Apologies in advance for the lack of pictures, as well as the lack of detail. Winston sets a high bar around here.
My first SGC was WELL worth the price. I had a killer time & pushed myself and my riding way more than I could've expected. World class instructors and staff, and I was grouped with a great 'team' of riders. I still left a few things on my tick list for next year, mostly for lack of time & logistical issues, but a few for a lack of skill or guts.
I ended up hitting most of the park trails, but even with a week's riding, some were missed. D1, Clown Shoes & Captain Safety were missed on purpose, but I regret not getting to Goat's Gully, Detroit Rock City, Joyride, and Schleyer. Schleyer was closed a bit early for the Crankworx racing, missed the others just because there's just too much terrain. Great problem to have I guess!
Day 1: Coach: Andrew Cho
Grouped up with Skullcrack & lawyer Scott, and grabbed 3 more to round out our crew, Steve, Ryan, and Mike. I was already starting to worry I was in over my head with the group, what with 9 or so gravity camps between the guys and some Shore experience, but figured I'd see how things worked out.
Lots of riding with on-the-fly, on trail coaching. I took a foot off over like the second jump on the first Crank It Up run and almost ended my week. Really worked at the end of the day, partly because I forgot to get coffee in the morning, but also because we got in a TON of riding.
Day 2: Coach: Andrew Shandro
Shandro has us do a berm cornering drill in the upper skills area that has most of us thoroughly embarassed. Great learning tool, but hard to get the flat corners right. Great individual input for each of the riders in our group. Ryan & Mike hit a nice turn to drop on In Deep that I couldn't get lined up then or later in the week. It just lippy enough to be concerning, and I didn't feel like ending my week early with something I wasn't too sure about. Figured I'd get a chance later in the week, but didn't.
Day 3: Coach: Lorraine
Lorraine will coach her ass off any time you're standing still. Great input, but by this point my brain was overflowing since my body hadn't caught up to everything from the previous two days. I should take a tape recorder next year. In one unexpected bonus bit of coaching, Ryan asked about stepping the bike's back end out in the air, and Lorraine obliged. He was tweaking the hell out of his airs on the first run, but it took me a while to get comfortable enough to try little bitty whips throughout the rest of the week. Something to improve on. Rode a really fun triple roller on In Deep, a little more wildly than I would've liked.
Day 4: Coach: Jordi Lunn
In the morning Jordi gave us some input on the trail, but mostly we were riding. Got the triple on In Deep done a lot more cleanly & under control.
My afternoon was epic. Took the heli-drop option and dropped Rainbow, with Mike & Ryan from the group, 15 other campers and Shandro and Adam. Just the ride up in the heli was worth the money, but the trail was a killer bonus. Unrelentingly technical, it had me feeling off from the start, but I eventually got into a flow (until I corndogged myself in a slidy chute). Solidly black or double-black trail, but if you're up for SGC & think you have the skills, you have to do this.
An overhead shot from the helocopter of the Rainbow trail:
Day 5: Coach: Steve-o
Steve-o did a fair amount of coaching, and I was still suffering from the information overload, but hopefully some of it sunk in. Australian Steve blew up his wheel (on Smoke & Mirrors?), shearing 6 spokes, just to avoid dropping Crack Addict again, but I think he had a new bike sorted out by the end of the evening! Nice! Hopefully Mavic takes care of the wheel too.
Congrats & best wishes to Steve-o and his (soon to be) new wife!
Day 6: Coach: Shandro
More berm work, but mostly on the fly coaching. I had a dumbass fall in front of Andrew, just to remind me I still hadn't quite committed all of the camp skills to (muscle-)memory. Oh well, a bit of humbling is probably good after a week of pushing limits.
Scott pointed out I wasn't weighting evenly on the jumps (more feet than hands) and I put the theory to the test in the afternoon. Definitely improved my jumping, thanks Scott!
The afternoon session had Tink & I finally riding together (one or both of us was always too tired after the regular days earlier in the week). She threw down her goal for the camp, A-Line, as a warm-up run, and did a great job of it. Her coach Lisa had shown her the trail earlier in the day. Then we headed up for Freight Train top to bottom, but we were both pretty worked, and she had a slow speed crash on a rock line that she'd been cleaning all week. Enough to call it a day, and a week.
The end of camp party saw Jady win an iPod docking station, but the rest of us were shut out other than the standard grips & ear buds they gave out. Watched Lopes *nearly* pull off the DS win, great close racing.
Aftermath: I think I have Poutine withdrawl, or maybe Whistler withdrawl. Turns out work is nowhere near as much fun as railing berms, throwing down airs or hucking your bike around Canada.
Next year? More of the same, plus the big SGC drop, big practice drop, In Deep drop, Schleyer, and maybe more if I ever get comfortable with jumping (e.g. big In Deep step-up, Freight Train step-up). I'll probably skip the Manager again next year, that thing is unreal!
From dft's updates, I might have to plan for a bit of time at the Shore & elsewhere in BC.
Mark