ESPN Snowboarding

COC

Welcome to the largest summer snowboard park in the world, Camp of Champions, Whistler.

Continuing our efforts to bring you the most up-to-date info on all things snowboarding, we talked to Camp of Champions owner Ken Achenbach up in Whistler, B.C., co-host of the 2010 Olympics. This Canadian camp contingent, led by Ach and some of Whistler's finest riders, offers a park that would put most winter parks to shame as well as the usual summer suspects of BBQs, bros, and more pros than you can shake a sharpened stick at. The COC is heading into its 21st year of summer snowboarding action up on the glacier while Ken himself is heading into his 44th year of acting like a 15 year-old for six weeks every summer.

ESPN: So what's your role at Camp of Champions?

Ken Achenbach: Owner/Camp Director, herder of cats, entertainment dude, the guy who makes sure everyone is having fun—be it campers or staff. I make sure that kids see the future and that their future involves a love of snowboarding, skiing, mountain biking or just having fun.

When does everyone show up and when does it really get into full force?

Kids turn up on June 20th so Arena Snowparks, the company that we contract to build our park, starts the last week of May. Because our park is about double the size of any summer park on earth, it takes a long time to build. Arena builds parks all over the world—including for the Olympics—so they also like to start a little early to try out some of the new features that they've been thinking about all year. Steve Petrie, the owner of Arena, likes to use COC as his design lab. We let him do whatever he wants as long as it fits our criteria: fun features for all abilities and terrain that helps to progress the sports. He lives for thinking up new stuff that will become the norm at parks around the world down the road...

The rest of our staff, coaches etc. arrive about a week prior to get settled, trained on anything new we've thought up to make the camp experience better, do some dry runs on processes we might have changed, and, of course, to get their shred on in the epic park.

How does Camp of Champions differentiate itself from other camps? Why choose your camp?

At COC we aren't hung up on being "just snowboarding", "just skiing," or "just mountain biking." The only thing we are hung up on is having the best park on earth—every summer. We don't care what sport you are into, we just care that you have a good time, learn a lot and make a bunch of new friends from around the world. By having snowboarding and skiing in the same camp and park, it allows us to build a bigger, better park and pushes each sport to progress. Nothing makes you ride harder or push yourself harder that watching someone in 'the other sport' go bigger than you! To me, that is the future of summer camps: getting rad, having fun and making friends. How you do it doesn't matter to us. As long as you do it, that's what matters.

The other big thing that differentiates COC from other camps is the town of Whistler itself. Having the number one resort in the world as your playground is tough to beat. The highlight of after-camp activities isn't going for a huckleberry shake, it's seeing your future: A future of living in a mountain town, having an epic life of riding every day, and hopefully going pro like a lot of our COC campers have. Even if you never go pro, you will have the best time ever and make more life-long friends than you ever imagined. You'll walk away from camp with a taste of the future you can have if you want it.

So what can we expect this summer? Anything in particular you're excited about?

Every summer there is something new at camp. This year, our friend at Gnarshmallow built us a digital version of our 2008 terrain park so kids have been ripping it for the last three weeks on-line at Newschoolers. It's so much fun it'll make you fail school for sure. The real park, the one made of snow, is always just that much better than the year before so that is the main thing that gets us counting down the days. Plus, all the coaches, old and new (we like to keep progressing our staff as well, keeps 'em hungry to teach and progress), all the pros that are coming for the Send It With... sessions, and honestly most of all, the usual: hanging out with all the campers, cracking jokes, saying "Hey smell this" and being 15 again for a month. Awesome!

Describe the typical setup a rider can expect to find in the COC area:

Lines of features for all abilities: Rail lines, jump lines and then side features on most of the big features so you can ride so many different lines every run that the park never gets boring. You hop on the T-Bar that runs right up the side of the park, and do it again. You can lap so fast it's crazy. You get so much more riding in than any other camp and don't have to hike anything. Hit the big line, transfer over to a rail line, hit the pipe, then the quarter, then another rail line—all in one run. Or you can hit three huge jumps in a row and never hike. It's why all the big pros have been coming to COC for the last few years. You can get so many runs in a day and the park is so big and loaded with such varied features you can learn anything in the summer.

Dice K

Pros come through on the regular to get work done. If you've never been to Camp of Champs, you've definitely seen it in videos.

What about off-hill activities?

In Whistler there is so much to do it's ridiculous. Even though this is a summer camp, this ain't camping! We go to the 100,000 sq. ft. concrete skatepark, play paintball, mini golf, hit the driving range or the bike park, go to the movies at the eight-screen multiplex, go for pizza, go out for dinner at one of the 90 restaurants in town, go shopping in one of the 200 stores in town... Or, hit a patio and watch the scene. Go swimming at the beach etc. Best of all is The Compound, our 10,000 sq. ft. playground with a perfect 40-foot mini ramp, RockBand on a huge flatscreen, and a 2600-watt sound system. There's ping-pong, vintage video games, dodgeball, basketball and foosball. We couldn't find anywhere cool enough to stay in Whistler so we partnered with Whistler Blackcomb to create The Dorm, too. We drop in five games rooms with multiple games platforms on flatscreens, custom bedding, wifi, the "6-10"—our convenience store that's "Almost as good as 7-11"—our ice cream parlor, the demo room with all the latest stuff to demo for free and more. There is so much to do you almost can't do it all in one week.

How's the adult program?

Adults are welcome in every session. We don't care how old you are, as long as you want to have fun and get your shred on. For our dedicated Adult Session, we have the entire town of Whistler with its spas, restaurants, patios, nightclubs and more to entertain us. The "COC Friday Night Parties" are the legendary parties of the summer in Whistler—if you're over-nineteen.

What's the average age for a camper?

For 80-percent of our campers the average age is 13-17. Ratios are probably 60/40 boys to girls. The rest are adults—boys and girls [laughs].

And all the information on costs and exact session dates etc. can be found on the Camp of Champions website?

That, and more. There is so much info on there that you will want to be in Whistler now.

Sort comments by: Most Recent | First Posted