speaker-0: Ride, teach, inspire. This is the Dropping Next podcast brought to you by the Canadian Association of Snowboard Instructors. Hello and welcome to Cassie's first podcast, which we are going to be calling Dropping Next, the Dropping Next podcast. I'm Rob Whelan, Cassie's communications and engagement manager. And this is something that I'm really excited about. It's something that I've been thinking about for a long time. So I'm really stoked to get this thing fired up. And I'm joined here by Genevieve Piloteau and Jeff Chandler. And we're going to be your main hosts for the show. At least that's our plan as of now. and we're going to regularly have some co-hosts peppered in to help us out, our PMs and our director of programs as well. But let's start off with some introductions. You guys can paper, rock, scissors for who talks first.

speaker-2: Are you? ahead.

speaker-1: Cheers! Okay. ⁓ Yeah, thanks. Thanks, Rob. My name is Jeff Chandler. I'm the executive director for CASI and I am currently, well, I'm really excited for this project to start with. I'm glad that we've got this off the ground and I'm really stoked for CASI members and snowboard instructors in general to have this opportunity to tune in and sort of hear from CASI directly and the different personalities and the different stories that we've got planned. As far as myself, like I said, I'm currently the executive director. I've been been a CASI member and a snowboard instructor and a coach and I've held a lot of different roles of volunteer over the years. And ⁓ for, you know, the better part of the last 25, 30 years since CASI started, I started as a snowboard instructor when I was 16. Actually, I started as a level one before that, back when you were allowed to do that back in the Canada snowboard days as a 14 year old kid. ⁓ And started teaching snowboarding at COP in Calgary when I was a 16 year old and stuck with it. And here I am. I'm now. not 16 anymore and still loving it, still stoked on what we're doing. I'm based in the Western part of the country in British Columbia and my home resort is, we bounce around a little bit, but I would say Big White Resort and just outside of Kelowna BC and Silver Star Resort as well are both close by. So lucky enough to live in a part of the country that has some amazing snowboarding and amazing riding. And yeah, I still try to get out there. I like to joke in my current role as the executive director that I spend. way too much time behind a laptop or way too much time in an office pushing papers around. But I do like to get out there and teach courses. I really still love training and certifying new instructors especially. So the level one course is kind of the, ⁓ you know, sort of where my heart is still and certifying new instructors and giving them those tips on introducing snowboarding to new riders is I think the reason why, probably why we all do it. And it's one of the reasons why Cassie exists. yeah, so really stoked to see this project come to fruition.

speaker-0: Nice. Thanks, Jeff. Top that, Jen.

speaker-2: I'm Geneviève Pidartot and I'm the current CASI Director of Education and Programs. So took over the role as change a little bit, but was really happy to have Jeff when we switched role. And I'm really accomplishing myself in what I would call without any doubt my dream job. And this podcast is naturally part of this role with education and program being a core topic, obviously of this podcast. lots to talk about with loads of people to share insights, tips and tricks and inputs. A little bit of my history, I started snowboarding in my backyard on the farm with a snowmobile lift from my father. And I was lucky enough to have an uncle who worked in the industry. He had a factory in Saint-Anne-de-Beaupré, so I was able to... to get some boards really early. So I started at seven with snowmobile boots, sorrel boots, should I say, with way too big snowboards. But my father was grooming me kind of a slope with the snowmobile. So that was awesome. And then eventually I took those skills up to the hill Saint-Pacôme. I was already skiing there as a young skier. competed a little bit in skiing as well. So we took it to Saint-Pacombe, which used to be Saint-Pacombe and then La Cote des Chats, but then it was not, it's no longer existing, which is very sad. It was a small AL6 runs, super nice, kind of steep, a view in the Saint-Laurens. Anyway, so that's where I started snowboarding a lot and eventually became a snowboard instructor at 15 years old. At the same time as the... snow school director because I was the only snowboard instructor at start. then so we hired a few people. It was a small school, but we were really busy. So I fell in love with teaching snowboarding literally. Like it was for me, it was wow. Like I can make some money and teach people to the sport that I love. So then that, and I was a ski instructor and also a cross country skiing instructor and a teaching instructor. So that filled up my. years of teaching and coaching people. Eventually traveled out west, put those skills into practice in the real mountain that a young Quebecker would dream of. And then went to university, kept evaluating courses. I started evaluating at about 19 years old when I was back in the days of level two. And then finish up my level three traveling in a school bus out in Whistler. living in the parking lots when it was still allowed and work for Greg Daniels there, which I would deliver me the course kit right to the school bus was pretty amazing. So taught there a bunch, eventually got pregnant, took it a bit easier on the evaluating side. And then I decided to go back to full-time teaching snowboarding after trying out my university skills in communication and journalism. And I found I was missing. to be on the slope a lot. So I just went back full time and trompe l'en. And then I eventually got involved as a volunteer with the board of directors of CASI. And an opportunity came up and I decided to apply and I became the original coordinator for CASI Quebec Atlantic for seven years, which was really fun. And that led me to my actual role in CASI that I have been doing since. three years, starting my fourth year on this role. I'm very excited for this podcast. always dreamt of like a radio, having a radio.

