From slopes to strokes: Ski instructors trade skis for SUPs

Stand Up Paddle Boarders at Deer Creek Reservoir on a ski instructor professional development day with one of Utah's last remaining patches of snow in the background. Photo: TownLift // Michele Roepke

Deer Creek turns into an off-season classroom for Intermountain’s finest

CHARLESTON, Utah — Nestled between Deer Valley Ski Resort and Sundance Ski Area, Deer Creek Reservoir served as host on Tuesday to a group of ski instructors doing some dry-land training by stand-up paddle (SUP) boarding. And they got to call it a professional development day.

There are 3,000 ski instructors in the three Intermountain States of Idaho, Wyoming, and Utah, and approximately 1,000 of them live, work, and play in the Wasatch Back.

The Professional Ski Instructors of America membership requires a certain amount of training hours each year. Traditionally, during the ski season, instructors are often busy teaching when the chairlift is spinning, so offerings for hours are getting more and more creative and accommodating.

That’s a welcomed trend for Park City Mountain snowboard instructor, PSIA education staff member, and Wasatch Whitewater Kayak School instructor Josh Reinert. He told TownLift, “It’s great when we, as instructors get out of our comfort zone, just like how we ask the same of our students. It’s invaluable for us, as educators, to be students ourselves sometimes to feel what our students are feeling.”

He proceeded to teach the group, which was pleasantly surprised at the warm, clear, uncrowded waters. Some had driven in from North Salt Lake, some up from Provo, some down from Ogden, and some right over from Midway. Additionally, a bunch drove in from Park City.

In the winter, they teach at Snowbasin, Alta, the National Ability Center, Park City Mountain, and Deer Valley. When asked their favorite parts at the end of the SUP day, many said that even though they may work together at the same resorts in the winter for years, perhaps even decades, they rarely get to know each other’s names, let alone learn more about them like they did out on the lake.

When Reinert was asked if he was surprised to see the thrilling new Paris Olympic sport of Kayak Cross in the whitewater, he replied that not only was he not surprised but that he used to compete in similar disciplined action whitewater sports himself and that it’s a perfect addition to the Games.

On their SUPs on Deer Creek, Tuesday’s group learned countless crossover skiing skills, such as the fundamental biomechanical movements and concepts of balance, pressure, edging, and rotary.

From what part of the paddle is the water splashing during which types of strokes? Just like from what part of the ski in snow spraying during which types of turns?

Separate the upper body rotational movements from the lower body near the center of the body while the feet are stable.

What does it do to one’s stability when feet are closer together, further apart? To what degree should knees be bent?

How does it sound? Is there a loud interaction between the paddle and the water/ski and the snow?

Are eyes looking down too much or, more ideally, looking out towards the horizon?

Is the paddle so close to the board that it touches and, unfortunately, trips you up and flips it just like a ski pole can on snow?

Cause and effect is everything in efficient, effective skiing, as in SUP, too. 

By the end of the SUP session, the high-fives from camaraderie were not unlike those from ski school sessions after experiencing the PSIA motto of ‘Safety, Fun, and Learning.’