SKIING
Cardrona Instructor Training Centre boasts a total of 12 NZSIA ski examiners and trainers. We have 3 current NZSIA demo team members, plus 2 past demo team members.
Dave Taylor
- NZSIA Senior Examiner
- NZSIA Demonstration Team, Interski representative
- Cardrona HPC Head Ski Trainer
- NZSIA Technical Committee
Dave ‘DT’ has Coached and taught skiing at Cardrona for 13 years and has spent a total of 27 full time winters between NZ and the USA and Scotland (not forgetting his roots!). As an NZSIA demo team member and senior examiner DT has a wealth of experience and is our Head Trainer for Alpine. DT’s other passions include music and fly-fishing on Lake Wanaka.
Rachael Milner
- NZSIA Senior Examiner
- NZSIA Technical Committee (Development and direction of children’s certification processes)
- Instructor Training Centre Manager
Rachael has been teaching skiing at Cardrona for 17 seasons, starting here as a rookie instructor in 1992. Since then she has been working back to back winters between here and the U.S, with the exception of one summer in 1996! With 33 winters under her belt Rachael has a long list of teaching qualifications which include snowboarding, adaptive and children's specific certifications. Since becoming an NZSIA examiner in 2003 she has coached full time in our Instructor Training Programme and now has ex students teaching skiing all over the world! Rachel looks after the candidates in the Instructor Training Centre and trains the Otago Polytec Instructor programme.
Bob Irwin
- APSA Senior Examiner
- NZSIA trainer / examiner
Bob can be described as our guru ski coach, and holds the record with over 50 seasons teaching on snow. He has run Ski Instructor Training in Breckenridge; the Children’s Ski School at Falls Creek; and has been the Ski School Director at Treble Cone, Wanaka. This season Bob will be again training our up and coming instructors.
Steve Trout
- PSIA Examiner
- NZSIA trainer / examiner
- Level one race coach
Steve Trout almost holds the record at Cardrona for having 51 seasons teaching experience, he too is a guru with huge amounts of experience and is definitely an amazing person to have as part of our team. Steve is a very popular Alpine Instructor both at Cardrona, Beaver Creek and Copper Mountain.
Simon Grove
- NZSIA trainer / examiner
- PSIA level 3
- Level one race coach
20 seasons teaching at Cardrona, Treble Cone & Mammoth Mountain, CA - 24 seasons as a ski technician. Weapon of choice: Stoeckli Slalom - Movies, reading, mountain biking, surfing, yoga, MAC addict.
Mark Magill
- NZSIA trainer / examiner
- CSIA level 3
- CSCF level 2
Mark has taught for 19 years, making 29 seasons. Three of these have been at Cardrona, the others in Queenstown, Silverstar, Canada and Beaver Creek, Colorado.
Bridget Legnavsky
- Snowsports Centre Manager
- NZSIA Senior Examiner
- Level one race coach and level one freeski coach
- NZSIA technical committee – past technical director
- NZSIA demonstration team – Interski representative
Bridget has been teaching skiing since 1989 in NZ, USA, Japan and Europe. In that time she has worked as an instructor trainer as well as a freeski coach and race coach. She has represented NZ at three Interski congresses so far including Norway, Switzerland and Korea and is the author of the most current ski instructor training manual. Bridget is the manager of the Snowsports Centre but is always out on the snow working with the staff and the candidates of the instructor training programmes.
Yolinde Magill
Kirsty Hole
Kirsty is the Cardrona Ski School Manager. She has taught skiing for 11 seasons, four of those at Cardrona. The NZSIA named Kirsty the 2008 Snowsports Instructor of the year, which is testament to her knowledge and commitment to the sport.
Mark Cruden
- NZSIA Trainer and examiner
- NZSIA demonstration team
- Level one race coach
15 + seasons experience in NZ, Scotland, Europe, USA
William Boyd
- NZSIA trainer and examiner
- Past member of the NZSIA demonstration team and interski representative
William first started teaching skiing with Cardrona ski school back in the late 80’s. After working many back to back winters between Cardrona and Switzerland, France, Japan and USA, he was selected onto two successive NZSIA Demonstration teams, representing NZ at Interski in Austria and Japan. Now living all year round in Wanaka with his wife and young son, William works as a trainer for Cardrona during the winters, while his summers are spent as a Senior Microsoft MCP software developer.
Tim Dennis
- NZSIA Trainer and examiner
- Level one race coach
- Past member of the NZSIA demonstration team
SNOWBOARDING
We have a great crew of dedicated, passionate snowboard trainers. Combined they cover a range of qualifications and a huge amount of talent and experience.
Kyle Kostohris
- SBINZ Senior Examiner/Trainer
- AASI-I Trainer/Examiner
- Head Snowboard Trainer
This will be Kyle's 12th season here and 26th in total between Park City, Crystal Mountain and Cardrona. When he first arrived in '97 he had a pair of skis and far more hair than he does now. He soon found comfort on the dark side of the force with the snowboarders, and the rest is history. He now heads up the training for instructor training programmes and the snowboard School. In his spare time he enjoys beating people at darts and playing lawn bowls.
Jamie Lane
Jamie loves to snowboard! He was part of the first Otago Polytech course run at Cardrona and hasn't looked back ever since. He's back for his tenth winter at Cardrona and still loves the place, the people and will always call it home. Stateside he got his first job at Crystal Mountain, Washington where he worked for five winters. He now works at Mammoth Mountain, California, where he is a staff trainer. Also in California, Jamie is involved with the Western Division where he is an examiner and trainer as well as being part of the technical committee.
James Lea
- SBINZ Trainer/Examiner
- NZSIA Stage One Avalanche
- Elementary Coach
- ISIA Member
James has been working in the Snowsports industry for the past 15 Seasons at Cardrona, Bear Valley, Vail and Snow Planet. In this time he has taught snowboarding to all levels and the last four seasons he has been coaching our snowboard instructor training programmes. As a product of the Otago Polytechnic Instructor Training, James is now coaching up and coming instructors and finds it very rewarding watching people develop their riding and teaching. James says the reason he is in this industry is because there is not one day he wakes up and doesn’t want to go to work!
Lucien Gordon
Lucien has been involved with teaching snowboarding at Cardrona for ten years, including the past few years as a trainer of our instructor programmes. Lucien also instructs in the northern hemisphere at Park City, Utah, USA.
Mark Saltiel
Mark started his snowboarding career training for his Stage One (level two) at Cardrona with the International Academy. He has taught snowboarding for 11 seasons and has been training aspiring snowboard instructors for the past three years in both New Zealand and America.
Kelly Barclay
