The start of camp is almost here! Visions of laps on the towrope, tricks on the rail line, and learning new things in the on hill activities are all filling our minds right now. We can’t wait to hop on the Palmer chairlift and ride down to the Windells park for the first time–what are the Diggers going to build for us to ride? We’re so stoked for all of the snowboarding and skiing that’s about to go down at Hood, that, well, it’s making us hungry.

We’re not going to lie, lunch on hill is one of our favorite parts of the day. What other time of the year do you get to hang out on a snowy mountain, bask in the sun, and enjoy Digger Dogs cooked on the grill, and snacks from your bag lunch? Plus, all of the hiking and lapping and riding really builds up an appetite, so it is great to be able to sit down and relax with new friends for a little while.

Check out some photos from lunches on hill last year and even though it seems silly to be excited about lunch, you’ll probably get a little psyched, just like we are!

So many sodas!

Flow Snowboards rider, Chris DePaula ate all of these Digger Dogs in one sitting! Hiking and shredding builds up an appetite!

Austen Sweetin is a Mount Hood veteran and brought some lunch accessories with him, like this Forum coozie for his soda.

Blake is one of our Digger Grillmasters, cooking up Digger Dogs for everyone to eat.

And of course, just getting to kick back and relax for a few during lunch, when you’ve been throwing down and learning new tricks all day, is awesome. Here’s Fronius, enjoying a break with his snowboard and lunchbag.

The girls competing to “win a date” with Zak Hale.

Windells has hosted most of the top female snowboard and ski athletes to date. Some were campers and now return to Mt. Hood every summer as coaches or to host their own Team Takeover Sessions. Some are Olympic athletes and choose Windells as their summer training facility. Whatever the reason they come to camp, our professional female athletes are positive role models for young campers ready to dive into the world of action sports.

Windells holds a variety of girls only activities throughout each session. Our skate coaches and friends at Skate Like a Girl round up campers for a girls only skate session to comfortably ease some into their first time shredding concrete. Betty Rides, a long-time camp sponsor, hosts an 80′s ladies night every session and brings in team riders from around the world to hang out with the girls, watch movies, eat candy and do manicures. The Burton Girls team visits and hosts a giant girls only Q&A.

Hannah Teter, Gabi Viteri, Spencer O’Brien, Kelly Clark, Ellery Hollingsworth and Natasza Zurek talk about how Windells Camp has shaped their careers as pro shredders.

A standout moment of 2012 was Hana Beaman‘s 720 over the Baker road gap on the way to Mt. Baker, Washington, naming Hana the first and only female to hit the gap. Hana was a skate coach at Windells and she returns in the summer time to hang out with campers on hill and on campus and compete in the annual Bonfire Pipe to Pipe.

This past week, Elena Hight became the first female to throw a double backside alley-oop rodeo in the pipe. Elena said in an interview with ESPN, “We went to the training center in Park City, worked on doing it into the foam pit. Then in Mammoth I did it into the airbag, and then tried it on snow. Being able to progress the trick that way, I felt way safer and more prepared than if I’d tried to do it for the first time on snow.” Windells Camp has all the amenities to ease into learning new tricks just as Elena did; on hill and on campus BagJumps, Olympic style trampolines, and a 9×9 foam pit.

In March, our ski coaches and friends Ashley Battersby, Keri Herman and Kaya Turski skied the dreamlike feature known as “the Chateaux” at NINE QUEENS 2012 in Fiss, Austria. NINE QUEENS is arguably the biggest and best of its kind, a female specific freeski jib and big air competition, and the Windells staff held it down.

Girls, register for your session at Windells to improve your skill, have the experience of a lifetime, and make lifelong, like-minded friends at the “funnest” place on Earth!

This winter I was happy to be part of the Park Staff at Mt. Bachelor in Oregon. Our biggest project was just a few weeks ago for Superpark. Long nights in the cat for sure. All in all, it took us 111 hours to build the set up. It was such a fun week.

I had a chance to spend some time back home in North Carolina. It’s great to be there with friends and family. One thing I love to do when I get back is head out on the water with fellow digger Austin Leonard and do some fishing. Friends and bass all day long.

This is a picture with my Grandpa Harmon and his amazing garden. Something I hope to do this summer is follow in his footsteps and plant some vegetables by the Ark. There’s nothing like eating the fresh produce from your own garden.

I usually spend my winters in Salt Lake City, so this year it was nice to have a change and be with some friends in Oregon. I have been lucky enough to travel to all these places and still hang with all the homies in Utah. Thanks to my car, I can go just about anywhere. Almost 20,000 miles driven in 1 year. I’m happy and excited to be back in Hood for another summer with a great crew. I hope to see all of you guys up in the park in just a few weeks!

