Seasonal anxiety disorder

When I decided on pursuing a career (?) as a ski instructor, just 50 years ago, I knew that I would need another gainful occupation for the other seven or eight months of the year.

From the get go, I had already developed a built-in “seasonal anxiety” that would stick to me obsessively for the next five years. From my family working experiences, I had little attraction to becoming an innkeeper, a restaurateur or a souvenir merchant.

At first, I set my goal on becoming a land surveyor. This attempt to what I thought would be an honorable career took me, in the spring of 1970, to the Saint-Gervais ski resort, right below the Mt. Blanc, where I worked for about three months before throwing the towel.

The following fall, I tried my hand at being a Quantity Surveyor, a rather odd activity in home-building which didn’t turn me on enough to compel me to pursue it.

Then, during the two following summers my seasonal anxieties took a well-deserved break when I taught skiing in Australia during the Austral winter season. This activity, while being super fun and making sense on paper, failed to pay the bills and wasn’t sustainable in the long run.

The following year, I focused on acquiring more language skills (German and Italian). In addition, I spent the month of May of 1973 in Paris, selling and prospecting for Skis Duret, at my friend Michel Duret’s demand; at that point, I had no idea this exercise would be crucial in preparation for a career that I had not envisioned yet!

Finally, in January of 1974, my friend J.P. Chatellard suggested that I might try my hand at a job in the ski industry and more specifically in the realm of racing services.

I heeded his advice, followed several of his leads, landed a job with Look bindings and put a final end to my recurrent seasonal anxieties!