There are people who make an effort, and then there are people who go above and beyond to lead by example. Even if he didn’t have a massive following on social media and enough ski movie credits to be mentioned among the greatest ever, Mark Abma would still be doing his thing, working to make the world around him better than he found it.
The jet-set pro skier life is full of contradictions. On one hand everyone wants a cold, snowy winter, however, it takes fossil fuels to get to these incredible destinations… or does it? Not so for Abma and his truck, which runs on vegetable oil most of the time. Sure he needs diesel to get ‘er going, but he uses significantly less oil-based fuel than the next person in a giant 4×4.
“The truck works just the same on veggie as it does with diesel,” Mark told The Inertia. “Diesel engines were originally designed to run on vegetable oil so that farmers could create their own fuel. It wasn’t until fossil fuels became readily available that vegetable oil stopped being used. Having a heated tank allows me to drive in the winter with no issues.”
In this quick piece I shot with Mark, he shows us just how easy the process is to take discarded vegetable oil from restaurants, clean it up, and use as fuel to take him to the next adventure. And it’s pretty easy to do yourself.
You can watch Mark in the new film, All In, from Matchstick Productions.