Johnny Lazzareschi. Rail Slayer. Windells veteran. The man whose voice resonates on the megaphone better than any other. Lazz has been stopping by Windells to hang out during the summer for years, and we’re always excited to see him when he rolls up to camp. His upbeat personality is infectious, he always thinks up the most awesome sponsor nights, and, oh yeah, he inspires us constantly with his tech maneuvers on rails on hill. Lazz will be swinging by camp with the Rome SDS crew for Team Takeover Session 3, and we can’t wait! When Lazz was at camp last summer, he took the time to fill us in on his favorite parts of camp. Check it out and come shred with him and the Rome team during Session 3!

Name: Johnny Lazz

Sponsors: Rome, Volcom, 32, Arnette, Active, Skullcandy, Etnies

Where are you from: My mother

Home mountain: Northstar-at-Tahoe, California

Where do you live now: Down the street from my mother, a house, in North Lake Tahoe.

When was the first time you ever came to Windells?

When I was 15, I was a counselor-in-training working for Windells, so I could ride everyday.

When were you at Windells in summer 2011? 

For the first session, Forest Bailey, Will Bateman, Nial Romanek, and I got invited for the YoBeat Session. We had a great time because it was the best session all summer and we can’t wait to do the same thing next year.

What’s different about camp when comparing now and the first time you came here?

There is so much more skateboarding, over twenty new features on hill this year, and the most experienced digger crew in Mount Hood, Oregon. Technology has enhanced. Now I’m a grown up, but I ain’t never growing up, because I want to be a kid at Windells forever!

What was your favorite part about the park on hill?

I really loved how the diggers put everything together in such a good way, so we can have fun all day long. I liked how there were no lines on the tow ropes. I loved the new down rails, the new down flat down, the c rail, the new tube–that is probably the best tube on Mount Hood.

What is your favorite thing about Windells campus?

Is that it’s so big! You can skate everywhere! And you can go inside BOB when it’s rainy and skate!

Tell us about your event on hill last summer.

Forest, Will, Nial, and I rounded up all the little campers, creatures, crappers, and crawlers, and sessioned a line with the kids, which was a Nike 6.0 a-frame wooden box to a pole jam and kids had a great time. We threw out a bunch of gear and they were screaming and laughing and we were having a great time because the kids were stoked and we were even more stoked because it was beautiful weather. It’s just really awesome to be a part of something like this because it gives us a chance to work with kids and look back on when we were kids and how stoked we would be if some guys like us were doing that.

Thanks, Johnny! See you this summer! If you want to hang out with Lazz, sign up here!

…Teresa Tarn!

Thanks for leaving your two cents on the Team Takeover Thursday blog. You had us at “Northwest flannel.” You should see our gear for this summer! It’s very NW.

Everyone else, thanks for the positive, creative answers and we are just as excited as you are for Summer 2012! Gotta have some Windells Camp gear? Check out the online store!

The excitement of summer snowboard camp at Windells is an equal-opportunity kind of fun. It transcends age, gender, and location; whether you are a six year-old day camper learning to skate in the Concrete Jungle for the first time, a 45 year-old IT Specialist who spends vacation at Hood, snowboarding with like-minded adults, or a high school junior, who worked all winter at the local pizza joint to save up money to fly out for your favorite session–everyone counts down the days to their Windells session with equal anticipation.

The same goes for professional snowboarders, too. While they spend the winter traveling to exotic snowboarding destinations like Austria, Jackson Hole, and Japan (and everywhere in between), they also have a huge amount of excitement about spending time at Windells once summer hits. Besides the fact that these guys and girls drop into 100 foot jumps, massive double kinks with intimidating two story drops on one side, and can pretty much do any trick they want at the drop of a hat, they’re not that different than us, right? Well…at least at camp they can help us learn awesome, new tricks and it’s really cool to meet someone you’ve watched in videos and find out they’re as down to Earth as your next door neighbor. But, back to the important part, how stoked everyone is–camper, staff member, or Team Takeover rider–to come to Windells this summer.

We’re really lucky to have a group of the nicest, funnest, friendliest, and most talented snowboarders at camp each summer and the crew for 2012 is going to be great. For this edition of Team Takeover Thursday, here are a few reasons some of the Team Takeover crew can’t wait for Windells this summer.

Don’t forget to check out the question at the end, so you can win a Windells prize pack!

