A review of the PSIC Spring Festival
- Derek Tate
- Apr 29
- 3 min read
The first PSIC Spring Festival took place from 24-26 April 2026 at Whistler Blackcomb with over 90 members attending and was a huge success.
The PSIE were represented by myself (Derek Tate), Jamie Kagan, and Josh Duncan Smith.
The event brought together world renowned international coaches, highly experienced local trainers, CARV, keynote speakers, and passionate members keen to develop their skills.
My reflections:
Having been involved in ski instructor training/certification organisations for the past 40 years, and attended five World Interski Congresses, I can say without doubt this was one of the best events that I have attended. So what made it so special?
The event was extremely well organised - a big thanks to Russ Wood for leading this - it was very well attended, there was a great programme of on snow training and off snow activities - keynotes, expert panel and social gatherings. But then all good events are well organised, well attended and have a great programme. So what made this event particularly good?
From my personal experience the world of ski instruction and ski instructor training is one of big egos where an inflated sense of self importance and a testosterone filled competitive spirit often prevail. But this was an event that totally portrayed the PSIC's core values of fun, curiosity, kindness, respect, and achievement. The atmosphere throughout was relaxed, there was an openness amongst trainers and participants and a genuine willingness to share and learn from each other. New friendships were made and existing ones strengthened.
Participants for the on-snow sessions got the opportunity to ski with three different trainers and to use the CARV sensors to help with their development. Charlie and Evan from CARV were on hand throughout to assist and gathered valuable feedback from members and trainers to help with ongoing development of this important technology. And Charlie also delivered an excellent keynote presentation about CARV on the first evening.
In addition to Charlie's off snow presentation, I also delivered a keynote on the subject of 'Skiing in Flow: An Art? A technique?' There was a genuine interest in this psychological state with some great questions being asked on the night and lots of follow up chats with members right through to the final social after day 3. I will write a dedicated review of this lecture in the coming days and members (PSIC & PSIE) will be able to access a specially written resource document that expands on the content that I covered during the presentation.
Tracey Fraser delivered an excellent keynote on the 2nd evening about Coaching Women and Girls for Long Term Performance. The presentation included Tracey's own inspiring story and highlighted the great work being done by the World Women's Snowsports Organisation (WWSO) with events such as the Women in Snowsports Leadership Conference which took place in March 26 in collaboration with the PSIC and their own Summit which has now taken place twice in Kaprun, Austria in 2025 and 2026.
The final indoor session was an expert skillful skiing panel discussing what is good in skiing. This was facilitated by Josh Duncan Smith with panel experts Damelza Clay, Reilly McGlashan, and Eric Lipton giving great insights. The audience were actively engaged throughout and the concluding thoughts from Eric really brought home the importance of function over form when it comes to good technique.
The final day was another excellent day of spring skiing and we were blessed with beautiful weather throughout. This will now be an annual event with the PSIC to host another Spring Festival in 2027 and the PSIE to host it in 2028. Stay tuned for more on this...
Below are a few more photos and video from this truly inspiring event.
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