Okay so snowboarders and skiers are from different planets, but at Ski Le Gap between 20-30% of students are snowboarders so you'll have plenty of company and a great shared sense of achievement.
Of course boarders do tend to have some fairly radical points of view, as you'll see below.
Let me first start by saying that it is almost impossible to write an article about my experience as a snowboarder on Ski le Gap in 700 - 850 words, but here it goes.
The experience all started early one Wednesday morning in Heathrow airport. I was dropped off outside the terminal and said my goodbyes to my mum as I didn't want everyone to see how much of a wimp she is when it comes to saying goodbye (seriously, uncontrollable tears). I walked in to the terminal and I instantly saw my new friends and other 'Gappers', but most importantly, I saw a group of fellow snowboarders.
I'll be honest with you, it wasn't too hard to differentiate between "us" and "them".
"We" were the ones wearing baggy jeans, trucker caps, hoodies and peaked beanies, "they" were the ones wearing shirts, polo's, jeans which fit and all had nicely done hair, but we were all there for the same reason, to have an awesome 3 months so we all mingled together. Fast forwarding a couple of days to when we had all arrived in Mt. Tremblant and settled in, we were all bussed to the mountain where we were to meet our mentors, our new family for the duration. I nervously met Marc Legros, the snowboard director where he checked me off the list and sent me to find someone called Phil. It didn't take very long for me to find him, as he was dancing around with his name tag attached to his head via his goggles.
This was to be the man who would teach me the basics of how to be an instructor and destroy my technique and re-build it again, all in 3 weeks. Now, I thought I was a pretty good snowboarder before I went on the gap, but oh no, I soon found out that my technique, which I had used to get myself down many black runs in the past, in Phil's words was "merde". Constant references to me "slapping the mouse" (riding with your back hand way out in front of you) and several ridiculous different exercises including snowboarding holding onto your board pants for entire runs soon sorted out my technique. I thought the hard part was over but no, the real hard part was learning to turn as a beginner would.
I will skip a couple of weeks as it would take too long to tell you how many people fell over trying to basic turn on beginner slopes practicing teaching to when we had all passed our level one exams. We were all now certified instructors and we had 3 options for how we would spend the next 2 months, we could either join the elite and become masters of freestyle, train with the best and go for our level 2 qualification or take it easy and be a ground patrol member. I opted for the hardcore freestyle group (to be perfectly honest with you, the level 2 group turned me down as there wasn't enough time for them to train me to pass) so it was a very easy decision in the end.
The park had been open since the start of the season, but there were no kickers as yet, but as if by magic, the third day we were riding the park with freestyle master Carl, there was suddenly a medium sized kicker sitting there perfectly in the park. I had never hit a kicker in my life before this, but the rest of the group had done and they were all very keen to give it a go. Carl said we would only ride it if everyone was happy to do so, and not wanting to disappoint my new close group of like minded shredders, I said I would give it a go. Carl explained what to do, to go straight from where we were gathered and to stay calm when in the air, and absorb the landing with my knees. I listened and let everyone else go first to try and watch what to do. What seemed like 2 seconds later, it was my go and I thought there was nothing for it but to go. I did exactly as Carl had told me, I straight-lined it to the jump and when in the air I stayed very calm, with the perfect body position, until I looked down and saw the knuckle of the kicker about 10 foot below me when I realized I had gone way too big off the jump.
I shouted some expletive at the top of my voice, started to wind up the windows with my arms as I plummeted towards the ground where the board hit the snow first, quickly followed by my backside. I lay with my eyes closed, flat on my back, motionless for a couple of seconds until I heard Carl who had rushed over to me asking me if I was alright. I opened my eyes and said I was fine, nothing broken, just a sore arse. Upon hearing this Carl's serious, concerned face broke out in the biggest grin where he chuckled in his French Canadian accent, "dude, you went way too big, get up and we'll go again but this time slow down!" which is my resounding memory of Carl.
This was what Ski le Gap was all about, being pushed all the time to improve but in a safe environment with the best instructors in the world. I spent the entire remainder of the program in the park, improving all the time and I can now pull tricks I never dreamt I would be able to learn in 3 months.
When I started to write this article, I wanted to slate skiers so badly, but I really can't. So many people say that skiing is for wimps and the hardcore version is snowboarding, but some of the most hardcore on the gap were skiers.
I would however have to say that all the nutters seem to snowboard, especially a couple of northerners who became 2 of my best mates. One of them concussed himself twice in one day and then after the lessons, he went back and tried to front flip off of a roof attached to the board, needless to say he didn't snowboard for a couple of weeks but there was no lasting damage. I started off this article by saying how hard it would be to make it 700 - 850 words but to be perfectly honest with you, I words really cannot truly describe the amazing time that i had there, it really has to be experienced for you to understand.
So if you are taking a Gap Year and not sure what to do with it, go on Ski le Gap and I guarantee you will have the time of your life and make some amazing friends.
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