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Park Crew

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BMillerrr
Posts: 191 - Karma: 300
I did in fact use the search bar before making this thread, but I was thinking... am I the only Park Crew worker on NS?! If your part of your resorts Park Crew what are some of your craziest, funniest experiences? Share to the rest of NS what a rad thing it is to build the parks!
Apr 22 2013 9:09PM
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Blake.P
Posts: 9894 - Karma: 3,585
what park do you work at?
Apr 22 2013 9:12PM
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BWalmer
Posts: 9141 - Karma: 12,883
You're certainly not the only park crew worker on NS, in fact there's a whole cult called the Park Designers Cult that's full of park crew.

As far as stories, the craziest one's I've experienced was moving a Wallride that had broken, the only way to get it down the hill was pulling it via chains and a Pisten Bully 400, it required zigzagging down the hill backwards around other features, the chains came loose and we almost sent the wallride into a lift tower (not a rail...the actual lift)...kinda sketchy. Other than that, normal stuff....rails completely buried by snowmaking, rails almost falling over on people while setting them up, that kinda stuff.
Apr 22 2013 9:23PM
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Elmo.
Posts: 4317 - Karma: 663
rails are fucking heavy. me and 3 friends tried to move a 10 foot rail after season at loon and it would barely even move... wouldnt want one of those falling on me.
Apr 22 2013 9:34PM
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BMillerrr
Posts: 191 - Karma: 300
I mean I assumed there were more! Just saw no posts about it! But I work at BMBW, more specifically at Brandywine at our main park. I'm just a employee not a manager, hopefully one day!

But this one day, we were rebuilding the park and we had just took out a basic 10 ft. box rail. We had gotten it out of the "moat" or whatever you would like to call it, and it just started sliding down the hill. Keep in mind we were open when this happened too. It was the very first feature too so it went down the whole park and remarkably it didnt hit anything or anyone. But damn was that thing going fast, it ended up stopping at the bottom of the park in a patch of dead grass where all the other unused rails were. But if that thing were to hit someone....
Apr 22 2013 9:41PM
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BWalmer
Posts: 9141 - Karma: 12,883
Next time, flip it over and push it (a shovel under the front of it helps too). But yeah, you get used to pushing them around (I've moved a couple 20 footers by myself late season, early season it takes like 4 of us to move the same rail, haha), you also get used to getting out of the way very fast, you always want to have an escape plan.
Apr 22 2013 9:44PM
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DeRizzo
Posts: 3827 - Karma: 3,485
Park crew work sounds really intense.
Apr 22 2013 9:56PM
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BMillerrr
Posts: 191 - Karma: 300
hahaha I could be at times! But its the best job in the world! I love it
Apr 22 2013 10:47PM
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jjdsteeze
Posts: 2562 - Karma: 4,135
park crew is an awesome job
Apr 22 2013 11:23PM
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bnewbs6
Posts: 1919 - Karma: 1,463
I wanna be on the park crew. It looks really fun.
Apr 23 2013 1:12AM
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Jibberino
Posts: 2089 - Karma: 1,346
I'm on the parkcrew at Motta Naluns, Scuol in Eastern Switzerland. I have a degree in American History from Roskilde University in Denmark, but 2 years ago I decided to follow my dream, and start building some parks!

As for sketchy episodes, I actually had one of our resorts Bully drivers poach the park after closing. We were handshaping, and my boss was in the bully grooming right under a steep natural knuckle in the park. So this dude comes flying down, heading straight for said knuckle. I start screaming at him to stop, as he would ski straight into the shovel of the Bully if he kept going. But he just flips me off and yells that he works here, and he can do what he wants. Luckily my buddy just managed to intercept him and stop him. Strangely enough he wanted to fight us to begin with until he realised what was going on. I fucking hate it when people go into the park after closing, and I can tell you that this behaviour is fucking rampant in Switzerland. When you tell people that it's really dangerous they always respond by saying that they grew up skiing and that they know what they're doing.

