Nirvana Ortanez is a former pro park rider and the co-founder of Soy Sauce Nation, a community for Asian snowboarders.
Nirvana Ortanez is a former pro park rider who was once sponsored by Salomon. She has been a change maker in the sport. Early on, Nirvana was one of the original members of Jet Pack 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.
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Shelby Stanger:
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 halfpipe, rails, boxes and jumps. This version of snowboarding, referred to as park, looks totally thrilling and also a little terrifying. For snowboarder Nirvana Ortanez, the park is where she feels most at home.
As a former pro park rider who was once sponsored by Salomon, Nirvana has also been a changemaker in the sport. Early on, Nirvana was one of the original members of Jet Pack 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 Ortanez, welcome to Wild Ideas Worth Living.
Nirvana Ortanez:
Thanks for having me.
Shelby Stanger:
I'm excited because this is the first in-person interview I've gotten to do for a while.
Nirvana Ortanez:
Yeah, I mean, I love being able to come in person and meet people and not do it over Zoom. That's great.
Shelby Stanger:
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 La Jolla High.
Nirvana Ortanez:
Yep, we're Vikings.
Shelby Stanger:
Vikings. Go Vikings. How did you find surfing and snowboarding?
Nirvana Ortanez:
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 surf, so my dad and I would go and do that while my mom hung out on the beach with my brother. And yeah, we just went, I think I was about sixth grade, but I had always gone boogie boarding with him. And then around sixth grade I was just like, "Okay, I want to do this. I want to go surfing." And he went out with me every day, or any day that I wanted to go.
Shelby Stanger:
Oh, that's awesome. That's a cool dad.
Nirvana Ortanez:
Yeah. And that was around the same time that we started snowboarding too, because since my mom didn't go surfing... She's getting better at swimming, but she didn't know how to swim back then. And so we didn't have a family activity to do together. So then once my brother was old enough, he was around five and I think I was around 11, he's like, why don't we try snowboarding together?
And Snow Summit is relatively close and just one weekend, I feel like around Christmas, he just packed us all up and we went up to Snow Summit and stayed at kind of a sketchy cabin that back in the internet days, didn't have... Photos look all nice and stuff, but once we got there, it was run down and it was really, really funny. We were like, this is not what we were expecting, but we want to snowboard. And had a couple lessons and my mom loved it. And we bought a season pass and went up every weekend since.
Shelby Stanger:
And I read that your mom's this incredible yogi, has a huge following on Instagram.
Nirvana Ortanez:
Yeah, she puts all of us to shame, huh?
Shelby Stanger:
Tell me about that real quick.
Nirvana Ortanez:
Yeah, so she just did that as a side hustle. She had a normal job and then just liked Instagram, likes getting creative. And then it caught on and she was sponsored by Alo Yoga for a minute. And she was just doing that for fun.
Shelby Stanger:
Wow. And what about your dad, what does he do?
Nirvana Ortanez:
He's a jiu-jitsu instructor, so really everyone's super active.
Shelby Stanger:
Did you grow up doing martial arts and yoga?
Nirvana Ortanez:
Yes, I was exposed to yoga pretty young, and then I did Aikido before snowboarding.
Shelby Stanger:
Aikido is the type of martial arts that... Can you talk to me about it?
Nirvana Ortanez:
Yeah. It's Japanese origins and it's basically taking your opponent's energy and redirecting it.
Shelby Stanger:
That's kind of a beautiful thing to do in life too sometimes.
Nirvana Ortanez:
Yeah, I realized a lot of things in snowboarding especially too, it taught me how to fall, metaphorically and physically. If I was trying something new or at a spot with higher consequences, I realized that I was able to avoid a lot of really gnarly injury because I knew how to fall.
Shelby Stanger:
How did you get into park of all things?
Nirvana Ortanez:
Yeah, I realize it's not people's first choice when they're trying to come learn how to snowboard. But growing up at Big Bear and Mountain High, the mountain is all park. And back then they used to have a lot of events, so competitions every weekend. It was popping off. I look back on those days and it was like, there was something every weekend at every mountain almost, or what it felt like.
Shelby Stanger:
So how did you not get scared to fall?
