Woodward West

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Tehachapi, California
Words by Patrick Spencer

Woodward Camps may be responsible for one of the happiest yet saddest days of my life. While growing up skateboarding, I was blessed with two consecutive years at Woodward, which proved to be some of the most fun-filled summers of my childhood. I can still clearly remember pulling past the horse and carriage of a local Amish family as we entered the Woodward compound of outdoor skateparks, dirt jumps, and scattered pull barns built to house the indoor playlands. As I walked up to the cabin, I walked pass Bob Burnquist and Ed Templeton, who were both hanging outside, greeting kids, and I thought to myself… “This is going to be awesome!” The combination of meeting tons of good friends, awesome pros, and having a chance to skateboard at one of the best facilities in the world, really showcased what fun a summer camp could be. After these great summers of learning, skateboarding, and socializing, I was brought into the light of a tragic thought.

As mentioned, Woodward also introduced me to one of the saddest days of my teen life… the day I turned eighteen. Woodward Camps are youth camps, and typically only house campers between the ages of 7 and 17, which I was no longer. When I take a look back at those days, I remember how awesome it was to have little responsibility and just fly by the seat of my pants, wherever and whatever I wanted to do — as long as mom said it was okay. Although most of those days are over, and I don’t have to ask mom anymore, we are still flying by the seat of our pants and trying to play as much as possible. We appreciate Woodward because they understand this and allow us adults to come play for one week a year, allowing us to become that young camper once again. That’s right. The last week of each camp season is the ‘old guy’ camp session, although all rules still apply as if you were still 7-17. It is worth it, trust us.

Woodward Camp in Woodward, Pennsylvania, was founded back in 1970 as a gymnastics camp by Ed Isabelle and has since evolved into what you see today. Today, there are action sport Camps in Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, Colorado, California and Beijing. The Woodward camp experience offers activities like gymnastics, cheer, skateboarding, BMX freestyle, mountain biking, inline skating, surfing, snowboarding, freeski and digital arts (video, photo and graphic design), as well as other interesting activities that vary per location. To say there is not enough to do would mean you like nothing! In our case, we love biking nowadays, so we headed to Woodward West for our own little one day get away to see their California facility first hand. Wow, were we happy to be at a place that offers some of world class biking stunts and facilities, with little or no people. Obviously, our stay was a bit different than what you get as a young camper, but the land and layout was the same.  We started with our typical warm up in session in an indoor facility they call The Hangar.  It is fully equipped with street sections, half pipes, resin mats, foam pits, hips, spines, boxes, and just about anything else that you can imagine for an indoor playland. Needless to say, the warm up session ended up lasting over an hour, just pump, pump, pumping and airing everything. After getting extremely warm, we then moved to one of their outdoor parks called, ‘The Enterprise’, which houses big, big moves, hip transfers, satellites, and enough flow to send you around the entire facility in a matter of seconds. The hot California sun was in full effect by this part of the day, and the sweat started to pour from our bodies… so we took a short hydration and shade break before heading over to the dirt jumps.

Ah yes, the dirt jumps that are frequently seen in bike magazines, and look like sculptures suited for a museum. Typically, you see the pros hitting the big line, which encompasses 25-foot gaps and massive amounts of hang time. In our case, we stayed on the manageable hits that didn’t take a top speed of 25 MPH and a hospital stretcher. The DJ’s are laced with a variety of lines, including transfer and variations scattered throughout the dirt. We had a great time riding multiple rider lines and bouncing from one line to the next. Shaded by some trees, the dirt jump park is a place that you can hang and session for hours, as we did, and catch a breath every few minutes. After a bit more water, and a lot more sun, we headed to the mountain bike park, which is located up by the Woodward Lodge and Protel, atop the hill overlooking all of the other facilities.

The mountain bike park is also one of the zones that you see in movies like NWD 10, with the top-notch riders hitting 50+ ft gaps. As mentioned previously, we are not one of those guys and are not shooting a NWD movie, but we still love to ride and clock air miles. After a little bit of hiking each line, we decided upon a couple features to session. The ladder drops, rock hip and speed step up were among a few of those attempted. The jumps are well built, and the terrain is amazing to fly through, creating another recipe for good old fashioned fun. After this session in the mountain bike park, it was time to call our day at Woodward West a great success. We left with some great photos and a renewed perspective on one of the great youth riding camps in the world — and with no injury, which is always the best way to roll. Thanks to Woodward Camps, we were able to add another chapter to the happiest days of our lives.

If you want to learn more about the Woodward Camps and programs that they offer, definitely check them out at www.CampWoodward.com

Photos by Ryan Kirk