Gilly Seagrave from Our Camp dropped us a line with this write up of their latest Our Camp night at Tamworth:

Roll up roll up.......And we did! Never before have we had such a huge explosion of girls on the camp. This time the O.C ladies out numbered almost all the regulars on the free style night!

The set up for the evening was different from the previous time we had visited, making the challenges new and the terrain varied and even more fun!

What did stay the same though was the exclusive etnies warm up session. Although the freestyle night usually open doors at 10pm Our Camp had exclusive use of the separate Academy area at 8 pm that Andy had set up. We had a flat rail and to mix things up a little, a drainpipe.

On hand to coach the girls were Jo Chastney Forum rider , British Big Air and Bx Champion, Lyndsey Ashdown, Amplid rider and British Snow Tour medal holder, Leah Sill, Head Coach for the British Development BX team and of course, Sonia Shaw co-founder and Animal Pro rider and head coach for the British Junior team. What an explosion of coaches and riders!

The girls were eager to step up to the challenges and with the help of the coaches everyone was more than ready to see what the main slope would hold for the evening.

The etnies warm up session had worked us all a little and what we needed after hitting up rails for two hours before everyone else, was a few treats.

In true O.C style the girls’ wishes were met. With the current tour sponsor, Two Seasons shops, all the girls were given an early Christmas present - the goody bag with etnies wallets, Cooler mags, Snowboard UK mags, HH lanyards and lip balms, sticker packs and t- shirts.

What the girls didn’t know was that on the back of every entry card to the night was a number. Surprise, surprise! Dependant on the numbers on the back, each girl was invited to the table of JOY! It was full of Animal clothes and technical wear as well as baseball caps, accessories. And even more treats from Two Seasons.

Fully loaded and amped from the etnies warm up everyone got into groups with coaches and we had a few warm up runs and either learnt or practiced ollies, and all the 180s.

At OC we always strip our riding back to basics and this is what makes it accessible to everyone.
It’s also a good chance for everyone to get their riding legs back. This also gives the ladies the chance to then re-group into groups of the same level and get on the learning train!

Little did everyone know that Sonia Shaw, Animal pro rider, had invited a spy from HQ to spot future potential riders. After watching Nathalie Silkstone and Kate Lawson it was hard to ignore that the 11-year-olds had skills, they are both now being watched and given flow by Animal!

Two Seasons had a personal mission on for the evening as well. They are now officially sponsoring Anna Turner who is aiming for the paralympics. We set up the raffle and asked girls for donations to be in with a chance of winning a snowboard to raise money for Sarah. We can proudly announce that the girls turned their pockets out and we raised £60 pounds to help bump up Sarah’s fund.

The girls all did amazingly on the night and it was nice to see old friends and comrades as well as new ones. OC ladies were everywhere, on the 7m box, the pipe, the flat down, the smaller kicker, the big kicker, the quarter pipe and at every stage of the night they had someone whooping their success like crazy banshees!

The night was all captured on film too and Paul Gordon and Andy McConnochie both have
incredible shots of everyone’s achievements, to see Andys shots in full have a look at www.loxleyimages.co.uk and follow the Our Camp link.

To see Pauls go to the Our Camp Blog and we have a link on there
-(go to www.ourcamp.co.uk and click 'news')

At Our Camp we want every camper to progress and to learn new things about snowboarding. Not everyone will be the same level and not everyone one will always progress as the same pace. What we’re offering though is the opportunity to learn as best you can and heck why not do it in a fun,supportive environment, pick up some goodies and make some friends along the way?

Happy Christmas, and don’t forget to ask Santa for the ultimate gift, a week on Our Camp at our Etnies session in April!

Thanks to Our Camp Comrades Jo Chastney, Lysey Ashdown and Leah Sill for their support.