Team Members Share Their Top Takeaways from New REI Videos

The REI Co-op crew teamed up with PSIA-AASI National Team members Amy Gan, Greg Rhodes, and Robin Barnes last December to create “learn to” cross-country, ski, and snowboard videos that you and your students can watch on YouTube, or post on your own social media accounts.

Watch all the videos, and listen to the three team members share their take on all the great ways REI is helping promote professional instruction. Here are some of their top takeaways from the video shoots.

How REI Videos Help Advertise Professional Instruction

  •  “The videos get the benefits of professional instruction out in front of the general public,” Gan said. “They encourage people to get out and try snowsports. Maybe we don’t get all of those people for lessons, but we can help them have a good time.”
  • “If you Google ‘how to cross country ski,’ there is very little professional content,” Rhodes said. “These videos provide a great place to start.”
  • “Whether it’s how to ski the steeps or how to make better turns, the professionalism of the REI team lets us express our own personal style,” Barnes said. “I actually cross country classic skied for the first time ever last week, and watched Greg’s video before I did.”

Why It’s Cool to Work with REI

  • “This is the third time I’ve worked with REI, and it just keeps getting better,” Barnes said. “They’re the real deal. I’m super grateful for this opportunity to try help give people one, two, or three things they can use to get better, or get out and give it a go.”
  • “They let me go out and feel like I would if I was teaching a lesson,” Rhodes said. “They said, ‘we just want to put out the best information possible, which made me feel comfortable, just talk like I had a student in front of me.”
  • “They are making a point to work with women on this program,” Gan said. “I like their push to have women out there, and to get a great product.”

The Impact REI Videos Have on Promoting Snowsports

  • “In these modern times, everyone is doing a little online research before they go try something,” Rhodes said. “These videos help them prepare for a lesson, and give them context about what to expect.”
  • “The videos create exposure for us, and for the quality of good instruction,” Barnes said. “A friend of mine from Stowe, Vermont had a lesson with a student who started out by watching one of my earlier videos, and he’s now become a lifelong client for us.”