Momentum & Camp of Champions Update

Words & photos by Jeff Schmuck

We're now officially past the halfway mark of summer camp season here in beautiful Whistler, BC, and last week's third session of Momentum and second session of Camp of Champions couldn't have been much better. With much more sunshine than the previous week and what we're experiencing during the current session, if you love to ski and weren't lucky enough to be in Whistler last week, here's a lengthy look at everything that went down...

Momentum. Photo by Miles Clark

Momentum was firing on all cylinders and then some last week, with a host of notable events taking place during the busiest session they've ever had, including Girls Week, the Splashdown water ramp event, and so many A-list pros that the lane looked like freeskiing's version of an Oscar afterparty...

Photo by Miles Clark

Momentum founder John Smart and a just few of the kids his camp has made so happy over the last 20 years.

The always smiling and fun-loving Dania Assaly lead the charge at Girls Week...

...along with the lovely Sarah Burke.

The one and only Tom Wallisch made a surprise appearance, making all of the happy campers that much happier.

The Dumont was also in town to lend his coaching skills, along with so many others, including...

Riley Leboe

Paul 'B-Paul' Bergeron

The iconic David Crichton

...and the more than infamous Ian Cosco, who encouraged his campers with a variety of provactive poses and other Chug-related antics.

Even the man who started it all, Mike Douglas, took a break from editing Salomon Freeski TV to return to his roots on the glacier to share stories over lunch with some seriously awe-struck campers.

With the long-awaited arrival of the sun, campers and coaches alike began teeing off on Momentum's three most impressive features, the 60-foot stepover (which has recently been pushed to 80 feet), the 22-foot superpipe into an Air Bag, and the recently installed stair set, which had enough options to keep the likes of metal heads such as Tom Wallisch and JF Houle busy for days...

Dara Howell

Jossi Wells...

Byron Wells...

...and both of them.

Matt Margetts...

Mike Henitiuk

Here's a few more highlights of what Chris Turpin and his hard-working army of diggers have unearthed in Momentum's lane... Photo by Miles Clark

Even the diggers find the time to ski, although their poles tend to be a bit heavier than ours.

Josh Bibby on the ral line.

Without question though, the highlight of the week at Momentum was their always fun-filled water ramping contest, Splashdown, which featured campers and coaches battling it out amongst three categories: funniest trick (which was highlighted by Colby James West's epic cannonballs), spin to win (which included a 2160...yep, you read that right), and best trick (where Gus Kenworthy prevailed over all with a triple flatspin)...

What a day...

James 'Woodsy' Woods with a double cork 12 double blunt.

Alex Schlopy with an iron cross to nose dive.

Matt Margetts with a double front flip truck driver.

Gus Kenworthy triple flat spinning his way to victory.

Making Splashdown that much better was the emcee of the event, the illustrious Luke Van Valin, along with appearances by...

Mike Douglas, Sarah Burke and Mike Riddle, who judged the event.

Sean Pettit

Bobby & Peter Brown

Mike Henitiuk & TJ Schiller

Colby James West, Justin Dorey & Alex Schlopy

...and Ian & Mowgli Cosco.

Oh, and a couple of go-go dancers were thrown in (but not literally) for good measure.

And once Session 3 was all said and done, Momentum wrapped things up (as always) with an epic pizza party in Rebagliati Park.

See you next session!

Meanwhile, over at Camp of Champions things were downright bananas, with more campers, coaches, guest pros and shenanigans than their gargantuan lane has features...which is a lot. A whole lot.

Session B was Legs of Steel Week, and although everyone at COC was missing LOS' leaders of the pack, Bene Mayr and Paddy Graham (who are both recovering from knee surgery...get well soon boys!), Fabio Studer, Oscar Scherlin and Thomas Hlawitschka came to Whistler to hold it down with their sack full of smooth tricks in tow. Side note: a couple of us were lucky enough to get a sneak peak at the park segment from their upcoming film, Nothing Else Matters, and it was by far the coolest segment I've personally ever seen in a ski movie. Seriously.

Fabio Studer

Oscar Scherlin

Thomas Hlawitschka

Also on hand was Bobby Brown, his brother Peter (who is surely going to be a force to be reckoned with in the years to come), Banks Gilberti and Kolby Ward, who spent all day, every day last week teaching the big jump line a lesson...

Bobby Brown

Peter Brown

Banks Gilberti

Cover Boy Kolby Ward

This is Chris Logan, and he's really, really good at skiing...

Joe Schuster. Party in the front, business in the back...

Rob Heule. Star of Fubar 3 (we hope)...

Kaya Turski...

Maude Raymond

Mack Jones

Max Hill

Jossi Wells was back and forth between Momentum and Camp of Champions, sampling each of their pipes...

...while TJ Schiller, on his second day back on skis following his knee injury, GTS'd him on the rails for some upcoming edits he's making.

Welcome back TJ!

But the biggest moment of the week on the glacier, and probably the entire summer, belonged to Gus Kenworthy, who stomped the first ever double misty off of a rail. Congrats Gus!

But enough about the pros, because there's one thing and one thing only that makes summer camp what it truly is...the campers.

The COC coaches judging their kids in the end of session jam-format contest, the COC Rodeo.

Another piece of exciting news last week was the arrival of COC's newest Air Bag at the bottom of their 22-foot superpipe, which is one of the only Air Bags in the world shaped like the wall of a halfpipe...

And speaking of Air Bags, there's not one, not two, but three at Camp of Champions, and the two at the bottom of the lane are some of the most popular of the endless amount of features at COC this summer.

COC's Head Snowboard Coach Rob Kingwill sending it.

Big ups to the diggers for all of their hard work. If it wasn't for you summer camp wouldn't be as awesome as it is!

Bailey Mitchell

Mad props are also in order for Tucker Perkins and Richie Margetts (Matt Margetts' Dad), who easily had the best tans in all of Whistler. All hail the Golden Gods of the Glacier!

At the end of the session, Camp of Champions wrapped things up in the most delicious way possible with a barbeque in The COC Compound that would frighten even the most liberal of vegetarians (although a few veggie burgers were on hand)...

Grill Masters Gordon Calder and Ken Achenbach, the founder of Camp of Champions.

That's a lot of cow.

The COC Compound...

Bobby Brown getting his tail whip on.

That's all for now from Momentum and Camp of Champions in Whistler, BC. Stay tuned for more updates, and until then, enjoy the latest edits from both of these amazing summer camps! Photo by Miles Clark

Momentum - Session 3

Camp of Champions - Session B