So the start of this week kicked off the first freestyle camp on snow run by Aberdeen Snowsports Club. Many events have been run on snow but not a freestyle camp in this proportion. Neil Cameron came to me a while back now and told me what he wanted to do. I thought this was a fantastic opportunity for the kids and tried my hardest to promote(big it up) to the kids that it would be a benefit to. A lot of the Wednesday Rippers have amazing skills on the drymat but now it was time to take it to snow. Now not only did we have interest from the Aberdeen lot but some of the guys I coach with GPS were keen. In the end we had about 20 kids, skiers and boarders. Great turn out for the first camp run. So 20 Kids, with me(Andy Begg) and Chris Mahony as the coaches. Oh yes! now its time to show these kids how to shred.
So Day 1, left a little later but organising all those kids is a mission. Up to Glenshee, met some guys up there. Time to shred. Went up to the park to check it out. Boarders disappeared??!?! think they went up sunnyside(was ment to be good?!) So anyway, us skiers checked out the park. Twas good, soft snow, good features and low winds, and off and on sun. Went through the park hiking features, getting used to the features on snow and going over safety. Biggest safety point was “Watch out for punters, theres wads of them”. Finish a good days riding, getting used to snow for most. Time to go home. oops we were late, to many pee stops lol.
Day 2, well lets just say it was a wee bit breezy………. 4 runs which took the whole morning(lifts kept breaking) but the glenshee staff were on top of it as best as poss. Went home and some had a slide at the drymat with me and Chris.
Day 3, we had organised the day before to sort out an alternate and I’m glad we did cause the weather was apparently poor(super windy). So we hooked the kids up with and airbag sesh, pizza and a photo shoot. There was coaching on the airbag and on the kicker/tabletop, boxes were out and there’s the quarterpipe also. You could see, even with only a day and a half on snow, most of the kids were stepping it up. Backflips, frontflips, rodeos, corked spins were all getting thrown. My favourite was the 2 youngest rippers age 7 girls, Kirsty and Ramone, hitting the kicker for the first time and landing it.
It was a shame we couldn’t get on snow for the last day but I think the kids really enjoyed their last day. Pictures will be coming from the camp, some from the mountain and from the photo shoot at the dryslope.
I think the camp was a huge success even with the rubbish weather but hey that’s Scottish skiing 😀 I think it’ll be bigger and better next year and i hope to be a part of it again.
Thanks
Andy Begg
Freestyle Ski Coach
The Goat Post 