So you love snowboarding, you love the mountains but the pro shred lifestyle is not for you; maybe you don’t wanna live from a suitcase, maybe a 360 is the max rotation amount you can learn or maybe you are just creative and prefer to design and think about what’s rad to shred. Also maybe kissing butt in the “industry” is not for you either, because you want to live in the mountains. Well, Oren Tanzer is the Youth Action Sports Marketing Director for Mammoth which is one of the best resorts in the world with one of the best parks in the world and always has pro shreds riding or hanging out. So you think, “that is the job for me” Well, how do you get there. While there are no guarantees in life, but we got to talk to Oren about how he got his jobs, his responsibilities, perks and even the economy.

- Park crew after a very successful WCI 2008. (Andrew Miller Photo)

So what exactly is your job?
That’s an interesting question. I am the Director of Youth Action Sports Marketing, which basically means we take care of everything that’s fun on the mountain. Been doing it for 14 years, 8 at Mammoth, started at Mammoth in 2001.

Where were you before Mammoth?
I had a little stint at Mountain High

Oh, I remember you at Mountain High, they used you in an advertisement
(laughter) That’s right, it was the only published picture of me that’s hanging on my wall. I was at Bear Mountain before that. In the middle days, not all the way back in the day; I think it was 94/95 when I first went to Bear.

So you oversee everything that’s rad at Mammoth, are you in charge of the parks?
I like to say that I have people in charge of the park for me. The terrain parks are the culmination of all our marketing efforts, operationally.

Do you do the marketing too?
We call it Youth Action Sports marketing which is basically everything from putting the ads in the magazines, art director, photo editor, developing new programs and sponsorship opportunities; we just signed an agreement with Red Bull for the entire mountain, so I work on all that kind of stuff along with the terrain park.

Team Manager?
I am the team manager for the pro team. It’s pretty easy though, we have an amazing team with very high level riders like Eddie Wall, Gabe Taylor, Danny Kass, Tara Dakides, Molly and Mason Aguirre. We have some other riders that are still young but killing it; Trevor Jacob, Greg Bretz and Tyler Flanagan so…

…You got your hands full
Yea, besides that we got the Junior Snowboard team and development program which has 60 young athletes from the age of 5 to around 18. All the coaches work under me as well. We are not just trying to put the product out there but also trying to develop good athletes from the start.

- Johnny Centi jumping in the one the best parks with one of the best views in the world. Mammoth Revolution Session (Andrew Miller Photo)

How much time do you spend working outside?
(laughs) I spend a lot of time looking outside. It goes in spurts. When it is a powder day the snow is literally a few feet from my desk so I can head out there any time. As you get older you start to feel the landings more and I am more of a soul rider these days. In an average season I will get about 70-80 days.

It sounds like though as far as your job goes, it is mostly inside?
The higher up the ladder you get the more meetings you go to, the more phone calls your answering and you get more involved in day to day business. That’s why I’ve got a team that is out there every single day. The most important thing is my connection to what is going on out there so I do get out often and I see what’s going on, I hear what people want. What are the cool trends, what kind of features do people want, what kind of colors are people wearing. You don’t have to be a marketing genius, you just have open your ears up to what people are telling you.

Not to mention you guys have such a killer team with veterans and new kids, I mean you think Eddie Wall knows what a good feature is?
Yea we use the team riders a lot for features on the park because they know Mammoth and they are really level headed. They come back to us with really constructive feedback that we can take to our parks.

- Molly Aguirre is one of the many pros that moved to Mammoth from their home mountain (hers was in Minnesota) to kick there careers into the highest gear possible

So Mammoth is always rated as having one of the best parks, how many parks?
We are up to 7 parks now, over 9 runs and 90 acres

Who makes the decision about the overall direction of the park as far people saying you can only spend so much…
I have been here long enough and able to prove to the senior managers so I almost feel like an independent business. They really leave us alone to do our own thing. When it comes to acreage on the hill, it’s like anything in life, if you can make a good argument for it you can get. So over the years we have been slowly taking little pieces of the ski area. Mostly areas that were completely under-utilized and turning them into additional park areas. Like chair 7 over at Canyon Lodge which never even ran before until we put a beginner park over there and then there was a line there all year, so it became a very popular chair. So we have been able to put together some pretty cool business and marketing plans to show them and they let us run with the ball

Obviously with a huge park you are going draw people from all over the world, shit last at to the bar there were so many people and stuff there, it was crazy. It has to be because of the park in addition to the sick terrain.
It’s amazing. We’ve got a great relationship within the industry which is key. It’s just a regular day out there today and you got everybody from Danny Davis, Kevin Pearce, Marc Franc, Eddie Wall, Tara Dakides, Molly Aguirre, Greg Bretz…they are just here riding right now. It is amazing to me that they support us and we give support back to them.

