Camp Woodward: Day 1

After getting to the camp and getting checked in, finding my room, and unloading my gear, I found out that no one was allowed to skate the first day (Sunday).  I guess too many kids were coming out to Woodward and were super excited and end up getting hurt the first day.  So, I guess that was a good rule.

I met some of the guys in my cabin and found out that there wasn’t anyone younger than 23, so that worked out great.  In fact there were surprisingly more guys older than me and in their 40’s.  Some had kids there too and like to skate/bike/snowboard, and some were just there to skate and have fun.  I quickly quit thinking about my age and just was excited to be there and looked forward to skating.

I spent most of the day walking around taking pictures of the facilities.  Its an amazing place with so much to skate its almost hard to do it all or no where to start.  I’ll post some of those pictures later when I have more time.

There was still plenty to see and watch as many pros were on site and skating.  Mitchie Brusco (15yr old who skated the mega ramp at X-Games) was there practicing on Woodward’s mini-mega ramp, which is still quite intimidating.  His family was there watching and supporting too.  They were all very friendly. His picture is to the right, keep in mind that quarter pipe is 18 feet tall!

Pros from Blackbox (Mystery, Zero, Fallen) including Chris Cole (see video) who’s skating in the Street League finals next week, Jamie Thomas, Elissa Steamer, Tommy Sandoval, and other guys who I don’t know.  There whole crew is loaded with amazing skaters that are out here helping kids and putting on incredible demos.

It rained for a bit in the middle of the day.  This wasn’t much of an issue as there were plenty of indoor parks to go watch people ride.  I had been watching the weather and knew this rain would bring in some excellent weather behind it.

After an evening orientation, we found out that the adults of camp got to skate that night, which was great news.  There are many advantages to being an adult skater (+21) at Woodward, and the biggest is getting to skate until midnight when the kids al l have to be in their cabins by 10pm.

Everyday I’m setting some small goals and trying to learn or achieve something new.  This way I don’t push things too hard, but also feel like I’m progressing a little bit every day.  Sunday night, I learned out to go over a small spine ramp, which I had never done before.  This was a board-slide over, not a tail stall over.  Either way, it felt good.  I also worked on my rock to fakie, which is one of most basic moves.  But, for a skater who grew up in the 80’s and riding “switch” or backwards was rare… rock to fakie is a very difficult skill for me.

After a quick dip in the pool to cool off, I headed back to the cabin before midnight to sleep.  Day 1 was great and I was looking forward to the rest of the week.

Final picture is an unknown skater doing a big set of stairs at the Target Plaza.