Other than that, it's the best job in the world!
Apr 23 2013 3:08AM
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Crispy.
Posts: 6108 - Karma: 7,678
One of my coaches from woodward works the park out at keystone...one night after everything was raked and groomed some guy poached the park, so they had to redo all the lips on.
Apr 23 2013 6:59AM
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jwv
Posts: 560 - Karma: 1,190
BMBW was sick this year, keep it up!!
Apr 23 2013 7:30AM
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TOAST.
Posts: 7478 - Karma: 36,007
I wasn't there, but the cat driver was trying to move a popane tank by himself with no straps just to get it out of the way a little so he could smooth a pile. The think ended up taking off down the hill. Would have easily taken out the safety net at the end and went into the lodge or taken out some snow guns, but luckily it hit a tree and came to a stop. There is a huge dent in the bottom of our propane tank now.

Also, riding boxes down the hill is really fun.
Apr 23 2013 7:56AM
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corona
Posts: 12794 - Karma: 32,720
not in park crew but a few years ago I was at the top of the lift looking into the park and saw a big PVC pipe release and go flying down the hill. Thing was probably 200 pounds and just flew. good thing it didn't hit anybody or bones would have shattered.
Apr 23 2013 8:04AM
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Jamie_Baril
Posts: 2196 - Karma: 2,513
Park Crew in washington is tight, but you end up spending 3/4 of the year digging out burried features haha.
Apr 23 2013 12:25PM
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roddy116
Posts: 10627 - Karma: 7,423
this one kid legitamately tried to fight my friend because we were shaping a tabletop mid day and adding some corrugated tubes to make some elbow rails and things. tow rope op clipped his pass.
Apr 23 2013 12:34PM
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werd.
Posts: 967 - Karma: 4,330
OP how did you first get the job of joining the park crew?
Apr 23 2013 12:39PM
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BMillerrr
Posts: 191 - Karma: 300
It's ridiculous how many times ive been told to fuck off and fight when raking or lapping. Like without us, there would be no park let us do our job! haha but one day I had to close the beginner park on my own and i put my skis in front of a lip and even bamboo sticks to block off the feature and some snowboarder kid goes and runs over my skis and breaks the bamboo 50-50s the flat box and falls. I yelled at him, and once the tow rope finally closed kids kept hiking and i told them we were closed and they told me to fuck off but the tow rope op got in his face in my defense and clipped his pass.

But I was very fortunate that alot of my friends were able to get me on Park Crew. So connections helped me. Always apply for the job, but having connections defiantly helps in the process.

And thank you! It was a pleasure building the park this year at BMBW, and we feel they came out great. Expect great things next season!!
Apr 23 2013 8:30PM
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nCrow
Posts: 1199 - Karma: 7,832
false
Apr 23 2013 8:37PM
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Balbertt
Posts: 1585 - Karma: 4,723
Give me my profile pic back :/
Apr 23 2013 8:46PM
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BMillerrr
Posts: 191 - Karma: 300
bwine was in fact good this year. Way better than last season, we did with what we had and it ended up pretty good. If theres features you cant hit, dont say its shit. Go ski at alpine valley or something if you dont like our park. sick of people criticizing the parks, if you dont like them DONT COME!!
Apr 23 2013 8:48PM
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nCrow
Posts: 1199 - Karma: 7,832
I agree with you that the park was better than last season and it was great for the conditions here in ohio and you guys did a great job, I just feel that there were a few times when the park could have been improved throughout the season, no offense to the park crew really
Apr 23 2013 8:58PM
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BMillerrr
Posts: 191 - Karma: 300
Ok ok, sorry for a little rage. But yeah its frustrating when we work our asses off to produce a good park and it just gets trashed. But I agree, some our set ups were not very good but what are you gonna do you know. But no worries dude.
Apr 23 2013 9:00PM
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nCrow
Posts: 1199 - Karma: 7,832
its cool man, looking forward to a great season at bw
Apr 23 2013 9:05PM
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gotti
Posts: 4269 - Karma: 4,550
Sugarbush park crew gets mad respect.
Apr 23 2013 10:37PM
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HeathR
Posts: 4359 - Karma: 1,382
I have been working Park Crew going on 9 seasons. Lots of crazy stories. I have had the top half of a two part wallride land on top of and partially crush my cat.

