Sun Peaks Freeride Camp Day 1 and 2

Over July 4-8 Sun Peaks hosted their 5-day long Freeride Camp and I was hired on as lead coach. Fourty-two riders from across Western Canada came to the hill to improve their skills and shred with the best. The coaching staff included a large Bicycle Café contingent of Matt Hunter, Graham Agassiz, Dylan Sherrard, Ian Killick, Thomas Sullivan, Shawn Melnechuk and myself, as well as my father and Chayse Marshall. The camp started out a little painfully for a few of us, as Aggy was coming back a broken elbow and Dylan, my Dad and I all had hard bails on Sunday. Mine wasn’t too pretty and I was sharply reminded of why I only leave my full gear behind once every couple years. Yeah, one of those…

So day one started without full confidence that I would actually be able ride, but a few Advil, a little athletic tape and some mind over matter saw me at least able to hold onto the bars. As my bike was in the shop waiting for parts for my fork I picked up one of the rental bikes to ride for the first couple days. Headlining coaches Hunter and Aggy were joining us on day 2 and 3, so I got Café shredder Thomas Sullivan to move up the ranks from a tail-gunner and kid I used to coach to one of the team. Inevitably the first morning involved a fair bit of time invested in organizing all the groups and handing out all the Dakine kits to the riders, but all in all it didn’t go too badly. By the time the lifts were turning we were all in line, kitted out and stoked to shred.

The first day saw me taking Group 7, the most advanced group of 14-16 year olds. Out of the seven riders, five were return campers and two were returning for their 3^rd and 5^th years, respectively. It is really fun to work with riders over a longer term and get to make progress over consecutive years, so working with this group was a treat. The kids were slaying! Second time up the lift we went over the trail crew who had seen our first run down Route 66 and they were raving at me about the group. We were raving right back about the condition of the trails - the trail crew have been on fire this year and the trails were buff! Many of the trails have been reworked, berms have been added everywhere and overall flow has definitely been increased. After a few runs the kids were tuned back in on the foundation skills so we worked on advanced moves and style for the rest of the day. I found that holding on to the grip with my busted pinky finger was less painful than letting it flop around, so despite inevitably being a bit slowed down after a while I stopped paying attention to it.

On the second day Hunter arrived and I bumped down to group 6 with Thomas joining me as a wingman. The group was full of enthusiasm and the sun continued to shine down strongly. While not quite as fast as the top group, the kids made up for it in enthusiasm, were fast learners and picked up skills quickly. The riders really thought out everything we worked on and with a bit of Socratic method we got them to figure out much of what they needed to learn in their own minds. Thomas, who I coached for a couple years as he was coming up in the race scene, made an ideal wingman and together we worked together to help the kids reach for their potential. By the end of day two we were pushing it with big smiles on our faces, but also starting to feel the effects of two days of non-stop park riding in the heat.

Day Three and Four

On day three Aggy joined us, three weeks off a broken elbow, and I bumped down to Group 5. Group 5 were under 13 but were all little rippers (with my 11 year old Café protégé Jackson Phillips at the helm), and as I got my bike back I was stoked! Fox sent me a new 2011 compression cartridge as a surprise treat (THANKS FOX!) which felt great, and despite my appreciation for the rental back-up bikes while mine was down, it was sooo good to be back on my Giant which fits me perfectly, weighs about 20% less and performs flawlessly in every aspect. Again, Group 5 the riders were thinkers, and together we discovered what worked best for them on the trail and in the air. While fine-tuning advanced moves is great, there is something really satisfying about working with riders on perfecting foundation skills and watching them progress quickly and gain a ton of confidence and control as they learn. Good times indeed. Day 3 was really hot and the kids were starting to fatigue, so by the second half of the day we had to stop for water breaks every run. Unfortunately Aggy came to the conclusion that 3 weeks was a little too soon to be riding, so he decided to just come back and hang out for the last two days.

