 Poster: A snowHead
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Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
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I hear the southern hemisphere is tough to even break even until you have done a couple seasons and are higher on the priority list....
would think your IT skills would be your best bet on contract work. i know quite a few guys who do IT work and ski in the winter, the other biggy seems to be off shore rigs or gardening businesses.
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Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
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I'm a roadie in the summer
(ie. I go on tour with bands setting up the equipment)
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You need to Login to know who's really who.
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| skimottaret wrote: |
I hear the southern hemisphere is tough to even break even until you have done a couple seasons and are higher on the priority list....
would think your IT skills would be your best bet on contract work. i know quite a few guys who do IT work and ski in the winter, the other biggy seems to be off shore rigs or gardening businesses. |
I think contracting could be a way forward for me. The off shore stuff is interesting, in that I think they do month on/off patterns which could work well. Any ideas on how you get into that world?
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Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
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OK, being as there aren't many responses to this do any part-time instructors have any suggestions on the topic?
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You'll need to Register first of course.
You'll need to Register first of course.
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skir67, Use your IT skills to 'work from home' in the mountains in the Winter so you get plenty of skiing in, maybe teaching part time.
I've done this for a couple of (non consecutive) seasons. The issue is that unless you are ISTD it seems hard to make a 'proper' living from Instructing. Even as an ISTD it seems that you need to start a ski school to really make it pay.
I wonder if at some point this will become an issue for BASI with regard to people progressing through the system. There isn't a great deal of financial incentive for me to progress through to ISIA in terms of return on Investment.
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I know a couple who are mountain bike guides or raft guides, so can stay in their home resort all year. One guy coaches tennis back in England. Lots seem to work/manage beach clubs, teach sailing etc. I'd have thought plumbing/plastering/some other self-employed trade could work quite well.
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skir67, If you want to work offshore you are going to need a skill of some sort... welder, painter (industrial), rigger, ndt tech etc etc. Jobs are pretty rare for people without some sort of industry relevant qual...
North Sea is 21 nights max trips, 2 weekers more normal. If you want to go and work off Angola or similar you could do as long as you like (if you can stand the goat stew...)
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You'll get to see more forums and be part of the best ski club on the net.
You'll get to see more forums and be part of the best ski club on the net.
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Know quite a few with trades (carpenters, sparks, etc). Rope access myself, quite a few folks I know of do this (but as post above work is thin unless you have a skill to perform on the end of the rope).
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| david@mediacopy wrote: |
skir67, Use your IT skills to 'work from home' in the mountains in the Winter so you get plenty of skiing in, maybe teaching part time.
I've done this for a couple of (non consecutive) seasons. The issue is that unless you are ISTD it seems hard to make a 'proper' living from Instructing. Even as an ISTD it seems that you need to start a ski school to really make it pay.
I wonder if at some point this will become an issue for BASI with regard to people progressing through the system. There isn't a great deal of financial incentive for me to progress through to ISIA in terms of return on Investment. |
yep agree with you on the ISTD front, but it probably isn't an option for me to start on that route again, particularly as I'm old enough to be the father of a lot of those doing the speedtest these days! 
I also agree there isn't any real financial incentive to go to ISIA level, in some cases having that level can even be a disadvantage i.e level 2's are cheaper to employ by ski schools, so you can lose out on work.
What IT skills do you have?
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snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
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| offpisteskiing wrote: |
skir67, If you want to work offshore you are going to need a skill of some sort... welder, painter (industrial), rigger, ndt tech etc etc. Jobs are pretty rare for people without some sort of industry relevant qual...
North Sea is 21 nights max trips, 2 weekers more normal. If you want to go and work off Angola or similar you could do as long as you like (if you can stand the goat stew...) |
Agreed, I'd need some kind of other skill to work offshore.
BTW just had a look at the link to your website. Are you Simon Christy? If so I did a day or 2 race training with you 11 years ago! in Les Gets with Tim Jackson of LGS (Tim and I were training for the eurotest at the time).
