A Month at Jib Camp- TR

What started as "The Unemployment Chronicles" on Poachninja.com, where I had left work to ski the Southern Hemisphere season, ended after only a month and I never even left the first destination of my grand tour, Momentum Ski Camp in Whistler. I was, in fact, only going to spend a couple of weeks in Momentum before going south but I sold out to the almighty dollar (or yen in this case) and was lured back into the working world. With only a little over a month of work and the season still early down south I opted to spend 1 month with John Smart et al. working on my park skillz with the kiddies. I was the oldest camper for 2 of the 4 weeks I spent at camp but the experience was better for it. The kids are the youthful exuberance of the ski lifestyle and I got to feel a part of it.

The photos of the kids and pros are all over Newschoolers and will be in the magazines next year. Here is one (old) man's ski camp experience in pictures.

There was a pro photog named Hans cruising the camp and taking pics. He got my "unnatural pensive" quite well
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One of the things I for one looked forward to in camp is coach Rory Bushfield's jury rigged portable bbq. It started with hotdogs but as his confidence progressed he was even grilling fish. I have suggested that he get a beer fridge backpack next year, we will see...

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Two new things this year at camp was the introduction of a stuntman's airbag to learn new tricks and me (and fellow mag ForrestBro) with Casio's new high speed casios with auto sequencing. Here we see both in action

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Also quite new to me is the "double double" of DH mountain biking almost every day after skiing. Here myself and StillNoProgress (who, as a snowboarder, was at Camp of Champs) in the Whistler bike park. It was the ability to do both biking and skiing that helped keep me in Whistler over Chile, TBH.

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In the second week we got fresh snow and got to ski a few inches of pow in the AM! This was at about 1500m

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A couple runs of pow turns and I remembered I was at feeride camp so I did the last pow run switch (not quite to the road)
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I should also mention, momentum runs a kicking sound system to keep up the stoke

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Age does reveal itself in the park. Here a combo of a beer belly and poor flexibility conspire to defeat my attempt at double safety...
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The airbag jump got bigger and bigger through the week and they built a quarter pipe hit on the side, where I got to work on my "flat spin alle-oup 5's" or something like that. I cannot remember the terms for the life of me...
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Low angle rail shots can even make the most over the hill skier look steezy
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Halfway through camp I broke my Armadas and bought these Atomics off of a coach. I didn't realize at the time that they were next year's most hyped ski in the park scene and all the kiddies thought I was sponsored, until they saw me ski

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In order to keep it real and a bit oldschool, I hit the odd mogul lane
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And in order to keep young I did a few no-pole runs...
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Finally, it took a couple of weeks to work up the courage to hit the 75 footer on the far left. By the end of a month I could even spin over the fukker.
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So that is my month. Instead of an aborted Southern season, I choose to remember it as a month at ski camp. For a month at least, I was a park rat, not a 35 year old wage slave and that is a good thing. Warren Miller is wrong, if you don't do it this year, you are even less likely to do it in the next year so go for it, go to to park camp and I will see you there next year.

You're my hero SC. not that I want to learn the jibber trade, but I am totally impressed by your willingness to get after it with the younguns and live the dream.

As a young 30 something, I'm feeling the need to go after it just a little more to recapture my youth.

FKNA, Stunts. Way to get after it!

an inspiration to us all...but just think if you had rocked a mustache through all that, those kids woulda been so jealous!

fucking awesome man.

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an inspiration to us all, thanks for the stoke brudha.

Sick work SC.

I've been wanting to do a spiny-switch-jibbery summer camp for a while now.

I think this TR has made it a must for next summer.






Also looking to ski Japan in the next year or so...still working on securing my all white Sally fart bag...expect a pm for the planning phase of that trip :D

hell yes. way to rep the AV7

Schweetness.

Da StuntCok keeps it real. Big ups.

They Arrived! The other thing I learned at camp was that they made wheelie shoes in adult sizes! Here I am trying on one of the coach's pair for the first time. I since ordered a pair and they just arrived in the office. I think I should probably take them home and work on my skillz before I bring them back in to cruise around the office.

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Solid, solid work. Very nice.

Yessss! Thanks for posting that.

I really liked that, glad I clicked through. Another fine example of divergence between chronological and biological age.

ps - Do some yoga and get the (double) grab! :p

Right on!

FKNA! Great stuff, SC! I can't get onto TGR @ work, thus my browsing and posting is waaaaay down. Glad I got on today to see the fun.

Nice... that looks like a blast!

For the past couple years or so I did full TRs of my park camp experience. This year, constrained by only having a week off and not having the best weather for shooting photographs I am left with little material for a TR. I am still the oldest kid in camp and old-man injuries (a pinched nerve in the c-6) did, for the first time, make me feel my physical limits of age directly, as opposed to the indirect limitations of age such as a beer gut and a hangover.

Still, I powered through and even bought a full XL outfit off a coach (Gore-tex performance shell and the same colors as Tom Walish, apparently) who was approximately half my weight but the outfit was still baggy enough to fully clothe my mid life crisis!

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Didn't see your initial jib camp TR last year, but thanks for the bump. It's good to hear us older guys - 20+ in the jib world - still getting after it. Makes me consider heading to Momentum next summer perhaps. Thanks for the stoke.

I missed this the first time around too - awesome write up. I've been to John's mogul camp 2 years in a row now and have nothing but great things to say about it. The ex-olympic and world cup coaches are phenomenal and I also found being around the kids to be a ton of fun. They have an "adult" week too for those who are looking to get a little more party out of their stay in whistler.

