February 8
First time I have been lectured and yelled at by two hicks on a snowboard mountain. Story:
I was teaching a ten year old girl today who had been snowboarding for a grand total of four days. She was making very methodical turns and very slow turns across the mountain. As a more hesitant child, she wanted to learn how to do something correctly before doing it quickly. Needless to say, I thought she was doing a great job, even though she was going slow and cautious.
I was approached by a couple as I was stopped waiting for my student, when they told me, “You need to learn how to teach your students to look uphill before going across the hill.”
EXCUSE ME! She is a ten year old girl who is trying to learn how to snowboard! Beyond that, YOU are the uphill skier, not HER! The responsibility code of the mountain states that the uphill skier is responsible to watch out for the downhill skier.
Being completely unreasonable, the couple continued to argue with me. At one point, the man said, “We have been skiing longer than you have been alive!” I wanted to tell him that I highly doubt he had more experience on the snow than I did and that I am a trained snowboarder and I know the rules of the mountain. Instead I just told them both that I refused to dignify myself to that ridiculous argument any longer and I went back to teaching my lesson.
I felt so bad for my student, as she was criticized by two strangers and did absolutely nothing wrong. The moment they began attacking her, I became very defensive. I could not believe that two grown adults would claim to be such good skiers, yet not know the rules of the mountain. I told them that if they did not want to deal with beginners then to get off the beginner slope. It is not as if she was going to fast for them to go around her.
Okay, I am done with my rant. Please note-the uphill skier is responsible for watching out for the downhill skier. But then again, you probably already knew that.
