KIDS: SPECTACULAR PROGRAMMEThe concept of the KIDS:SPECTACULAR programme is to try and tie all the disparate strands and motives for ski racing into a single accessible programme that facilitates students in realising their potential. Entry to this programme is through our network of British ski schools, providing a pathway beyond what the network currently offers into the very rewarding opportunities presented by the various strands of ski racing.
What is KIDS: SPECTACULAR
KIDS: Snowsports Pathways to Elite Competition, Training for Alpine Careers and University Level Alpine Racing.
The KIDS:SPECTACULAR programme is seeking teenagers and children over the age of 10 who are already competent skiers. They must be able to ski all mountain, black runs, bump runs and easy off piste and want to rise to the challenge of skiing with faster, stronger skiers in the supportive environment of one of Britain’s oldest and most successful alpine ski racing clubs.
British ski racing clubs have a long history of developing young ski racing potential and fostering it in a caring and supportive environment, something that Kandahar Ski Club has been at the forefront of for over 40 years.
The partnership with Kandahar Ski Club links some of the best off snow pastoral care in British skiing with some of the best on snow British coaching expertise in our industry.
Of course, not all young skiers can be the next Alain Baxter, Chemmie Alcott or Finlay Mickel, and because of this, the KIDS:SPECTACULAR programme has three development outcomes for young athletes that seek to address some of the diverse reasons children love ski racing. These are:
Snowsport Pathways to:
Elite Competition
For the purely performance orientated and gifted individual, one strategy of the KIDS:SPECTACULAR programme is to develop children into athletes who achieve selection into the English, Scottish, Welsh and Northern Irish regional teams. Some exceptional youngsters may go straight into the British Junior FIS Team or Irish National Team in their discipline.
Recent Kandahar Ski Club athletes currently on National Ski Teams are:
British Alpine Team
- Edward Drake, British Alpine Ski Team
- David Ryding, British Alpine Ski Team
- Joanna Greig, British Alpine Ski Team
- Daniel Berry, British Alpine Ski Team
Irish Alpine Team
- Kirstin McGarry, Irish Alpine Ski Team
British Alpine Development Squad
- Female: Joanna Ryding
- Male: Mike Colyer and Craig Robinson
English or Welsh Squads
- Female: Jenny Mashiter, Kirsty Hatcher and Charlotte Evans
- Male: Jack Evans, Harry Brown, Jai Geyer, Jake Richardson and Piers Lomax
Former Kandahar Ski Club trainees who have achieved British success include:
- Conrad Bartelski – 2 nd Val Gardena Men’s Downhill World Cup 1982
- Martin Bell – 8 th Men’s Downhill Calgary Olympics 1988
- Graham Bell – has competed at 5 Winter Olympic Games 1984-1998
- Sean Langmuir – Albertville Olympics, France 1992 – 28 th Combined
- Tessa Pirie – Vail World Alpine Ski Championships – 34 th DH, 33 rd Super G
Training for Alpine Careers
In the BASI system there are three levels of award, overviews of which are as follows:
- The BASI Instructor Level 1 allows holders to work on dry ski slopes and in snowdomes or other enclosed environments. This is not an open mountain qualification.
- The BASI Instructor Level 2 allows holders to work in Britain, Andorra and Switzerland, and for short periods in the rest of the Alps (typically for a maximum of a couple of weeks per season);
- The BASI ISIA Ski Teacher (ISIA – International Ski Instructors’ Association) allows the holder to work anywhere in the world with the exception of Italy and France, where a further qualification is required.
- The BASI ISTD (ISTD – International Ski Teaching Diploma) is the top British ski teaching level and is the only award that allows holders to legally work in France. For the BASI ISTD, there is a requirement to pass a demanding Giant Slalom race test, commonly called ‘The Speed Test’.
Most instructors will have to train for about 10 weeks to have any sort of chance in The Speed Test and obviously any candidate that has a strong racing background finds this significantly easier to pass.
Many athletes who pursue ski racing for a couple of years whilst at school or university go on to take their ski teaching exams and use this to either get work whilst travelling through their gap year or to start a career in the ski industry. Many fall in love with the mountains and forge a lifestyle which offers them employment and career opportunities in some of the most beautiful places in the world.
When progressing through the BASI system, those who are former ski racers have a distinct technical advantage that generally equates the higher level race training they received to a swifter progression through the technical ski teaching exams. Those who have pursued race training seriously effectively receive a fast track to the ski teaching qualifications that genuinely allow an individual to make a respectable income, with the possibility of returning to a British ski school to do so.
University Level Alpine Racing
For those of a more academic persuasion, there are several possible avenues going forward:
- A very few manage to enter further education and return to World Cup skiing at Olympic level. Kandahar racer Ronald Duncan went to the 1988 Calgary and 1992 Albertville Olympics through this route following a degree from Cambridge;
- A more realistic prospect for those in full time education is aspiring to merge snowsports and academia through representing British Universities at the annual Anglo-Swiss university race each year (the oldest international team ski race in the world); or
- Racing for Britain in the European University Cup, a series of races around the Alps each year between December and March; or
- Representing Britain at the bi-annual World University Winter Games (WUWGs).
Recent former Kandahar Ski Club trainees who have competed at WUWGs are:
- Tessa Pirie, Zakopane, Poland 2001, bronze medal Women’s Super G; and
- Amanda Pirie, Tarvisio, Italy 2003, silver medal Women’s combined, bronze medal Women’s Downhill.
Are You Interested?
If you are interested in finding out more about when the programme runs or when trial camps take place please contact us.
