Pro Ride News

For Pro Ride coach Alan Gautier, there's nothing like a Whistler powder day to get your stoke on.  Alan is one of the most amped riders in Whistler and loves to ride with the crew on what has been named "Friday Funday" camp sessions.  We asked Alan to answer some questions so you can get to know him a little better.  

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Q.  If you could change one thing in snowboard design, what would it be?

I'd bring back the good old step-in bindings. Just kidding.

Q.  Describe your first day ever snowboarding?

I was almost 9, I had my skiboot on! I could link my turn half way down my first run, I was hooked!!!

A huge congrats to Camper Sean Bellerby who just launched an exciting new app for iOS called GoSnow.  

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With the early arrival of Spring like conditions up on Whistler Blackcomb, our campers have switched up hiking steep lines to hiking the abundance of boxes rails and jumps that are on offer here in the freestyle terrain garden.

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Right from the beginner to the advanced camp groups, everyone has been progressing so fast, which is no surprise given the motivation, determination and overall happy and supportive vibe of our crew. We’ve had campers landing their first ever box slides, hitting jumps and hips for the first time and landing clean 180 and 360 spins. Our advanced campers have also stepped it up adding some technical big spins on the jumps, whether they’re spinning backside, frontside or off the toes, to their ever growing bag of tricks.

This month's spotlight is on Lisa Corcoran, Pro Ride Coach and owner of Treeline Summer Camps.  Lisa has been riding with Pro Ride for 8 years now and is a super fun and not to forget amazing all-around female rider.  With qualifications including CASI Level 3 & Park instructor, Level 1, 2 & Park Evaluator, CSF Comp-Dev Coach, NCCP B and AST 1, we are lucky to have her on the team.  

As Lisa gears up to a busy summer riding and coaching on the glacier we got together with her for a little Q & A.  

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Q.  Who and what inspired you to start snowboarding?

Wow, what an end to our '14 / '15 season here in Whistler for the Pro Ride family of campers.

Backcountry Camp Blog March 2015

Winter returned just in time for this year’s Pro Ride backcountry camp 2015. March typically ranks 2^nd for having the largest average monthly snowfalls over our surrounding mountains and even in a somewhat lackluster winter for snowfall, March did not disappoint. Storms from the north accumulated 123cm of fresh snow, significantly more than both January and February levels. With powder days in short supply this winter, our backcountry camp kicked off at the best possible time with amazing conditions up in the Alpine.

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With a 6.30am roll-call for our eager campers last sunday, we were first in queue for Whistler's famous First Tracks Experience. The lure of watching the sun rise over on top of Whistler, a buffet breakfast and VIP fresh tracks across the hill had our group more stoked than usual - if that's even possible.

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By 7.30am we were out of the gondola and feasting on plates of bacon, sausages, eggs, potatoes, french toast, fruit, granola, and muffins. Most of us enjoyed second plates, honestly you'd think we'd never seen food before such was our delight, the fruit loops in particular being a huge hit.

The hugely anticipated snowmobiling day trip went down yesterday for our longstay campers, as they ripped around Whistler's beautiful surrounding mountains with our tour guides The Adventure Group based out in Cougar Mountain. Snowmobiling has to be up there as one of the most thrilling activities to experience and it certainly got the adrenaline pumping for our campers yesterday, wizzing around on the scenic cat tracks. Cougar mountain, famous for its diverse terrain, never dissapoints, even in a season like this where the snowfall has been below par. Thanks to our expert guides, our campers were quickly brought up to speed in learning how to maneouvre their snowmobiles, body positioning, turn smoothly and control their speed. 

By the afternoon our crew were riding around like pro's, xgames 2015 snowmobiling longjump here we come?!!

Jamal and his new whip!