Sun Peaks Freeride Camp

Have you ever wanted to ride your bike down a variety of different trails ranging from tech shore style runs to high speed, bermed up, machine built race courses? How about build some new skills and ride some stunts you never thought you could? Snack on some fancy food or soak up the atmosphere of a super laid back European style resort? What if you could do all this at the same time, under the careful instruction of the locals who know this zone the best? For one sunny week in July a fortunate group of young riders got to experience it all at the Sun Peaks Freeride Camp.



On the first morning of camp I immediately began to sympathize for my high school teachers. I used to make fun of them for being awkward and appearing to be so nervous. Standing in front of 27 sugar-high-super-stoked kids all jumping around asking questions and super-keen to hop on the lift, I think I got a taste of what it was like to be in the shoes of all those teachers I hassled. Lucky for the coaches, we were all at Sun Peaks to teach the kids about riding bikes and not to teach them about math. With a stacked roster of coaches including myself, Matt Hunter, Graham Agassiz, Chayse Marshall, Justin Terwiel, and Justin’s father, George Terwiel, the kids knew they were in for some excitement and that made it easy for us to mellow them out. As with any sort of multi-day event, the first day at freeride camp was spent getting organized and feeling everything out. I was about to spend a week helping kids push their limits on their bikes and it appeared to me that ensuring those bikes were safe and the riders were up to the task was number one on the checklist. After the first day of feeling out riders abilities and making some adjustments to the groups we had our wheels rolling smoothly.



For the days to follow their was nothing but hard shredding and good times. I was continually impressed by how enthusiastic and open-minded my campers were to learning new things and taking advice on old things. Stepping it up on a daily basis riders were dropping down rock faces they’d previously thought to be too steep and airing over gaps they never imagined they would have the confidence for. It was insane to watch all of the riders feed off each others excitement and help push each other to new limits. Especially at the moment when my 9 year old buddy, Jackson Phillips, who I know through work at the Bicycle Cafe, launched himself over the biggest doubles in the park, only to be followed by the rest of the kids. By the end of the week we all walked away with some new skills, a lot more confidence and a whole new group of friends to ride with.



I’ve always enjoyed doing events with kids or helping people learn to ride and this was my first time having my own camp. Helping people to realize their potential and have a lot of fun at the same time are both extremely rewarding tasks for me to work at and working as a mountain bike coach is the perfect way to accomplish those tasks. It ends up being a ton of fun for everyone involved, and nobody walks away without a smile. Sun Peaks Freeride camp was a new experience that took a bit of work to get in the groove of but I found my way pretty quick and had just as much, if not more fun than all the kids I had the chance to shred with. Thanks to everyone at Sun Peaks Resort, Race Face and Dakine for making the camps possible. Now I just can’t wait till next summer’s camp!