This summer I was asked to coach up at Windells ski camp, and I’m so glad I said yes to it. I had an absolute blast skiing this summer, and was able to coach for two sessions. Thankfully was able to get some pretty cool kids that were determined to learn, and ready to have fun skiing.  

During the first week we had some pretty solid weather, and I was able to learn a few tricks after coaching during freeski time for all the coaches. In the mornings I was coaching a pretty awesome group of 5 kids. Throughout the week it was fantastic watching them all progress and try to improve their skiing as much as they could. Another thing happening during the entire first week was a lot of search and rescue helicopters looking for a missing hiker on Hood.  

Halfway through the session most of my kids decided to go rafting, and for that reason I was one of the selected coaches to go with them, so happy I did. For the rafting trip we went down to Maupin on a scorching hot day and had so much fun! The rest of the session was spent on the mountain riding hard and teaching some kids how to do they’re first backflips, and teaching others how to be smooth with the ladies. One camper, and all around awesome kid named Jack was able to get a smooch from the gorgeous liftie girls, and win some swag from his coach.

After a fun week of coaching and shredding with my campers it was time to say bye to the session 3 campers. That first session flew by so fast, but I was excited for the fun part that I had heard so much about from other coaches. Skiing on the hill is fantastic, but if you’re not up skiing the best part of summer is during the in-between. My first in-between was spent with the majority of the ski coaches on the Oregon Coast for the 4th of July. From camping, having a huge bonfire, and watching fireworks, it’s going to be very hard for any 4th of July to top this one.

The following day a bunch of coaches left, but a few of us remained and ended up going surfing for the first time. Definitely much harder than it looked, and was a very humbling experience for all of us. Ended up being an amazing way to end a great trip to the coast.

The next day however was my birthday and the final day of the in-between, thanks to some friends we were able to have some fun and make it a memorable one. From going to Buffalo Wild Wings for dinner, and watching a Portland Thorns game, seeing Alex Morgan in real life, and getting some ice cream. It ended up being a fantastic birthday indeed.

From enjoying a nice little break on the coast, to jumping right back into work with the arrival day for Session 4. This session I ended up getting some kids who were a little older than my previous session. This was fantastic since I didn’t have to worry about where most of them were if they didn’t feel like skiing with me.

This entire week was so much fun for multiple reasons, first my campers were awesome, and secondly I was able to start filming with Reed Lewis for “The Darkside”, a ski edit we worked very hard on over the next few weeks. Every day I would ski with my kids in the morning, then go meet up with Reed and shred our faces off until they kicked us out of the park.

Over the week skiing with my campers, they were able to push themselves, and a lot of them learned more than they ever thought they would throughout the week. The entire week we just focused on having fun skiing, instead of worrying about tricks, and they ended up progressing so much. Really proud of how good they got throughout the session.

Unfortunately their were some injuries happening on the lane this week. One day in particular there was over six calls to the snow patrol between the Windells and High Casacade Lane(Snowboard Camp) Some of the injuries involved one of my campers during his freeski time. While our head coach Jeff Curry was heading down to help him out he flew over a jump roller to an unexpected surprise of a boulder. Jeff ended up clipping the boulder, and in the process broke his femur. This all came to a giant shock to all of us, and made all of us much more aware of the dangers in the lane. Minus the injuries, it still ended up being a very fun and sunny session up at Windells.

Here are the edits from Session 3 and 4.

This was my last week of working up at Windells, and I’m very grateful to Jeff Curry for bringing me on board. Already looking forward to coaching again next summer, and spend more time on the lane with some awesome people.

Cheers, 

-Noah