Nirvana Ortanez:
Well, it was really funny because I didn't know how to ride park when I was snowboarding. It was just like we would show up, there would be all these other kids, and we just wanted to be amongst it, I guess, and just be part of that community. So even though I didn't know how to get onto the rail, I would learn at the contest, how to side approach a rail. And I'd bang into the rail over and over again until one day I was able to ollie. And it was kind of not the best way to learn, but it was so much fun.
Shelby Stanger:
So I'm curious for you, you could have chosen surfing, you chose snowboarding. How does snowboarding make you feel, and why snowboarding over surfing?
Nirvana Ortanez:
I revisit that personally too. I made the conscious decision to choose snowboarding. There's a certain aspect to it where it's like you roll up to the mountain, you see your friends and you have a community, but then you go back to your double life when I would come back down here and go surf, or school and all of that. But I feel like I chose snowboarding because I felt a sense of belonging and, I don't know, challenging, it just challenged me in a way that surfing didn't at the time. I don't know. There was a lot more opportunity at the time, growing up, and I just saw myself being able to make something happen.
Shelby Stanger:
There was a lot more opportunity, I feel like, back then for women's snowboarding. It seems like there was some big female names that had gone on to do some great things by 2009.
Nirvana Ortanez:
Yeah, I think snowboarding, it's a younger sport than surfing. I think there was a lot of attitude that comes with it, the rebel against the authorities and punk rock, and it had that newness to it. And then also the fact that there was females present too, and they were also in that fold and running with the crowd. And there wasn't this kind of machismo type attitude that I feel like maybe surfing might have, still kind of has. I just think there's a lot more openness and opportunity in snowboarding and the attitude is a lot more open.
Shelby Stanger:
Yeah, that's interesting. When I paddle out, I'm still often the only woman, at least in my little break. In snowboarding, there's a lot of women.
Nirvana Ortanez:
Yeah. And it didn't always used to be like that. It used to be like one girl - opportunities for sponsorship. It's different now. Back then it used to be like, oh, I'm the only one. They would only have their token girl and all of that. But now I think that there's just a whole new wave and also people that are in these higher up positions that see that change.
Shelby Stanger:
When Nirvana was breaking into the industry, she had to make her own seat at the table. After graduating from high school, she made the choice to attend community college and put all of her energy into snowboarding. She'd already been competing at a pretty high level during high school. It was at these competitions that she learned about summer snowboarding. As soon as she graduated, she headed to a camp called High Cascade on Mount Hood in Oregon where you can ski and snowboard all year round.
High Cascade had gigs that gave athletes access to the mountain if they helped out with jobs around camp. These spots were hard to get, but it was an opportunity to spend more time riding. I was listening to you on the Bomb Hole podcast, and it sounds like you did something called dish to ride, which sounds so fun. So I'm guessing you washed dishes and that gave you a chance to ride.
Nirvana Ortanez:
Right, yeah. So this was super informal, right?
Shelby Stanger:
Totally underground. Probably wouldn't be allowed today, but amazing.
Nirvana Ortanez:
Would not be allowed today. But basically, I was like, okay, how do I get a job at one of these camps? And I had heard about another thing called dig to ride, where you would help the people who set up the park. And then I had emailed whoever was the camp director at that time about it. And he was so nice enough to respond to me, being like, "This is an informal thing. Thanks for reaching out, but you kind of have to be here in order to get one of these spots." And I was like, okay, I have to insert myself in the situation to get this opportunity.
And I had a couple friends that worked in the kitchen and they said, "Okay, we have a spot open for a dish to ride this week. Can you be here? Shift starts at 5:45 and your shift, it goes till 9:00, and then you have to get yourself to the mountain and all of that, but you would have access to the park." And that's kind of like a foot in the door. A lot of the times with any industry, but in snowboarding in particular, it's like you have to insert yourself into the situation because people aren't just going to pluck you out of obscurity.
Shelby Stanger:
And hand you a ticket.
Nirvana Ortanez:
Say, "We want you."
Shelby Stanger:
I actually think these programs are really cool to let people wash dishes and have a place to stay for a chance to ride. I think they do do that at Alta, Utah. High Cascade's its own thing. It's like this summer camp and you have adults working there too, which sounds really fun.
Nirvana Ortanez:
Yeah. In what other industry or sport are you going to have your favorite snowboarder, or is there a chance where you have your favorite baseball player at this camp, working at this camp that you could interact with? No. It's super unique where at the time, in order to ride the park, you had to work there.
