Blackcomb

Fresh Tracks on Blackcomb Nov 1st.  With snow falling heavily in the Alpine over the past 2 weeks we have our first sneak peak of current conditions in the Alpine.  Whistler Blackcomb teamed up with some local athletes in a heli mission to the top including Mike Douglas, Ashleigh McIvor DeMerit, Rory Bushfield, Mark Sollors, and Chris Rasman and discovered it is looking like winter. The countdown to official opening day on November 27, is on.

Pro Ride Coach Duncan is proud to have a riders part in the Heart Films #WBcoldfront Online Film Festival Entry.  We are are into week 3 so make sure to go vote for them and also be in the running to to win $5000 of free gear this season.  To vote follow the link #WBcoldfront

Whistler has again been voted the No. 1 overall best ski resort in North America by rthe annual SKI Magazine Reader’s Poll. The online survey saw 41,000 resort rankings submitted by SKI Magazine readers and ranks the top 50 North American ski resorts in a variety of categories valued by ski and snowboard enthusiasts. In addition to being voted No. 1 in overall ranking, Whistler Blackcomb also received top marks in the terrain variety, off-hill activity and après categories.  What a great town we live in here!

The team at Pro Ride Snowboard Camps would like to say a massive congratulations to Marc Veronese and Raffaella Vaz for being recognized by the Blackcomb Snow School for the amazing instructors they have become over the past year. Raff received the Blackcomb Rookie of the Year award while Marc was awarded Blackcomb Pro of the Year. 

Pro Ride camper Raffaella Blackcomb Rookie of the Year.jpg

In March 2014, Pro Ride Snowboard Camps ran its first two-week backcounty camp in Whistler, Canada. The camp was designed to combine Pro Ride's freeride snowboard training with the Level 1 AST certification course, an introductory avalanche safety course that teaches snowboarders the necessary skills to venture into the backcountry safely.

Pro Ride campers on AST Level 1 course.jpg

During the first week campers spent 4 days of freeride training with the Pro Ride coaches on both Whistler and Blackcomb Mountains, in preparation for their backcountry adventures. These initial training sessions included powder hunting and technical rider improvement sessions on steeps, trees, chutes and  in-bounds hiking.

Camper Sabrina Lynch, 18 years old from a small surf town in Australia is out to kill it in the Canadian Halfpipe and Slope Style competition scene and obtain her CASI Level 2.

Pro Ride Jumpday 2014.jpg

The freestyle group had afternoon lessons up on Blackcomb. It had snowed about 20 cm Sunday night, so we went searching for powder and ended up riding the Valley of Death and the other creek bed over near Crystal Chair. There was quite a lot of snow down there, so Duncan, Joel and Adam were jumping off some seriously big cliffs. It was pretty impressive to watch. At the end of the day, Lisa and Duncan said that was probably the first time they had ever taken a pro ride group through the creek beds and not had to pull someone out of a hole, ha-ha, now that’s saying something.

Camper Sabrina Lynch, 18 years old from a small surf town in Australia is out to kill it in the Canadian Halfpipe and Slope Style competition scene and obtain her CASI Level 2.

Pro Ride campers Sabrina & Joel.jpg

That Saturday everyone had a pretty mellow day. In the afternoon I suggested that we all go to the Sk8 Cave and Bounce. The Sk8 Cave is a skateboard shop in Function Junction that has a mini ramp inside. English Joel, Adriaan, Belgium Joel and myself all went for a session at the Sk8 Cave, everyone else went straight to Bounce, we would join them there in about half an hour.

Camper Sabrina Lynch, 18 years old from a small surf town in Australia is out to kill it in the Canadian Halfpipe and Slope Style competition scene and obtain her CASI Level 2.

Sabrina & Caren at Mt.jpg

Camper Sabrina Lynch, 18 years old from a small surf town in Australia is out to kill it in the Canadian Halfpipe and Slope Style competition scene and obtain her CASI Level 2.

For the next 3 weeks I will be taking a brake from the park and be focusing on Level 2 training. Lisa is going to be instructing us for the next few weeks. She is a Level 3 instructors and a Level 2 evaluator. For the first few days it was only myself and another girl, also called Lisa from Australia, in our Level 2 group. We really focused on our riding to begin with, learning the 4 different types of turns and which terrain pitch they are best suited to (basic carving, intermediate carving, intermediate sliding turns and advanced sliding turns). On Wednesday we were on whistler and went over to Symphony to work on our intermediate sliding turns. It was such a beautiful day, the sun was shining and the sky was so blue.

Camper Sabrina Lynch, 18 years old from a small surf town in Australia is out to kill it in the Canadian Halfpipe and Slope Style competition scene and obtain her CASI Level 2.

January felt like a pretty short month for me. Early New Years day I got viciously hit with a bad flu. After two hospital trips, some very awful antibiotics and 10 days stuck in bed, I was finally feeling like myself again.

Pro Ride Snowboard Camps ice skating.jpg