Mount Hood is known as a place where progression is amplified and trends begin. Whether it’s double and triple corks, new rail tricks, or outerwear fashion, summer in Hood is the origin for many movements that take flight during the rest of the season.

Last year, building on a legacy that includes the longest running summer snowboard event ever, the Bonfire Pipe 2 Pipe, Bonfire/Salomon brought their team to Windells and they held the First Annual Zeach Invitational. For this week’s Take me back: Tuesday, we go back to this radical day of crooked boardslides and frontboards and get excited for summer 2012!

What is a zeach, you ask? Well, a zeach is a trick named after Zach Leach, who earned notoriety in the early 2000s for doing boardslides and frontboards crooked on rails, as you can see this camper doing in the above photo. Check out Grenade’s movies for some awesome zeaches. So, any boardslide of frontboard that isn’t perpendicular to the rail or box, is classified as a zeach. Zeaches are fun, silly tricks, because they don’t look quite as nice as locked in boardslides or frontboards.

Bonfire/Salomon team riders Scotty Arnold, Harrison Gordon, and Chris Carr put on the First Annual Zeach Invitational during Session 3 at camp last summer and everyone loved it! Zeaches are so fun to do, and the set up was a mellow flat box, so campers of all ability levels were able to get in on the zeaching. Campers that had never done a zeach before got to learn from the best, and campers that were zeach-familiar started doing combos and presses–the event probably saw more zeaches happen at one time than ever before.

Thank you to Scotty, Harrison, Chris, and Bonfire/Salomon for once again creating something new and fun at Windells!

After you get back from the mountain or the skatepark, there’s so much to do at camp. Skating, bmxing, talking with coaches, hanging out in SAIGL…there’s enough to keep anyone busy until it’s time to call it a day. One of the most well-known and well-loved part of camp is sponsor night. Don’t let the name fool you, sponsor nights usually take place before the sun sets, beginning at 4pm every day, and going until 9pm, and there are multiple sponsor nights every day.

What exactly is a sponsor night? It’s a game or activity that a camp sponsor puts on, where campers can have fun and win prizes. Sponsor nights range from the “makes sense,” like skateboard races, trampoline contests, to the “what-in-the-world,” like the chocolate milk underwear race, Thrasher Night, and everything in between.

When the visiting pros come every session, they make up a bunch of extra fun, extra zany sponsor nights. These are awesome because the pros play, too. There are tons every summer and we’ll feature a few in “Take me back Tuesdays.”

This week, we’d like to take you back to Session 3, when the Salomon/Bonfire Team was at camp. Harrison Gordon, Chris Carr, Bode Merrill, and Scotty Arnold put on a game of Simon Says in the courtyard. The riders were throwing out commands (Johnny Tsunami made a guest appearance, too), starting with simple ones like “raise your right arm” and “stand on one leg.” The campers were too good, though, and everyone was following Simon’s directions to a tee. So, the Salomon/Bonfire Team made the commands harder. Soon, the courtyard was filled with campers jumping in circles, on one leg, with their eyes closed. And campers were still doing really well!

So what did they do? Well, Bode Merrill has a good sense of humor, so the next command was to lie facedown, like the popular internet trend of planking. It wasn’t the most difficult command, but it was really funny!

Seth Kitzke, Salomon/Bonfire team rider Harrison Gordon, and NJ Petersen look on as kids tried to follow Simon’s commands.

The activities at Windells are endless, and for session 3, 4, and 5 it went off! From Stevie Bell Knockout, to the session end Dance Party, kids were busy with nothing but fun. Check out some of the stuff that went down on campus!

The Session 3 videos just came out! Check them all out here: snowboarding, skiing, skateboarding, and crashes. It was an awesome session!

Session 3 has finished at Windells Snowboard Camp and it was a whirlwind of a week. Mother Nature threw some almost-wintery weather at Mount Hood early in the session, but luckily campers and coaches were armed with tons of excitement and extra layers, so they could enjoy the Windells park. Good thing, because the park is still over a mile long and stacked top to bottom with a snake run, multiple hips, four rail lines in two different areas, tons of jump, quarterpipes, wallrides, and a special creeper tube.  The sunny and sick days returned later in the week and there’s more snow than we’ve seen in years, meaning the Windells park is definitely the place to be for summer shredding.

