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2 8 | PULSE W i n t e r 2 0 1 5 H E A LT H I E ST P E R S O N I K N OW rowing up in Palos Verdes, Stanley Chang v o l u n t e e r e d as a teenage candy striper at Torrance Memorial Medical Center, never imagining he would return to practice medicine. But Chang, who graduated from UCLA Medical School in 1991 and trained at Harbor UCLA Medical Center, did return to Torrance Memorial and has been an anesthesiologist there for the past 21 years. As much as he loves the South Bay, the 50-year-old also loves taking time off to hit the ski slopes. He's passed his enthusiasm for the sport on to his family. Chang and his wife, Joanne, take their three sons, Michael, 18, Matthew, 17, and Marcus, 14, on skiing vacations several times a year. Plus he goes skiing on his own several more times a year. He talked to Pulse about his passion for skiing , plus his newfound love of golf. How did you get into skiing? Stanley Chang: I used to play ice hockey as a child, then my parents made me quit because it became too rough, and they were afraid I would get hurt. So we went on a family skiing vacation to Mammoth Mountain at age 14 and went regularly from then on. In college, there was less opportunity to ski and even less in medical school, but I still kept it up. One winter during medical school, I took the semester off and lived in Aspen, Colorado, and did a lot of skiing. at's where I really advanced in my skill level and solidified my love of the sport. Of course right aer that, my medical training prevented me from skiing regularly for about 12 years until my sons were old enough and we introduced them to the sport, the way my parents introduced me. What is it about skiing that you love so much? SC: It's fantastic to be out in nature. It's very peaceful doing your own thing—you have a sense of freedom. It's very serene and meditative. You're also a fan of helicopter skiing, or heli-skiing. SC: I started heli-skiing nine years ago. Richard Shrader, a local orthopedic surgeon, is an avid heli-skier and he introduced me and my ski buddy, Ramin Mirhashemi, a g ynecologic oncologist at Torrance Memorial, to it. Once I tried it, I was pretty much hooked. Now we go heli-skiing in the Selkirk Mountains in British Columbia once a year for the past nine years. How is heli-skiing different? SC: With most skiing , you stay at a resort and take a ski li up the mountain and then ski down a wide- open path. With heli-skiing , you stay in a lodge that is only accessible by helicopter during the winter. ere are no roads in winter so you have to take a helicopter up to the lodge. e lodge is totally isolated in the wilderness. You take a helicopter up the mountain and ski down. en the helicopter takes you up to the top again. is goes on for a week. It's great. What, you jump out of the helicopter and ski down the mountain? SC: No, that's something James Bond might do. You take your skis off and load them into a basket on the side of the helicopter. You ride inside the