A global connection

It all began with a dream. Five exciting destinations where skiers could explore and experience amazing mountains, magic cultures, create exciting new friendships and revel in some of the best skiing in the world.

We are now living that dream - the Rookie Academy offers camps and instructor training in New Zealand, Italy, Japan, USA, Canada and China - bringing together passionate skiers from around the world.

Joining us in this dream are our extremely talented and hand-picked international trainers - the real influencers of skiing.

Learn about them, their programmes and why they’re special to us below!

Trainers in alphabetical orders

Our International Superstars

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How 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 very first ski instructor 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.

Rookie Academy is still owned and operated by Dean and he is still actively involved in the ski instructing side of the business. This allows Rookie Academy to keep evolving the program to meet the needs of its clients and the ever-evolving technical direction of the sport.

Rookie Stats:

  • 30 years of ski and snowboard training success

  • 2500 Rookies qualified

  • Pass rates in the 90% range for Level 1 and 2

  • Placements in Europe, North America, Japan, China and New Zealand