While I prefer to ride powder whenever I go snowboarding, I've always admired the snowboarders

who spend their time in the terrain park. It's an endless playground often filled with

features like a half pipe, rails, boxes, and jumps. This version of snowboarding, referred

to as park, looks totally thrilling and also a little terrifying. For snowboarder Nirvana

Ortones, the park is where she feels most at home. As a former pro park writer who was once

sponsored by Solomon, Nirvana has also been a changemaker in the sport. Early on, Nirvana

was one of the original members of Jetpack 5000, a group of women who empowered other

female snowboarders through film. More recently, Nirvana co-founded Soy Sauce Nation, a community

for Asian snowboarders. Throughout her career, Nirvana has been a leader, paving the way

with fun and audacity. I'm Shelby Stanger, and this is Wild Ideas

Worth Living, an REI co-op studios production. Nirvana Ortones, welcome to Wild Ideas Worth

Living. Thanks for having me. I'm excited because this is the first like in-person interview

I've gotten to do for a while. Yeah, I mean, I love being able to come in person and meet

people and not do it over Zoom. That's great. It's so nice. I love that you went to my

high school. I didn't know this, but that's so awesome. We have a lot of shared commonalities

then because we both went to Lohwai High. Yep, we're Vikings. Vikings, go Vikings. How

did you find surfing and snowboarding? A lot of that comes back to family. My dad grew

up surfing and he got me into surfing pretty young or just love of the ocean. We would

just go and hang out at the beach, we'd go snorkeling, and then my brother was a little

bit too young to kind of surf. My dad and I would go and do that while my mom hung out

on the beach with my brother. Yeah, I think I was about like six grade, but I had always

gone boogie boarding with him. And then around six grade, I was just like, okay, I want to

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