Camper Blogs

Camp is in full swing; our first batch of campers arrived early December eager and excited to enjoy all the early season powder that the snow Gods had delivered.
The Conditions have been absolutely amazing on the mountain with over 5 meters of snowfall so far this season. December saw over 338cm (133 in) of snow.

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One month on, and while some things have changed, the snow-based dream chasing remains the same.

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We’ve had waves of new Pro riders coming through the house and lots of friends from home visiting, so no one has been short of people to play out with. A few have moved on and are sorely missed already. Calum (no longer taco record holder, but still drinking champion) and The Matrix have just missioned it back to the southern hemisphere to start uni and “get back on the mangle horse”, so I do feel a bit like I’ve been riding with a limb missing lately.

Taking an extended break from work life, Camper Jamal Abbasi, 32 years from the UK is in Whistler on a 12 Week Snowboard instructcor Course having the trip of a life time and shares a little about his trip on Pro Ride in Whistler. 

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December - The first 4 weeks

I caught a first glimpse of what Whistler has to offer back in June with Pro Ride coaches Duncan and Lisa on Summer Camp, I fell for both the place and the crew instantly, and grasped the first opportunity to pack up my life for winter in the mountains.  Now a month into a 12-week camp and Whistler is home.

Our campers were shining both on and off the hill yesterday for our annual Pro Ride Christmas Turkey Dinner Night.

Last night we had a lot of fun as our campers (aka MasterChefs) cooked up the finest Turkey and Ham Christmas Dinner, with all the trimmings, and of course a big pot of mulled wine and a mountain of deserts with berry pavalova and chocolate cake... YUM!

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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