Club gives students chance to experience a new sport

Junior Lucas Brandt stares out the window with anticipation as he looks forward to his second snowboarding trip. “It’s like skateboarding, but a lot faster,” says Brandt as he describes his previous experience on the mountain. He is one of the students involved in the Snowboarding Club here on campus.

The club organizes a trip to a ski resort every Sunday for a small fee of $20 per student, and that cost is just for the gas to get there and back.

“It’s something everybody should be involved in,” junior Curtis Bernard said. “It’s super fun and super cheap and a good opportunity.”

Some of the resorts that the club goes to include Squaw Valley, Kirkwood, Donner Ski Ranch, Sugar Bowl Ski Resort and Bear Valley.

“We have provided over a hundred thousand dollars in services,” said club adviser Ron Tankersley, who teaches computer education. The cost of the trips could average somewhere between $200-250 per student.

The cost of snowboarding and rentals at the resorts are free thanks to teachers Scott Minott, Ron Schwartz, Tankersley and SkiDUCK, a non-profit organization. The idea for the club was introduced by Minott.

At first it was just a way to introduce students to a new sport that isn’t normally offered in schools.

With the help of Schwartz and Tankersley, the club started last year. “It really blew up,” Tankersley said. “We just told our students we were starting a snowboarding club and recruited the hell out of them.”

Schwartz and Tankersley went to multiple ski resorts to convince them to introduce the snowboarding environment to the current generation.

They stressed the point that most people who are going to the resorts nowadays are upper-class white people and that they need to expand their audience. The key to making lifelong enthusiasts is to pass it on to kids.

One key argument that they made was the “empty seat theory” where they would ask resorts what it would really cost to put students up on the ski lift. They pressed that argument until the resorts gave the honest answer – nothing.

After the club began to grow they joined with SkiDUCK. The organization’s goal is to bring snowboarding and skiing to disabled and underprivileged children, which is one of the primary goals of the Snowboarding Club. The club has two branches, one on this campus and one at Edison High School, and it plans on expanding to other schools as well.

“We really are changing lives,” Tankersley said. “We leave at 5 in the morning so kids are going to bed early and not riding dirty the night before. The kids we take are also so polite, attentive, and appreciative of the opportunity.”

Tankersley has really taken an active role by making sure students are on right path.

“You need leadership and experience to show you the ropes. I live my life to help. That’s why I teach. I don’t do it for the money, I do it to change lives.”

He has definitely impacted at least one of the club members.

“I want to thank him,” senior Ismael Almarez said. “Without him I probably would have never gotten the chance to go.”