YOUR SPACE #SNOWPROS WHAT PSIA-AASI MEANS TO ME


50-YEAR MEMBER LOOKS BACK ON A SKI LIFE WELL-LIVED By Jim Redmond


I received my 50-year PSIA pin this year, which spurred thoughts of why I remained a member for so long. I quickly


realized it’s not


just because PSIA-AASI is a good organization; it’s also because of what skiing and PSIA mean to me.


When I started teaching Jim Redmond


skiing in the mid-1960s, I was D fl DN\ FROOHJH NLG fl RDWLQJ DORQJ WU\LQJ WR fi QG D SXUSRVH It made perfect sense to skip


class at the University of Montana if there was fresh powder up at Snow Bowl. That happened a lot. I tried racing, but wasn’t very good at it. A friend of mine suggested I try teaching because I could get a free pass. I did, and my life was changed forever. I saw that the real teachers had these little pins from the Northern Rocky Mountain Ski Instructors Association, a division of the newly formed (in 1961) Professional Ski Instructors of $PHULFD Ζ GHFLGHG Ζ ZDQWHG RQH RI WKRVH P\ fi UVW DGYHQWXUH in serious “goal setting.” I took some NRMSIA clinics, studied the PSIA manual, and spent the winter of 1965-66 practicing ȊGHPRQVWUDWLRQ IRUPV ȋ 7KDW VSULQJ Ζ SDVVHG WKH DVVRFLDWH FHUWLfi HG H[DP QRZ /HYHO ΖΖ DQG D FRXSOH \HDUV ODWHU SDVVHG WKH IXOO FHUWLfi HG (now Level III). I even had some clinics with PSIA co-founder Bill Lash and Dr. Richard Voorhees, who helped write WKDW fi UVW PDQXDO 6HULRXVO\ IRFXVHG RQ VRPHWKLQJ IRU WKH fi UVW WLPH Ζ OHDUQHG


ZKDW LW ZDV OLNH WR ZRUN KDUG WR DFKLHYH VRPHWKLQJ GLɝ FXOW ΖW was so rewarding when "the lights came on" for the people I was teaching. I could bring joy, smiles, and laughter to another person.


LIFE LESSONS LEARNED AS A SKI TEACHER Over the years, my fulltime careers moved me around, but until I ended up in the South in the 1990s I always taught skiing part-time wherever I went: in Montana; at a little place called Red Devil west of Washington, D.C., at Mt. Hood, Oregon, and Winter Park, Colorado. I even made skiing part of my fulltime job. During a stint in television news, I produced two-minute ski- tip features, which aired in 100 major and medium TV markets. ΖȇYH KDG PDQ\ FDUHHUV Rff VQRZ EXW VRPH RI P\ PRVW important life lessons have come from being a ski teacher. %HIRUH Ζ DFKLHYHG P\ IXOO FHUWLfi FDWLRQ Ζ ZRXOG ȊWU\ȋ WKLQJV $IWHU FHUWLfi FDWLRQ Ζ NQHZ Ζ FRXOG ȊGRȋ WKLQJV 6XEVHTXHQWO\ ZKHQ GLɝ FXOW WLPHV UHDUHG WKHLU KHDG Ζ VLPSO\ KXQNHUHG GRZQ DQG GLG what was necessary to beat them back. I did not, after becoming D 36Ζ$ FHUWLfi HG VNL WHDFKHU OHW VHOI GRXEW LPSULVRQ PH DJDLQ )RU H[DPSOH LQ WKH ODWH


V Ζ PDGH D FDUHHU FKDQJH WR


college teaching. That meant graduate school in middle age. It ZDV GLɝ FXOW JRLQJ WR VFKRRO SDUW WLPH ZKLOH VWLOO ZRUNLQJ IXOOWLPH to provide for my family. But I knew I could do it, because of those long winter days decades before that etched in me the EHQHfi WV RI GLVFLSOLQH LQ SHUVRQDO JURZWK


What we used to call “correction and analysis of error” taught


me to look deeper than mere symptoms. Symptoms are never FDXVHV WKH\ DUH Hff HFWV ΖW V RQH WKLQJ WR NQRZ D SHUVRQ LV VNLGGLQJ DURXQG DQG FDQ W KROG DQ HGJH LW V TXLWH DQRWKHU WR


8 | 32 DEGREES • SPRING 2017


KHOS WKHP fi [ WKH SUREOHP 7KDW KHOSHG PH LPPHDVXUDEO\ ZKHQ I became college professor. I realized people often just need WKLQJV H[SODLQHG GLff HUHQWO\ DQG LQ ZD\V WKDW PDNH LW IXQ UDWKHU than fearsome or mind-numbingly frustrating. If they enjoy something and have fun, they’ll work to become good at it.