Austen Sweetin is Taking Over Session 5 and is stoked for camp because…

This summer I am real hyped to come kick it at Windells to kick it with all the homies and get some summer boardin’ in the sunshine! You can catch me casually cruising in the concrete jungle johnny chillsack style!

Zander Blackmon is Taking Over Session 5 and is stoked for camp because…

The one thing I’m looking most forward to would be taking laps thru the park all day than being able to go skate thru out the camp while surrounded by the most positive vibes in Oregon. there’s nothing like it!

Brooke Geery, founder of Yobeat.com, and is Taking Over Session 2 and is stoked for camp because…

It’s hard to just pick one thing to look forward to about camp. Obviously the skatepark at Windells is hard to beat, but my personal favorite thing has to be meeting a ton of people from all over who are all hyped to snowboard!

Cam Pierce is Taking Over Session 5 and is stoked for camp because…

I can’t wait to come back to Windells. Snowboarding in the summertime, with my best friends. its impossible not to have a good time!

Nick Visconti is Taking Over Session 4 and is stoked for camp because of two words:

Heshin Delicatessen.

So, these guys have shared things they’re looking forward to, now it’s your turn to tell us what you are excited about with this week’s Team Takeover Contest question:

What part of camp are you most excited about this summer and why? Most creative answer, as judged by the Windells staff, will be announced tomorrow on the blog and will win a Windells backpack filled with prizes! Write your answer in the comments below!

@seanharkins Waiting for sunset #westcoastsession #sagaouterwear #windells

@colleenquigley After work activities. #windells

@nikocioffi Sync up with @austinsweetin @cam_pierce and me and the gremlinz. #windells Session 5.

@nickvisconti Christ Air #windells #skateboarding

Follow us on Instagram @WindellsCamp and don’t forget to tag #funnestplaceonearth and #Windells2012 before snapping your next camp photo!

There’s only a couple Take me back Tuesdays left before summer starts. Not only does that mean that we’re close to summer laps, skating in the Concrete Jungle, and hanging out with pro snowboarders, skiers, and skateboarders as they takeover camp, but it also means that we’re closer to another really exciting time of year–when new videos come out!

Yes, videos come out in the fall, which is off of our radar right now (summer! yay!), but at camp we are lucky to get to get special premieres before the movies actually come out. Last year we had a couple of snowboard and skate movies show at camp, including ThinkThank’s “Ransack Rebellion”. We also got to check out cool special previews from Technine and Flow Snowboards. Tim Humphreys even showed campers some of his personal gopro clips straight off his computer!

We have a sick new set up on the outside of BOB that is perfect for watching movies and we can’t wait to get to check out what the pros have been working on this year! Word around campus is that we’ll have some new video crews coming to camp to show their movies, too. Check back on the blog for updates!

Angela Swain: Hey, Nick. Let’s hit the basics. How long have you been coming to camp?
Nick Visconti: Oh, gosh. For about 13 years now. I was a camper for five years and I coached for a couple years and I’ve been coming back with Stevie Bell, Curtis and J Rob for our Team Takeover for a few summers.

Wow, that’s quite the stint. What have you guys done with your Team Takeover Session in the past?
We try to make our session about the campers. Yeah, we’re here to have fun and hang out and enjoy summer on Mt. Hood, but we use our session as an outreach rather than an outlet for ourselves. We try to interact with the campers as much as possible and really give back to the community that supports us.

So, what initially struck you about Windells that made you a return camper and then decide to continue your involvement with camp?
I think it was camp life; it was so much more than just camp. Windells is a place that welcomes campers to a community and allows them to really connect with other snowboarders, both peers and professionals. I really became absorbed into the world of snowboarding during my time at camp. For most of these kids, snowboarding at their home mountain is recreational but when they’re here they really get a sense of the culture.

What’s one experience with a camper that really sticks out to you?
It’s hard to pick just one. Me and the guys are more intent on building relationships and making connections with the kids during our Takeover session, and to carry those out beyond their time at camp, too. Social media has made it easy for me to stay in touch with campers throughout the season and to share my love for snowboarding with them which is really cool.

Well, we’re all looking forward to Session 4 with The Reunion. What projects and things should we be on the lookout for?
ReCreation with Transworld was a big one; it’ll be out in March. We’ve been working on a Christian snowboard film called ANTHROPOLOGY with Nations Foundation, Dave Downing, Ryan Paul, Simon Chamberlain, Jordan Phillips and Director Joel Parker. Other than that, I’m just eager to come out for the summer and excited, as always, to hang out with some campers.

Nick rides for Arbor Snowboards and placed third in this year’s Winter XGames Street Jam. Like the vibe at Windells Camp? Get registered for your session at the”funnest” place on earth.