Employees at Colorado Snowboards in Aurora, Colorado can ride for free with the use of two to three gold passes available to the staff. According to Assistant Manager Mark Stokley, the gold passes are valid at all of the resorts throughout Colorado, and are easily obtainable with a bit of preplanning. "We put names on a list based on hours worked," he says. "Like 36 hours of work [per week] would be good for two gold passes. The passes come in handy with lift tickets at Vail going for 50 dollars."

Stokley says his shop naturally offers in-store sales incentives throughout the season for particular brands. Outside reps also offer programs, like giving a free pair of boots to the employee who can sell the most.

Sales incentives are also a perk at Forte Board Sports in Colorado Springs, but Owner Mike Fontana says he has never enticed employees to work for benefits at his store. Instead, he’s always hired familiar people who he’d frequently ride with. That tradition has carried on since he opened his shop five years ago.

"Most of the sales force is hourly and works on commission," says Fontana. "Commission isn’t based on total sales or numbers. Instead, we put tags on certain items we want to move."

In Crested Butte, Colorado riders and skiers who return to work for a second season at Alternative Sports are welcomed back with an annual ski pass paid for by Owner Klaus Kracht. "These are bought at full retail price," says Kracht. "The ski area doesn’t give any kind of break."

Kracht says, interestingly enough, all of his employees are hourly and

have always opted to work without sales incentives. "My employees have always been dead set against working on commission," he adds.

Season passes are also good motivation for staffers working at Quiksilver Boardriders in Park City, Utah. Unlike offering them to returning employees like Kracht in Crested Butte, Manager Casey Sutherland explains that most employees are also team riders for the shop and are given season passes at The Canyons where they compete throughout the season. Currently two women and three men represent the shop in both halfpipe and boardercross competitions.

Sutherland also offers a monthly sales contest and carefully works out the sales numbers with a ratio to hours so everyone is given an equal opportunity despite varying schedules. "Once a month, whoever sells the most receives 500 dollars in retail," she says.

Mike Batt, co-owner of AZP in Flagstaff, Arizona, offers season passes at special rates to his employees. These apply to the two ski areas in the state–Sunrise Park Resort and nearby Arizona Snowbowl. Batt explains that his staff can chose to either buy a season pass at the beginning of the winter or receive daily lift tickets at half price by appearing on a special list at the ticket window. "Snowbowl is seven miles away and is actually the closest ski area to any major university town in the country," he says. "This way [employees] can just go and take two or three runs at any time of the day."

Batt offers different types of pro-form deals according to the different

levels of employees. These go mostly to full-time employees or to his team riders. All employees, regardless of status, receive a 25-percent shop discount.