Wide-eyed rookies, washed-up pros, sponsor-me bro’s, MacGyverists, and career-minded individuals—freestyle terrain employees are a disparate, passionate group that shares a love for terrain parks. Whatever you call them, finding the personalities that will forge a strong crew can be unexplored terrain for even the most intuitive mountain managers and HR staff.

Resorts may find it helpful to refer to (or create) their freestyle terrain strategic plan when going through the fall recruiting process, as well as for the staff’s in-season performance review. Use the plan as a system of checks and balances when defining what personalities best fit your resort’s intentions.

What follows is a general summary of a staffing outline that seems to work for many resorts. Your resort may not have a large crew, but a combination of the following personalities can be beneficial. Don’t shy away from paying a wage that befits a workers ability; think of it in ad-equivalency terms. Freestyle terrain programs live and die in the ever-changing minds of a fast-food generation. Word-of-mouth advertising can be your best asset in the absence of a high-dollar marketing campaign.

Here are the personalities we’ve found work best:

• the Cult Leader, or park manager

• the MacGyver, a.k.a. supervisor

• the Coulda’-been Pro, a humble athlete of top ability

• the Techie, who somehow owns more toys than $10/hour can afford

• the Enforcer, who should be as big and strong as a tank

• the Traveler, a scheduling nightmare who nonetheless brings the industry home to visit.


The Cult Leader
With freestyle terrain users at some resorts representing as much as 70 percent of the annual business, this person can be as important as any of your more traditional department heads.

This person is a facilitator. He (or, occasionally, she, as is true of all these characters) is tasked with making sure that the crews have the materials and direction to get the job done. He must be able to manage a 24-hour effort—oversee the design and build process, and communicate with all departments that are affected by freestyle terrain.


The MacGyver
This person can accomplish anything with next to no resources under unthinkable conditions, and does so purely for the satisfaction of knowing that lesser individuals would give up and go home. This individual is in charge when the park manager is off. He communicates what the boss wants to the rest of the staff, often translating or editing requests to maintain order or morale. The MacGyver is the guy who gets yelled at in the morning, and who never has to buy beer because he always ends up saving the day.


The Could-be Pro
This crew member is the person who contributes the subtle suggestions or handwork that enables features to go from roughed-in to rock-star quality. His ability on the hill and attention to detail could allow him to travel around the world, but he is just not interested. He makes inspecting a jump look easy, even when it still needs work.


The Techie
This worker has more friends in his or her social network than the population of the town you grew up in. A famous action sports photographer once said, “Make your friends famous, and they will make you famous.” Techies do that for your park. Outside of his daily duties, give this person the time (while still on the clock) to create content for the website, blog about the park, and share creative input on the branding of the park. All this will deliver the customers. Don’t be afraid to buy a photo from the Techie from time to time for marketing collateral. This will encourage what he does and subsidize the purchase of his next toy, which starts the cycle all over again.


The Enforcer
Having someone strong enough to reset rails in warm conditions without the help of a snowcat is priceless. Encouraging him to create an army of regular park users that help to positively reinforce park etiquette will create ownership and good will. Every mountain worker runs into disgruntled guests who defeat all attempts at assistance. These habitually angry guests will get the message, though, when the Tank shows up to give moral support to your friendly frontline customer service agents.


The Traveler
This employee invariably needs every weekend off to attend some event or other. The right individual can still be an asset if the rest of the crew is supportive. When the Traveler wins contests, people take notice of where he is from, and they come to visit. Travelers can attract reps, media, and event planners to your resort, key opinion leaders who might not have thought to include your mountain in their plans for world domination. There’s nothing like being led into the inner circle—money can’t buy that kind of networking.

Strange as it might seem, attributes from these six characters will form a highly successful team. Good luck building your crew, and as with any department, start by hiring a MacGyverist.