Cover photo courtesy Brad Naccarato
As a contributor to Out There for the last 12 years, I’ve had the opportunity to write about a wide variety of exciting outdoor pursuits. Some were new adventures and others were lifelong passions that I loved sharing with our community. While I really enjoyed writing every one of those stories, there’s one story, albeit an odd one, that stands out to me in particular.
Derrick approached me about doing a piece on skier/snowboarder lingo. I guess he thought I was the most qualified since I was, at the time, one of the only younger writers on staff who skied. I’d definitely spent some years ski-bumming it, but, man, those years were pretty far behind me. I wasn’t sure if I could pull it off.
As with all my writing, I took a deep dive into it and just let the story happen organically. I read it aloud to myself after finishing, and honestly thought it was garbage. I mean, it was funny to me, but I’m weirdly enthralled by niche things. How is anybody outside of the ski bum world going to get this, let alone be entertained by it, I thought to myself. I submitted it anyway, thinking Oh well—they can’t all be winners.
Fast forward a few years later, in a casual conversation with Derrick, he revealed to me that of all the hundreds of articles they have archived on the website that particular story, “Talk Like a Skier: Gaper’s Guide to Ski Lingo,” remains one of the most read articles on Outthereoutdoors.com of all time.
This literally had me belly laughing. I couldn’t believe that to be true. But when I stopped to think about it, over the years, I had received a handful of messages through social media from people around the country who had somehow put eyes on the story. That hasn’t happened with regard to any of the other articles I’ve written over the last decade.
I’m happy that my article provided a laugh to someone. As writers, at the end of the day, I believe that’s all any of us want. To know that someone out there enjoyed what we wrote and found value in it.
Thank you OTO for the all memories and adventures over the years—with the hope of many more to come!
Brad Naccarato is a Northwest native who has been contributing to OTO since 2012. Chasing trout, wind, waves, dirt, and IPAs keeps him sane.
