in EA’s Short video competition for 2011/12 Ski and Snowboard instructor courses.

“I cut all the footage on my ski instructor course in Canada learning how to be a ski instructor – obviously not just learning how to teach but also awesome parties!”

Jess is having the Best Gap Year ever on her ski instructor course in Canada. EA’s ski instructor courses have full season options so you get to live like a local, experience the culture and get way more powder snow dumps! Plus you get a guaranteed job offer. In Jess’s latest blog – find out what awesome Canadian winter activities there are to do when your not skiing, working or partying!

Jess’s Gap year as a Ski Instructor in Canada – part 4

Hello again from Banff, which has been practically buried in snow from (rumour has it) the biggest snowstorm in 40 years! We woke up this morning to 50cm of fresh powder!

Norquay has had 70cm in the past 48hrs, which is apparently more than Lake Louise and Sunshine (the other two local resorts) put together. To put this into perspective, the total snowfall at Norquay all year before this week was around a metre and a half.

The snowstorm coincided perfectly with my first trip to Lake Louise, and I spent most of the day skiing awesomely powdery tree runs and the infamous bowls that I’d heard so much about.

Back to work tomorrow after a couple of days off, but I’m actually pretty excited; the avalanche blasting should be finished so I’ll be able to ski the best runs at Norquay with knee deep powder! Fingers crossed for no lessons…although I’m fairly sure there’ll be a snow shovel waiting with my name on it.

Aside from the excitement about the weather (I’m so British), plenty of other stuff has been going on here. As our days off have become more regular, and we’ve started to get bored of skiing at Norquay, we’ve managed to take a few trips to some different ski areas. As staff members, we’re entitled to “reciprocal skiing” at most of the nearby resorts.

So far, I’ve made it to Lake Louise, Kicking Horse, Revelstoke and Sunshine Village. Revelstoke was by far the most fun – I rented a pair of powder skis, which were so much fun to ski on, and the ski area is incredible. The highlight of the trip was definitely hiking over to the farthest bowls, which turned into a 2-hour long expedition and just scraping our way onto the last chairlift back!

We spent the rest of our time skiing knee-deep powder in the gladed runs (this means runs that look like forests, I’ve learnt) despite the fact that it hadn’t snowed in a few days. The trip was made complete by the hilarious movie-style motel we stayed in, the Revelstoke Lodge; “your mum called and said to stay here”.

We also made it to Calgary to watch an ice hockey match; Calgary Flames vs Chicago Blackhawks. The game was averagely interesting, but the atmosphere was great and the food was surprisingly good (much better than British football stadium food…).

February also saw Norquay’s annual “cardboard sled derby”. The rules were simple: build a sled out of only cardboard, duct tape and bin bags and ride in it down the ski slope. Prizes went to the most interesting sleds, as well as the ones that stayed in one piece at the end of the race! Lucky for us, Grace, one of the other EA interns here, is a civil engineer by background. As “chief engineer”, she designed us an amazing sled, which came third in the race, but somehow escaped winning a prize we’re still bitter! (see photo above)

Finally, in an effort to become more Canadian, we also gave curling a go. The conclusion from this, for me at least, is that curling looks quite cool and is fun for a while, but it’s actually quite boring.

This blog is full of exciting things that we’ve been doing, but we’ve definitely not been slacking off the partying side of things. Parties recently include: Hawaiian night, Hick, superheroes, TOWIE and pub golf! And we’ve also managed to play some bingo.

Jeffs third Revelstoke blog fresh from the good stuff in Canada. Revelstoke is known for its amazing powder, epic steeps, pillow runs, open bowls, and miles of tree runs.

However the EA Revelstoke crew are also finding the good times after the lifts close for the day..

New Year in Revy!

Our new years started with us having a social gathering in one of our groups apartments, music blaring and drinks flowing. But time flew by and when we decided to head out it was already 11 so we couldn’t all get in, meaning we headed separate ways, some people getting in and others spending new years out on the street.