Probably the craziest thing I have done was in New Zealand. We we building a cannon box over a death gap. The cat was parked on the far side trying to lift up the far end of the box to get a steeper agle. It was teetering over the edge of a 20 foot drop but the blade would not go high enough. Had to climb out onto the blade in ski boots and try to balance and lift the box high enough to get the right angle. Three feet of track was hanging over the edge and it felt like when you lifted up the cat was dipping down and going to tip in.
Apr 23 2013 11:40PM
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BMillerrr
Posts: 191 - Karma: 300
And I thought some of my stories were crazy, but I mean most locals at our resort respect park crew
Apr 24 2013 4:37PM
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Rparr
Posts: 5559 - Karma: 45,569
You should convince the rest of the park crew to burn the rest of your plastic corrugated tubes. I hate those fucking things.
Apr 24 2013 5:19PM
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Blake.P
Posts: 9894 - Karma: 3,585
Or spending hours raising the fence around the park on an awesome powder day

But you also ski every day so don't bitch about it
Apr 24 2013 5:38PM
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theabortionator
Posts: 51600 - Karma: 161,813
When I worked at gore from 06-08 we were changing stuff for new insurance requirements one of the years. For some reason we were with one of the head ski patrollers, a dude called bean dip to take pictures of the rails. I can't remember why he was with us but whatever. Anyway he wanted us to spit on the rails and make them shinier. The concept was so ridiculous that we decided to do it.


Same mountain has a mid lodge half way up. Not huge but I think over 2k vert from top to bottom. Used to stay up there sometimes at night and ride the freshies down to punch in.

I think most of the ridiculous shit happened when I worked at that mountain.

/cool story
Apr 24 2013 5:39PM
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theabortionator
Posts: 51600 - Karma: 161,813
I mean it's awesome but fun depends on whether you like the work. It can be a ton of work but if you like it, it's fun and no big deal.

I know a lot of people have the impression that park crew get's paid to do nothing but ride all day. It def happens, but a lot of times people overlook the work that's going on. Some days I won't even strap on my snowboard if in the middle of a big build. You could be shoveling snow and dragging around rails all day. If it's your thing it's awesome, if not it's like shoveling an endless driveway and moving furniture.

Most places you have to be 18 to be on park crew. Some smaller mountains you can get on one earlier. IF you want to do it def apply at your local hill. Doesn't hurt to make friends with the park crew and know most of the people riding the park. If you get hired on work your ass off and you'll probably have a job doing it as long as you want. The worst thing you can do is get hired on and then burn the first bridge.

Also for the love of god don't break the motherfucking rakes(or any tools).
Apr 24 2013 5:52PM
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BMillerrr
Posts: 191 - Karma: 300
This post just sums it all up hahaha like honestly. I love it, its a ton of fun, but it is a lot of work (hardwork) but It's my kind of thing so I enjoy it. And we have a park crew shack mid way through the park off to the side so we can chill in there and jam to some tunes and its a plus that its heated! Oh and never drop a rake either!!
Apr 24 2013 6:36PM
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BWalmer
Posts: 9141 - Karma: 12,883
for the love of god...don't break the rakes!!!


But yeah...people definitely underestimate the amount of work that being on the park is, and not just work, hard work. Moving very heavy metal objects, shoveling seemingly endlessly sometimes, not too mention how early you have to be at work (depending on the mountain/shifts). People just think that I'm skiing around all day and getting paid, when in reality when you see me first start skiing I've been working for probably 4 hours already and I've been at the mountain since like 5 or 6am. But, there are certainly benefits, if you've got a good crew the work can get done quickly and can end up being fun because you're joking around the whole time, you do actually get paid to ski quite often (although there is the downside of being forced to ski on shitty days...no one really takes that into consideration).

I work at a pretty small mountain, so park crew is pretty small, but it's also actually pretty high ranked as far as status goes (like I have daily conversations with the operations manager and the owner, we're thought of as fairly high level employees compared to others...which is weird, but whatever). One of the funniest things is when the owner asks me if I'm good moving something heavy (like not on the hill...such as a PA system or b-net fencing) and I have to look at him and remind him that he pays me to move heavy things all day.
Apr 24 2013 6:54PM
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TOAST.
Posts: 7478 - Karma: 36,007
we broke at least 5 shovels this year and the lifties broke out pick ax. Nothing is worse than a bent rake, though.
Apr 26 2013 1:14PM
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-emile-
Posts: 6612 - Karma: 8,592
went to killington for a weekend and I must say parkcrew works their asses off,

easily one of the hardest working park crews I've seen and following them on facebook , I see the setup always changes , so if there is any Killy park ranger here , hats off !
Apr 26 2013 1:20PM
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