Hi all,

I do a bit of skiing up the Canterbury Chill fields, and although I am skiing most of the terrain on the fields I think I could do with a ski lesson so that I can ski it all a bit better! Being pretty much self taught I am sure that there are things I can improve on!!

Any recommendations for an intermediate/advanced type lesson? Which field and who to ask for? We are often skiing up the Craigieburn range so somewhere up there would be good. Not keen on Hutt as my chill pass does not cover Hutt.

Broken river is your best bet IMO. Great experienced instructors, cheap, good variety of terrain and aspects upon which to work on different skills, and a nice chilled out vibe.

Having lessons is a top idea. Back when I used to board I was self taught and although I done a few full seasons and was happy shredding anything on the mountain I got a rude shock when I signed up to instructor school. Lots of bad habits to unlearn! You probably see that all the time in your riding classes too.

Yup, lessons from good people help heaps!

To hijack the thread what chill field would peeps recommend for someone starting out sking/boarding?

Depends on where you live or want to go/stay. Porters and Cheeseman are the main beginner fields near Christchurch. Porters is a little different to most of the others because it is bigger, commercial and has more facilities like ski hire, if you need that. But it also has more crowds and expense. You could also try Hanmer, Rainbow or Roundhill.

My personal pick would be Cheeseman, stay up on the field, ride the T bars etc. If you need hire gear get it in chch or at gnomes in dartfield. You get on field accommodation, it's cheap and you get the whole community vibe. And the snow is reasonably consistent unlike some of the others mentioned - though this year everyone's got good cover so it doesn't matter that much.

Porters has a really good absolute beginners slope. For day 1 snowboarding it's probably the best beginner slope I've seen anywhere. It's wide and long with perfect gradient for learning on. In comparison the beginners slope at Mt Hutt is too narrow, too short and way way too crowded.

Nick_K wrote:To hijack the thread what chill field would peeps recommend for someone starting out sking/boarding?

Dobson and Roundhill would be good for learning. Dobson has a chair lift which goes to intermediate terrain which would be good on a board. Closer to Chch my pick would be Porters or Cheeseman tho.

I recently did 3 days at Craigieburn and the lessons there were awesome. I am a self taught skier who struggled in crud and powder. As part of staying there for a 3 night package you get 1 free lesson for an hour. The second day for another $50 i did a full days off piste clinic. I can't speak highly enough of Sophie the instructor and am now happily skiing crud and powder! You certainly won't get that at Mt Hutt...

Yep Porters, Cheeseman or BR all good esp now BR has the tramway for access, Olympus is OK but a long drive and you need a 4WD truck or hitch from the bottom hut.

Cheeseman is my pick, sunny from open to about 3.00 pm, not too crowded and about 30 metres from the coffee machine (yummy hummingbird coffee)to the bottom of the first t-bar, that's gotta be good. They have ski hire too but a limited range and ski school are all from Swissland. Road can be a bit of a mish if you have a 2wd.

Yup. Got a lesson at Cheesy with Evelyn. Was all good! Got me some stuff to work on, and it is helping already.

Thats beaut. I've met Evelyn, she has a smile to make an old man happy!

I'd second for BR. Great instructors, they've sorted out my many faults. If you stay more than two nights Sun-Thurs the group lessons are included - well worth it! cheers, Megan

Trail wrote:Hi all,

I do a bit of skiing up the Canterbury Chill fields, and although I am skiing most of the terrain on the fields I think I could do with a ski lesson so that I can ski it all a bit better! Being pretty much self taught I am sure that there are things I can improve on!!

Any recommendations for an intermediate/advanced type lesson? Which field and who to ask for? We are often skiing up the Craigieburn range so somewhere up there would be good. Not keen on Hutt as my chill pass does not cover Hutt.

I can remember having a lesson at Mt Hutt where I was reasonably confident at speed on
piste but would do a lot of sitting back at the end of the turn off piste. All the guy said to me
was "Stand up 10ft tall all the time" and in order to develop my confidence he got me to follow him at high speed off piste. I had to forget I was on snow in order to keep up with him. While at the end of the lesson I felt too stuffed to feel if it helped, by remembering
what he said about standing 10ft tall the next time I went skiing I knew it had helped.
I would not know if instructors on other mountains use high speed skiing as a tool to develop off piste confidence. As ski technology has changed since I had this lesson 18 years ago my
ski of choice for off piste conditions now is 85mm wide under waist which gives me better confidence in low light/visability conditions too.

Nick_K wrote:To hijack the thread what chill field would peeps recommend for someone starting out skiing

Thread dredge...

Had my first 2 days up on the snow at Porters this weekend which was awesome fun. Have the beginners trail down but the step up to the intermediate trail on T1 was a bit much for me. I plan to mainly ski at Porters (because of the porters passport) but am thinking of spending a day or maybe a weekend at another field which has a bigger range of beginner or easy intermediate trails.

Any recommendations or suggestions?

Porters learners slope is ace, wide and cruisy. Onc your off there its IMO hell for a begginer/intermediate!

Honestly, tho I'm not ken onthe place (but spend staurday there) Mt Hutt is a great place to board for day 3-8 or so. Cruise onto the quad and board down broadway, enough slope to get you going without catching edges all the time, nice and wide, plenty of space to get some speed up and get those turns right.

Theres a step up onto the 6 lift though, the cat track down to the easiest run is tricky you need to be able to ride in quite a tight line and put in linked quick turns , or just feather down it which takes a while.

Dobson is a good field but IMO a little more tricky than Hutt for a starter.