Copyright 2016 Shawn Orecchio
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SHAWN ORECCHIO | ABOUT ME
the moment of truth.
Hi, I’m Shawn Orecchio. I’m an entrepreneur, marketing exec, and brand building specialist. I am originally from New Jersey which is a mysterious land that leads the world in being immediately west of New York City.
When I'm not building brands, I enjoy challenging myself on both a personal and professional level. I have a tendency to leapfrog the status quo and I'm always looking for new challenges and explorations.
In my free time I love staying active, playing tennis, soccer, snowboarding, and being outdoors. My downtime consists of enjoying time by water, road-tripping, exploring, photography, people watching, and following the USMNT & the English Premier League --go Leicester!
I'm open to new projects, and I'm always looking to buck the trend. Feel free to get in touch to learn more.
A short story -- My love of snowboarding, unleashed.
I started snowboarding on Christmas Day of 1984 in the most unlikely of all places – New Jersey. It was a place and time where snowboarding wasn't yet considered a “sport”, ski resorts shunned the idea of allowing access to their chairlifts, and the sport simply did not yet exist in the NYC suburban area.
One evening I caught a glimpse of someone snowboarding on television -- it was a show called "PM Magazine" documenting a crazy new sport that incorrectly labeled Vermont as the "birthplace of snowboarding." I went against the grain of traditional thinking; parents thought it was silly, friends mocked the idea, and my soccer coaches were scratching their heads. I can’t explain how, or why, but I just knew this intriguing sport was something I needed to try and nothing was going to stop me. In 1984 as a spritely 12 year old, I scoured all of the tri-state area ski shops trying to find a snowboard to purchase. After weeks of phone calls, I located what would be one of only a handful of snowboards that were imported into the the area -- a wooden 1984 Burton Performer Elite. This wooden board glistened a fire-engine red, reeked of epoxy, laminates, and cheap plastics and I distinctly remember this alluring smell like it was yesterday.
1984, no videos to mimic, friends to watch, or any idea what “snowboarding” was supposed to even look like. I spent the early days of winter riding a steep hill located at a church across from my home. First attempts brought several days of straight-lining the entire hill then crashing into the swamp at the bottom. Days later, I learned how to bomb the hill and stop sketchily on my toe edge. A few days later, the heel edge. It was what happened next that was one of the most memorable & important moments of my life.
Alone, snow falling steadily, mom’s frustrated voice bellowing across the neighborhood "Shawn, it's getting dark!", it was then, in that moment where I learned how to link turns and float down a powder covered hill. This defining moment took place across the valley but ironically under the glow of night skiing of a resort I was not yet allowed to ride. I stood at the bottom, looked up across the valley, a wooden dynamo strapped to my feet, emotion and adrenaline pumping -- It was this very moment I knew I had found something special; something big was about to happen and I wanted to be a part of and help shape the movement.
One year later (1985), I was one of a handful of people to first snowboard “legally” at Hidden Valley Resort, New Jersey. Later, as a gung-ho 14 year old with 2 years of snowboarding under my belt, I was influential in convincing Vernon Valley Great Gorge (now Mountain Creek) to open its doors to snowboarding. I befriended key operations staff, personally demonstrated how snowboarding can be safe and fun, and these interactions paved the way to what would become an extremely important community of snowboarders. Despite being in New Jersey, Vernon Valley was one of the first major resorts on the east coast to fully embrace the sport and I am glad to have been an influential ambassador.
At the age of 16, I relocated to Lake Tahoe and I was fortunate to pick-up sponsors immediately. I earned a very small salary, and even netted a spot on the Cross M World Cup Team. Initially, I was attracted to the regimented structure and challenge of being on such a prestigious team. My success as a pro was limited, I accrued a handful of top-3 pro results in CA and a top-10 at the National Championships, but I knew early on that snowboarding wasn’t a job, a career, or what defined me. Rather, I gained both personal and professional life experiences that have molded my character, affirmed my intuition, and equipped me to constantly think bigger. I've learned first-hand that intuition rules all and the sky is truly the limit when it comes to goals and aspirations.
Now, over 30 years later, I reflect on what an important life-shaping moment that was standing at the bottom of that hill in 1984 -- against the grain, grinning ear to ear, confident but unaware of just how much bliss this sport was about to bring me.
The moment of truth.