dlague
Active member
The reality is that group lessons for young beginners are mostly taught by teenagers with minimal training and supervision. This has been my experience in Quebec and in Jay Peak. The better qualified/experienced instructors get the better kids. The instructors with less experience (usually young) get the beginners. These instructors are usually enthusiastic, do their very best, and that is what you should expect.
At 200$ for a typical 8-week program, if parents expect their 5 year old beginner to be supervised by a level 4 skier with the maturity and experience of a forty year old, they are delusional. You send them out to have fun and the instructors usually do a good job at that.
Nobody is safe from idiots bombing downhill out of control. I'm sure we all had close calls before. Shit happens. Suing everyone won't make things better, especially suing the instructor who were trying their best for very little money (I'm obviously not talking about the idiot who hit the little girl). You just cannot expect a 16 year old in charge of 6 kids to fully control everyone going down a slope.
Every time someone sues a ski resort for no good reason is a sad day.
+1 BTW to your point - my son is a ski instructor and he is 17 and he gets the youngest beginners!