@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.

During the winter I spend much of my time producing grassroots snowboard events on the East Coast for Red Bull. This winter was the fourth year of our contest series called Red Bull Buttercup. We took it to Easton, Pennsylvania for a night contest and 5,000 people showed up to watch. It was crazy!

One of the coolest things I got to go to this winter was the grand opening of The Streets at Seven Springs, Pennsylvania. The Streets is out of hand–seeing it in person after seeing sneak peak photos was pretty unreal–everything is huge! There’s an epic crew of boarders down at Springs, too; they love shredding and love their mountain. Joel Rerko and his park crew are really pushing park building and there’s a bunch of Windells folks that work alongside Joel–I got to see both Jeremy Anderson and Jordan Soohy. The Forum crew is always a blast, too–the in-house guys are the best and the guys that come to camp were at Springs, t00–Stevie Bell, Cam Pierce, Austen Sweetin, Niko Cioff,i who are staple faces of summer, and Nic Sauve, who’s going to come out for the first time ever this summer.

One of the best parts about traveling in the winter is getting to meet up with friends while on the road. I was in Colorado in January, along with the rest of the snowboarding industry, for SIA, a big snowsports tradeshow, and got to meet up with the awesome Anna Starr and a bunch of the Rome Snowboards crew. These guys are awesome. Anna and I took some laps and then Michael Paddock, Rome’s Head Designer, cooked an epic feast for everyone for dinner. It was one of the few (and best) “home-cooked” meals I have had on the road.

During March, I travel with a crew of awesome ladies from Oakley as the Head Coach of a women’s snowboard and ski camp called Oakley Progression Sessions (and Droppin’ In at Loon Mtn, where the camp started) that goes to a couple of different mountains in the US and Canada. This year we went to Le Massif de Charlevoix in Quebec, Copper Mountain in Colorado, Mammoth Mountain in California, and finished the program at my home resort, Loon Mountain in New Hampshire. The women who come out to improve their skills in the park have the best attitudes and learn so much during the camp. Myself and the other coaches have a blast getting to shred with the ladies at each stop. Here is our awesome crew of coaches at OPS in Copper. PS if you want to learn more, check out the Oakley Progression Sessions website.

Here’s another Oakley Progression Session picture. This is part of the Loon OPS: Droppin’ In crew. We had eighty girls and ten coaches! The Loon women are awesome and it’s so fun to come back home and hang out with all of them for a weekend, because so many women return each year to hang out and ride together. Did I mention there was a dance party in the park and Marie-France Roy crowdsurfed?

In March at the US Open I was on the announcing crew, with my super good friend, Nelson Wormstead (he’s the sharp-witted and talented loudmouth you hear at lots of snow and skate events, and all over the US Open) and excellent announcer Jonathan Weaver, who comes across the pond from Europe for the Stratton, Vermont competition. It was one of the best weeks of the winter and it was sunny during Halfpipe Finals–you can’t ask for much more than that! This is one of my favorite pictures because Jim Jones looks so much taller than myself and Louie Vito. I swear it’s the angle of the photo! I’m not tall, but he’s not a giant!

It was so awesome when I went to Stratton for Red Bull Buttercup because I got to hang out some more Windells friends (they’re everywhere, it’s great!). Marsha Hovey was at Stratton all winter and was making a short video about the event–that’s a contour on a ski pole that she is playing air guitar on. Erik Hoffman, one of camp’s photographers was there, also, taking photos!

I ride Waterville Valley as much as I can when I am home. Their park is so much fun and this year they built a brand new medium-sized park called South Street. It had such fun medium jumps and spines, it was really fun through which to take laps. Luke Mathison and his park crew sure build a nice boarder park.

Working on events is awesome, especially when you get to work with a resort to create something new and people are hyped on riding the results. At Loon, we put on an end of season contest called Street Cred, with street and skate-inspired features. It was sunny out, we had a grill going, and a good crew was hanging out, enjoying the spring conditions. We worked really hard on the concept and Loon built such awesome features. Brian Norton and his crew are really talented. If you haven’t been to New Hampshire to ride, get there!

