We had the good fortune of connecting with Gaston Ortiz de Rozas and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Gaston, how do you think about risk?
Risk is inherent in living, just the fact of surviving everyday, demands a level of alert to overcome the different variables in action, we live in a complex world, being in natural environments demands you to face natural risks, being in the city you face the complex system human beings have created and also you face the potential power of a single person or the society, but the question is more personal I guess…. Since I was a child, I was attracted by risk taking situations, maybe like a way to prove to myself that I am brave enough to survive the day to day demands, but the spirit of my attitude was more related with adventure, what freedom you may get when you try doing different things, like jumping from altitude, playing with gravity force, riding horses, speeding and crashing in bikes, for me and my friends all of it made us laugh, I am happy to look back and realize how lucky I was to pass through this crazy moments. After passing this nonsense search of risk taking, I realize there were more interesting ways to move in risk through the power that give you the development of technical resources, in my case I am talking about skiing, you could obtain the freedom to travel across the mountain territory, but for this you need knowledge, if you pretend to discover and do not die in the try, the craziness and my primitive ways just allowed me a few laugh and bruises, but to access the freedoms you need education, then this become a passion, then the passion become a profession until today.

As soon as I realized that my life was about skiing, and after observing how expensive it was, I decided to find a way to be able to ski not depending of my parents support, then I become ski patrol, those times were funny, because before I was the crazy in the mountains, and now I was allow to speed up like a police to trap a crazy skier over speeding in a dangerous way, not in the appropriate terrain, like it would be a racing slope for racers, equivalent of a racing car in the city over speeding, definitely not the adequate terrain. The goal to rescue injured people is mind blowing, when somebody is suffering and afraid, and you are prepare to try to offer the best help in this difficult moments, it is absolutely motivating to keep going, I have lots of stories about searching and rescuing, but the best experience is being part of a team who is committed for the others. It was great to ski all day literally, independently of the weather conditions, we were skiers in all terrains, day and night, this was an experience that put myself in a value for what I could do, I met new people who become friends until today.

As a ski patrol I was getting more and more curious to know different mountains, then I realized that ski instructors could do that, ski in both hemispheres, and get paid to teach…, and then you could invest your money travelling, so you may know human being in the different places with different culture. All troughs this story, my passion for understanding human behavior was switch on, since a child, so this was an amazing life school. In the meanwhile I studied psychology, so I was a psychologist undercover working as a ski instructor, I was dealing with people facing subjective risk (because you propose a terrain that you know the person is capable), while I was teaching them, most of my students because of the skiing cost context were powerful, and I could watch from first row, from the sight of a psychologist, human being personalities reacting when facing levels of risk, every personality has it ways, but we all have a reaction.

So I was involved in a path of professionalizing the assessment of a person to learn technics and develop mental resources to improve toward the snow sport evolution process, It is so relevant the psychological aspect to enhance the performance, so teaching skiing being a psychologist become in the adventure itself. Then life continue and I kept working in snow sport, I remember a day teaching at Valle Nevado Ski School in Chile, I was surprised when a teacher of my psychology career took me a ski lesson, then he told me, Gastón don´t you think you should return to work like a psychologist, but I told him, this is what I am doing, the only thing is that I am not charging the fact that I am a psychologist. Like a psychologist I was thinking about human being evolution, how to enhance your living experience, how to promote health in life instead of curing illness, this was the way I was considering risk sport, like a platform to work personality traits for facing life in the big dimension. All I was learning about sport, psychology and training, flowed in the writing of psychological concepts to transmit and work this approach to life, I was presenting my work in Clinical and Sport Psychology Congresses and Snow sport Congresses. Since 2004 I begun to work for Brasil Snow sport Federation and also athletes from Chile, this lead me to four Winter Olympics Games, Torino 2006, Vancouver 2010, Sochi 2014, PyeongChang 2018, I was working for Beijing 2022 but unfortunately my athlete got injured and miss the opportunity.

Another passion I had been involved for several years is in Heliski, I work in Valle Nevado Heliski operation from 1996, I guide groups of snow sport customers through the magnificent Andes mountain, in the search of wild spot where you could be the first to slide this hillside ever, of course starting by considering the level of your customers, seeking for powder snow, while you see majestic active volcanoes, close to the frontier that joins Chile with Argentina, in this operation you deploy a teamwork with an expert helicopter pilot, and all a team to built the security necessary to get the chance to reach joy. A journey of heli-skiing is an experience that will change you, doesn´t matter if it is your first time or one of many, everyday, run chosen, snow condition, yourself, are a new expression, this journey will remain with you all of your life, realizing that you are still young to keep discovering life, and you are able to manage your attitude and knowledge to build safe and breathtaking runs, in the middle of nowhere.

So since young I have been working professionally the risk management, like a way to reach safety, the idea is to prepare the person to take what I define like Consistent Risk, what mean a risk to which you have the resources to deal with, always keeping a humble attitude, because even do you do a very rigorous preparation, we just control a little part of all the variables involved in the experience. We need to implement a trust attitude, because if you act with insecurity, doubts could lead you to danger in the risk domain, whenever you don´t feel like capable to face a challenge, because you see it like a threat, you´ll rather avoid the action, because there will be a big probability of unwanted consequences, you better keep working to be prepare sometime for the next step, than to loose the next step for ever because of facing an opportunity you were not prepared, so this wasn´t an opportunity, it was just a dangerous situation you don´t want to be involved in.

