By: Trends Editorial Team
Syed Siros Jafari was born on August 6, 1971 in Dizin Village, Chalus Road, Karaj. He started skiing when he was 9 years old. His father worked in the cable car department of Dizin which led to him having an interest in skiing. But due to the fact that skiing facilities were not available for him, he started learning skiing from an acquaintance. At first he prepared some wax fabric with a rubber pile and sewed it as a gaiter on the pants. Over time he was able to provide more suitable clothes for skiing and no longer needed to buy ski clothes. However, his main concern was getting the right equipment. When his father saw his son’s interest, despite his low income, he bought him a pair of skis and he officially started skiing at the age of 9. His friends and relatives were his official first teachers. At first, he participated in school competitions and in the first competition, he reached seventh place. But in the early years of high school he won second place in school competitions.
Then he attended military service and became the champion of the country’s army competitions for two years. After his military service he applied for the selection of the national team, but he was unsuccessful in the national team and turned to coaching and was able to get his 3rd degree coaching in the Alpine discipline. 4 years passed and he got his 2nd degree coaching and finally 3 years after that he successfully got his 1st degree coaching in 2010 under the supervision of an Austrian coach named Mr. Dominik Hirscher. In the meantime the Ski Federation of the Islamic Republic of Iran announced that any person who can pass the solidarity course of the Ministry of Sports can be part of the members in instructors of the Ski Federation. He was then officially recognized as the country’s ski instructor in 2001. Immediately, he received multiple offers for mountain skiing or touring from his friends. After obtaining the necessary training he was able to work with the mountaineering federation and ever since 2003 he has also been involved with mountaineering. In 2013, he traveled to Turkey and climbed Mount Ararat in Turkey. Shortly after returning to the base camp of Mount Everest in the Himalayas, he paid a visit and succeeded in climbing the Himalayan peak Kalamata. He participated in various courses organized by the Mountaineering Federation as a minister of opinion of instructors who were invited from different countries to teach in these courses. He is the best chosen person for these courses. In 2015, with the coordination of the Mountaineering Federation he was sent to take a course in Suncheon Province China and became the second in that course. Then he became a member of the coaches’ committee of the Mountaineering Federation. After one year he was appointed as the head of the coaches’ committee and then he was appointed as the chairman of this committee and held this responsibility for 8 years. After a change in the president of the ski federation, he was selected as the head of the training committee. At the same time he is appointed as a member of the Mountain Skiing Committee in the Mountaineering Federation, and as a teacher of various courses, he trains multiple instructors so that they can provide mountaineers with the necessary training for easy climbing in different tracks. In the summer season, he organized valley climbing, cave climbing and jungle climbing. In the skiing federation, he was elected as the head of the judges’ committee for the world cup of ice hockey in 2010. Then he obtained the 1st degree in Solitary coaching in 2014 and received his 1st degree coaching diploma. As an alpine skiing instructor, he has traveled to all the provinces of the country since 2005 so that the instructors of all the provinces are familiar with the new training principles.
From 1388 to 1394, he was appointed as the head of the coaches’ committee of the federation and became the secretary of the training committee in 1387 to 1386, and in 1394 he became the head of the training committee of the ski federation. He has been a teacher and a member of the training committee of the Ski Federation since 2015. In 2018, when the World Youth Ski Championship was held, he was selected as a referee. Currently he is an ice climbing, mountaineering and mountain skiing instructor.
Under the supervision of Mr. Schneider from Switzerland, he also passed the mountain rescue course. Now, he is working as the head of Alborz province ski team coaches’ committee. He organizes ski touring camps for young people in Alborz province. With the coordination of the Ski Federation, QR codes have been issued to all ski instructors. During these 44 years as a ski instructor he has many memories, for instance : the time they were skiing at the Dizin International Circuit and suddenly the weather conditions changed making the path foggy which led to almost 20 people going off track despite the warning signs. Darbandsar which is located behind the Dizin Ski Resort announced that some people were not on the track and were in fact lost in that weather.
With the help of some friends who were familiar with the place, rescue operations started. Using his experiences of various coaching courses and following the tracks of the skiers, he found the team of the missing people and by creating a safe path to cross, he returned them safely to the Dizin ski resort. He then went on and said that when the Mountaineering Federation announced that those who are interested can participate in the training course that will be held in China in 2015, along with some friends he went to China with the support of the Mountaineering Federation. There were two capable coaches there, one of them was Mr. Marco Majeure who participated in two Olympics.
It was said that 32 participants from 5 countries would perform the techniques and the coaches would choose the best people at the bottom of the track. When it was his turn, both coaches were hesitant to choose him. Mr.Jafari asked, “Which team am I on?” Both coaches announced that “Your skiing style is different from the rest of the participants and you stand by us coaches.”
He continued to train with Marco for two days, but on the third day of his training, he did not come to train because of a cold. The doctors gave him a rest so that he can recover. At that moment, the head of the Asian training committee requested for Jafari to continue the training for two days in place of Marco. As an Iranian, he provided training as both a student and a teacher at the training place at the same time.
He always mentions that period as one of his honors. Due to these experiences he has some recommendations for those interested in this field. He says: “Skiing is a very fun, exciting and dangerous field. In these years, he has seen many students who enter the ski resort without knowing the instructor and the track, and various incidents have happened. As a teacher, he recommends buying ski equipment from reliable and up-to-date stores and working with professional tools. He also added that when they enter the track training area, they must go to the track training place designated by the federation because all the coaches are stationed there so if an unfortunate accident occurs, the coach can help the person through his problem.
Since the Dizin track is one of the biggest tracks in the country, be sure to pay attention to the warning signs so that you don’t go off bounds and have an accident. He believes that if a person starts skiing with a good instructor and proper equipment, he will enjoy it a lot. He says that he always tries to learn the necessary skills from the best coaches in the world so he can fully provide his skills and capabilities to his students, and for this reason, he is currently known as one of the best skiing coaches in Iran.
He always tries to learn new and up-to-date materials and provide new exercises to his students before the start of each academic season, and to provide appropriate training to all interested people with any financial ability. He always pays more attention to weaker people so that they can easily and quickly learn the necessary training. He warms up the students with appropriate stretching exercises before training so that they are less likely to get injured. He believes that every person has strengths and weaknesses. He tries to deal with a person based on their pros and cons in addition to their physical and spiritual characteristics. Before training, he takes tests from each student to determine their individual ability level and based on that, suitable training is offered to the student. He is grateful to his family who supported him in difficult situations, as well as to all his coaches in the Mountaineering Federation and the Skiing Federation.
Also Read: Mountain Medicine Makes the Thrill of the Climb Safer
