Slalom at Camp Woodward 2009

[kennedy]

As some of you may know, Wentzl and Joe (and anybody else who helped make this happen) pulled some strings and started a Slalom program at Camp Woodward. I thought it would take an act of congress to make something like this happened, but all it took was some hard work and a lot of phone calls from an aging I.T. guy and a z-boy clam farmer.

I had the opportunity to go down there for two weeks to help teach kids how to wiggle, and this is my story.

The schedule looked something like this:
Sunday: Campers arrive, slalom demo on the course, before orientation.
Monday: Set the easier course up from 10am-1pm and 6pm-9pm. Give basic tips, get kids stoked on the wednesday Cabin vs. Cabin race. Course was super easy, 7-10 foot cones with a couple offsets.
Tuesday: Set the tuesday course up at the same timse which was a little more difficult (7-9 foot cones). Continue to get kids interested in the wednesday night race.
Wednesday: Chalk up a new course in the morning, kids practice. Evening session was the race, and we managed to wrangle some of the vert pro's into helping out. The Directors were helpful in giving us schwag for prizes. Top 3 racers from each cabin got a fallen sweatshirt, fastest cabin got a pizza party, and everybody got stickers and redbulls.
Thursday: By this time, most of the skaters have tried slalom, and a good number of them are actually hooked and coming to all our sessions. So we gave more tips and lessons to the kids who showed up. Morning session was on the hill, evening session was a gnarly banked slalom in "the rock", which was a pretty sweet concrete bowl.
Friday: Same as thursday.
Saturday: Kids leave, and it's party time at Penn state (college right up the road).
Sunday: Start all over and meet new kids

I found a stack of those rad hell fadell stickers in my trunk from the dixie and handed those out to the kids that I liked.

The program is a huge success. I was shocked at how many kids were interested in gettin low, turnin left, and turnin right.

I'll throw some pictures up later.

[Joe & Nick]

Can't wait to see the pics Mike. You should tell a little bit about nitro circus too.

[mangels]

Congrats guys. Getting it on the schedule at Woodward was a huge step for the sport. Many thnaks!

[arubadub]

Great job guys, kids like to rip too!

[Momona Boe]

Just got back from two days of teaching myself - Woodward is the cat's ass!

[817]

wow, that is an awesome story. I never got to go to Woodward but I hear that it is a great camp with really inspiring people. Sweet that the younger generation will get stoked on some OG skills.

Nitro Circus...... do tell, you've got my interest.

[Randelpink03]

Sick. Spreading the stoke and circulating gregs likeness, its like a 2 for 1. Anyone seem to be a natural so far? I rode with some guys on their first times, and one of them totally killed it, he barely even rides regular skate boards, but just had the natural weave skills.

[06metzp]

Sounds awesome! I'm working at a camp up here in Washington as the skate park supervisor this summer; I would love to help with woodward slalom next summer if it's going down again.

And yeah, what's this about Nitro Circus?

[Joe & Nick]

Nitro Circus slaloming on a dead end road

[Karl Floitgraf]

Right on. this is awesome!!! Exactly what we need. Thanks to all those who contributed with time and energy. I can't wait to contribute myself.