“Took so many pictures today you’d think I hadn’t seen snow all season until I got here. Oh, wait..” – Stephanie Sue Feld

Hari Khalsa!

“Condasteeza Rice” actually made us laugh out loud, and for that you win this week’s Team Takeover Thursday contest with Poor Boyz Productions. Below you’ll see your booty. That sounded weird.

Every one else, thanks for participating! Keep up with the Windells camp blog for more chances to win. There’s still a couple more weeks before summer starts! Don’t like the anticipation? Get kitted out with all the latest gear in the online store.

Windells has been the “incubator” to many of the top brands in the industry. Grenade, Bonfire Salomon, Skullcandy, Atmosphere and Saga sprouted their first knuckle hairs at Windells Camp. I had the chance to chat with Sean Harkins, a past Windells employee and now the Sales Distribution Manager at Saga Outerwear, while the guys were on campus. I caught Sean, Jordan Harper and Jeremiah Paquette in the middle of a fashion show in the Betty Rides cabin, but I don’t want to be the one to spill the beans. Sean and I chatted West Coast Session, Saga summer plans, and expansion.

Collin Collins at Timberline. Photo: Jordan Harper

Angela Swain: Hey, Sean. Tell me about Saga at West Coast Session. Which athletes do you have out here this week?
Sean Harkins: We’re out here with Collin Collins, Steve Stepp, Jack Borland, Tyler Barnes, Nicky Keefer and Ryan Wyble. Just about everyone will be back to coach this summer.

That’s great. I heard you guys are getting a house out here for the summer, too. How has it been up there this week?
Yeah, we’re all staying together in a house. Should be a good time. I’ve been coming to Hood since 2003 and this is the best snow I have ever seen this time of year. Usually we’re plagued by rain, but the great conditions coupled with the amount of snow have made this week so great. The big jump is set up midstation on Palmer. It should be pretty cool.

Looking forward to seeing the pictures from the shoot. What’s on the agenda for Saga at Windells this summer? Want to slip any top secret info for campers on the way?
We’re stoked for summer. Saga dodgeball is always a big hit so we’ll keep doing that. KABRails is working on our on hill feature; an A frame with creeper rails. We’re bringing like 10,000 stickers so that might be close to enough. We expanded the line to snowboarding recently, too. Saga went from 5 to 10 lines in a year so we’re expanding pretty rapidly. Keep an eye out for the new lookbook coming June 1st… June 1st-ish.

Based on @sagaouterwear’s instagram post later in the evening, it was “pretty cool,” to say the least.

The guys at KABrails working on the Saga feature. Photo: @classicAustin

This week has been a busy one on Mt. Hood. The West Coast Session guys are all staying at Windells, and, well… you can imagine. Tanner Hall, Henrik Harlaut, Karl Fostvedt, the Inspired Media crew and Poor Boyz Productions have been hitting the Timberline parks hard this past week enjoying the unexpectedly sunny weather and above-par snow conditions.

The features emerging from the spring snow on Mt. Hood have made noise from this coast to the next coast. The West Coast Session line under the Stormin’ Norman lift was insane, but the feature that had us squirming in our seats was the redirect at Skibowl by Pete Alport and Poor Boyz. I caught Darcy Bacha, 2012 Powder Magazine Photo of the Year award winner and Windells Camp photographer, on his way through to Superpark 16 to get some insight on the monster of a feature.

Angela Swain: So what are you guys calling this thing? We made a name for it in the office, but I’ll leave that out.

Darcy Bacha: I guess we called it the redirect. It was a 15ft kicker to a 30 ft quarter pipe.

Who was behind this? It seems like it was a pretty extravagant build.

It was Pete Alport’s idea. It’s been done before but on a much smaller scale. Pete Alport is the main builder for Poor Boyz. It was great to work with Pete, he works really hard to make everything perfect. Every time I work with Pete it’s on another level.

How did the shoot go? Lose any good men?

