Day 83 | Panama Invasion

It was a very stressful day at Whistler Kids.  There seems to be an influx of Spanish speaking people from Panama in town and they must be financially well off because their kids are rude as hell.  They claim to speak English but I had a hard believing they understood anything I said.  They also have no manners:  no please, no thank you ... and they bark orders at you like you're their servant.

There were about 20 kids in snowboard lessons, almost all of them Spanish, and most of them all know each other.  I was given level threes and I had three of them.  A couple whacky things happened today.  The first happened right out of the gate when Betty and I decided to take a run down to the village to sort out the level threes and level fours.  We checked all the kids on the Magic Carpet to make sure they could turn.  Then about 100 yards down Olympic run, one kid immediately fell hard trying to S turn.  When I checked on him, he was a level two!  He had an Instructor's name on his bib as well!  For some reason he just decided to follow us.  So I had to walk him back up the hill and put him back into his proper class.

The rest of the morning was pretty easy as we had early lunch and by the time we split the classes and had some photos taken, there was only time for one run down to the village.  The afternoon was a bit different. I quickly learned I had one kid who could speak very good English and two kids who didn't understand what I was saying.  I had the other kid translate to the other kids.  My first rule was to come into the group safely.  In other words, when I'm stopped on the run, don't come to me riding a million miles an hour and run me over because you have no control when you try to stop.  So what happened?  Three times the same kid bashed his snowboard into me because he was out of control.  The last time he did it, I actually pushed him off of me!  He looked at me surprised but he didn't do it again.

I also had a jumbo kid.  He lasted one run from the Roundhouse back to the CLC where I had to drop him off to take a break.  That left me with two strong kids so I decided to take them through the trees and then down Jimmy's Joker.  At the bottom of Jimmy's Joker, the oldest kid ended up getting stuck in the powder and he couldn't get out.  He cried out for me to help him and I told him he needed to take off his board.  After struggling, whining, and crying for five minutes, he finally took off his board, he walked back to the run and then he threw his board back into the powder and sat on the ground pouting!!  Luckily his board landed in powder and didn't take off dangerously down the mountain.  I sat there stumped for a moment, letting the kid cool down.  I started taking my camera out of my pocket to take a photo of him and when he saw me doing that, he decided to get his board back.  LOL!   He got his board, walked down the run to where I was sitting and then threw his board again and then threw his goggles.  Another Instructor stopped and asked if I needed any help.  I said I didn't know because I have never had a kid throw their snowboard before.  I gave him five minutes to cool down and then told him if he didn't put his board back on, I was going to leave him there and he would be spending the night in the snow.  Of course, he put his board on and we headed back to the CLC.

I had a Spanish speaking Instructor explain the dangers of his behavior and I let his father know of his actions when he was checked out.  The boys spent the rest of the afternoon on a jump at the CLC.  I couldn't wait for the day to be over and if it wasn't for the amazing snow conditions and sun, the day would have totally sucked.  Instead it was just a very long and frustrating day.  I am so glad I have the next two days off!