- With all the accolades for it’s terrain parks we can not forget that the natural terrain at Mammoth is hard to beat as well which makes it easy to see why Oren could be happy to call Mammoth and take pride in what he does

....and it goes all season
Yea, the contest riders are here early and late season, then you have the filmers getting back into Sonora and the backcountry so there is always something going on

So how would some kid sitting in high school daydreaming about the mountains when he graduates get your job?
I’ll tell you it probably more about luck and being in the right place at the right time. It’s also about hard work, in my case it really paid off. I started as Bear Mountain as a lift operator and I saw these guys riding around with shovels and rakes and said that’s what I wanna do. Everyday I had off I worked for free and hand dug halfpipes back then and all sorts of crazy stuff. At the end of the season I got a chance to work full time on the park staff. That was 14 years ago so it wasn’t a real quick road. Through out the years I learned how to build and drive snowcats and brought that to Mammoth and got to work with some of the best. Mike Gerstner who is my right hand guy and guys like Josh Chauvet that was here before me. Learned from those guys and they’re the real artists. I was a hard worker and in the right place in the right time.

- Travis Rice Back 5 during the Superpark last season. Yes, the Superpark is done by Snowboarder but Mammoth staff and Oren have a lot to do with it – no hammers without them. ( Andrew Miller Photo)

So do you think the horrible economy will affect snowboarding at Mammoth? This is the second weekend and the parking lot is packed!
I don’t think the economy will hurt us as much as maybe some destination resorts. We are kind of set up right now as a super mega regional resort which lets people from Southern California easily and less expensively make it to Mammoth (as opposed to flying somewhere). I think more important than the economy is the snow. If we have good snow, we “only” had 370 inches last year, so if we have good snow conditions I am hoping that Mammoth still does well. The economy is tough, everybody is feeling it. We have been working to improve our food and other services. Hopefully through programs to help people with the cost of getting up here; a cheap airline flight these days on Horizon, $89 each way. We are making Mammoth vey accessible

If it snows, they will come?
When I was kid growing up in Canada and I was 16 years old I would save every penny I had to go to the local Mts. in Vancouver. Snowboarding is a luxury but if you talk to a guy like me, it’s a necessity. Even in this day and age I would whatever it takes to snowboard and a lot of kids out there feel the same.

- Lonnie Kauk was born in Yosemite Valley and is at least part Native American and part climber (his Dad is world famous climber Ron Kauk) so he is almost more Mammoth native than anyone

Being from Canada, would you ever see yourself moving to another mountain?
Uh, NO! (laughter) Uh Yes I would (laughter) No, I have had a taste for other mountains and other parts of the business and there is something incredibly special about Mammoth and this place. The people and…we went through all these branding exercises, what is Mammoth? People can talk about this place but…

Well, you can’t explain, you got the mountain, the skatepark, Yosemite, golf in Bishop…
…Mt biking in the summer, I got really into back packing with my girlfriend and the dog this summer. It’s about the place and the people that share the same feeling and mentality so I don’t see myself anywhere else

- This photo is taken, literally, a few feet from Oren’s office. The view from his office must either inspiring to work his ass off to keep it or inspiring to get out ride, probably both

- See those mountains Charles Reid is jumping over? That is Mt Ritter and Banner and John Muir once spent a freezing night up there without a jacket or food but the experience was worth it to see the sunrise. Charles has a jacket and will spend the night indoors more than likely but I am sure his Mammoth experience was equally exciting ( Andrew Miller Photo)

- Shayne Pospisil during the West Coast Invitational a year or two back

- Pat Moore putting the Hammer down in Superpark 12  (Andrew Miller Photo)