Enjoy world-class ski instructor courses and snowboard instructor courses with the Rookie Academy team

When it comes to ski instructor courses and snowboard instructor courses, the Rookie Academy team of instructors lead the world with their experience, technical skill, passion and commitment to excellence.

Our snowboard instructor and ski instructor courses are internationally renowned due to the Rookie Academy world-class team who are dedicated to your personal development and career success. But it's not all about work. The Rookie Academy team are fun, personable and approachable and dedicated to making your ski training or snowboard training an amazing and unforgettable experience!

When it all started....
Rookie Academy was started at Treble Cone back in 1992 by Dean Hunter, the program started out as a 10 day weekend course designed to train locals to become instructors, Garett Shore participated in this course and started working for the Treble Cone ski school the following year, by 1995 Dean and Garett were working together training instructors and putting the foundations together for setting up Rookie Academy as a full time business.

In 1997 they expanded the operation to offer full-time training courses, in this first year they had 5 clients on a 10 week course, in the 12 years since then they have seen their numbers grow to approx 150 clients a year across 3 different course locations.

The success of the program stems from the fact that both Dean and Garett are still actively involved in the instructing side of the business, they both take training groups and work as examiners for the NZSIA, this allows them to keep evolving the program to meet the needs of their clients, employers and the ever evolving technical direction of skiing and snowboarding.

What sets the Rookie Academy apart ?
Dean and Garett’s involvement within the ski industry, Dean is a current NZSIA Level 2 Examiner and Garett is a NZSIA Level 3 examiner and current member of the NZSIA Demonstration team. 

Their hand picked trainers work exclusively for the Rookie Academy and come back year after year what this means for you is that they can guarantee you will receive a level of training that you have never experienced before.

When you put together Garett’s and Dean’s involvement coupled with the caliber of trainers they have assembled you have a product that is unrivaled anywhere in the world.

A track record of ski training and snowboard training success.
Since 1992 over 1400 clients have been through Rookie Academy courses, their exam pass rates are up in the 90% range but what they are most proud of is the amount of ski and snowboard instructing careers they have started, their attitude towards job placements is if you commit to one of their courses they will commit to doing everything possible to get you an instructing job on average they place about 40 to 50 clients into instructing jobs in either North America, Europe, Japan or New Zealand.