The Occidental Ski and Board Club was one of over 100 clubs and organizations present at the Involvement Fair Sept. 12. It is also one of only a handful of new clubs founded this semester. However, given their near 200 signups, members of the e-board said the club has ambitious plans this year.
According to the President of the Ski and Board Club, Jasper Clarkson (sophomore), the process of founding the club was fairly straightforward.
“Basically, you need 25 signatures, which wasn’t that hard, and then you need to write a constitution […] then there’s a couple of interest forms. It’s not super difficult, but it is a little bit of a process,” Clarkson said.
A main priority of the club is to make skiing and snowboarding available to any Occidental student who wants to try it.
“We’ve made the pass a lot cheaper. It’s still pretty expensive, but we’re fundraising for a beginner day as well as coordinating with nearby gear rental places or shops just to make it possible for people to get out there,” Clarkson said.
The pass that Clarkson is referring to is the Ikon Pass, a ski pass that grants access to many ski resorts, including Big Bear and Mammoth Mountain within a day’s drive form Occidental.
According to the social chair of the Ski and Board Club, Alex Nguyen (sophomore), the idea of forming the club started with a student discount.
“One of the main reasons this club was founded is because last semester we found out when we were trying to buy a new Ikon pass for this season that if you are registered with a school-affiliated club, then you can affiliate that club with Ikon and get a $120 student discount on your pass,” Nguyen said. “In order to do that, we had to create the club at school and now, if you register with us, you can fill out a form in our Instagram bio, and we’ll get you a discount code for $120 off your pass.”
Now that they’re established, the board said the club is ready to start running events, even though ski season does not start for months.
“In the fall semester when there isn’t skiing, we plan on doing different types of meetings,” Nguyen said.
However, their main focus is on the spring semester and running trips up to the mountains on the weekends, Clarkson said.
“We plan on going to Big Bear every weekend if the leadership can go, then we still plan on planning carpools or finding a way to get people access. We plan on trying to do a Mammoth Mountain trip during spring break,” Nguyen said.
Social media manager and event coordinator for the club, Evaristo Parra (sophomore), said that both of these mountains have their own unique offerings to all experience levels.
“At Big Bear, I would say there are some good spots for advanced skiers, but if you are an intermediate or a beginner skier, you will feel comfortable,” Parra said.
Parra said that while Big Bear is fun, accessible and approachable, Mammoth Mountain is even better.
“Mammoth just doesn’t even compare to Big Bear. Mammoth is some of the best skiing in the country, really awesome,” said Parra.
According to Parra, the club leaders want to go beyond simply running weekend trips — they want to foster a new community at Occidental.
“As a new club, we don’t have a foundation, and that’s what we definitely want to build. We want people to know each other from ski club […] we want friend groups to be created through ski club,” Parra said.
Contact Toby Wepman at wepman@oxy.edu