Shelby Stanger:
So talk to me about the culture and camaraderie that came out of a place like this and what it did for you.
Nirvana Ortanez:
So when I first got a job there, I could count on both my hands how many women worked at the camp. There was less than 10 of us out of a, I don't know, 80 to 90 staff. So you have this super-concentrated amount of girls and you're all there to snowboard. And that introduced me to my current friend group, and all the people I know my whole life can be connected back to camp.
Shelby Stanger:
So the culture is really strong, it sounds like, and you spend a lot of time together.
Nirvana Ortanez:
Yep. It's a concentrated amount of time. It's unreal, really, because you're here in this one spot where there's snow. And you're living, breathing, working together for two to three months. At the time, there were these recaps, these session recaps, and those were really coveted to be in one of those videos. And they would be featuring the workers, the pros at the time were up and coming snowboarders. And my girlfriends and I, we noticed... And I was getting better at snowboarding too, but at the time we were like, there's no girls in any of these videos.
Shelby Stanger:
In the recap videos?
Nirvana Ortanez:
In the recap videos, yeah. And at the time, one of my friends, she was doing front side 360s onto the tallest rail there. It was the Loon Mountain rail. And she was doing these crazy tricks onto it and no one was filming her. And that was kind of the turning point where I realized, you need to talk to the people who are filming. How does this work? You have to break down the situation and be like, okay, do I have enough confidence to be like, "Hey, film me."
And that was a huge learning point in my career and I think in all of the girls' career where we were like, okay, if we want to be included, we have to communicate that and then we have to show up. But it was really funny because at the time the marketing manager sat down all the audio-visual guys, the filmers and photographers, and he was like, "10% of your video has to have a girl in it." And it went so badly. If you tell people that they have to do something, they're not going to want to do it. And so that made it a little bit awkward, but ultimately worked in our favor because what we ended up doing was doing it ourselves.
Shelby Stanger:
Nirvana and her friends formed a collective called Jet Pack 5000. The group became a welcoming community for women to hang out, push each other, and snowboard together. They started making their own film reels featuring women snowboarders and other friends. The films gained traction and Nirvana and her friends quickly became content creators. How did you get these films funded?
Nirvana Ortanez:
Well, it was out of our own pockets. I had a job, and something that I don't know if I've shared before, but it's when we were deep in it and filming and making these things, and I was in my snowboarding career, I actually made the decision, this is when I was living in Utah, and I made the decision to go back to school. And I went to the University of Utah and I took out student loans, and that's what funded my snowboarding career, essentially. Living scrappily and using the money that I got from my student loans to make it happen. And I don't think a lot of people realize that only a certain percentage of people actually make a solid living only off of snowboarding.
Shelby Stanger:
I appreciate you being honest about that because I think there is this misconception that you can be a pro snowboarder and your life is paid for and you get a pass. You might get a pass to the mountain and you might get some gear, but beyond that, it's really hard to get paid to be a professional snowboarder. It's not a thing that people totally pay for.
Nirvana Ortanez:
Right. And it's a seasonal sport too. So that's another thing to think about is a lot of pros that you see out there, and I know this is a thing for skateboarding, but a lot of people have full-time jobs or they have a side hustle, and that's the reality of it.
Shelby Stanger:
What came out of these videos? What did it do for you? Did people write in?
Nirvana Ortanez:
It's actually really cool to see where everyone is, five, six years later. It really shaped us into who we are.
Shelby Stanger:
So more than anything, it gave you the skills to persevere no matter what, be resourceful. Did people write to you guys when they saw these films?
Nirvana Ortanez:
It's funny because now a lot of the younger girls that are in it now... I say younger, everyone's younger in my eyes nowadays, but they have told me in the past that they watched the Jet Pack videos and they were like, that was the coolest stuff I've ever seen. We hadn't seen women snowboarding like that before then. And because at the time there were other women snowboarding, but maybe it was a different style.
Shelby Stanger:
Got it. They were mostly doing big mountain and you guys were mostly doing park.
Nirvana Ortanez:
Right. That, or just the way that the creative aspect of it was presented.
Shelby Stanger:
What did you do?
Nirvana Ortanez:
We were trying to essentially hold ourselves to the highest standard. So tricks that weren't clean wouldn't make the cut. Spots that have already been done wouldn't make the cut. We just basically had to think about the history and make sure we used our resources that we knew. And so I would say it was people would view it and it ended up being something that younger girls could look forward to, or realize that that was there for them as well.
