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How to Be a College Ski Bum

By Wayne Sheldrake

Found in: | Outside | Skiing | Alpine |

"If you think you have what it takes, college is actually a great place to figure out if you can balance skiing and life."

- Wayne Sheldrake

The wrong way is: you act interested in college, purposely blow your ACTs, and convince your parents that little colleges in ski towns will be a perfect bargain while you raise your grades for a year until you transfer. Once on campus you ignore their calls (unless you're badgering them for cash), score the student discount for a season pass, blow off classes, ski every single day, party with your book money and become a nuisance to anyone trying to accomplish anything.

It's better to ask yourself if you really have the chops to balance skiing and college. If not, save everyone else the headaches - skip college and go ski.

If you think you have what it takes, college is actually a great place to figure out if you can balance skiing and life.

NUMBER ONE Get the costs under control. The student-discounted season pass is a great start. Follow through by looking for bargains on gear. Get to the local ski swaps, second-hand sports shops and hunt down ski-area reps for pro deals. Sack lunch it - 20 servings of $5 ski-lodge fries adds up to a season of PBJs.

Get serious about your priorities. Do you have to have HDTV? Do you have to drink Cuervo? Do you have to have a Wii? Do you have to have text messaging? Do you have to have tickets to the Crucial Change concert? If you really must ski, you'd be surprised what you can live without.

There's no better bargain than working part-time at a ski area. They love having energetic college kids on staff. You'll get your pass for free. You'll meet people who will make you a better rider/skier. Pro deals will be easier to get, and you'll actually make some cash.

Of course, there are creative financial alternatives. When faced with work that cuts into slope time, many "pro" ski bums insist it's better to "get a rich girlfriend" (or boyfriend).

NUMBER TWO Ski as close to campus as possible. Pick out the area you want to spend your time at and focus. While fun and adventurous, far-flung road trips cut into your time, energy and budget. Get rid of your car (unless you plan to sleep in it); cars suck money and usually require a job to keep them running. Car pool. Hitch.

NUMBER THREE Pick a class/study schedule and stick to it. Remember you aren't a college ski bum unless you are in college. This means skiing three days a week max. Study hard from Sunday night through Thursday night. Two days of skiing is more realistic. A habit of mid-week skiing too easily becomes a habit of blowing off classes or studies.

A ski day becomes a party night with the snap of the fingers (and you are likely going to party Friday and Saturday anyway) so you have to be honest about whether you can handle studying after a day of mid-week skiing. If you can't, don't. Hit every weekend and every holiday and you'll top 50 days on the slopes, easily.

A full-time class schedule that loads classes on M/W/F or T/Th sounds great - "Dude, I can ski five days a week!" - but, unless you have superhuman discipline, it almost always spells academic disaster. (Please note: A commitment to a consistent schedule also means that on occasion you might have to resist a powder day.)

NUMBER FOUR If you have to have more than 50 days a year, consider alternatives that won't shell your GPA. Take the spring semester off and pick up credits in summer school. Be aware it's impossible to pick up a full semester of credit hours in a summer session, but you can load up on credits in the fall semester.

Also, be aware that some essential courses may not be offered in summer sessions, and missing one of those courses may mean you have to stick around for a fifth . . . or sixth . . . or seventh year of school. No worries. All the more to ski!

If you must take a semester off, take one semester off. If you take a year you might never go back, and even if you do you'll have to relearn the discipline you built up. If you must ski more than two days a week, consider loading up on credits in the fall and enrolling part-time in the spring semester. As a part-timer, that M/W/F or T/Th scheme might be manageable.

There may be no better-educated human being than a college ski bum. Done right, no one knows better how to balance (pun intended) a full slate of challenges. You'll learn discipline, sacrifice, and focus while you keep fit and have a hoot of a good time.

Done right, it prepares you for the real world, where you're going to have to figure out how to juggle employment, home life, and . . . 50 days of skiing every year.

A former college ski bum, Wayne Sheldrake is the author of Instant Karma: the Heart and Soul of a Ski Bum (Ghost Road Press, 2007), reviewed on page 45.