Ski bum to ski dad transition

[jonesy]

[oftpiste]

Fucking exactly!!!!!

[iceclimb]

Just spent the AM with my 6 year old and the slopes. Love that he hits jumps and is starting to ask about rails.

Really love that he joins in teasing mom when she won't go in the woods.... but the gets on the chair and says "mom, this next run is for you, we will all stay out of the trees, ok?"

[pointemstraight]

Where in the Bay Area. Had no idea DR was that close.

Way East Bay, out in Livermore. Hence on the right edge to be close to DR.

[pointemstraight]

Really love that he joins in teasing mom when she won't go in the woods.... but the gets on the chair and says "mom, this next run is for you, we will all stay out of the trees, ok?"

Love the mom teasing... haha!

[liv2ski]

Excellent - and it only gets better. Soon you will learn the three most dangerous words in skiing - "Follow me, Dad!"
Ski bum is my retirement plan.

I laughed at the first sentence and think the second is quote worthy. Merry Christmas guys. Have a great day with your families.

[muted]

Treasure these times lads. Not to suggest that you don't.....

It will be less than the blink of an eye until you suddenly find yourself able to dash off for pow days unencumbered

Should I feel bad to look forward to this? Sounds absolutely wonderful. Just once a week please, that's it.

[oftpiste]

Should I feel bad to look forward to this? Sounds absolutely wonderful. Just once a week please, that's it.

I don't think you should feel badly, though in hindsight I can recall days where I wish I hadn't been so anxious to get out on my own. It is wonderful now, but so was that and those times when they were little and wanted to ski with me will never come back. So, looking back I'd recommend being in the moment with them as much as possible, and know that there will be a time when those particularly awesome moments are no more, and that's the trade-off for unencumbered-ness.

There will be other wonderful moments, skiing and otherwise, but those particular ones are so precious and fleeting.

[Lostmyboards]

[hutash]

Brilliant strategy, if you can't out ski the little shit, ski over his ski tips

[oftpiste]

^^^^great pic. christmas card material!

Bobby, just great to see families making it happen.

[tacklebox]

Props to the guys I know in this thread....still adjusting to becoming sole ceo,cfo,head chef,dishwasher and fry cook in this little organization I call a family...see you all on the hill one day,just not quite yet as logistics haven't allowed such.

[oftpiste]

So I had a nice thread relevant day yesterday. I got to take all three things skiing. We hadn't all been together on the hill for several years.

These pics are goofy, but I think illustrate how incredibly fast one's experience as a father of young kids goes by.

First is 2007. L-R, thing #2, #1, #3


Next is yesterday. My boys are the ones in black. Thing #1 making silly face (22), #2 (18), #3 (16). Cute girl is thing #1's gal.

That what 10 years looks like. Fuckin' crazy. In spite of what the picture shows, they're actually pretty handsome fellas.

[Shredhead]

The youngest and his girlfriend are taking the sleds, skiing and camping this weekend, cause towns busy.


I was a pretty good ski dad, but I'm going to be a really good ski pappy.

[St. Jerry]

Okay, so in all honesty I wasn't really much of a ski bum. I spent a few years in Vail and logged a couple of 100-day seasons before I joined the semi-corporate machine, and then later the corporate machine. However, after Vail, I moved to LA so my time in the corporate machine was at least interrupted by every-weekend trips up to Mammoth to feed my fire. I've been an official member of this derelict community since 2005, though I was lurking for several years before that.

Times have changed. Now I spend my days on the green and blue runs with my two mini-groms who are 4 and 6. And tonight I was in the garage, stoked out of my mind as I re-mounted a new-to-him pair of Craigslist skis for the older boy. Not that I don't get stoked for a powder day (and I'd honestly give my left nut for one, as it's been a longer than I care to admit), but I was just thinking about how much mounting bindings to get my kids skiing makes my stoke factor go to 11. Puts a hell of a smile on my face.

How times change.

/end sweet blog

Welcome to my world brother.

[dschane]

The two pics. 10 years apart are great.

Mine are 8, 6, and 6 and watching them progress is fantastic. I was a couple years into tele when the first one popped out, but I'll echo that learning tele while you're riding greens and blues is fun.

Not sure at what age kids develop a sense of humility, but at 8, they can play in MLB when the grow up and huck 30-foot cliffs with the best of them.

[Lostmyboards]

Transitioning from Dad to ski bum. Moved from NJ to Bend!
Got season passes at Bachelor. Here's a pic from our first day out.
The boy is that little red dot at the bottom of the middle tree.

[pointemstraight]

Welcome to my world brother.

I wouldn't have it any other way.

[Norseman]

Nice

[Abol98]

364 days in flyover country and one day in a blower at Killington, guess which day she writes her 2nd grade narrative about?

Can't wait 'till her mind blows when she sees the Rockies.

[JSang]

Great thread here, making me excited for the moments ahead, but the general message I take out of this forum is enjoy and make the most of every moment.

I have a 2 year old boy. He has had 5 days (ok, a half hour here, 10 minutes there...) on skis hiking up and down the beginner slope at our local hill in which I work at. Took him out to a bigger resort today and came back with a huge smile on my face. First off, they have a magic carpet and chairlift in the beginner area, we only have a ropetow... He lasted 3 hours (with a couple breaks)! After about 6 rips straight down the gentle magic carpet slope he insisted on taking a ride on the Barney chair. Kid did awesome and even started to figure out some stops and turns. After a few crashes his confidence regressed a bit but he was tired and just having so much fun riding the chair up I didn't mind. I kept him going for as long as he was happy, but when it was time to go it got ugly quick. Crying and yelling in the lodge while trying to get us, the diaper bag, boots, helmets, and 2 pairs of skis across the parking lot to the car was fun. Kid passed out by the time we left the parking lot! Success!