And it didn't have to be just competing because that's what a lot of people think nowadays too. It's like, oh, I want to be a pro, or I want to be an athlete, but I have to compete. And that's not the case. You can go this other route and make films with your friends and make content with your friends and make stories, essentially, that storytelling.
Shelby Stanger:
Making snowboard films with her crew taught Nirvana a lot about creativity, drive and opportunities for representation. In a lot of ways, Jet Pack 5000 prepared her to build Soy Sauce Nation, an online community for Asian snowboarders that holds in-person events. When we come back, Nirvana talks about being one of the only Filipino kids in high school and on the mountain, and she tells us how she met her Soy Sauce Nation co-founder, Andrew Kelly.
Nirvana Ortanez is an incredibly talented snowboarder, surfer and community leader. She was often the only Asian woman on the mountain or at snowboard events. But all that changed when she met Andrew Kelly, also known as AK, who quickly became her friend and eventually her co-founder. Okay, let's talk about Soy Sauce Nation. It's such a wonderful catchy name, and what you're doing is so cool. How did Soy Sauce Nation come about?
Nirvana Ortanez:
Yeah, so I'm one of the co-founders. My partner is Andrew Kelly, or AK. And we met at High Cascade. And it started off with an anecdote where he got up in front of everyone during one of our meetings where we were all introducing ourselves. And he was saying how he is the only Asian kid usually on the mountain. And someone was sitting right in front of me when he said that, and I pushed my head to the side and we made eye contact and he was like, the look on his face, he was like, "Oh my gosh, I didn't see her." And we connected right after that and we're really good friends.
Shelby Stanger:
So you said your mom was Filipino. Is your dad Filipino?
Nirvana Ortanez:
Yep.
Shelby Stanger:
So you're full Filipino.
Nirvana Ortanez:
Mm-hmm.
Shelby Stanger:
So what was it like being one of the only Filipinos in high school and then in snowboarding?
Nirvana Ortanez:
That was something that I didn't realize was... I don't know how to put it into words, but the profound identity of being Asian and being different didn't really hit me until I was an adult. I knew that we were different. My parents did a really good job with celebrating our differences versus seeing it as something bad. So I was always really proud of being different. I was totally the kid that brought sushi to elementary school, and I wore the craziest clothing because it was all outfits from the Philippines. But I think that was a really big thing for me to learn in my adulthood was that sometimes people don't have that same experience and it might affect them negatively.
So being one of, I think it was 3% Filipino at La Jolla High, and we always had a sense of bonding for that, but we all just kind of moved through it in our own individual way. I look back at that time and it's like, we had allies and had each other's back, but I didn't really face... Maybe I just internalized a lot of that maybe underlying microaggressions and potential racism, that would be viewed as racism now. I think I just kind of compartmentalized that. But then getting older, experiencing more, you realize that it's bad and it's wrong and you shouldn't have to put up with that. And a lot of the times when I would speak out against it, or I got vocal about it in my twenties, but it took me forever to get there.
Shelby Stanger:
What happened?
Nirvana Ortanez:
I was just gradually over time, I think a lot of the more recent things with social upheaval and Stop Asian Hate, it was really important. That was another really big catalyst for us to have this event too, was there was a lot of hate out there in the world and this was a safe space that people could look forward to. But I think it kind of just bubbled over one day. I think I was sick, lying on the couch, and I was like, you know what? I have not seen any representation in the outdoor industry. This is all the same-looking people and there's no diversity. And why is it like this, and how do we change it? And I think I made an Instagram post about it. And it got a lot of traction and I was like, okay, I'm not alone in the way I feel about this.
Shelby Stanger:
Okay, so you and Andrew, you gave him the look. You're like, you're not the only Asian kid. Hello? And then how did Soy Sauce Nation come to be, like right after that?
Nirvana Ortanez:
Yeah, so we started talking. One of his friends actually had this thing called Word Sauce Nation. And then AK was like, oh yeah, something about Soy Sauce Nation. And it was a twist on that and it just stuck. And then we created an Instagram because Instagram was in its early stages at that point, and we dedicated that page to featuring Asians in action sports.
Shelby Stanger:
What was the response?