Day four saw me bump back to Group 7 and I decided to take Jackson with me. I have worked with Jacky for 3 years on both on dirt and on snow, and he seriously has everything together he needs to succeed in either sport (think spinning 3s, hitting double black park jumps and winning races at 9 years old on skiis, and shredding his little Stinky 2-4 just as hard). While not able to role quite as fast on his 24’s as the older riders, on most of the hill he was only just behind them and on the jumps a lot of the time he was taking the lead. While the whole group have progressed into seriously amazing riders over the time I have known and got to work them and it is hard to single any rider out in the crowd of over-achievers, Liam Stevens (http://www.pinkbike.com/video/164020/) returning for his 5^th year was a definite highlight for me. At 9 years old when he joined us for the first year he was already standout rider and by the third year Hunter had helped him get on a junior development program with Specialized. Now at 14 on a dialed little SX that can finally keep up with his skills, he shreds for the love, mirrors the pros he rides with, has zero attitude, slays corners and jumps equally well and nacs harder than your mother (or your favorite pro). I know he has the skills on snow to match, so like Jackson he is a 4 season shredder. Very cool. Day four had to be one of the most fun days I have had on a bike, with the riders and I basically discussing riding as equals in between fantastic shred-fests. We did a few group drills but mostly only minor individual fine-tuning was really needed. Every rider was throwing down everything they had while screaming down the hill in a massive supersonic pack, mixing up the order, trying new things and feeding off eachother’s energy. I seriously regained my sense of youth on a bike, just shredding in a massive pack and having the most fun possible. Part way through the day the riders had been earning it hard so we focused on developing their style in the air with different types of whips, scrubs, tables and a few tricks. Again it wasn’t a teacher-student atmosphere, instead we discussed our favorite styles, brainstormed ways of achieving our goals, demoed different moves for eachother and all of us (including myself) came away having learned new style moves. A couple highlights for me were getting to be mid-pack in a massive scrub-whip train and following a couple feet behind Jackie on the last big step-up on Steamshovel while he layed out a flat one-footed euro-table. Pretty much blew my mind… 11 years old.

Day 4 (cont'd) and the Devil's Dandruff

By the time we only had a couple hours left we were pretty spent so we decided to slow down the pace a little, grab a camera, session and get some filming in. We had a couple whip off’s, sessions and train shots before finally settling on the last step-up of steamshovel for a last massive session. Jonas Burke had his x-ups absolutely clicked and all our jaws collectively hit the floor when Liam pulled a 90’d moto-whip nac-nac. So cool. Finally we decided to put down the camera and make our way down to the bottom. We ended the day with a massive bar-hump train on the last step-down and called it a day with smiles on our faces while laughing over the day’s events.

The final day saw the weather turn against us. We arrived at 9am to find the clouds unleashing the devil’s dandruff all over the top two-thirds of the hill, inspiring Safety-Ken to shut down the lift on us. We were told we would have to wait it out until the snow melted off the wood structures, so we took over the empty child-minding center, found a TV and DVD player and plugged in some riding movies while deciding on our next moves. We got word that we would have to wait until at least lunch to ride so after a couple movies we decided to open the floor to the kids on any topics they were interested in. Getting shut down on riding turned out to be a really positive opportunity for the kids to learn from us as we got to discuss our experiences growing up riding, our careers, the bike industry, filming, racing, building jumps, hitting gaps or lines for the first time, injuries, recovery and strategies for minimizing risk. A bunch of the kids I talked to afterwards were very appreciative of what we had to say and took a lot from it so I was happy. After lunch Safety-Ken decided that the hill would remain closed to the public but that the camp would be allowed to load the lift, ride half way down the hill on fire roads and access the bottom of the hill from there. The top of the hill was indeed coated in a couple inches of slush but the bottom of the hill was in decent condition. I rode again with Group 6 and we collectively decided that the weather was not going to hold us down or back. The last hour or two of the camp even saw sunshine. By the end of the day my back had had it with the 6^th day straight of riding, so when one of my kids got a flat on 24” wheels I switched him bikes and walked out. When I got to the bottom of the hill the campers were gathered at the trucks and we handed out prizes and schwag. Afterwards we took a group shot as well as lots of individual pictures and said our goodbyes to the 2011 Freeride Camp.

Despite all the challenges of running a camp of this size, the roadrash, strained tendons and nerve damage I sustained and the ensuing tendonitis that decided to plague me afterwards from riding hard for 5 days on an injured wing, I thoroughly enjoyed my experience and would not have given it up for anything. I love coaching and the camp presents such a unique opportunity to work with so many upcoming riders, many on a multi-year basis, that after 9 years of being involved with the camp I am sure I will be back for a 10^th year and well into the future. I wish all of the riders all the best and hope to see them all next year!

Justin Terwiel