CAMP OF CHAMPS: Choose your own adventure
"There's no doubt they have the best park and a huge reputation for the best coaches," said camper Mike Strand, 16, from New Jersey. His coach was 4FRNT pro skier Steele Spence who had Mike throwing "9s" and flips off the park's biggest kicker.
Campers range in age from 11 to whatever, though, like Mike, most are in their teens. But it's not uncommon for older campers to join. The wife of one of the campers sent him to camp for his 40th birthday.
The basic camp runs around $1,000 with the option to upgrade or personalize a stay. This includes breakfast, lift tickets, instruction, lunch, and hotel accommodations in Whistler Plaza (where there is a hangout room that features ski movies all day long, video games, and high-speed Internet).
Dinner isn't included, but the coaches love to hang out with the kids and will often take them out to eat, snowboard pro Rob Kingwill said. A COC coach for 12 years, he said that Whistler is a little fantasyland where campers can choose from a number of amazing restaurants.
"I'll just go over to the hotel and find five or six kids and go to sushi," he said. "For half of them, it will be their first time trying it. It's so much better than eating Cisco slop like you get at other camps. Here you get a choice; you get to go out and experience so much more."
For his birthday, the campers went to Sushi Village and had a wasabi-ball eating contest. The winner inhaled a golf-ball sized ball to win a pair of 4FRNT poles. Then a group of coaches and campers went outside to play hacky-sack. The evening's best footbagger, Chase Adams, 16, from Salt Lake City, said COC stands apart from the other camps because of the coaches. His observation from other camps was that the coaches were more concerned with outdoing each other than helping the campers.
"When you get a camp full of rock stars it seems like they are trying to compete against each other and they aren't as focused on the kids,” he said.
With the help of the coaching staff, Adams said his skiing has improved so much that his mom is letting him stay two more weeks.
Kingwill said he wouldn't have it any other way. "I get swept up in the excitement of camp," he said. "It's the best job in the world."
It's not too late to sign up for Camp of Champions. Sessions run through July 20. For information, call 1-888-997-CAMP or visit campofchampions.com.