By Sue White
Name: Charlie Evans
The profession: Ski instructor
The organisation: Falls Creek
The job title: Ski and adaptive snowsports instructor
The pay: Starting pay $38.45 per hour
8am: My workday starts with a quick ski to the chairlift before riding up from the village to the Snowsports School office. At Falls Creek, we’re pretty lucky to have a ski-in ski-out village during winter, and it can be super fun to start the day zooming through the streets!
“Seasons are short, and I certainly try to make the most of my time,” says ski instructor Charlie Evans.Credit: Falls Creek
I check in with the management team to say hi and make sure I’ve got enough layers on before I meet with my first guest.
8.30am: I start my first lesson asking my guests about their goals for the morning. Today, they just want a refresher so they can hit the slopes with confidence.
10am: I specialise in providing adaptive lessons, which means I’m lucky enough to help all kinds of differently abled guests experience snow sports. We start our lesson at the new DWA (Disabled Wintersport Australia) hub at the base of the Halley’s Comet lift – it’s a wonderful accessible facility. It has wheelchair access directly from the road, a warm indoor room with kitchenette, modified toilets and great storage for much of our adaptive-specific equipment.
Today, I meet Harry who is on the autism spectrum. We have skied together many times before, so we catch up a little at the beginning of our lesson, but Harry is keen to get sliding. We are working on lots of independence and allowing Harry to be the leader down the slope.
Today’s advanced lesson is especially fun because I get to help guests go fast and look good doing it!
Ski instructor Charlie Evans
We use his love of snowmobiles to allow us to adventure around the mountain and see as many snowmobiles as we can.
1pm: Lunch is a quick catch-up with my wife, who is the snow sports operations manager, before a short hang out with the other instructors in the staff room. It’s usually a super enjoyable time, where we debrief about our morning and share funny stories.
1.30pm: My afternoon lessons are generally always a private lesson, for anyone from a first-timer to an experienced skier wanting to work on their technique. I always enjoy the lesson no matter what level, but today’s advanced lesson is especially fun because I get to help guests go fast and look good doing it!
3pm: I’m super passionate about adaptive instruction, and today I get to take my fellow instructors on training to help them become better adaptive instructors. We are on the snow focusing on using stand-up outriggers to assist with standing skiers.
These are like ski poles with skis on the end. After we get familiar with how the equipment works, we do some training with only one ski and the outriggers to challenge everyone’s skills and understanding.
4.30pm: As the lifts close, I enjoy a fun and fast ski back to my apartment before a quick beer with colleagues and some guests. It’s great to meet up with guests outside the lesson environment – it really helps grow these relationships and hopefully adds to their experience in Falls Creek.
7pm: My evenings are usually busy. Sometimes I’m doing work remotely for Myoko Snowsports in Japan where I am the operations manager in the northern hemisphere season.
While I’m in the southern season, I am often conducting recruitment interviews or assisting with guest bookings in the lead-up to the new season. I work a lot in Falls Creek and have very little downtime. Seasons are short, and I certainly try to make the most of my time.
Tonight, I’m off to run the local Falls Creek darts league which is a season-long event where staff from all different areas get together. It’s a very competitive thing and a different environment in which many people can get together!
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