Canadian Association of Nordic Ski Instructors

Wendy Grater is Ontario's newest CANSI XC Level IV instructor Posted on Mar 14th, 2018

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Wendy is Ontario's newest CANSI XC Level IV instructor after a winter of learning and training. Wendy is a well known and loved CANSI Instructor and Course Conductor in Ontario. She's based in Parry Sound (near her home club Georgian Nordic Ski Club) and travels Ontario instructing and running courses. 

Report from Wendy Grater

I am happy to be able to bring another Level IV pin back to Ontario! I had a super week at Silver Star, BC, taking the Level IV course with Marie-Catherine Bruno as course conductor, as well as 2 other candidates. At the same time at Silver Star, CSIA (alpine skiing) had a Level IV course with 102 participants, and CASI (snowboarding) had a Level IV course with 20 participants. We got together one morning for a group photo. Maybe CANSI will have a Level IV course with 20 someday J

The weather was extremely snowy ... each day, except the last, saw almost continual snow, and temperatures hovering around freezing. This made waxing for classic quite challenging, so I was very thankful for my 'zero' skis!

We covered many topics and manoeuvers, in classic, skate and alpine. We had teaching sessions, where we had to 'teach' lessons to folks who had volunteered to be participants for us.  We had pedagogy sessions, where we would teach a series of progressions to 'other instructors', ensuring that they (and we) had a good comprehension of the skills behind each of the techniques, and exercises that can be done to help participants improve. Each of us also had a theory session to present, to handle and give feedback on video sessions, and to do a marking session, where we watched random videos and then judged the skiing level and justify.

All in all, it was a busy week. I was up by 6:30 am each day to be on the snow by 8:30 am, and we seldom finished before 5 pm. 

However, all the work and preparation was worth it ... I am pleased to be wearing a blue CANSI pin proudly. Looking forward to sharing ideas and skiing with the CANSI Ontario family.