The Mens Ski Week with the Rookies

My wife had a tough time getting me to ski anywhere other than Utah.

I spent my childhood skiing Perisher then worked seasons fitting ski boots in Utah and Colorado through my twenties and exploring the Wasatch Mountains before work and on my days off. My mates and I skied hard and fast in Park City and the Canyons, I love the mountain lifestyle and we couldn’t get enough of that champagne powder.  

Utah captured my attention until my wife (then girlfriend) told me she quit her Sydney job and ‘booked and paid to do her level one ski instructor course in Austria and she wasn’t coming back anytime soon’ . I followed her over and got my level one in skiing and snowboarding too. We married then the busyness of family life enveloped us but we still took our kids skiing around the world …until the Rookies Ski Camp came along. 

It’s easy for us ski bums to think we don’t need to fix our habits. Our style works for us and ex-ski racing mates share tips on the chairlift or tips at the bar at the end of a ski day.

If you haven’t heard of the Rookies, Dean Hunter founded it 30+ years ago. Back then it was an on-snow Academy focused on training ski instructors to obtain their level one, two and three instructor certs then broadened to include men’s and women’s ski weeks that had nothing to do with getting officially certified.  

Rookies refers to people who come along to strengthen their technique and the elites are the trainers and boy what a lineup of elites coming to work for Dean! Rookies Camps are run all over the world and include Japan, NZ, Canada, Europe, China and the USA.

This September I threw myself into one of Dean’s NZ Rookie’s camps to iron out a few persistent little bad habits like dropping my shoulder when initiating my turn. The camps run on the premise of ‘fundamentals’, something the Olympians and Paralympians do during training sessions of every discipline, returning again and again to the fundamentals. 

It’s funny how the higher the level the bigger the focus on fundamentals, yet the ‘everyday skier’ thinks they don’t need fundamentals or fixing …. It’s all about learning better fundamental skiing habits.

These elite trainers run ski schools all over the world and work at Rookies in the Northern hemisphere ‘off-season’. We started with a few runs with the trainer videoing us and getting you to video him then a session to nut out the differences.

Angulation

Identifying that was where we needed to start – getting the correct body position for skiing down the hill we took our skis off first and sorted out where we actually ‘find balance’ using simple exercises. Stripping everything back to basics we also fine tuned how to activate your outside muscles, how to turn, what part of the foot we need for the turn and where to find the sweet spot for a pole turn.

Starts in the feet, ankles then knees

The week progressed from here, some practice warm up runs, a review of the previous day and creating some goals. I particularly liked learning about the dynamics of the pivots, what your body is doing at each part of the turn and the exact moment you’re putting weight on your outside ski. Building on the fundamentals really hammered them home and at the end of the week I felt educated in the dynamics, maybe I learnt them 20 years ago but it’s been a long time between drinks.

Speaking of drinks, it’s a cool week and totally fine to rock up alone as you get to meet so many people up on the hill, at the pizza night Dean and Mugi organised and a drinks afternoon in the sunshine down at the lake after day 3. There was lots of story sharing and jokes on and off the hill and we’ve already penciled in plans for 2025.  

To check out other Rookie content or make an enquiry for next year, click here. They’re running weekly men’s camps between July and September 2025, see you then.