speaker-1: Jen's radio show. Yeah. That's, was going to say that sounds like a dream, dream snowboard instructor life traveling to the big mountains, living in a school bus, riding and teaching, riding every day. And yeah, that's awesome.

speaker-2: I did definitely live my dream that was a dream and I'm still doing so.

speaker-1: That's good. Nice.

speaker-0: Awesome. Well, geez, my story has some similarities and lots of differences, but I could say I'm living my dream too. This is a pretty amazing place to be sitting and chatting with you two and eventually the audience that we're going to build here. My snowboarding career started pretty early at a small hill in Ontario called Hockley Valley. Started teaching there, well became certified at 16 and started teaching there. back in the day and was fortunate enough to be surrounded by some pretty awesome snowboarders who are still in the game today at the time. So that got me set off on the right foot riding hard boots for many, many years. So my heart is in turning lefts and rights still. And that's probably rooted from back in those days. But kind of went through the ranks teaching in the snow school alongside racing and. ⁓ worked myself up to be teaching and evaluating, which I still do today and still really love to do and still trying to grow my skills in that area as well. My background in university is kinesiology, which led me straight into a career in photography, which makes no sense at all, but I spent well over a decade working as a photographer full-time. So, you know, I have a strong passion for the arts and I always said I would... never leave my career in photography unless something amazing came up that was just right. And then came the ad for this communications role with Cassie and I said, ⁓ my God, they made this role for me. I better take this. You didn't actually make it for me, but it really felt that way. And it's been a perfect marriage of my photography career and my long passion for snowboarding that I've been doing most of my life. So that's got me sitting here and I've been thinking about this podcast since the very day that the three of us were sitting in my interview. And I suggested that maybe we should have a podcast, which was maybe a little bold to say in an interview, but it worked out and here we are. And we're recording our intro episode, which was only supposed to be five minutes long, but we're already over 10 minutes and we've just done introductions. So let's move on. Let's describe the show. So Jeff, give us your description of what you think this show is going to evolve into.

speaker-1: Yeah, I mean, at the core, CASI is a member-based association and we really exist to provide value to our members. And so I think this is just another avenue that we can do that. We've seen over the last couple of years, I think, I'm definitely biased in the whole thing, but I think that the quality of our communications in general, the quality of the info, the course content we're putting out there, I think is quite strong feedback we've had from our members and our participants. And this is just in the next evolution of that. I am personally excited about this podcast project because it provides us an opportunity to connect with members and put information out there that is, you know, a little bit more direct. It's like a direct line to some of the personalities, some of the decision-making. I mean, at the core of it, we're a certification body and our courses have standards and, you know, unfortunately, some people are successful and some people aren't and we make changes to programs and our methodologies and... I think from a member's perspective, sometimes it can be a maybe the appearance can be that all of those decisions kind of happened behind some kind of veil or some kind of curtain. And so I'm really stoked about this opportunity to provide some communication that's potentially a little bit less polished. Hopefully not too unpolished, but maybe a little bit less polished. Just showcase, I mean, we've got so many personalities. We're in our 31st year now of Cassie and we've got so many, you know. just cool people that we can tap into to provide info and help and resources to members, but more importantly, to snowboard instructors that are working around the world. I'm really excited for that.

