When we learned that or own government had opted out of the automatic mutual recognition of qualifications with Europe it was a wake up call for where things were headed. No one in the Snowsports world wanted that, but it is the hand we were dealt and the task of gaining individual recognition from European nations begun. With out that recognition the CTT which is made up of the Eurotest and EMS is not an option for BASI instructors.
That all happened as of the 1st of January 2021, since then we have waited, hoping that the negotiations would bring us back to the table. Hoping that the first news back would be good keeping us aligned to the countries we want to be working in like Italy, France and Austria just to name a few.
However it’s not looking like that is going to be the case, not yet at least. With news coming that the CTT will remain off limits for BASI the ISIA Speed Test has now replaced the Eurotest. Some people will probably be happy with this but there are both Pro’s and Con’s to these changes. The journey to right of establishment and working in France is definitely not over, it looks likes more waiting lays ahead.
So what’s the ISIA speed test all about then…. ultimately it’s an easier version of the Eurotest. Pass times are less challenging and the pistes chosen are also easier as there is no need to be FIS recognised. The silver lining in this may be that the big blocks of Eurotest training that have been both costly in both monetary terms and career ending injuries, may be over.
Having been a Eurotest Opener it’s hard not to be impressed by the standard that Instructors reach in order to pass. There’s no denying that its an impressive standard and we coached plenty of people on their journey to passing. We also had to pick people up when they got hurt, which happens whenever people are pushing themselves and that’s not exclusive to the Eurotest. However when the pass mark is a time and not a criteria people will push themselves that little bit harder which leads to more injuries.
With the level of the ISIA Speed Test being more achievable without prior race training experience it should be possible to merge the training into Tech Training. So rather than do 4-5 weeks of race training pre season it should be possible to link the Speed Test training into the general Tech training, this is something we are looking at adding into our Work/Train programme in Zermatt. It may simply be that over 6 weeks training its possible to make 4-5 of those GS days with pre season camps shortened to 2 week camps for those that want more condensed training.
Sounds like a lot is still changing so hopefully we will all know more soon! PDS Snowsport run training for both the ISIA Speed test and the Eurotest in Zermatt every November. You can get further info here.