I moved to the resort town for the snowboarding, everything else came with it. The people who come here on vacations, pay for the jobs and opportunities. Without them, we wouldn’t have new roads or new chairlifts. It’s a double edged sword, because it’s a resort town…it’s not cheap either.
You pay a price to live here, while I live within walking distance to the slopes, I also pay higher prices in food, gas, everyday luxuries. Even my Starbucks costs more and that is dependent upon which location I buy it. You learn that with your minimal income, to find other ways to hook each other up.
One of the perks is the art of trading. In a resort town, you know which shop guys drink what beer or liquor to get a quick wax job or fix up job on a rock gash. I needed to have my truck looked at twice last month, instead of paying labor for a new friend to check it out I paid in beer. And I hooked up his boss with discount tickets to the mountain. For my new website, I have a friend helping me with the creation of it doing a lot of work but he knows I can’t pay him so I’m trading what I do have, a snowboard. In a resort town you which bartenders will give you free drinks, which baristas will treat you well with a $1.00 off every now and then. I’ve traded plenty of liquor for my roommates to watch my dog when I’m on vacation, a bottle of Crown goes a long way.
I make enough to survive, to pay my bills but I still live paycheck to paycheck. When I launched the blog, I did it to write about snowboarding, I could care less about scrounging up $10 from google ads. I am really stubborn that I don’t want to be another site with making money the main goal. I’ll be opening up the new site to advertising, but keeping with my tradition of full control over what ads can appear. I don’t want to compromise my integrity with ads and to remain true to what I want to say.
I didn’t move to Colorado to become rich, I came to enjoy something that is coveted to me. I came to the mountains to live, to not get sucked into a world where what you drive and how much you make, determines who you are. I’m very fortunate that I can live in a place that makes me happy, even when things are tough,I can walk outside, strap on a snowboard and be happy.
It’s easy to forget the world around a resort town, many people move to escape it and I definitely am one of those people. But by escaping, it opened up a lot more opportunities and inspired me to do something, to write about an experience as I live it and to enjoy some good trades along the way.
Marc
December 19, 2008 at 12:06 pmArt in modern society is losing its value as people are finding it less and less meaningful (a complaint often herd of Andy Warhol’s work). However, the counter argument to this is that if people expect more meaningful art, they should build a more meaningful society. The resort life you describe promotes a sense of community that is lost in the moder rat race. When people rely on MSN exclusively for communication, sense of community is lost. The resort life is a good way to escape a meaningless society for a more meaningful one.
Zboy
December 19, 2008 at 12:11 pmWow you nailed it Shay. What’s better than waking up everyday and being able to walk to the mountain to get your shred on? Driving a Lexus? Fuck no. To some people that is though… And those are the people who I feel are lost souls. Social status is more important than pure happiness, and really I just pity them.
Give me enough money to survive, a skate and a snowboard, some groovy tunes, and I’d be content and happy the rest of my life. Geez, gettin a little “deep” here… haha.
As far as trading goes, alcohol and, a-hem, a certain herbal substance are most widely accepted in the mountains. It’s almost better than cash. I once traded a dude at a shop the tie dye shirt I was wearing for an edge repair!
Great post!
And great point from Marc, above.
Nose Dradamous
December 19, 2008 at 1:21 pmHorsetradings the way.
Huckleberry Hart
December 20, 2008 at 10:42 amPreach on sister.
Taiguy
December 21, 2008 at 10:58 pmtrading doesn’t just happen at resort towns. this happens everywhere. the barter system is by far one of my favorites, simply because i have a lot to offer other than cash. cash is an equalizer created to facilitate economic growth beyond small scales. if there are 50 people and I know exactly what each and every single person can do then I can barter. if there are 5000 people, well shit – i don’t know what each can do, or how well they do it. let’s assign an arbitrary number to a piece of paper and make it worth one hot wax, or maybe an oil change. i’m totally down with living life; my goal is to be able to live life AND make the bucks / drive the car – simply because then life with my friends can be a bit more fun as well. good mojo is only good if you have people to share it with.