The Blade Dive || Episode 18 || John Swartz

The Blade Dive

"The Mechanic" The Blade Dive Episode 18 - We are joined by John Swartz. A Cape Cod, Massachusetts native that moved to South Lake Tahoe with his family at a young age. Skiing was a passion, but his interest in cars, motorbikes and heavy equipment quickly took over. Swartz has spent decades in the Snow Industry. Successfully establishing Bombardier's shop in Reno, Nevada, Swartz would eventually be influential in developing equipment for Prinoth and the evolution of the Terrain Park Snowcat, while working with brands like Snow Park Technologies.

• Skiing for $1 was a time to be alive, but John Swartz earned that cheap priced ticket by contributing to work needed around home, specifically shoveling snow. In time, Swartz would take a job at a Chevy dealership, working whenever, for whatever they would pay, in order to advance his mechanical knowledge. Still interested in Snow Sports, Swartz began to realize that flat rate work didn't pay and fortunately was offered a job at Heavenly's shop, working on their machines, specifically Snowcats.....the rest is history.

• Swartz would go on to write 'the book' on how to 'demo' a Snowcat, and work with people such as Mike Binnell, Eric Rosenwald, Chris Gunnarson, Jeremy Cooper, instrumental in developing and pushing Terrain Park Snowcat design to where it is today. Swartz would spend time with other operators in an effort to realize best practices, shop management, pre and post check out and assess the process, if any, as to how material was moved. Thus, leading to his definition of the heavy handed and the light handed operator.

• Swartz's mechanical background has him really advocating for communication between the operator and the machine as well as the operator and the mechanic. Swartz is a big believer in reading the operators manual in an effort to familiarize yourself with terminology to ensure that next layer of operational expertise and finesse.

Episode 18 is an in depth mechanical conversation that hasn't happened on The Blade Dive until now, with John Swartz. The 'Special Guest' and 'Push Road 'questions, are true measures of just how interested people are in John Swartz's mechanical perspective. Swartz is one of the nicest people you'll meet in the Snow Industry and he knows his shit. We discuss what it's like to have successes and failures while providing a service as a vendor. We highlight that the ability to walk away from attempting to diagnose a problem is key and realizing that a fresh perspective may lead to no call backs.
Enjoy... and if you're in the machine, go ahead and TURN THE VOLUME UP!
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