THAT FAMILIAR RUSH OF BEING ON SNOW Before moving to Tennessee to teach at The University of Memphis – and switching my PSIA membership status to alumni – I attended my last clinic, at Copper Mountain, Colorado. I jumped in with a group of older instructors who wanted to cruise the mountain, and the legendary Curt Chase (another PSIA co-founder) was there. Skiing is such a small world of LQWHUZRYHQ OLYHV P\ JUDQGIDWKHU ERXJKW PH P\ fi UVW QHZ SDLU of skis from Curt, when I was a high school sophomore and Curt ran the ski school at Red Lodge. And of all my skiing adventures, some of the best were as a member of the original “Jane Gang” ski school group when Winter Park opened up the Mary Jane expansion. Though now scattered across the county, we’re all VWLOO IULHQGV DQG KDYH RXU RZQ )DFHERRN SDJH ΖȇP JHWWLQJ RQ LQ \HDUV VR Ζ GRQȇW KDYH WKH UHfl H[HV WR VNL LQ WKH


trees or big bumps anymore. I’m not strong enough for avalanche chutes either. I cruise manicured blue trails, and there’s still that rush of setting a ski on its edge and riding the arc of a carve, turning smooth pirouettes. More often now I go for a walk in the woods on cross country skis. There, away from crowds in the TXLHW PDJQLfi FHQW ZLQWHU VFHQH WKH VRODFH DQG PHPRULHV ZDVK over me. I’m still in the mountains, in the forest, on the snow. Looking back on my 50 years with PSIA, I recognize that


Jim Redmond takes on the bumps at Mary Jane, circa 1985.


becoming a ski teacher is an act of expanding yourself and EXLOGLQJ VNLOOV WKDW WUXO\ GR EHQHfi W D OLIHWLPH WHFKQLFDOO\ personally, and interpersonally. Being a part of PSIA has been so much more than just pursuing a sport. It is one of the golden threads that binds the entire tapestry of a life well spent.


Jim Redmond, Ph.D., is a former Chair of Journalism at The University of Memphis, television producer/reporter, and military veteran now retired in Montana. He is a college textbook author and recipient of numerous military and professional journalism awards, including the National Cowboy Hall of Fame’s 1984 Western Heritage Award for Outstanding Western Documentary.


COURTESY OF JIM REDMOND


Page 1  |  Page 2  |  Page 3  |  Page 4  |  Page 5  |  Page 6  |  Page 7  |  Page 8  |  Page 9  |  Page 10  |  Page 11  |  Page 12  |  Page 13  |  Page 14  |  Page 15  |  Page 16  |  Page 17  |  Page 18  |  Page 19  |  Page 20  |  Page 21  |  Page 22  |  Page 23  |  Page 24  |  Page 25  |  Page 26  |  Page 27  |  Page 28  |  Page 29  |  Page 30  |  Page 31  |  Page 32  |  Page 33  |  Page 34  |  Page 35  |  Page 36  |  Page 37  |  Page 38  |  Page 39  |  Page 40  |  Page 41  |  Page 42  |  Page 43  |  Page 44  |  Page 45  |  Page 46  |  Page 47  |  Page 48  |  Page 49  |  Page 50  |  Page 51  |  Page 52  |  Page 53  |  Page 54  |  Page 55  |  Page 56  |  Page 57  |  Page 58  |  Page 59  |  Page 60  |  Page 61  |  Page 62  |  Page 63  |  Page 64  |  Page 65  |  Page 66  |  Page 67  |  Page 68  |  Page 69  |  Page 70  |  Page 71  |  Page 72  |  Page 73  |  Page 74  |  Page 75  |  Page 76  |  Page 77  |  Page 78  |  Page 79  |  Page 80  |  Page 81  |  Page 82  |  Page 83  |  Page 84