Private lesson - Instructor Suggestions and Availability

Hello all,

I'll be heading out to Steamboat for the first time next week. We have 5 days of lift tix and I'm very excited. As a bonus, we are going to have a local/mtn employee we know skiing with us a couple days too so I'm sure to see the best SB has to offer.

I'm a lifelong boarder and have skied intermittently. I prefer to ride and can hit any runs with confidence. On skis, I'm comfortable on on east coast blues/most blacks but I'll be the first to admit I probably don't look that great doing it and am not as efficient as i could be. (probably a 5-6 on the ability scale)

I'm bringing both my board and skis and am considering a private ski lesson on one of the first 2 days to work on my skiing especially since I will be with skiers who don't share my desire to do both and may want to ski a full day with them and not hold them back.

All that said I have a few questions.

1) Given my situation can any of you recommend a good private instructor to request?

2) I'm worried that it will dump snow on my lesson day and I'll have wished I was hitting the trees and chutes on my board instead of working on pole plants on a blue run. I'm likely willing to pay the the "day of" premium price to avoid this but my concern is that they may not have instructors if i don't make a reservation. Can anyone offer advice?

3) Lastly, I've never taken lessons before (though some of my friends are instructors). Is there anything I should know/prep for? I don't have/use a helmet (Yes, I know I should...maybe next year.); that won't be a big deal will it?

Thanks and if you have any other tips let me know.

-Doug