We were sessioning it but as you can imagine, it was pretty gnarly for most of the guys. Tanner hit it, and Karl hit it a few times at sunset. It was pretty intimidating, but we got some great footage and everyone came out unscathed. There will be footage out soon.

Photo courtesy of Pete Alport

The excitement from this week is enough to carry us right into summer. Poor Boyz Productions is taking over Session 1, June 6-13th. The Poor Boyz athletes and crew will be on campus and on hill riding, filming, and having fun with campers.

So, the real reason we’re here; your prompt to win! Names like “Inspired Media” and “Poor Boyz Productions” aren’t just given. Somebody has to think it up and it has to stick. What would you name your crew?

Leave a comment and we’ll pick a winner Friday afternoon, 5/11!

It was a rough year for snow in Utah.  Normally we spend a solid month or two filming around Salt Lake City and in the mountains. This year, the only chance to film was to go somewhere on a trip. When we were at home in Salt Lake, we spent a lot of time shredding park at Park City. Here is a front board on the stair set Cole Taylor shot with his iPhone.

I recently took a trip out to japan. If you have never been out there, that place is amazing.  I was out there last year during the earthquake and this was my first trip back. It was awesome to see how they were recovering from the disaster a year later. The mountains in Japan are pretty crazy, as well. It’s looks like you’re in Alaska or something. The resort was really cool and had all kinds of crazy pillows and features like I had never seen in the states, that place is pretty cool!  Definitely somewhere worth checking out, if you ever get the chance.

When I was over in Japan, I had to leave before the rest of the crew, so I spent my last day navigating the Japanese train systems back into Tokyo and to the airport. It was an experience and also really easy.  I was worried I would get lost so I gave myself some extra time and got to the airport 4 hours too early. Those bullet trains really go fast!

This is me and Ben [Bilodeau] after a long day of filming in Utah.  There wasn’t a ton of snow, so trying to do anything takes a lot of shoveling, and this day was no exception. We spent two days building and sessioning one spot, then we rolled to a second spot, where luckily some homies had already sessioned and it was mostly set up.  In the photo we had just got done with the second session and were both exhausted, but stoked that we were able to get clips.

Last week I got to go check out the supercross in Salt Lake City thanks to Monster Energy.  It was an awesome time, those moto dudes are gnarly and put on quite a show.  It was a nice little break from filming.

I just got back from mammoth for the West Coast Invitational. It was a good time shredding the park with the boys.  I didn’t do the contest, because they changed it to a big air this year. The best part of it all for me, was meeting up in Encinitas. This allowed us a day at the beach before heading up north. Here is me and Chris Grenier about to paddle out for that sunset surf sesh.

For more from Dylan, check out some of his sponsors: Technine, Neff, ThirtyTwo, Etnies, JSLV, Electric, Brighton, and Monster Energy.

p: @specicus

Zombie dodgeball facepaint can be as creative as you’d like. If you prefer to look like a classic movie zombie, Windells counselors can paint your face that way. If you prefer to channel Captain Jack Sparrow and other famous moustachioed individuals, that’s just as awesome, too. Above, camper @spencicus shows off his pirate-style stache.

And with that awesome example of what Windells is @spencicus, we bring you this week’s collection of instagrams, tagged #Windells. This is Windells through your eyes. To join in and maybe get your instagrams on the blog, tag your photos #Windells2012 and #funnestplaceonearth

p: @the_schwartz captured @austensweetin in the Concrete Jungle.

@SeanHarkins has been a member of the Windells family for years and now works for @SagaOuterwear in SLC, Utah. He came back to Oregon for the West Coast Sessions and took this instagram.

p: @tanakafari

p: @quentin_baker We love the enthusiasm for Windells!

p: @stephaniesuefeld is one of our awesome counselors and destroys on a snowboard! She just got to Oregon to ride Mount Hood for the spring before camp starts. She’s been posting tons of instagrams of the insane amount of snow on Timberline right now! Follow her to check it out!

p: @Flow_Snowboarding Nial Romanek hanging out with the Flow Microns–they’ll all be coming to camp for Team Takeover Session 7!

P: @csantz

p: rocmaloneyphoto