Teaching your Significant Other / Spouse to Ski

[Nick]

Anyone done this successfully? I tried and it failed miserably.... I'm also fairly stubborn though and I get frustrated easily.

I would be a horrible ski instructor in real life. My wife is a school teacher also so I think her standards of education are very high as well.... real lessons are better for both of us

If someone's done it successfully, please do tell!

 

[Madroch]

Nope. Lessons for my wife. This has resulted in both (a) us remaining married; and (b) her enjoying the sport enough to want to ski all the time. Win-win, errrr, I think.

 

[Glenn]

I did it. I took her to a small mountain in CT and we went at night. She was nervous, but I gave her a few pointers. You can't correct every single thing a new skier is doing, so I focused on the basics. The next time we went, we brought her sister along. After that, it was up to VT. I'm a laid back person, so that probably helped. And my wife was a quick learner. I think we're the .01% that's had success as a couple where one teaches the other to ski. Most recomend lessons.

 

[ski stef]

I want to learn how to snowboard/tele this winter....my boyfriend said he would teach me and I said errr, I have a better idea:idea:. I'd rather hop in a lesson and then when i can cruise around greens/easy blues go out with him.

If I were to accept his offer I'm sure it would end with me taking my snowboard off and walking off the hill. Not even going to go there.

Weird, cause he has taught me rock climbing among other things but something about this one just makes me feel more comfortable doing it on my own.

 

[SkiFanE]

What's the ultimate goal? Get him/her to ski WITH you all day? Or good enough to tolerate the sport so he/she can enjoy themselves while you go and have real fun?

Besides being incapable of teaching another person to ski, I do not have the patience to ski with them all day on blues and easy blacks. Or maybe I'm just lucky to marry a fellow skier...would love cause me to give up "my" skiing for harmony? Hmmmm...maybe...but I pity all of you that have this issue to contend with, learning to ski as an adult must really suck.

 

[hammer]

I do some teaching in a different sport (TKD) where I see families all the time. I don't know of any situation where a black belt was put in a position to teach a family member...and for good reason IMO.

I'm not the most patient person around (my family would say that's quite the understatement), but I can usually get by teaching someone if they are not a relative. There's too much emotional baggage when trying to teach a relative, as I've learned when my son had his learner's permit.

With skiing, I don't have the skills to assess how others are doing so teaching or providing input to my DW isn't going to happen.

 

[Nick]

What's the ultimate goal? Get him/her to ski WITH you all day? Or good enough to tolerate the sport so he/she can enjoy themselves while you go and have real fun?

Besides being incapable of teaching another person to ski, I do not have the patience to ski with them all day on blues and easy blacks. Or maybe I'm just lucky to marry a fellow skier...would love cause me to give up "my" skiing for harmony? Hmmmm...maybe...but I pity all of you that have this issue to contend with, learning to ski as an adult must really suck.

Yeah I can imagine, I learned as a kid. My wife is right now a green / easy blue skier. I've gotten her on the mountain 3, 4 times each year, not enough to really get it though. Next year I plan on a full week or two with daily lessons. She wants to as well.. not just for us but also because when we have kids in the not - too - distant future we really want a skiing family and to be able to go on ski vacations together, etc .

Ultimately I'd like her to ski everything, or at least most things, I can ski. I don't think I will ever get her doing moguls or even tighter glades; but I could probably get her down some steeper hills, eventually.

 

[hammer]

learning to ski as an adult must really suck.

Not as easy as it would have been if I learned as a kid, but it's doable...

 

[C-Rex]

Taking a lesson is probably the best bet for complete noobs. Unless you have a lot of patience and a good idea of HOW to teach skiing/snowboarding, then they will get in a morning lesson what could take all day or days on the hill just winging it. Of course, results will very depending on the teacher and student. But with all the deals on lessons out there, why not get some pointers from a person who actually gets paid to teach you those things?

 

[reefer]

Teaching your Significant Other / Spouse to Ski

Why would you do that? Skiing is my thing................................