Me, Frodo, Shona and Ryan got into the Drop which had a great atmosphere but if anything dancing next to the speakers was just too loud, however there was just something animalistic about the fact we had to dance.

Therefore we headed to the pool table and managed to stay on there winning for a far time despite being badly impaired. This was helped by a benefit of being a ski instructor is that you know a large amount of the community and many of the people you meet are happy to buy you drinks. So all in all most of the group ended up having a great night.

Stuff you wish wouldn’t happen

During our time here so far we have had a fair few injuries, from broken wrists to concussions and tendonitis to hurt shoulders, obviously some of them being more sever then others. However this was to be expected by all of us when you sign up to do a whole ski season. We have also had some problems with our gear such as many bent poles, broken boots and snapped skis. So all of us have either had to buy new gear or for the lucky few done it by choice. However we have come overcome these obstacles for our love of shredding!

The good stuff

We have been lucky to get some of the best snow conditions since we have been here, with it now feeling normal to have 30cms of fresh powder ready to ride in the mornings!

This has resulted in us all having an incredible time and getting to ride powder, drop cliffs and do tree runs that we hadn’t even dreamt about, along with turning everyone back into little children.

Its all about the powder in Japan right now, and the EA interns are over there soaking up the fluffy goodness.

Conrad and Robbie are on EA’s Instructor Internship in Japan and are getting more powder and sushi than they could every dream about.

They have had almost 2 meters in the last few days!!! Not to mention their EA staff accommodation situation at the bottom of the chair lift… AMAZING!

Conrad..
“The snow over here has been amazing! It just doesn’t stop coming down and has been for a few weeks now. The powder has been great but we have actually had too much snow over here so its getting kind of sketchy to ski in the back-country, but still pretty good fun overall.”

Robbie..
“Over the last few days we’ve had a TON of new powder, about a meter and a half to 2.

Great powder and had my first proper powder sesh on my day off on Saturday when i went back country at Hakuba Cortina ski resort, and had a go at some lovely powder skis. Loving it here, living right next to a main lift while getting plenty of snow.

Bright sunny day today with still quite a bit of powder all round meaning magnificent conditions.”

Naemie’s third Gap Year Ski Instructor course blog at Lake Louise Canada. Naemie passes her CSIA Level 1 (awesome effort!), parties it up at Lake Louise and starts work as a ski instructor.

Naemie is on EAs Instructor Internship – Ski Instructor course with guaranteed job offer

The 4 day exam started. We were all pretty nervous about doing it, but the exam followed the same structure as all our training weeks, so thankfully that made the whole experience relaxed and enjoyable. As the exam went on I felt my skiing improving, but I was not convinced I’d pass by any means.

D-Day arrived, and we all sat in anticipation while the examiners discussed the results. They then came in and announced that we’d all passed! I was in complete shock – I was so overwhelmed that I (embarrassingly) started crying, and then I couldn’t stop crying! I ended up going to the staff Christmas party that night with the world’s puffiest eyes and biggest grin on my face!

The Ski Staff Christmas party was held in the Ten Peaks Lodge – we had one beer and immediately felt extremely tipsy! I’m still not used to the altitude:drink ratio yet! Although it makes nights out much cheaper!!

My first day of work started the next day! I was the only one from the EA course down to work so it was pretty scary – but everyone was lovely – they helped me to find my way around and showed me what to do. I spent the morning shadowing. All in all, it was a really good day, and I knew I was going to enjoy my new job!

Christmas day was strange – it didn’t really feel like Christmas as we were all working, and we were also extremely hungover as Christmas Eve consisted of drinking games and a trip down to the Stables to play some pool. But we all spent the evening together swapping secret Santa presents and eating pizza!

EA Crew Secret Santa

We started to get lessons, my first one was terrifying, but after the first ten minutes it was going really well and I started to relax and enjoy it! Most of the lessons I’m assigned to is for Kid Ski, but I had my first adult lesson last week – I had to use a completely different style of teaching. It’s such an amazing feeling to see people improving in a lesson.