When to stop Lessons

[Trigger]

Without giving away the age profile here, safe to say I'm not exactly an Olympic contender, in fact having gone skiing for the last three years (that's actually 3 weeks folks!!!)
Last year (early 2007) saw crap weather, and I had a crap instructor too, who piste ed me off no end, and I really felt each day with him a chore and enjoyed the time on my own much more.
Therefore
Intermediate standard with no wish whatsoever to advance further than my current ability, do you more experienced out there still think I need lessons.

[pete railing]

hi trigger,

it all depends I guess , in my opinion. Lessons are a great way to break up the day, lessons in the morning and then practise after lunch. But again these lessons don't come cheap and you are normally in a group of 8-10 people.

Maybe you could do a private lesson one or two days just to check that your technique is good. That way you would have the best of both worlds !

[paul]

I would roll in here and say do 2 or 3 hours of private lessons over the week would do you fine. Just to get rid of those bad habits that you can pick up. Maybe there are something you do that your shouldn't. But if you are happy with your skill level , keep the money for aprés ski ! ;)

[joy]

does it make any sense to go without getting skiing lessons ? If I manage to make it this year, I probably won't be able to afford proper lessons. I have ice skated before in Smithfield in Dublin, and I picked that up quickly, is skiing like iceskating ?

[ClaireBear]

Trigger : Personally if I was in your situation I would try to save some money, maybe put that money to new equipment (skis/boots/etc). If you can ski, spend time observing others and push yourself as much as you can.

joy : I think it does make sense to go without getting lessons. Every hour you are on your skis, the better your technique and confidence should be getting

[jinky]

To be honest this is a question you can only answer yourself...

Stick with the lessons : Pros : Continue to improve, lesser bad habits than your comtempories, your instructor is more of a ski guide.
: Cons : Less time to ski with your mates, your instructor/pupil relationship is down to luck (they may or not be a dickhead)

Ditch the lessons : Pros : ski, ski, ski and more ski, ski all day with your mates, miss a class?? doesn't cost a thing cos you never payed in the first place.
: Cons : the bad habits will always be there, you're reading the piste map on your own, you'll deffo miss the resorts best kept secrets cos you won't be privvy to the info.


This decision is entirely up to you......have good long think and weigh up all the pros and cons and you'll soon have your answer.

[Doc]

Lessons are for wimps:p

[vines]

does it make any sense to go without getting skiing lessons ? If I manage to make it this year, I probably won't be able to afford proper lessons. I have ice skated before in Smithfield in Dublin, and I picked that up quickly, is skiing like iceskating ?

Hmmm well ice skating is really not that similar to skiing and to be honest I would recommend getting at least a few lessons. You could always get a few lessons in Kilternan before you go, but I've been skiing for years and there's nothing worse than someone who's never skiied before on the slopes cos it's dangerous for Everyone......Seriously, get some lessons.....please!!!!

[raul]

and I had a crap instructor too, who piste ed me off no end, and I really felt each day with him a chore and enjoyed the time on my own much more.

Trigger, you can always change the instructor. Nobody should learn skiing with an idiot just " cause I've paid for "... You've got a crap instructor, fekk'im and ALWAYS ask to be moved to another group.
I'd say give it another try or, even better get some private lessons in your first day and after that try to practice yourself all what you see in this lessons.
Is no reason to say that you don't want to improve your skiing, that would be just childish, giving up getting better ( and nicer ) just because of an idiot who ( unfortunately ) was your instructor for A WEEK in a lifetime...
If you enjoy skiing than you'll ski all your life , is like walking...what if you've quitted learning to walk when you were a baby? Hmm..?

Don't give up !

[raul]

does it make any sense to go without getting skiing lessons ? If I manage to make it this year, I probably won't be able to afford proper lessons. I have ice skated before in Smithfield in Dublin, and I picked that up quickly, is skiing like iceskating ?

If you're first time...get some lessons, at least the basics. It could be expensive but is worth every cent .


If you don't get some proper lessons first time than your next spring posting could be here :
http://www.skiing.ie/forum/skiing-advice/12-injuries-whats-happened-you.html

P.S. I hope you realised that the sentence above was a joke :)

[ttebrocg]

As `jinky pointed out by having lessons you do get to see more of the mountain then you would if you were on your own or with mates. These guy's and girls have been skiing the mountains for years and know all the cool places. It was only my second year last year and our instructor "Crusty" took us off piste, took us down red/black Tubes and had us doing jumps. You also get to meet other people and usually end up having a few drinks with them at the end of the day. If you are unlucky enough to get a bad instructor just ask to be moved.

[Neiltoo]

Therefore
Intermediate standard with no wish whatsoever to advance further than my current ability.

I think that you have sort of answered your own question Trigger.

If you really dont want to get better, (is this really the case or have you decided that you can't improve?) then the only reason to take lessons would be to get shown around the mountain and have a group of similar standard to yourself to ski with.

This seems to me to be a completely legitimate reason to take lessons. At the end of the day (oops cliche alert!;)) skiing is about having fun and different people get their fun in different ways.

If you have been put of lessons by your last instructor, try a different ski school - maybe one of the 'english' ski schools that have opened up all over the place. Being taught by a native english speaker can make a big difference.

On a more general level no matter how good you get you can always get better. I still take the odd lesson and I've been skiing since I was 3 and spent 5 years teaching for the ESS in Switzerland ( I'm no longer qualified by the way)