Frank Wylie - Frank’s got the knack

Few people can boast reaching the pinnacle of their career at 73 and coaching local swim champions to national stardom, but quietly spoken, cool, calm Frank Wylie can.

Still ski instructing at Coronet Peak after nearly 40 years in the job, Frank got the surprise of his life in October when he was awarded NZ Ski Instructor of the Year at a gala dinner. It was “a big shock and a huge honour” just to be nominated out of 600 to 700 contenders. “That alone was just huge,” Frank says, still chuffed. “They said it wasn’t awarded for longevity,” he grins.

That honour, and coaching Queenstown Swim Club kids to become national age-group champions, some even making waves at the Australian champs, are right up there in life’s great moments for Frank. A stint with Napier Aquahawks also saw him named NZ Country Club Coach of the year.

Born in Timaru, Frank was a Pleasant Point farm boy who rode ponies and ‘lived for rugby’, athletics and cross-country champion at primary school. Boarding at Timaru Boys’ High, he was regularly caned for serious offences like not having his socks pulled up, but sporting accolades made up for it. Frank played tennis and was greatly inspired in his athletics by House Captain Dick Tayler, who became a 1974 Commonwealth Games gold medallist.

After dabbling in insurance, a stint in the Territorials, including jungle training in Fiji, Frank worked in Australia before heading to Christchurch Teachers’ College in his early 20s. They were great times, playing cricket and rugby, making selection for the Canterbury B rugby side.

Mount Hutt ski trips became the norm and soon he and his mates were off to Winter Park shovelling snow for a season, starting what would become five back-to-back winters between Queenstown and Colorado for Frank.

In Winter Park Frank met assistant director Bruce Bowlin, who also worked at Coronet Peak. “He urged me to come to Queenstown to instruct in 1981,” Frank says. “It was a quaint, delightful little place with a really positive vibe. You felt anything was possible and chased your dreams.”

That year Frank met Aussie wife of 40 years Brenda, a nursing student from the Gold Coast, on the Mount Cook ski bus. “We were pen pals for four years until I plucked up courage to ask her to marry me.” They did a cotton harvest in Aussie and instructed at Winter Park before heading back to NZ.

Frank taught at several schools in Poverty Bay until Brenda’s brother-in-law, national development coach for Australian swimming, invited Frank to manage the Southport Olympic Pool on the Gold Coast. “He coached me with the Master swimmers, and I became quite good.” Son Andrew arrived in 1989, destined for water and snow.

Back in Queenstown Frank and Brenda managed the district council’s Wakatipu High School pool outside school hours from 1998 until 2008 when Alpine Aqualand opened. Frank became the first professional coach for the local swimming club. “Within two seasons we were winning national medals, and the Queenstown club had not previously had a swimmer qualify for national age groups,” he says, proudly. “It showed that fulltime coaching produced great results and put us on the map. But I had a great group of kids, and great parental support. A coach is only as good as his swimmers.” The kids kept him young. A brotherly prank saw a young towel clad Matty McLean (ex-Breakfast host) frantically searching the school grounds for his clothing with school about to start.

Advice from his first Coronet Peak Ski School director Weems Westfeldt has stayed with Frank, who’d find himself instructing everyone from high-powered doctors and lawyers to famous American astronauts. “He’d say, ‘You’re just ski instructors. Don’t take yourselves too seriously.’” When Aussie Cricket captain Ricky Ponting reckoned he should be skiing the Meadows Chairlift within half an hour Frank was firm. “He couldn’t understand why he wasn’t skiing like me after just 20 minutes.”

The 1985 season, while the Wylies were in Gisborne, only lasted seven weeks, sometimes the norm back then. By 1994 the advent of snowmaking had increased the season out to 14 or 15 weeks. “It was very unusual to have any skiing here before July without snowmaking.”

Frank’s fitted more than his fair share of chains in heavy snow during 30 years at Coronet Peak and there have been some close calls. “Brenda, Andrew and I were in a ski bus well up the Remarkables that was sliding backwards in the mid-90s. Fortunately, it hit a berm left by a grader which stopped us sliding over the edge. It was a frightening experience.”

On a lighter note, two young Coronet Peak instructors spent the night in jail missing the staff Christmas party after being sent to find a Christmas tree. “They chopped it down from the park,” Frank grins.

These days he and Brenda are Arrowtown moteliers but Frank’s not retiring yet: “I just filed my application to instruct again next year.”