The Windells Park has a new set up this year, with two separate rail areas and multiple jump lines. Cody Lee front seven on a midpark jump.

Adding to the excitement for Session 3, the Salomon/Bonfire Team was at Windells to hang out with campers. Scotty Arnold, Bode Merrill, Harrison Gordon, and Chris Carr put on the First Annual Windells Zeach Invitational, where all campers learned how to perform the mystical and proper zeach. The combo zeaches that came out of the event were mind-blowing, and there were a few scorps, too, but the snow was soft and everyone rode away smiling.

Summer is glorious up here at Hood, so check out a few of the photos from Session 3 and seriously, get out here, it’s the funnest.

The Salomon team put on a zeach clinic for campers. Here, Scotty Arnold shows a proper back zeach, while Harrison Gordon approves.

Sawyer Deen. Back one melon in a BOB (Building Out Back) night session.

Sammy Spiteri with a picturesque frontlip.

Rome Thrasher Night is part manhunt, part fake tattoo, and part air guitar contest. It’s awesome.

Dylan Thompson is a regular in the Windells park. Here he shows his local finesse with a front one on cab five out.

Mark Wilson, backlip with a view.

Head Counselor Cody Lee back five in blue skies.

Austin Leonard serves up a hearty digger dog, the tastiest treat on the mountain.

Salomon team rider Scotty Arnold rallies the campers into their teams and gets ready for the relay race.

The race consisted of two teams, two suitcases, and some good looking clothing. The campers had to skate across the skatepark with the suitcase in hand. Then they had to open it up and put on all the clothes and skate back to their team. Once back to their team they had to strip off all the clothes, put them back into the suitcase and then it was on to the next camper. Scotty Arnold and Bode Merrill joined in on the race with the campers as well. Take a peek at the photos and it will help you get a better idea of what was happening.

By sun down there will only be one winning team getting prizes from Salomon and Bonfire.

This camper is killing it skating back to his team.

Bode Merrill is looking fresh helping out his team!

You have to be able to see before you can start skating… as you can see it can  be harder than you think.

Scotty Arnold looks like the Tom Hanks in the movie “Big” right here.

Scotty Arnold is in the middle of the relay race.

1. Take a picture of your Windells Stickers on something! (Please be appropriate)
2. Post the Pictures on our Windells Camp Facebook Page – Simply Click Here to Link Up!
3. Email the photos to info@windells.com – Please include your address for mailing purposes
4. The most creative and unique sticker placement will WIN Windells Gear!
5. YUP, it’s that easy!  Grab your camera and get to posting!

The Winner will be decided a week after this Blog has been posted – Don’t miss out!

Enjoy.

Poor Boyz at Windells from Windells on Vimeo.

VOLUME 1- PRE-SEAON (IN THE CUT). from Saga outerwear on Vimeo.

PORTLAND, OR. (Sept. 1, 2010) – Bonfire Snowboarding launched its new video and photo driven website this morning. Bonfiresnowboarding.com features extensive video, team driven content, a reformatted blog and easy to navigate product photos and information.

The site offers the best product care info in the industry for extending the life of a rider’s outerwear.

Filters make it easy to shop online by color, fit, fabric, price, performance and insulation. Once browsers have narrowed down their search its easy to click and find a dealer.

Watch videos from Bonfire team riders Bode Merrill, Louif Paradis, Desiree Melancon, Takaharu Nakai and David Benedek http://bonfiresnowboarding.com .

Nemo Design in Portland, Oregon executed the design of the site with programming by Instrument, also located in Portland.

About Bonfire Snowboarding: Bonfire Snowboarding began in 1989 with a drawing on a napkin and a desire to be artistic, eclectic and to keep snowboarding unique. Twenty one years later, we’re still drawing on napkins—in RV’s, airports and car rides to bring you an authentic collection of outerwear that will withstand any condition and to keep creating the memories, friendships and travel stories that last a lifetime. http://www.bonfiresnow.com