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.