My dad once told me, "Son, I've never worked a day in my life because I have always loved what I did." This could very well be the best piece of advice he ever gave me, next to, "If you're unsure, check for an Adam's Apple."

Derek Heidt is a man who's chased fun from day one, when he first picked up a snowboard during the Calgary Winter Olympics in 1988 (perhaps foreshadowing his future participation in the Nagano Olympics 10 years later). Derek was a quick study. After winning the halfpipe nationals just two years later, he began a lucrative pro career that spanned 10 years, starting with a move from Calgary to Whistler in ‘92. Derek is one of the first snowboarders I saw in Whistler with the now standard truck-snowmobile combo, and was a pioneer in nearly all aspects of professional riding, from shooting and filming, to travelling and competing. Up before dawn and home after dusk, he's always been one of the most dedicated riders I've known, so it's not surprising that his work ethic led him to his current position as Canadian marketing manager for Oakley.

The core of Canadian optics: Derek Heidt, Billabong/VonZipper's Risto Scott and Spy's Daryl Trinidad.

I recently caught up to Derek in Montreal where Oakley was a major sponsor of the Am Getting Paid skateboard contest. Amongst the many things I was very interested in asking Derek, I was particularly curious about the mythical "unlimited travel budget" he and other Burton pros supposedly enjoyed back in the glory years. Read on to find out!

First and foremost, I want to address a modern folktale that is still floating around Whistler and the snowboard industry: Did you really have an unlimited travel budget and photo incentive with Burton?
[laughs] Yeah! There were about nine of us that had unlimited travel budgets. There was like, Jason Brown, Bryan Iguchi, Terje Haakonsen, Jim Rippey, Joe Curtes, and a few other guys. There was just this group of us that respected what we did and didn't go overboard, and you traveled where you needed to go. Those were the good old days, when marketing guys didn't have to worry about budgets. Along with the unlimited travel we also did have unlimited photo incentives... so we used to have contests to see who could cash in on the biggest photo incentive.

Did you ever win that?
Well, I think Joe Curtes was killing it most years because he would always ride with his brother Jeff [Curtes, the renowned shred photographer] and those guys worked their asses off. There was one year where I may have tied him, or at the very least been really close. No one really talked about actual numbers, but there was an ongoing joke for sure. But that unlimited travel budget was really good. The year of the ‘98 Olympics in Nagano -- and I still have the invoices at home -- I think ended up spending $110,000 U.S. travelling in that one year. Going to the Olympics and going to India and going to Europe, I don't know how many times, chasing every contest to get the first points for the national team... There were some hefty travel bills! [laughing]

So how did you make the transition from pro shred to the legit working world?
I think it was in 1996 that I was about to leave on a trip with Warren Miller, and I ended up getting hooked up with Oakley through Eric Berger [the photographer]. After six or seven years with Oakley as a rider, when snowboarding and myself decided to go our separate ways, I went into the film industry for a while and after a year or so of doing that, Oakley ended up giving me a call. When I left all my sponsors the previous year, I let them all know that I was very interested in hearing about any marketing jobs that might come up in the future. I was in Costa Rica in 2003 when Oakley called. They let me know that there was a position open and they wanted to know if I was interested. Obviously I said yes. I got on a plane the next day and flew back to California, and now I've been with them for almost six years.

What was your job title back then and what is it now?
Well, it's pretty much the same thing: I'm the Canadian marketing manager for five or six main sports, and also the film and television product placement category. Oakley is a big company and it's not like any other eyewear company that only focuses on surf, skate and snow... we have everything from hockey to track and field, and golf. I mean, in Canada we have three marketing managers to look over all the sports, and then a director that oversees all the marketing in Canada.

What are the specific sports you oversee?
Obviously snowboard, plus skate, surf, BMX, BMX race, wakeboard, wakeskate... I dealt with motocross for a while, but one of our top motocross racers, J.S.R. [Jean-Sebastian Roy], ended up expressing interest in running that while still racing, so he now handles the motocross side, and freestyle sledding. On top of that I also take care of all the TV and film product placement stuff. I try to get involved with all the big movies that are shot in Hollywood North, otherwise known as Vancouver. Projects like the X-Men and those types of series.

Sweet! So do you have any good celebrity stories or what?
Oh man, I have a couple good stories... A good friend of mine named Dean Morin -- the guy that got me involved in the whole film industry, camera-side -- was dating Famke Janssen. When filming X-Men 2, he started dating Famke. She was a Victoria's Secret model and one of the main actors in X-Men 2... So she ended up coming up to my house in Whistler, with Dean, for Canadian Thanksgiving dinner one year. At about 2:00 AM she came running out of the room her and Dean were sharing, screaming at the top of her lungs, wearing nothing but her bra and panties. I guess there was a two-inch spider sitting in the corner of the room that she was freaking out about... and, uhm, yeah: Bra and panties. [laughing]

Whoa, nice... So what's the future hold for you? What's on the horizon?
I have always said I am only going to do what I feel is fun, and obviously that's how I got into the whole snowboarding thing. I got into it for the fun factor. I wasn't looking to make a living out of it, and I was lucky to be shredding in the days when budgets were big, and I guess I was in the right place at the right time. I haven't changed anything since. Working in the film industry has been super inspiring, and I have learned so much, and then I got into snow photography from that, shooting Oakley ads, and I love doing that stuff. I love working for Oakley and doing their marketing and handling the athletes. I do it more out of wanting to do something fun than doing it out of necessity. I enjoy everything I am doing, and I think that's the biggest thing.

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