No Drama: Twin Tip Nation Free Skiing

By Kristina Ortez de Jones, Southwest Youth Representative

What do you get when you give a kid an annual ski pass in exchange for no drama and no drugs? You get a pretty happy, healthy young person who will spend the winter skiing or snowboarding.

Mark Scott, founder and owner of Twin Tip Nation, what used to be a storefront in Rio Rancho and is now an online ski shop, believes that young people need to be gliding down the mountain and not in front of a television. As one of the Leave No New Mexico Child Inside Coalition’s newest business members, Mark and Twin Tip Nation are committed to getting kids outside and moving. Below is an interview I did with Mark:

Question: When did you start getting kids outdoors?
Answer: Five years ago we came up with a plan with partner and sponsor, Angel Fire, to give students, who never have any money anyway, a program to ski for free. In exchange they put an Angel Fire decal on their car. We call this the Ambassador Decal program, which also has other benefits, such as special invitations to events. This is geared toward driving-aged students 18-24. We find that they are sharing their lift tickets with their friends.

Q: What motivated you to work on this issue?
A: Really, it was my son. Seeing all the time all of his friends were spending with the game module and TV set. It’s important that young people enjoy the mountains and the scenery and get their bodies out and moving.

Q: What types of kids participate?
A: We get everyone. Single mothers going to college participate. We get families with kids from 9 years old up. We target high school and college. But what we find is that if a kid signs up for the Ambassador program, he ends up bringing his whole family.
We get kids who show up for the program that have never skied or snowboarded. This program makes it affordable. They would have never done this (snowboarding or skiing) if not for this program. We call them “Never Evers”—they don’t even know what to expect.
We also have No Drama Days (with a deeply discounted ticket) for anyone who wants to ski and snowboard with our Twin Tip Nation Ski and all-girls snowboard team. All we care about is that you are up in the mountains enjoying the beauty of the mountains. Sometimes we’ll have 100 people riding up with us at the same time.

Next up for Mark and Twin Tip Nation is a Gear Swap in Rio Rancho at 10 a.m. Oct. 15. Check out his website to learn about the Ambassador Decal Program and the upcoming Swap: Twin Tip Nation .