Snow Skiing Can Be Diverse Multicultural Fun
I’ve been a snow skier for over forty years and started when there were very few Asians and other ethnic individuals on the ski slopes. But since becoming a certified ski instructor twenty years ago, I’ve noticed more and more diversity on the ski slopes over the years. This is especially true in Ontario, Canada where I live and ski the most. Check out the short video below where I talk about this development.
This increase in diversity on the ski slopes makes sense as immigration to Canada has steadily increased over the years and some (but not all) immigrants have decided that they no longer just want to stay indoors and hibernate during our cold winter months. So many of these folks have come out to check out different winter activities like skiing and skating.
I spent the first eight winters of my active ski teaching career working at ski resorts and at first, most of the participants in ski lessons were non-ethnic but soon we started to see more ethnic families come. By the time I started to run my own ski training group, the local ski places have become very diverse and multicultural. I started to hear different foreign languages on the chairlifts on a regular basis.
Even with my own ski training group, it’s always been very diverse as we have skiers from many different racial and cultural backgrounds as you can see from the photos here. Not only were people from different backgrounds coming to take our Discover Skiing program which is designed for first timers just trying out skiing, the demographics of our skiers progressing through the different ski levels were just as varied. Even those individuals whom I coached through to achieve their Level 1 ski instructor certifications carried this same type of diversity as most speak at least one foreign language in addition to English.
Benefits Of Being In Diverse Multicultural Group
My ski group is a great example of what Unity Power Force claims — there are benefits to being in diverse multicultural groups. Skiing usually means being away from home at least an entire day since with travel, it’s a day trip for most skiers. Blue Mountain which is where my ski group usually skis locally, is a two hour drive up north of Toronto for most of our skiers so in addition to our time on the mountain, there is a four hour return drive to do.
Our skiers are therefore choosing to be away from their own families and their non-skiing ethnic communities to come spend time with us, a very diverse group which has somebody with an Asian background as the head ski instructor. The main benefit for our skiers is that they get to learn, improve and enjoy skiing with a fun group.
Many of our group skiers have been returning each winter season so obviously these folks have embraced diversity in their lives in some way and are supporters of anti-racism and anti-discrimination whether they know it or not! Just by continuing to ski with us means that they have enjoyed being with people from different backgrounds even if just during the long ski days and I applaud them for it.
