Frequently Asked Questions

We’re excited that you’d like to be a ski instructor; it’s an amazing way to spend your winters. All of the information you need can be found on the Become a Member page.

Head on over to our New Member Guide; all of the information you need can be found there.

All of the information regarding transferring into the Northern Rocky Mountain Region can be found under Maintaining Your Certification on the Membership page.

Yes. The reinstatement process gives former PSIA-AASI members a path to return to active certified membership at any time during the year, and it is standardized for all disciplines and all regions. Fees and CEU requirements depend on how long your membership lapsed — see the Reinstatement section of the Membership page for the current fee and CEU table. Individuals who do not wish to pursue or maintain certification can instead rejoin as an Alumni Member (if qualifications are met) or as a Registered Member.

Detailed information on the certification process is available on each discipline’s page: Adaptive, Alpine, Cross Country, Snowboard, and Telemark.

Assessment-based certificates are also available in the following specialties: Children’s Specialist, Freestyle, and Senior Teaching.

You must be employed by a PSIA-AASI Member School in order to receive a Level I certification in any discipline.

If you wish to take a certification assessment or certificate program in a region other than Northern Rocky Mountain, you will need to contact the NRM Region office first. Other regions may charge different amounts for dues, clinics, and certification assessment events, and may impose different requirements or processes for certification.

All of the requirements to maintain your certification can be found under Maintaining Your Certification on the Membership page.

Yes! That is one of the advantages of certification, as it is nationally recognized.

For alpine skiers, snowboarders, and telemark skiers, it is strongly recommended that you take the prep clinic in NRM, as other regions have different formats for their assessments and prep clinics. NRM’s prep clinic is the best tool to prepare you for NRM’s assessment. But if you are interested in substituting another region’s prep clinic, your situation will be considered on a case-by-case basis.

Contact the relevant discipline chairperson well in advance of your desired prep clinic to determine if another region’s prep clinic may be substituted for the NRM prep clinic. At a minimum, the following conditions apply:

1. The prep clinic must have been taken either the same season as your assessment or the season prior to your assessment.
2. You must have fulfilled any other requirements prior to taking the on-snow assessment.

For cross country skiers, the prep clinic and assessment are rolled into one event, so you need to attend the whole event.

Certification means you are able to effectively teach both children and adults through a particular ability level. Level I instructors are certified to teach beginner lessons, Level II instructors are certified to teach up through the intermediate level, and Level III instructors are certified to teach all levels of students.

In each case, your technical understanding, communication skills, teaching and movement analysis skills, and skiing/riding skills must allow you to teach effective lessons at that level. It is quite possible that the strongest skier/rider in the group may not have the teaching ability, and that the best teacher may not demonstrate adequate skiing/riding skills. Simply put, the assessors are looking for a complete package. If any one component is missing, the standard will not be met.

The price of an event is determined by the number of days, the number of assessors, and the number of participants. A Level I event is only two days and involves only one assessor, while a Level II or III assessment event requires two assessors and may be two or three days (Cross Country, Snowboard, and Telemark assessments are three days). Furthermore, Level I events are often subsidized by one’s snowsports school, so your school pays more of the costs and you get a great discount. Lastly, the Alpine and Snowboard Level II and III certification processes require one or more prep clinics, which further adds to the cost. However, without the prep clinic it would most likely take several more tries to pass the assessment, which would cost you more in the long run.

The bottom line is that Level II and III assessment events require a commitment from you, including a financial commitment. However, the payoff is proportional to the commitment, in terms of what you will learn, what you will gain, and your earning potential as a snowsports instructor.

Attaining Level II or Level III certification requires a commitment to preparing for the assessment. The value of the assessment process lies primarily in the training you put into it beforehand; the assessment itself is simply a verification of the preparation you have done. Some of the most important things you can do are:

• Train regularly.
• Train with focus and direction provided by education staff members or your area’s training staff.
• Listen to the feedback you are given.
• Apply what you learn in your training to the lessons you teach.
• Teach a variety of lessons, and teach each lesson differently.
• Practice movement analysis (from the lift, with video, in your clinics and lessons).
• Have a broad training program: skiing, movement analysis, reading, teaching.
• Work with peers.
• Read the manuals and other technical articles, including the children’s manual.
• Make sure your physical fitness complements your skiing/riding skills.
• Be realistic when assessing your strengths and weaknesses.

If an event fills, a waitlist may be available to allow further registrations in case any participants cancel. To inquire about being added to the waitlist for an event, please contact the NRM Region office or call 406-581-6139.

The most important thing is to make sure you fulfill the continuing-education requirements in order to maintain your certification. A full catalog of our clinics can be found on each discipline’s page.

All of our policies regarding changing or cancelling an event registration can be found on the Events page.

On the registration deadline (generally one week prior to an event), we look at the number of people signed up and determine whether there are enough people to move forward or whether we have to cancel the event due to lack of registrants. We need at least six people registered for any one clinic for it to run.

Yes, you can take clinics in other PSIA-AASI regions, and the credits transfer between regions. It is the responsibility of the region where the clinic is offered to notify your member region that you’ve taken a clinic there. If you want to take a certification assessment event in another region, you need to have a permission letter sent to that region from your home region. Whether a particular out-of-region clinic qualifies as a prerequisite will be determined on a case-by-case basis; please contact the NRM Region office to help you decide whether to register for the clinic.

You may receive up to 12 CEUs every four seasons for qualifying educational events taken outside of PSIA-AASI. To obtain credit, fill out the Non-PSIA-AASI Event Education Credit Request Form and send it to the NRM Region office. Events are subject to approval by the executive director and the appropriate discipline chair, and a fee of $12.50 per CEU applies. See Maintaining Your Certification for details.

1. Sign in to the national website using your current username (usually your email address) and your current password (typically your ID number).
2. Once you are successfully signed in, go to “My Profile” in the upper right corner of the page.
3. On the right side of that page is an option to “Change My Password.”

All of the PSIA-AASI Pro Deals are handled through the National Office. Check out the Accessories Catalog and the Sponsors & Partners pages on the National website.