The Professional Ski Instructors of America (PSIA) is an organization offering training and certification for U.S. Ski Instructors, and trains the bulk of U.S ski instructors. Ski areas around the United States frequently host PSIA training and certification events.
The PSIA provides clinic leaders and examiners who can train and test at all levels from the novice to the expert instructor. Many ski areas in the United States base their hiring and pay scales on the PSIA certification levels of their instructors.
Having a nationwide organization allows students to move from one instructor to another, and one ski area to another, and find common threads of progression that tie the lessons together.
The PSIA also has an offshoot, the American Association of Snowboard Instructors (AASI), which offers the same services and standards for snowboard instructors.
In addition to alpine skiing, the PSIA has an adaptive program for training instructors to teach those with physical disabilities, a Nordic program focused on telemark and cross-country skiing, and a children's instructor program.
The PSIA was founded in 1961 to provide national training standards and instructor certifications in the United States. Prior to this time, teaching systems from different countries were used at various resorts. The system used at an individual resort was usually based on the knowledge and experience of the ski school director. Some regional certification organizations existed and were attempting to provide some level of standardization. Three years later, in 1964, PSIA published "The Official American Ski Technique" manual.
PSIA has levels of membership based on the tested abilities of the members to ski and teach. The first level is a registered member. This is an unnumbered level giving access to the PSIA training resources. Instructors are certified at Level I (beginning), Level II, and Level III (full certification). Special training for teaching children, adaptive skiers, and seniors is available.
Famous quotes containing the words professional, ski and/or america:
“Many young girls are ... becoming trained nurses, whose gentle ministrations in the sick-room, skilled touch, patient watchfulness and unwearied vigils, are as great factors in the care of the sick, as are the professional physicians.”
—Lydia Hoyt Farmer (1842–1903)
“The goal for all blind skiers is more freedom. You don’t have to see where you’re going, as long as you go. In skiing, you ski with your legs and not with your eyes. In life, you experience things with your mind and your body. And if you’re lacking one of the five senses, you adapt.”
—Lorita Bertraun, Blind American skier. As quoted in WomenSports magazine, p. 29 (January 1976)
“Tell [the next Miss America] she is taking on a great responsibility. A responsibility to herself, to her people, to the Miss American Pageant, the people of Atlantic City, her state and her nation. Tell her the country and the world will judge America by her.”
—Colleen Kay Hutchins (b. c. 1932)