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And love to help out and answer questions and of course, read each other's snow reports.
And love to help out and answer questions and of course, read each other's snow reports.
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| clarky999 wrote: |
| I know a couple who are mountain bike guides or raft guides, so can stay in their home resort all year. One guy coaches tennis back in England. Lots seem to work/manage beach clubs, teach sailing etc. I'd have thought plumbing/plastering/some other self-employed trade could work quite well. |
yes, these are the kinds of jobs I've seen people do in the past. I think the lower paid options like the more leisure industry involved ones aren't an option for me, I need a trade or to use my IT skills to earn a better living in the summer months to supplement the lesser wage I would get in the winter as an ISIA.
If I were an ISTD then I'd go off and teach scuba diving in the summer! 
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skir67,
| Quote: |
| I also agree there isn't any real financial incentive to go to ISIA level, in some cases having that level can even be a disadvantage i.e level 2's are cheaper to employ by ski schools, so you can lose out on work. |
Yep, I've come across a couples of instances of this recently. I wish I'd made the effort a few years ago when it was more affordable.
I don't have any specific IT skills, more of a "jack of all trades" I'm afraid. I run a couple small businesses which rely on IT and with broadband I can sometimes swing a season away and still play my part. But I know a few guys who do operate as I suggested, who were basically contracting remotely via a VPN set-up. I think the work was ad-hoc so it wasn't an issue if they were not on the end of a phone.
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You know it makes sense.
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skir67,
I was speaking to a ski school owner in Tignes last week and he thinks you should consider ski teaching as a second occupation rather than a first occupation, backed up by a bit of building work.
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Otherwise you'll just go on seeing the one name:
Otherwise you'll just go on seeing the one name:
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| david@mediacopy wrote: |
skir67,
| Quote: |
| I also agree there isn't any real financial incentive to go to ISIA level, in some cases having that level can even be a disadvantage i.e level 2's are cheaper to employ by ski schools, so you can lose out on work. |
Yep, I've come across a couples of instances of this recently. I wish I'd made the effort a few years ago when it was more affordable.
I don't have any specific IT skills, more of a "jack of all trades" I'm afraid. I run a couple small businesses which rely on IT and with broadband I can sometimes swing a season away and still play my part. But I know a few guys who do operate as I suggested, who were basically contracting remotely via a VPN set-up. I think the work was ad-hoc so it wasn't an issue if they were not on the end of a phone. |
yes, these days it's much easier to work remotely than in the past, broadbands faster, cheaper and more widely available and the software for remoting onto peoples machines is very effective. A large part of my current job involves this and the tools are great, I can work on a machine as if I were sat in front of it (doesn't work if you need to stick a CD in though ).
'jack of all trades' is prob not a bad thing as it might help with picking up work locally in resort to supplement the home based stuff where you're remoting in. Any chance you could get a bit more info off these people you know as to the type of work they were doing?
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Poster: A snowHead
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stewart woodward, do you mean teaching part-time and doing building work full-time? what's your situation? I guess if you're teaching in Tignes you're an ISTD? Or have you done test technique and working through the system that way?
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Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
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david@mediacopy,
| Quote: |
I wonder if at some point this will become an issue for BASI with regard to people progressing through the system. There isn't a great deal of financial incentive for me to progress through to ISIA in terms of return on Investment.
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I believe most people who do their L3 ISIA intend to go on and do the L4, as there are relatively few L3s - 165 alpine L3 ISIA members by the slightly outdated info I have, as opposed to 298 L4 ISTDs. There are also 95 "Alpine SKi Teachers", which are those members who have not upgraded their old grade 2 to ISIA. Full numbers below (these are a few months out of date, but give you the gist):
Alpine Level 1 574
SSS/BASI Alpine Level 1 5
Alpine UK Adavanced Instructor 13
Alpine Level 2 2066
Alpine Ski Teacher 95
Alpine Level 3 ISIA 145
Alpine National Ski Teacher 65
Level 4 ISTD 298
TOTAL ALPINE 3261
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Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
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| skir67 wrote: |
| stewart woodward, do you mean teaching part-time and doing building work full-time? what's your situation? |
I work as a Quantity Surveyor or Project Manager during the summer back in the UK.