speaker-0: Yeah, totally. I'm seeing this show as a real outlet, you know, as the person who is more or less responsible for communicating the voice of our association and the things that we're up to on a daily basis, annual basis, whatever. Obviously they're not all my ideas, but I'm the one who gets to press go on the publications that we work on as a team. So having this like more digestible format that we can put out there, you know, we're obviously recording video and audio and you know. people will be able listen to this in their car, which I think will be something new and welcome, hopefully for the membership. Jen, do you want to speak to what type of stuff we might dig into on the show?

speaker-2: Yeah, well, I think it ties up a lot with what Jeff was saying. Like, we've got so many talents out there in our crew, whether it's the staff team, the evaluators teams, the membership, and even tapping a little bit outside of our organization to pull out some guest speakers from different organizations with different perspectives on snowboarding. And I think that's what we're looking for, is to be able to nerd out about snowboarding stuff. Talk about technical stuff, teaching stuff, pedagogical stuff, interview, anything inspirational for our membership, for ourself and for our membership. So that's ⁓ basically the idea. Am I forgetting anything?

speaker-0: Yes, exactly. I don't think so.

speaker-1: Well, we can.

speaker-2: It's kind of proud, but we could...

speaker-1: Yeah. And we can definitely nerd out, snowboard instructors can nerd out about snowboarding. We know that for sure. So we could talk for months and months about nerdy snowboarding stuff, which is pretty cool.

speaker-2: And I think that's a place to own it. So that's.

speaker-1: For sure.

speaker-0: I was listening to the AASI podcast last night, Learned from Snowboarding, and one of the hosts said was, we love to go off on tangents. I don't know if you noticed that. So I kind of see us potentially going that direction as well. And I think that our membership loves a good tangent about snowboarding. So we're well suited to go off script. So Cassie loves their ⁓ what, why's and how's. so Jeff, maybe you could give us the why for the podcast.

speaker-1: Yeah, I mean, why we've chosen to do it, I kind of touched on it already, but just to provide that extra outlet to members. You know, we're always looking for ways to provide whether it's professional development, personal development, technical development, skill development, resources for members. And this is just another way for us to do that. You know, it sort of, again, I sort of touched on it a couple of minutes ago, but it kind of humanizes a little bit the... the faces and the people behind the scenes and it helps us to speak to our members. And hopefully at some point, you know, I really view this project as speaking to snowboard instructors in general. Whether you're a CASI member or not, if you're out there working in the role of instructor and you've got a snowboard strapped to your feet, whatever association you happen to belong to, I hope that you can find some value in what we're talking about.

speaker-0: Yeah, for sure. And I think we've touched on it a little bit. Again, we're getting a little repetitive here, but I think there's a few like nuggets to fill in the gaps here on the who. Who's at Forgen? Who's listening to this podcast?

speaker-2: first for our members from any members of any association in the world. And it can vary based on content as well, depending on what we're putting out there. There might be even people interesting to listen to snowboarders, whether it's skiers or cross-country skiers or coaches or maybe your mom.

speaker-0: My mom's gonna listen to my monologue.

speaker-2: I think there's going to be people listening to you.

speaker-1: Yeah, I think that's important too. mean, Cassie, we really view our role as being, you know, it's not only about the snowboarding and it's really about building this profession of snow sports teaching. We have recognized that, you know, internally from an association perspective. And so, yeah, I can see as far as who this podcast is for, is being open to, you know, really anyone who has an interest in snow sports in general, specifically to teaching snowboards. ⁓ It may not always be teaching focused. It may be industry focused or some sort of outside of the box kind of focus that ties into snow sports in general and the profession of being involved in snow sports and working at a resort.

