BCSS grad student Jordan Uyeyama knows where he’d like to be in a few years. His goal is to get a welding ticket from Okanagan College.
“My dad taught me to weld when I was 11,” explained Jordan, adding that he also learned mechanical and carpentry skills at a young age.
His resume lists employment at Vaagen Fibre Canada, Midnight Towing and, for the past three years, Phoenix Ski Hill.
The way Jordan tells it – he started skiing when he was five years old and he hasn’t found the bottom of the hill yet.
“I absolutely fell in love with it,” said Jordan. “Now it is my passion and I just try to spend all the time I can with it and try to get as good as I can.”
His sport is free style skiing. He started working at Phoenix three years ago, “because I spent a lot of time up there and figured I wanted to contribute. So now I am a lift operator there and assistant park manager.”
“I get a say in what happens there,” he says proudly. “I build all of the rails, features and jumps and test them out before we open them up to the public.”
For the uninitiated, free style is skiing off jumps and doing spins and flips as well as doing tricks off rails like you see skateboarders do on the handrails of concrete steps.
Jordan says he competes each year at the Phoenix Free Style Jam or he will drive up to White Water and compete there.
It is a little dangerous though. Jordan says he’s punctured his throat, has 40 stiches in his knee, tore a ligament in his knee, has torn the AC clavicle in his shoulder, had a level 3 concussion and about four level 1’s.
He says he plans on skiing until he can’t do it anymore though.
He’s been training since last winter with the Greenwood Volunteer Fire Department.
Jordan has lived in Greenwood his whole life. For summer employment he’ll put in applications at Roxul in Grand Forks and at Vaagen Brothers again.
When asked to describe his skills he said, “I like using my time efficiently at work. I am really reliable when it comes to showing up. I like to work hard, get the job done fast, on time and to their expectations. I have experience with welding, carpentry, mechanics, ski hill equipment and can run a forklift and loader.”
“I am stuck between taking a year off to work or going to the welding course in Okanagan College this fall,” said Jordan when interviewed for this article back in April. Either way he hopes it’s all downhill from here – as long as he’s wearing some skis that is.