Unless you can work a minimum of 20 weeks ski teaching you probably will not earn enough to cover your costs. The largest cost is accomodation, which can be €5 -6k per season for anything half decent.
Most ISTD's i know, who do not have another 'proffesion', struggle in the summer.
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You need to Login to know who's really who.
You need to Login to know who's really who.
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| beanie1 wrote: |
david@mediacopy,
| Quote: |
I wonder if at some point this will become an issue for BASI with regard to people progressing through the system. There isn't a great deal of financial incentive for me to progress through to ISIA in terms of return on Investment.
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I believe most people who do their L3 ISIA intend to go on and do the L4, as there are relatively few L3s - 165 alpine L3 ISIA members by the slightly outdated info I have, as opposed to 298 L4 ISTDs. There are also 95 "Alpine SKi Teachers", which are those members who have not upgraded their old grade 2 to ISIA. Full numbers below (these are a few months out of date, but give you the gist):
Alpine Level 1 574
SSS/BASI Alpine Level 1 5
Alpine UK Adavanced Instructor 13
Alpine Level 2 2066
Alpine Ski Teacher 95
Alpine Level 3 ISIA 145
Alpine National Ski Teacher 65
Level 4 ISTD 298
TOTAL ALPINE 3261 |
Interesting info, I didn't realise there were so few ISIA's. Originally my intention was to do ISTD and I did complete the teaching module for that and the other modules which then got included as part of ISIA which meant that when the option to take ISIA membership came up I'd already done all the required courses. It was the eurotest that saw me off in the end as I realised I would probably need to do several seasons of expensive, dedicated training to stand a chance of getting through it. I didn't really have the money available to do that so it was game over!
Looking at those figures I guess with a bit of time the L1 qualification will in time exceed the numbers of level 2 as it's still relatively new.
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Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
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| stewart woodward wrote: |
| skir67 wrote: |
| stewart woodward, do you mean teaching part-time and doing building work full-time? what's your situation? |
I work as a Quantity Surveyor or Project Manager during the summer back in the UK.
Unless you can work a minimum of 20 weeks ski teaching you probably will not earn enough to cover your costs. The largest cost is accomodation, which can be €5 -6k per season for anything half decent.
Most ISTD's i know, who do not have another 'proffesion', struggle in the summer. |
So you need to be teaching the whole season pretty much then. In your experience what sort of hourly pay rate are ISTD's commanding these days?
Are you ISTD or still completing the system?
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You'll need to Register first of course.
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beanie1, Thanks. I've always found some of those numbers quite surprising.
Thinking about it, I guess they must represent the current 'paid' membership and exclude lapsed memberships ?
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david@mediacopy,
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Thinking about it, I guess they must represent the current 'paid' membership and exclude lapsed memberships ?
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Yes that's correct. They're about 4 or 5 mths old I think.
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| david@mediacopy wrote: |
beanie1, Thanks. I've always found some of those numbers quite surprising.
Thinking about it, I guess they must represent the current 'paid' membership and exclude lapsed memberships ? |
yes, if you added in all the lapsed members then the figures would be a lot higher, no doubt. I expect an awful lot of the lapsed members would be from the lower grades both in terms of numbers and overall percentages. However I guess generally many people let the membership lapse when they no longer have an involvement with ski teaching any more.
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You'll get to see more forums and be part of the best ski club on the net.
You'll get to see more forums and be part of the best ski club on the net.
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Hey this is James, i work in london in the summer for a marquee company and for ESF, JJC and BASI in the winter. Last summer i did a massage, anatomy + physiology course, my aim was to do a bit during the summer and also out in the winter. Way to busy to think about it this winter though, but as a summer thing i think i may have a crack at it when i get home. only need a week and a bit to get a sports massage diploma after the 2 weeks put in to the first course. there are other courses out there that came be used this way to.
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