NZsnowboard.com

5th August 2008

By: Hannah Tatton

Its fair to say that avid snowboarders will drop a lot where they can to get in a good days riding and will do even more to get in a season or more of quality offshore shredding that memories are made of.  And while the kiwi adventurer in us all easily gets the better of us, it's a slap in the face to know that you had better stay behind this summer and chase a 'real job' or a 'real education'.

Mitch Brown tweaking out a frontside stale

Like a tempting and tried love affair, getting a go at the overseas freshness while stuffing the old education worries into the cupboard for a few back to back seasons is an idea that many have toyed with.

Christchurch and Mt Hutt snowboarder Reuben Williams knuckled down into the education path with a short stint in the US part way through his degree.

"After visiting Tahoe I was seriously considering putting Uni on hold for a few years and just snowboarding, but instead I went back to Uni and now I'm totally wishing I took those years off to ride the world. Now I've got a mortgage and I'm married to a bank," he said.

A dready liftie reading up on hill

Will Marshall is also studying in Christchurch while a lot of his friends are still riding fulltime. "A lot of the crew are still riding all over the world sending me emails about where they are going to next and I'm back here still on the grind," he said.

But he pointed out that it is not the end of the world if your still studying near the mountains.

"You've got Mt Hutt with a new improved park and at least 6 other club fields not too far out of Christchurch. Having more time would be nice though. Shredding with your mates and progression are the main motives to ride for me and to do those you need time, especially to progress," he said.

And for those students one year down, wishing they were in the Swiss Alps or even just Central Otago, 10k in debt and about to throw in the towel, all does not have to be lost. You can do both study and shred as Marshall did.

"I did something in between. I had a year off to study and snowboard together when I did a snowboard instructor and avalanche certificate through Otago Polytechnic based in Wanaka. I think having time off to ride gives you a break from the studies and time to think about what you really want to do before you jump into something you're not sure about. You might as well shred for a bit while you're still young, see if you can make something of it if that's what you want to do," he said.

While the "education vs. snowboarding" query may seem a bit of a hard ball to roll, at the end of the day it doesn't have to be so cut and dry. Here the phrase "Do something you love and you'll never work a day in your life" rings a nice tone and surely with a bit of determination and planning you can morph your work with your passion. And that was written across a lifty's white board at Cardrona recently.

Director of Bataleon NZ, Cleay Perham does just that with Bataleon being a side job to his design career. After finishing arts school in Christchurch, Perham chased winters for 8 years working 3 months for design agencies in New Zealand and riding Mt Hutt and spending the remaining months of the year teaching on the slopes in France.

The Bataleon Team spelling it out

"One of the guys that I met and got to know really well in France went on to become the international sales manager for Bataleon. He said 'we're paying Mitchi (Brown) a salary and there aren't any boards in New Zealand so I'm sending some over, you better go sell them'," he said.

And there are plenty of interesting jobs in the industry besides your average lifty. With the NZ Burton Open in full force last week it was impossible to get in touch with the magazine editors, park shapers and event organisers. Not to mention the heliskiing guides who were definitely out of the office with all that fresh snow and customers going nuts. The question is if you want to get some real coin, can you squeeze out a decent profit from such jobs? As Perham hints, unless your at the top of you're game, it's a pretty tough play.

"I've done a whole bunch of jobs within the industry and none of them really pay a lot so from my point of view it is pretty hard to make a good living out of it. I'm sure there is some good money up at the top end if you own something like a resort, but you're not going to make any money if you're a lifty and you're not going to make too much money if you're a small player like Bataleon are at the moment in New Zealand until the numbers go up. There is only a handful of those who make money and the rest of us are doing it just because we like snowboarding."

But like most jobs in the snowboard industry, there is always a few sweet perks that come with the status.

"We got in a good fun trip with Mitchi in Sweden last year. We also get as many boards as you can eat which is always good.  And it's a pretty cool feeling when you see some little grom ripping around on the boards and you see that they love it," Perham said.