 

[ctenidae]

My wife re-taught me how to ski. We used to ski a bit when I was a kid, but I didn't go for more than 15 years. My wife (GF then) and I decided to go- Pat's Peak, $20 with rentals, something liek that. 9 degrees out.

Sum total of the lesson:

Her: "You remember how to get on a lift?"
Me: "Yep:

Ride to the top

Her: "You remember how to get off the lift?"
Me: "Yep"
Her: " Okay- see you at the bottom."

We went out and bought full kit the next day. So, it is possible to teach an SO to ski and like it. Especially if you do no teaching whatsoever.

/wife was a figure skating coach for a long time, too. Can't teach me to rollerblade though

 

[Smellytele]

She wouldn't say I tried to teach her. She would say I brought her to a mountain and tried to kill her. After that one time at Wildcat she took lessons for the next few times we went at Sunday River. I can say we are still happily married after almost 18 years.

 

[Nick]

She wouldn't say I tried to teach her. She would say I brought her to a mountain and tried to kill her.

:lol:

 

[snowmonster]

I thought that teaching your S.O. how to ski was the fastest way to making her your ex-S.O.

 

[skiahman]

Yeah, I tried to teach my wife some 29 years ago when we were dating. Didn't go well. Half way down some trail at Gore she threw in the towel crying, mascara running down her cheeks. She told me to just go on without her. I said no and she freaked out so I left her there. Met her later in the day and she'd been drowning her sorrows. Not a word has ever been spoken about that day. Married now 27 years and she happily sends me off every weekend to ski with my buddy. What was a lousy day turned out to be a good thing. Skiing is my thing. Not hers. And it works perfectly for us! 27 years happily married is the proof!

 

[Nick]

She told me to just go on without her. I said no and she freaked out so I left her there. !

Ballsy :argue:

I went with my wife ~5 years ago to Wachusett. Anyway, we spent the entire day on the sundowner / indian summer on the Monadnock Triple.

After a while, I finally convinced her to go somewhere else with me. She said OK, and we went up the Polar Express. We get to the top and she realizes there are only blue and blacks down from the top, easiest option being Roper's Road.

She immediately freaks out, I'm an asshole, blah blah blah. She said we are taking the chair back down!

I plead and beg to convince her to go down with me. I'll hold her while we ski down... no big thing.

Didn't happen.

In shame, I loaded the lift and had to go back down the mountain with her. I even tried to tell her I would meet her at the bottom, response: "You dragged me up here, and you are coming down with me" :lol:

We still laugh about it to this day.

 

[skiahman]

Ballsy perhaps but we're still together and I got what I really wanted. What an asshole I can be!

 

[billski]

I thought that teaching your S.O. how to ski was the fastest way to making her your ex-S.O.

+1. Either that or death.

 

[billski]

Yeah, I tried to teach my wife some 29 years ago when we were dating. Didn't go well. Half way down some trail at Gore she threw in the towel crying, mascara running down her cheeks. She told me to just go on without her. I said no and she freaked out so I left her there. Met her later in the day and she'd been drowning her sorrows. Not a word has ever been spoken about that day. Married now 27 years and she happily sends me off every weekend to ski with my buddy. What was a lousy day turned out to be a good thing. Skiing is my thing. Not hers. And it works perfectly for us! 27 years happily married is the proof!

I must have seen you. I can't count a number of times I've seen a boyfriend take their date out there and within a couple of runs, she is screaming and crying. "why did you take me up here? YOu knew I couldn't do it, you jerk. How am I gonna get down? I can't believe you did this to me?

You can see it coming. I would never teach my daughters either for the same reasons. They got real good without me and now love blasting down ahead of me. Well, at least until it no longer was cool to hang around with Mom and Dad.

 

[oakapple]

I haven't had the experience, but I would never dream of trying to teach someone to ski—significant other or anyone else. The ability to ski does not imply the ability to teach others.