 |
|
COURIER photo/Gabriel Fenoy
|
| Mountain View 6th-grader Shelley Hunter tests her balance on a slope simulator Friday during a skiing and snowboarding training session. |
Snow Riding 101: Local students embrace winter sports
After a 3-day course at Mountain Avenue Elementary School last Wednesday through Friday, there may be some 5th and 6th graders that may embrace skiing and snowboarding as new hobbies.
Working in conjunction with Virtual Snow International, Mountain Avenue provided its students the opportunity to simulate what it would be like to ski and snowboard in a unique physical education experience for the two grades.
“In physical education, we’re always looking for lifelong sports that the kids can get into and to think out of the box regarding the physical education experiences that we provide for them,” said Mountain Avenue Principal Mike Lawshe. “This was a chance to expose them to something different than the more traditional sports.”
Virtual Snow International is a venture of owners Jane and Dan Owen along with two-time world skiing champion Bob Salerno. The organization that trains skiers and snowboarders began in 1995 in southern California and has since expanded to its locations to more than 10 areas in the United States and Canada.
While Virtual Snow works with children as young a 14 months old and adults as old as 73 years of age, Mountain Avenue represents the first client that the organization has had that falls into the category of “public school.”
“We’ve worked with a private school before but this is our first public school,” Mr. Owen said. “This is the first time we’ve worked with a unified school district and we’re very excited about it.”
The 3-day occasion began with an assembly on Wednesday where students were shown clips of skiers and snowboarders in action. It was in the multipurpose room on Thursday and Friday where the interactive aspect of the event came to life.
Set up in the room was a balancing station, a slope simulator and a ski/snowboard simulator. The balancing station allowed the students to practice keeping their equilibrium, the slope simulator gave the students a feel of 3 different angled slopes and the ski/snowboard simulator allowed students to practice skiing or snowboarding on a carpeted treadmill.
 |
|
COURIER photo/Gabriel Fenoy
|
| Mountain View Elementary School students put on ski boots before riding a ski/snowboard simulator. |
“There are good kids—the best kids,” said Dave Bruce, one of the instructors for Virtual Snow. “The best thing about working with the kids is the kids themselves. They have a great attitude and none of them said that they couldn’t do it. They want to do it and when they fall, they’ll get right back up.”
In order for the students to receive more 1-on-1 training, groups of 5 students were brought in the multipurpose room every 30 minutes during the sessions. By the time a group of students left the room, they had received a taste of what it would be like to engage in snow sports.
According to Mr. Owen, approximately 90 percent of the participating students chose to use a snowboard as part of the final simulation rather than a set of skis. Yet the elementary student demographic isn’t the only group that prefers the board to the ski.
“When I asked who wants to ski at the assembly, only a dozen hands went up,” Mr. Owen recalled. “Most of them wanted to snowboard, which is also what people prefer on the mountain.”
With the skills that Mountain View student Justin Giles learned from the training session, the 6th grader now sees areas in another hobby of his where he can apply his new knowledge.
“This was very fun,” Justin said. “I think that I can use what I’ve learned in skateboarding because it’s all about balance. When you’re skateboarding, it’s about balance and you control a skateboard similar to the way you control a snowboard.”
The Mountain View Parents and Faculty Association (PFA) played a significant role in the organization’s visit to the campus, as it was the contributions of parents financially and in volunteer roles that allowed this event to take place. Some money set aside for the school’s physical education budget also helped with the cost of the 3-day occasion.
“When I heard about this, I was excited and I thought this would be great for the kids,” said Dave Denison, a Mountain View parent. “Seeing how the kids are enjoying it and the smiles they have on their faces is great. This also gives them an experience that they probably would not get otherwise.”
The training experience not only gave students a greater appreciation for skiing and snowboarding but also helped students to overcome fears they had regarding the snow-themed activities. Though 6th grader Emily Dominguez found the snowboard simulator challenging in the beginning, by the time the Mountain View student had completed her session, she came away with a new perspective on snowboarding.
“The treadmill was going this way and you have to go the other way,” Emily explained. “It was challenging at first but it got easier. I didn’t want to try something like this before because I thought that I might get hurt. But after doing this, I want to try this in the snow.”
—Landus Rigsby
