With the Nordic team practicing daily at Theodore Wirth Park Trailhead, sophomore Ryan Fitzpatrick said he decided to spend a few extra hours at the tubing hill to make some money.

“Since I’m on the Nordic skiing team, I’m there every single day. It’s an easy commute,” Fitzpatrick said. “I don’t have to take the bus home after practice and I can just ski for two hours, work and then ski again.”

According to sophomore Tait Myers, working on the tubing hill is convenient because he can walk to the hill after Nordic practice.

“It’s fun and it’s not boring like most jobs around my age,” Myers said. “I can go straight from practice and I am already in clothes to work outside because it’s out on the tubing hill.”

With a past experience of working in high school, Theodore Wirth Park Trailhead Facility Manager Ben Bauch said having a job at a young age gives good exposure to a professional atmosphere.

“Being in close proximity to the activities they enjoy and getting to work a few hours and get a paycheck from it as well, there is a huge benefit in that,” Bauch said. “When I was growing up, I worked at a pool and I was a swimmer and being able to be close to that and see how that world works on a professional level (was) a really cool opportunity.”

According to Bauch, all workers on the tubing hill are necessary to keep the system working.

“Operationally, they are essential to keeping the tubing hill running on a daily basis,” Bauch said. “It requires six or seven people out there and if somebody doesn’t show up and if someone is slacking on the job, the whole thing doesn’t work.”

Myers said he must take people off the tow rope at the top of the hill, along with providing people with tubes and telling them the rules.

“You have to yank people off the tow rope and it’s kind of hard on you because it gets repetitive, but it’s a good experience,” Myers said.

Bauch said working outdoors and conversing with people on the hill makes the job much more rewarding.

“Working on the tubing hill is an opportunity to have some fun, because you’re outside and you’re providing a fun experience for people,” Bauch said.