Which brings me to my contribution to any new dads out there reading this. I've worked in damn near every department in the ski industry, but one of the things I am most experienced in is instructing children. A few mistakes I see parents making all to regularly;

1. Don't force a kid to get out on the hill just because you packed the car, booked the day off and drove out there. Children just have off days and if you force them to do something there not in the mood for it could create a very negative memory of skiing. Instead just let them run around in the lodge and look out onto the hill, watch other kids, and warm up at their own pace. They may be begging you to go skiing in a couple hours if you just roll with it.

2. When they say they are done, listen. You may get 10 minutes out of them one day, and 3 hours the next. If you put your kid in a lesson, don't act as though the instructor or snow school ripped you off because they returned a content but tired kid to you after 45mins and you paid for an hour lesson. Any decent instructor will call it a day if the kid is reduced to tears over doing another run (Assuming they put an effort in to pep-talk the kid before calling it, that is)

3. Don't waste your time or money on those leash harness things. Please! Your kid is learning little to nothing, you may be able to take Timmy down a blue run sooner, but it will be much longer before he can do it on his own. Also, your probably going to ragdoll his ass around more times then you would anticipate when Timmy zigs and you decide to Zag. A general rule for any beginner is gain confidence on simple terrain, do not intimidate yourself on terrain you just aren't ready for. Teaching aids in general are more of a crutch then an aid. If your kid is really struggling to point his/her toes together to snowplow, look into the Edgie Wedgie.

Hope some of this experience helps out some kids and their families, and doesn't come across too ranty!

[oftpiste]

4. Professional instruction at the earliest opportunity (I realize some disagree with me on this) and for as long as possible. This, if you let it happen which you should, may trump (sorry) #'s 1 and 2 above. Kids often don't want to do things that they should do and parents need to make them do those things sometimes. Not to any point of suffering or pain, but there are absolutely going to be many moments between the very first day of skiing and their falling in love with it when the kid will object to something about going skiing. Those objections often need to be pushed through. You'll be glad you did later.

[Lostmyboards]

Have Fun NOW Damnit! Because I Said So!

[RodneyBD]

Great thread. My boys are 6 and 3 and the memories are already priceless. The 6 year old just rode the lift and skied by himself for the first time on our local hill. whoa, that went super fast - it seems like I just had him on the magic carpet yesterday. Enjoy it. I was snowplowing last week and having a blast. my 2 cents: don't forget to mix it up. have contests for how far you can sidestep in 20 seconds. take breaks and see how high you can kick snow up. practice skidding sideways downhill. take those little meandering paths into and out of the trees. stop at the top and count how many peaks/houses/signs/whatever you can see. enjoy!

[Ottime]

Great thread here, making me excited for the moments ahead, but the general message I take out of this forum is enjoy and make the most of every moment.

I have a 2 year old boy. He has had 5 days (ok, a half hour here, 10 minutes there...) on skis hiking up and down the beginner slope at our local hill in which I work at. Took him out to a bigger resort today and came back with a huge smile on my face. First off, they have a magic carpet and chairlift in the beginner area, we only have a ropetow... He lasted 3 hours (with a couple breaks)! After about 6 rips straight down the gentle magic carpet slope he insisted on taking a ride on the Barney chair. Kid did awesome and even started to figure out some stops and turns. After a few crashes his confidence regressed a bit but he was tired and just having so much fun riding the chair up I didn't mind. I kept him going for as long as he was happy, but when it was time to go it got ugly quick. Crying and yelling in the lodge while trying to get us, the diaper bag, boots, helmets, and 2 pairs of skis across the parking lot to the car was fun. Kid passed out by the time we left the parking lot! Success!

Which brings me to my contribution to any new dads out there reading this. I've worked in damn near every department in the ski industry, but one of the things I am most experienced in is instructing children. A few mistakes I see parents making all to regularly;

1. Don't force a kid to get out on the hill just because you packed the car, booked the day off and drove out there. Children just have off days and if you force them to do something there not in the mood for it could create a very negative memory of skiing. Instead just let them run around in the lodge and look out onto the hill, watch other kids, and warm up at their own pace. They may be begging you to go skiing in a couple hours if you just roll with it.

2. When they say they are done, listen. You may get 10 minutes out of them one day, and 3 hours the next. If you put your kid in a lesson, don't act as though the instructor or snow school ripped you off because they returned a content but tired kid to you after 45mins and you paid for an hour lesson. Any decent instructor will call it a day if the kid is reduced to tears over doing another run (Assuming they put an effort in to pep-talk the kid before calling it, that is)

3. Don't waste your time or money on those leash harness things. Please! Your kid is learning little to nothing, you may be able to take Timmy down a blue run sooner, but it will be much longer before he can do it on his own. Also, your probably going to ragdoll his ass around more times then you would anticipate when Timmy zigs and you decide to Zag. A general rule for any beginner is gain confidence on simple terrain, do not intimidate yourself on terrain you just aren't ready for. Teaching aids in general are more of a crutch then an aid. If your kid is really struggling to point his/her toes together to snowplow, look into the Edgie Wedgie.

Hope some of this experience helps out some kids and their families, and doesn't come across too ranty!

Got to disagree on #3. You are just looking at it or using it wrong. Those things have save my back on plenty of a powder day. No easier way to pick your kid up out of a waist deep yard sale. And they are great for being sure they are on the lift. My kid was skiing and turning way before he could make a quick hockey stop. Keep the leashes slack unless you need to stop them. And never zig when they zag. We have not used the leashes at all since December of 15. Still put the harness on every day.