The world’s most southern city put on some cracker weather today! We awoke to find a lining of snow gracing the streets of Ushuaia and some serious snow falling throughout the morning…. the first day it has done so since we arrived. This on top of some very hard pack snow makes for an interesting combination. Good thing we got thrown every kind of weather and snow condition on our last camp at Treble Cone days before we left, so we feel as ready as can be for our big day delivering the full demonstrations and on snow clinics.
New Snow
We have now seen two days of presentations on snow and off. In addition we have had two mornings of demonstration skiing from many countries. Today involved on snow demonstrations and clinics from Australia, Canada, Netherlands, San Marino, Switzerland and Slovenia. Given the weather it was a testing day to showcase high performance skiing for many of the countries, but overall it looked like they managed it well considering.
Interski truly is a great way to network and open your mind to all the different ways to inspire and develop people in skiing and snowboarding. I have tended to find that simply sharing a chairlift ride can achieve so much in both informing other nations on how we roll and what we are all about, and importantly drawing a connection to what their country does differently. It is interesting to note just about everyone is asking us about the referendum for the kiwi flag and what is going to be decided upon….a good conversation starter!
Attending the on snow clinics has been interesting, seeing different systems with different terminologies and methods in place to ultimately point a pair of ski’s left or right. You can certainly note differences between each country, but many similarities with some and by comparison what the NZSIA does. I will have to admit there are some countries delegates who do tend to have a ‘my way and my way only’ type of mentality, which can be disappointing when ideas are trying to be exchanged. However in contrast there is definitely plenty of openness from many countries.
The top 4 interesting things I have seen today.
-Slovenian Demo team skiing in full blown 007 Agent suits with a female producing a red dress at the end.
-Tango dancing randomly on the streets of Ushuaia in sub zero weather (hardy bunch they breed down here!)
-Ben’s pizza with eight poached eggs on top for dinner tonight….most random thing I have seen in a long time!
-The Swiss demo team coming down in what looked to be full white contamination suits. After a synchronized passing between poles, a coordinated explosion of colour was released. It was a coloured type of powder which had the unfortunate effect of covering all the delegates suits in the front row, mine included. Thinking I would be helpful I saw an unfortunate white BASI jacket coated in orange, I proceeded to show him that if you rubbed snow in, you can hopefully remove the colour. Taking the liberty I proceeded to rub snow on his upper chest area with my hand. Realising very quickly in an eruption of laughter from us both with the awkwardness of what I was doing. I later found out this was the BASI demo team coach Andi McCann.
That’s it for now! By the time you are reading this we will likely be flying the silver fern on the demo slope and delivering our on snow workshops.
Hasta Luego!
Ash
James Bond at Interski
Slovenia on snow workshop
words and phots – Ashley Murphy