Also just seeing this. No way I would have considering doing a jib camp, but now you have me thinking. Excellent on all fronts. And the wheelie shoes! Has to happen.

I am scheduling my annual Jib Camp pilgrimage and wondering if there are any other old farts thinking of going. I usually go to week 2 or 3 for weather, snow, and a Japanese holiday I can take advantage of. http://momentumskicamps.com/cs/

Fantastic thread. Thank you.

FKNA!

That is awesome it makes me want a geriatrics jib camp where oldfarts can ski with out their walkers and canes and attempt to learn new things like steeze and flippy mcwhateverthefucks in a environment where twelveyearolds don't make fun of us! Atleast the baggy look will disguise the redonkulous amount of padding needed to get me near a rail.

Seriously stellar TR.

(P.S. either shave daily or rock a banana that'll fool 'em :fmicon: )

Wow, great stoke. Way to get after it! You have a great attitude, and it's pretty inspiring to see an older dude huckin' that 75er... Now I have no excuses.

(a bit late and after a long absence- my current job no longer allows TGR)

Another year, another jib camp. I have come to learn that the thing about jibbers is that I get older but they stay the same age; and what a 16 year old today is capable of is light years ahead of what a 16 year old 9 years ago, when I first started my annual pilgrimage to Whistler Blackcomb's Glacier Camps (first High North, then Momentum). Does it make me feel my age? Perhaps a bit, but its not all bad; indeed there is something to be said for the growing admiration I get from the park rats upon seeing a middle age guy hit the park, even if it is the same kind of amazement you and I would exhibit if we were to come across a pet dog that could put together a basic English sentence.

This was to be a special summer for me that only started in Momentum. Again between jobs, like when I first started this thread, Momentum Ski Camp was to be the first stop in a ski and bike sabbatical that would span 5 countries, and 4 continents, give me the opportunity to finally hit 100 snow days in a season and, more importantly, meet almost as many new friends or re-aquaint with old ones.

Maestro...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mQMVHhxTtLc

As it was the beginning of a long journey, early injury was to be avoided at all cost. I couldn't risk the high risk off axis multi rotation maneuvers I was working on in previous camps, and thus limited myself to "old man tricks" (at least I told myself it was a conscious part of a strategy and not old age induced caution.

Old man tricks meaning bonking short, low to the ground rails

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Simple tricks off boxes

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The pipe
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And other simple jibs
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Of course, as the old man at camp, I have the responsibility of bringing the old school style

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That isn't to say I didn't hit the big 50 ft kickers, i just kept things simple

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TBC...

PS, I don't know how a family wiener roast pick got attached but I can't seem to get rid of it.

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And one of these two people posted that they met the "best skier in the world" on their FB page this day

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Of course, no trip to whistler is complete without hitting the bike park. In fact, the best part about summer camp is you are done by mid afternoon just in time to hit the 3pm discount ticket for the bike park (sporting my maggot bike jersey).

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But it was time to move on. The next stop of my journey was Windells ski and snowboard camp in Mt. Hood. Unfortunately, there seemed to be a lack of cameras on hand but trust me when I say, it is where I threw my meanest, gnarliest tricks. Honest, you should have seen it

My ski bag got more action photography when it was left by Windell's legendary skate park

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And I took a bit of a beating on the rails. I am told chicks did scars but I have not really confirmed that yet
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TBC

And then it was time to head south, to spend just short of a month with SASS travel in Bariloche, Argentina. To keep consistent with the park camp theme, I happened to have Michelle Parker, one of my original park coaches from High North, 8 years ago, my guide in Argentina!

Then

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And Now

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She has definitely has aged better than I...

We had some amazing pow pow, some great hikes and some great scenery.

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We built some of our own terrain features on the heavier snow days. I helped build and hit this with guide Mauri Cambilla (featured)

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While the younger jibbers built and hit this...

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TBC...

And it was time to move on yet again. It seemed only fitting to follow up the youthful exuberance of park camp and natural beauty of Patagonia with a trip to the South Island of New Zealand, the epicenter of southern Hemisphere freeskiing, famed for breathtaking scenery. Unfortunately, it was at this point in my trip that I got deathly ill, lost my camera, and didn't really get the weather I had hoped for. I did reach my goal of 100 days while in Wanaka, however, and got to ride with Momentum coach/buddy/olympic hopeful James "Woodsy" Woods (a young man of such extraordinary character and enthusiasm that he almost anyone he meets (including me) hoping to see Britain, of all countries, take slopestyle gold in Sochi.

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The scenery lived up to its reputation

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And I met up with an old friend from Japan, and taught her how to hit park jumps

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And rented some bikes and hit some trails

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And finally, I hit my 100 days, was feeling worse for wear and it was time, yet again, to move on.

I headed back to Whistler for some Autumnal biking but the weather didn't quite agree, and I was biking in freezing rain...

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So it was time to head for warmer climes. I was told the place to be for what would be the shoulder season anywhere else was Moab Utah, so it was there I went. It was Moab, of all the places I had travelled on this journey that left the most lasting impression. It may have been I was further from black out drunk during the Moab evenings than at the other locals, but perhaps it is because it truly is God's country, or would be if there weren't so many religious people.

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And to be amongst such natural splendor does gets one thinking deep thoughts

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Like, how the fuck am I going to get all my gear home?

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Until my next bout of unemployment.

Excellent trip report! When were you on the South Island? We were there early November to sightsee and really enjoyed the place. Nice meeting you at the Mammoth Mini last season:) Maybe one of these days you can still show me how to pop a helicopter, I`m not too old to learn a new trick...

Killing it dude! That's a lot of ski and bike days, you're doing it right.