speaker-0: Yeah, totally. Just building on that, think it's important to note to the listeners that it's not just going to be the three of us talking all the time. We have our strong staff team who ⁓ is also really stoked about being on these episodes and hosting some and co-hosting some. So you'll have a variety of voices. The three of us are going to try to steer the ship a little bit for consistency's sake, but we'll definitely have them on quite often as well as... members within our association and outside of our association, other associations, maybe other sports, off-season activities, et cetera. So we hope to cover a wide range of topics, but still staying true to our purpose on the show. just in terms of some of the logistics, which is a little bit where I come into play, I see myself a little bit more as the producer of the show and kind of keeping things in line on the back end. And so Just info-wise, what to expect, we're going to do roughly, probably two episodes a month, I think is what we're planning for. And so just in terms of consistency and also being realistic, coming into our winter season to do an episode every week would be a lot. We'll see what it evolves into, but we're thinking two episodes a month and in audio video format. So if you wanna watch us on YouTube, we'll be there for you. And for those who wanna... ⁓ listen in their car on the way to the resort or wherever you're going or on your runs and rides. Apple, Spotify, all the platforms you'll find us there. So please do actually go and subscribe because we want to really build out this audience and do something special here. In terms of length, you know, we were thinking 30 to 60 minutes per episode. I hope we can stick to that. You know, we were planning on six minutes here. We're already at 19. So we tend to ramble a little bit. That's a little Cassie of us. So we'll try to keep the episodes tight so that they're digestible in kind of one session. And then last thing I wanted to mention too is we're a bilingual association in a bilingual country, French and English. I think predominantly, at least for starters, we'll be doing more episodes in English, but we absolutely have some fantastic francophones in our industry. One of them is in our association, one of them sitting on this college and I'm sure you're excited to get into some conversation with some of our French members. we will definitely be allowing ⁓ space for that and to ⁓ really honor our Francophone membership as well. We're not going to translate the episodes just because that would be an enormous task. So there'll be some for the Anglophones and some for the Francophones and if you listen in both languages, then good for you.

speaker-2: Exactly. It will be a good idea to few episodes in French for our French-speaking We will perhaps on subjects that we will repeat in French, so that will allow everyone to better access. But we don't to repeating all the subjects. It really depends on what we bring on the podcast.

speaker-0: Jen. and so here we are concluding the episode. There's a couple calls to action and Jeff I wanted to leave the, well we talked about a little bit you know we're going to be doing a little bit more of a somewhat unpolished version of what you're used to from Cassie but I wanted to give you the opportunity to give the folks out there a disclaimer.

speaker-1: Yeah, for sure. mean, I think it's important, you know, thinking of my comments before, this is a kind of a direct line to some of the behind the curtain thoughts and decisions and discussions that happen within CASI. And that I think that's valuable, but it's also important to keep in mind that we're, you know, with a variety of people speaking and we want to be able to speak freely on the podcast and give our true personal opinions. And I would say that those opinions in general would be, the disclaimer would be that they're not. They're not official Cassie doctrine or policy or whatever you want to consider it. So this ⁓ is an opportunity for us to sort of relay and tap into just the variety of personalities and opinions that we have available to us. And when it comes to official Cassie stuff, it'll come out in official Cassie channels and published in print or on our website or in our various resources that we have available.

speaker-0: Thanks. And so here we are rounding out the first episode or what we're calling episode zero to introduce the show, dropping next podcast. And so this is just my last opportunity in this episode to ask you to subscribe, share the stoke, let the people know. And we're going to have another episode for you in two weeks.

speaker-2: Subscribe! You'll be happy to follow us. hesitate and share when you subscribe. Share the existence of the podcast.

speaker-1: Definitely tell your friends. Sweet.

speaker-0: Nice. Nice one, crew.

speaker-2: Thanks.

speaker-0: Peace.