I'd Like to Thank Jake Burton Carpenter

This week Jake Burton Carpenter died from a long-running bout with cancer.

Until a few months ago, I didn't know anything about him. Even so, he had a pretty big impact on what my every day is about.

You wouldn't think so by looking at me or by how I spend my time, but it will make sense in a minute.

Jake Burton Carpenter is best known for his middle name - Burton. He's the founder of Burton Snowboards, and the visionary that developed the snowboard. On the day he died, last Wednesday, I was in the heart of New York's financial district - the place Jake left to go do what he did best - doing what I do best.

I stumbled across Jake Burton Carpenter's story listening to NPR's "How I Built This" podcast about a year ago, and what a cool story. You should listen to it.

What does this all have to do with me?

What I do every day has a lot to do with snowboarding. That will sound strange since, currently, I don't even own a snowboard. I'm sort of between boards right now.

Let me explain.

At the beginning of the season in 2006, my wife and I decided that as a family we would try snowboarding. For three Saturdays in late November and early December the five of us went to a local resort and took a lesson.

After I told people I'd learned to ride, friends and family would ask me if I could teach them. Though I tried, and I really wanted to, I found that I couldn't. Learning for me was about trying to figure out how to do it for myself. Once I got a flow then I let muscle memory take over and promptly forgot all the instruction I'd received.

Bounce forward 8 years to the fall of 2014. Earlier that year I'd lost my corporate job and was cobbling an income together doing some consulting. While hustling and scrambling to keep ramen on the table - bread seemed like I was dreaming way too big - I stumbled across a job posting for an apprentice snowboard instructor at Park City. I had time so I applied.

I held little hope that they were going to hire a 48 year old dude with limited riding time, but like I said, I had time so, why not at least go to the interview.

They asked me why I wanted to teach snowboarding, and my answer as stated earlier was, "Look, I didn't even get on a board until I was 40, I'm not even the greatest rider, but I know that I love teaching more than I love riding. I just don't know how to teach. I want the job so I can learn to teach."

They hired me on the spot.

As I walked out of the interview, and even days later, I was confused how a middle aged dude with limited experience even riding, just became the newest INSTRUCTOR at Park City.

Later, on the job, I figured it out. Eighty-percent or more of my peers were in it for the free season pass. By contrast, I used my season pass, maybe 4 times that year.

Most of my peers came to the post every day hoping they wouldn't get a class to teach. Then they could just go ride. Sure they wouldn't get paid, but the job didn't pay that well so most of them had other jobs anyway.

For me, I wanted a class. I taught beginners, so my day was made when I could take someone from fear and uncertainty to confidence and excitement. Excitement to go show a partner or parent what they'd learned from me that day.

One day a thirty-something couple from New Zealand met me at the lesson site. She had a reluctant-but-willing look on her face, and a not-so-entusiastic tone in her voice. He did most of the talking.

He told me that he loved snowboarding and said he'd been trying to teach her for 3 seasons, but he'd come to the realization that he just didn't know how to teach her. They both agreed that she was about to give up, because it just wasn't fun for her. He wanted snowboarding to be time they could share.

Before leaving her with me for the afternoon he said, "You're our last hope, mate."

Maybe that should have been intimidating. I found it energizing. I knew that when we all met up again in about 3 hours, she would have gone from reluctant, to excited.

I knew, because I'd already seen it many, many times.

Turns out, I was right. When we met him back at the post around 4:00 that afternoon, she couldn't wait to show him her confident turns!

I've got a lot of stories like that.

Kids who got their first lesson on Friday, on Saturday were calling to me from above, on the lift yelling, "Ryan, watch me come down!!!" I'd interrupt my current learners long enough to give them a thumbs up and yell, "You're killin' it!"

That would give me the added benefit to tell that new batch of "never-evers" who were struggling to stand up, "And you'll all be killing it tomorrow too!"

I guess the day that made my whole season, happened after a group lesson on a sunny afternoon in February. The mom of 10 year-old Ashley wanted to take her picture. Ashley posed, googles on, holding up her completed riding log and said, "Wait mom, can Ryan be in it too?"

Pretty cool.

So, what does Jake Burton Carpenter have to do with all this?

That season as a snowboard instructor showed me what I do best. I’m a coach. It's what I've always done best. But I needed to do something really out of the ordinary and actually pretty hard for me, to highlight that coaching is what I was made for.

My corporate job, that one they kicked me out of and therefore gave me the free time that winter. The part of that corporate gig that I liked was coaching people on my team to continually approach their potential.

It's now what I do all the time, in all the areas and arenas of my life.

I always had a rough idea about what I was good at, but it was Jake Burton Carpenter's innovation, and having one of them strapped to my feet that made it crystal clear to me.

It's made it so I have no bad days at work. I've learned that if I can do what I do best most of the time I rarely have stress. I never have that Sunday night dread that so many people feel and that I used to feel.

Yeah, so after hearing the news of Jake Burton Carpenter's passing, I'd like to say thanks to him for pursuing his vision.

It made a difference to me.