COACHING

The small coaching groups are already pre-arranged before you arrive. The ratio depends on your ability. All the coaching is one-on-one no matter what your group size. Coaching is from 8:00 AM until 3:00PM. That is 3 hours more coaching per day than any camp at Mount Hood.

We group by age and ability. When you register, we ask what your ability level is.

When you arrive at camp, your name is already up on a board alongside your coaches' name. There is instruction on all the kinds of riding, all day, everyday. Pipe, park, jumps, handrails. You are coached the whole day, every day, if you wish, from 8:00 AM till 3:00 PM Please be aware we do NOT run a regimented program, it is a flexible and relaxed coaching environment for maximum enjoyment. If you just want to ride pipe all day without specific instruction you can do that, but we don't recommend that.

All the coaching within your small group is One-on-One. Personal, individual attention so you get the maximum results and enjoy yourself. You'll get individual instructions tailored to your skill level. When you hit a jump, ride pipe or slide rails, your coach will watch or demonstrate, then give advice to improve your style and technique.

Your coach also tours the village with you, shows you our facilities and terrain on the glacier. This is a great, safe introduction to camp, because they show you how everything works on the mountain, what jumps are expert, what jumps are beginner, get you warmed up in the morning etc.

The best way to improve your skills is to ride with more advanced riders than yourself. Watch, experiment and learn from our super friendly and approachable coaching staff.

We have a "No Soccer Moms" policy at camp. Parents are more than welcome at camp but please leave the coaching to us. Your kid will thank you for it, have more fun and will learn more from their professional coach without you "Soccer Momming or Soccer Dadding" them to death.

As long as you're not a complete beginner, come to camp. You must be able to snowboard or ski because we teach how to ride pipe, park and rails. We always say, "The less you know, the more you learn". All you need is a desire to learn.

We have campers at all ability levels every week, so no matter how well you ride or ski there are tons of campers just like you. Also, don't worry that you are going to be the worst rider at camp. Just because you only see people ripping on the website, 50% of our campers are just learning how to jump or spin 180.

No. Helmets are NOT mandatory at Camp of Champions, although we fully encourage and promote helmet use. Campers can even try out helmets free of charge from our demo room at the hotel.

Here's the reasoning behind not enforcing mandatory helmets:

Once we say helmets are mandatory this can lead to problems. The camper could remove the helmet just before doing a trick, get injured and then blame could be laid on others, instead of the camper being responsible for their own actions. Up until now we have left it to the discretion of each individual whether or not to wear one. It does make complete sense to wear one of course, but it can also give some individuals that feeling of being "invincible". This could lead to them trying a trick outside their ability.

So the helmet debate is more complex than one would think. We constantly work alongside our Risk Management Team, to keep injuries to a minimum. The camper is under the instruction of their coach each day on snow. Studies show that a helmet will not protect you from certain types of injuries, so we have to consider all facts before we implement a new rule.

Every summer we see more and more campers wearing helmets at all times during riding. Wearing a helmet has thankfully lost that "uncool" stigma that was around a few years back. These are all positives that make it common place for riders to grab their helmet before they hit snow. People making the decision on their own to wear a helmet rather than being forced to wear one as a rule means more people wear helmets. We also highly recommend that campers use a mouth guard. Concussions do happen at camp and a fitted mouth guard will cut down the concussion risk tremendously. Education on the safety aspect of snowboarding is key.