Nirvana Ortanez:
It was pretty incredible. People started catching on. We made stickers. People love soy sauce. The bottles were super... People see that on your board and be like, what's this?
Shelby Stanger:
So you made a really cool logo.
Nirvana Ortanez:
Yeah. AK, he had a really awesome logo.
Shelby Stanger:
So you got a lot of feedback on Instagram. What did people write to you?
Nirvana Ortanez:
They were like, "Oh, this is so cool. Where can I get a...?" It was all about the sticker, at first. It was like, "Where can I get stickers?" But then it turned into, people would hit us up and be like, "Oh, this is so cool. I live here in X town and I'm the only Asian person here, and so this really is cool to see other Asian people snowboarding or skateboarding." And then from there, it turned into, "Oh, I'm going to be visiting Mammoth. Does anyone have a couch to sleep on?" And people started exchanging numbers and connecting and it just snowballed from there.
Shelby Stanger:
How has Soy Sauce Nation evolved over the last decade?
Nirvana Ortanez:
It's been a rollercoaster, but in the best way possible. So we started doing events, or an annual event. So we do an event every year. This coming March will be our third year. It's called the Soy Sauce Nation Stir-Fry. We wanted it to be something that was food-related because that's so important in Asian culture, in culture in general. And stir-fry was perfect because it's different ingredients, different people, like a safe space.
It's a three-day event. The first two days are invite only, and then the third day is open to the public. And yeah, it's a private park. You get to snowboard, you get to meet other people. And we just want to keep growing at a sustainable pace though, because it's really easy to do too much and get overwhelmed. We're doing this because we want to and have passion for it, but we don't want to get things too out of hand.
Shelby Stanger:
If you watch some of the Soy Sauce Nation recap videos, they're just fun. And it seems like joy is just without saying it or being overt about it, or it's not necessarily in your mission statement, but it seems like it's an integral part of Soy Sauce Nation and the brand.
Nirvana Ortanez:
Yeah, just having fun. Just having fun with each other and making connections and making new friends and meeting people. That's another thing that snowboarding has given me is just all of those things. Getting the chance to meet people from different places.
Shelby Stanger:
What do you hope change in the action and outdoor sports industry looks like?
Nirvana Ortanez:
I think that people continuing to advocate for underrepresented groups, making noise. The squeaky wheel gets the grease, right? Until we do see a substantial change, there has to be groups like this to make people feel welcomed and to continue that work.
Shelby Stanger:
The culture of snowboarding is really unique. Can you talk to me about that?
Nirvana Ortanez:
It's so hard to put into words.
Shelby Stanger:
Try.
Nirvana Ortanez:
The one thing that comes up in my mind is group love. You have such strong feelings for the people that are also there for the same reason. And you just want to keep moving through life together and doing awesome things. So many cool things have been born from my personal friend group as well as people from afar. It's kind of like that I don't want to say hodgepodge, but just you get so many different people coming from so many different walks of life. Sure, you get people who have a little bit more resources, but there's this whole other side of the coin where people want to be there and they'll do anything they can to stay in it and stay in the community. So I don't know, it's super special.
Shelby Stanger:
The snowboarding community is a tight-knit, awesome community, and Nirvana is only making it better. From creating more women's snowboarding content to co-founding Soy Sauce Nation, Nirvana is all about making everyone feel included and inspired on the slopes. Nirvana Ortanez, thank you so much for coming to talk with me in person. I loved it. I had such a blast, and I'm so excited to see what comes next for you.
You can follow Nirvana on Instagram @nirvanaortanez. That's N-I-R-V-A-N-A-O-R-T-A-N-E-Z. You can also check out Soy Sauce Nation on Instagram to learn more about this year's Stir -Fry, which is happening at the end of March in Tahoe. When I talked to Nirvana, she said they were also thinking about an East Coast Stir-Fry event. I'm sure they'll be posting details on social media soon.
Wild Ideas Worth Living is part of the REI Podcast Network. It's hosted by me, Shelby Stanger, produced by Annie Fassler, Sylvia Thomas and Sam Peers Nitzberg of Puddle Creative, and our senior producer is Jenny Barber. Our executive producers are Paolo Mottola and Joe Crosby. As always, we love it when you follow this show, when you rate it, and when you write a review wherever you listen. And remember, some of the best adventures happen when you follow your wildest ideas.