Robin Cane

Robin Cane, a British ski instructor and musician who died in an avalanche in the French Alps last month aged 48, was a man of the land, sea and air, equally comfortable in the orchestra pit at Glyndebourne, crewing the Aldeburgh lifeboat or flying an aeroplane over his native Norfolk.

After a brief spell in the Life Guards as a junior bandsman, he developed his musical skills at college. He went on to teach music in the Cambridge area and, invited to join a pupils' trip, quickly discovered an aptitude and talent for skiing. He qualified as a ski instructor and for more than a decade divided his year between teaching skiing in Meribel, where he also co-owned a chalet, and working as a French horn player for British orchestras, such as the London Symphony.

There was very little that Robin could not do. He was a skilled wood craftsman, making furniture and instruments in the gaps between musical engagements. He played semi-professional soccer, was a good cricketer and squash player, and soon after picking up a golf club was swinging it like a professional. He learned to fly and sail, and it was typical of his love of adventure and selfless spirit that he volunteered for the life-boat service.

Of all these interests, his passion was skiing. He helped to pioneer a simple style of skiing that worked well with the new carving skis and that beginners found easier to master than the traditional method of planting the poles, bending the knees and locking the ankles. The key to his teaching was his ability to give confidence to the most diffident performer. He was patient and never dismissive of progress, no matter how limited. He explained "why" as well as "how" you had to do things. He demonstrated with exaggerated movements that were easy to copy and remember.

A Robin Cane lesson always contained a moment when he made you feel that you were the object of his undivided attention and that you could not, would not, dare not fail him. He is survived by his partner Sally, his father, sister and two brothers.

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