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Morzine kids ski school recommendation

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 Sam W 09 Nov 2021

Just booked a ski holiday for February half term.  We're going to be staying in St Jean D'Aulps, just down the road from Morzine.

Our kids (9 and 11) would like ski lessons.  They're both reasonable skiers already, any recommendations for an English speaking ski school based in Morzine?  Is the ESF there good (we've had mixed results in the past).

 Babika 09 Nov 2021
In reply to Sam W:

I think it's impossible to guarantee good classes in advance. 

My kids had ESF all over the French Alps from age 3. Some were small English speaking classes and amazing while others were huge classes, hardly any English spoken and very little effort to develop the child. 

I came to the conclusion its entirely random and sometimes depends what side of bed the instructor got out. 

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 girlymonkey 09 Nov 2021
In reply to Sam W:

This was a long time ago, but I used to do chalet work there as a ski host. There were a good number of occasions that I had to trail half way across the resort to retrieve a child who had been left behind by ESF because they fell of a ski tow/ the instructor just decided they were finishing in Les Gets that day (!)/ the instructor just didn't notice that the child hadn't kept up with the group etc! Now, they might have improved by then, of course!

We used to recommend our guests used these guys: https://www.britishskischool.com/bassresorts/morzine 

Again though, I have no idea if they are currently the best option. 

It was about 10 years ago that I was there.

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OP Sam W 09 Nov 2021
In reply to Sam W:

Cheers.  Comments on ESF mirror our experience.  The first group we booked them in with were so bad that they didn't have lessons again for several years, but then they had a great time with ESF in Saint Gervais a couple of years ago.  Frustrating as it's a lot of money to spend on a lottery.

I'll check out BASS, looks promising.  Think I knew one of their instructors when I was doing seasons, but that was 15 years ago so their knees have probably given up now.

 Arcturus 09 Nov 2021
In reply to Sam W:

If your kids are already reasonable skiers and the objective is to improve their technique I would personally recommend private lessons . More expensive but also much more focused than ski school and you don't have to worry about kids getting left on the mountain, which i have experienced several times and is clearly not funny in mid winter and a white out. 

Kids do enjoy the groups sometimes but for us the greatest pleasure is family skiing so as soon as the kids  can keep up we can all ski together (grandkids now and its us trying to keep up!); so I'd go for private lessons, more expensive but much more effective.

OP Sam W 10 Nov 2021
In reply to Arcturus:

Multiple objectives, but the biggest plus of group lessons is that they get to ski with other kids, side benefit is that my wife and I get some time out together, we generally get the touring skis out and skin for a couple of hours.  We did also find that their technique improved, I think that they are more willing to listen to instruction from a 'proper' teacher than their parents, although I suspect we say much the same thing.

Ideally we would like another family to ski with, but multiple attempts to co-ordinate dates with friends (or even get them skiing at all) have failed.  Long term aim is that we can take the kids on touring holidays, but that's a few years off yet.


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