Continuing the risk path, after spending lot of years with double winter years, me and my family decided to face an adventure here in the US, we were in between Denver Colorado or Miami, finally a propose my family the most different psychologically for me and they agree, we came to Miami, this is so different from my mountain world, but it is so beautiful, it is like starting a new life in your lifetime. In Miami I got involved in something I thought I would never do, to become an entrepreneur in the food domain, this was very scary to assume, but absolutely a very probable act considering my psychological profile. I bought a Venezuelan restaurant call “Dale Arepa Bar & Healthy Bistro Miami” at 1711 Coral Way, it is a small place but we have an immense heart for cooking and serving our guest, we love that everyone feels like home, and we enjoy creating the bond, this “mind bridge” that keep our family in growing progress coming back to be serve with our delicious Venezuelan dishes, we are a healthy restaurant, we only purchase the best ingredients and we cook taking a lot of care for the body wellbeing, at the end when your body is well fed, as well is your heart , mind, and spirit. I have been all my life working in service and building experiences, and a restaurant has a lot of it, you rely on a team which every part is indispensable for the success of the mission, you need passion, commitment and knowledge, all composing a teamwork that has the potential to deliver an unforgettable experience to your customers, it is beautiful to see people happy enjoying flavors of healthy food, with natural juices and delight including south American flavors, the restaurant challenge remind me my experience training sport in the mountains, so our small place even do the most of the food is Venezuelan, you could see pictures of Heli-skiing, this is an unexpected integration but at the same time so authentic.

In synthesis I think it is a privilege to be able to face different professions in your life, it keeps you amazed as a child, open to adventures. Training minds in psychological resources, allow persons to focus in scenery of their interest, even discover scenarios of interest that were not a part of any plan, just discovered during the way while you are going.
Something I think it is very important in risk taking, it is always to get advice and work with experts in the domain of knowledge you are moving on, don´t let you go by friends or not educated advices, there is a lot of subjectivity in there, since young when I was working in snows ports I´ve always tough my students: “Don´t ever try to teach your couple, it doesn´t matter if you have a good skiing or boarding level, if you haven´t study to be a teacher avoid it, invest in lessons, otherwise you´ll need to spend tons of money in lawyers and psychologists.” You can apply this observation in different domains, always seek for professional advisory.

Let’s talk shop? Tell us more about your career, what can you share with our community?
I think every life angle or point of view depends on every location, situation, education, influence and self-determination related with experience. I have never been forced to choose the convenient, all of my choices have been related with not being able to avoid to do what passionate me, my mistake sometime was to believe of the social suggestion, but I have always had my family support what is a treasure, my parents are angels now, it is so important to do what you like, because then you have a chance to become good on it, everybody has the right to be there, but just a few will get the chance to occupy that place. It isn´t easy to be independent, but at the same time you are your own boss, you better don´t fired you, at lease you have this risk under control. My words are based on facts, everything I say I caught it from life experience, I am the owner of my thoughts, it is amazing when sometime I read a sentence of a well know person that live hundreds of years ago, and those are the same words I use for saying the same thing, I think that life is too short, so at the end if you are committed with life, the most passionate get to alike comprehensions, but short comprehensions in front of the immensity of life, we doesn´t have enough time to go so much deeper, our lifetime is so brief, so we better grab ourselves into the moment, and enjoy as much we can in the calm moments, from there we´ll get the strength to face the difficult times that will always arrive.

If you had a friend visiting you, what are some of the local spots you’d want to take them around to?
I love everywhere in Miami, the mix of cultures, the food, beaches, places, even now I am a fan of Miami Heat, there is no place like this place, I am so happy to be able to be facing a life in this beautiful place of the earth, the land, animals, vegetation, people etc. represent an unique place to come to visit, and if you live here is like whenever you go away, when you are coming back, you feel that you are going for holidays, it is a little organized paradise.

Shoutout is all about shouting out others who you feel deserve additional recognition and exposure. Who would you like to shoutout?
To every human being I met at any job, with open heart and mind, including the ones I didn´t met but I met their accomplishments in the arts, literature, science, services, etc, alive or gone, but remaining trough the times, you don´t need to be outstanding, you just need to be you, authentically you, then paradoxically you become outstanding.

Thank you, Lycée Alliance Française de Santiago du Chili, Patrullas de Ski de Chile, Universidad Central de Chile, Instituto Psicológico Ikastola, Enisschag, Isia, Interski, Confederação Brasileria de Desportos na Neve

Website: https://www.dalearepabarmiami.com/

Instagram: @gastonpsicoski

Other: Restaurant Instagram: @Dale_arepa_bar_miami

Nominate Someone: ShoutoutMiami is built on recommendations and shoutouts from the community; it’s how we uncover hidden gems, so if you or someone you know deserves recognition please let us know here.