Camp Recap from July 7th - July 11th

Sat, 12 Jul 2008 14:23:50 -0500

Dear Britney,

This past week was a blast. I want to thank everyone for being a part of camp. I had such a great time, and Simo was so dreamy. Don’t be jealous, but I think I joined the Simo fan club too. I can be in two fan clubs, right? I even learned to...

Wait. Stop.

OK, I tried to write this entire post as if it were a diary entry addressed to Britney Spears, but I couldn’t quite go through with it. I won’t name who’s real life diary to Britney inspired me to try that style, but that admission of sparked good times at camp from the very first day. Big thanks to Ms. Nameless for sharing that with the rest of camp. It definitely helped break the ice. Who knows? Maybe I’ll start a diary to my favorite star some day. Dear Will... Right.

This past week was exciting to say the least. We started off a little slow, but we had such a great group that we rebounded as soon as we hit the water again. The week began with only three campers, but progressed to four by Thursday. Everyone, except for Amanda, came into camp with no wake board experience, and Amanda could only get up for just a second. Needless to say, we definitely had our work cut out for us, but it was cool that everyone was on the same page. Not only that but this is our favorite part of the job, helping people learn something entirely new.

By the end of the first day, you wouldn’t have believed that Alex and Jack had never been on a wake board, or Amanda hadn’t been riding for that long. It was quite the spectacle to see them all cruising down the lake on the first day after just a few hours of instruction. The week already held promise, so needless to say Simo and I were excited for the rest of the week to come.

We took an unexpected day off on Tuesday, but reconvened early on Wednesday so that we could make up for lost time. When the kids came back, it was if they hadn’t lost a step. Jack was cruising down the lake with even more confidence, and Alex was picking up skills quickly. They both were impressive to say the least. I’m not so sure they didn’t take Tuesday to practice. Alex and Jack spent most of the day on working on riding posture and getting a solid feel behind the boat. Amanda took a hard fall on Monday that left her a little reluctant to keep working on the surface 180s she was nailing down at the time. (Note: Surface 180s are performed by rotating the board 180 degrees while on the water so that the opposite tip is now facing the boat.) Wednesday seemed to be a small step back for her, but with a little encouragement and coaching she came charging out of the gate on Thursday and took several steps forward.

Since wednesday seemed to go by a little too quick so we were definitely looking forward to Thursday after we wrapped things up. When Thursday morning came Amanda’s brother, Sam, joined us. We were excited to add one more to the crew, and by that point in the week everyone was appreciative of the extra rest time in the boat that one more person in the rotation brings. We started off early again with a couple of warm up runs and an in the water session with Jack to help him learn his deep-water starts. We worked for a little while, made some good progress, and decided to let our knowledge sink in while we let the temperature warm up a little. It’s true what they, that lake is cold. Jack busted it out on Thursday with a few solid runs behind the boat that left him more than excited. The cut out heel-side (Note: Heel-side is when one uses the edge closest to his or her heels to create resitance and cut across the water) into the flats was very cool to watch as well.

Alex, who made good friends with the water, decided she’d rather take her second run after lunch that day so we cruised over to the dock for some lunch and a friendly game of Apples to Apples thanks to Jack’s Mom. You learn some interesting things at camp. This week I learned that fries can be magnificent and wondrous. Who knew? I even learned that Animals...

Simo!! I’m trying to write a blog entry. Please. Gah.

Sorry about that. Now where were we? Yeah? Oh well. Lunch was always a funny time. We just know now to make sure and keep Jack from telling jokes or at least to throw him into lake more often...

Oh yeah, I almost forgot! We had our camp photographer, Emilee Burton, out on Thursday. She stayed out with us most of the day to capture a few shots of the kids. Check out our Camp Photos page to see some of those shots. I have to say, Alex was the biggest cheese-ball of the day for this one. Great poses too. Too bad we lost our photog on that one pass by the dock. I think that smile took best in show for the day. It looked a little like this...

Haha, gotta love the cheese.

Well, we wrapped up Thursday with Sam almost eclipsing the water and riding away on the board, more riding and progression from all and everyone enjoying a round of “fun” on the tube. I’m pretty sure that was Alex’s favorite part. True story. Right Alex?

Friday came early and everyone was ready to hit the water again. This is the day where I was most impressed. Jack was slashing the wake on command, Amanda was cutting out toe-side with solid results, Sam was edging closer by the second to getting on top of the water and Alex was cutting in and out of the wake with nothing but confidence. Amanda even grabbed a little air off of the wake while Jack was riding with better posture by the second. By the end of the day he was even moving in and out of both sides of the wake. It was definitely an impressive day from everyone.

Later on, when everyone was pretty much worn out, we headed over to a local restaurant on the water for some sherbet. Little did we know, another chapter of the Simo fan club would be born. I wasn’t witness to this because I was watching the boat, but apparently Simo made friends with the staff at the Restaurant. I just want to know why we didn’t get some free sherbet out of the deal.

To be honest, I can’t even begin to remember all of the funny moments we had in such a short time. Not to mention all of the pure excitement from all of the progression made in such a short time. Everyone did such a great job; it was impossible not to have fun. Again, I just want to say thanks to everyone (parents, campers, and Simo) for making this week such a fun one. We’d love to have your kids back any time. I’ll leave you with the camp song that Alex made up during lunch on Friday. It helps bring all together. Plus, who doesn’t love a little Vanilla Ice?

Peace, Love, and Magnificent French Fries,

Wes

Sung to the tune of Vanilla Ice’s “Ice, Ice, Baby”

central texas wake camp
central texas wake camp
alright stop we've got our knees bent arms out
ready to wakeboard we've got no doubt
that we're havin fun down in lake austin
it get really cold when we're ridin in the wind
SIMO yes he always screws up
dog marley is our mascot pup
french fries, britney spears, all our favorite things
no dead baby jokes and we like to SING
central texas wake camp
central texas wake camp

Down For The Cause 2008

Wed, 11 Jun 2008 11:15:44 -0500

Central Texas Wake Camp is raising money to help send some lucky kids to camp for free, but these aren’t just any kids. Central Texas Wake Camp is working to send up to 6 at-risk, disadvantaged youth to camp without charge. We’ll be out at West Marine in the Home Depot Four Points shopping center on 620 raising donations for our “Down For The Cause” program, talking with people about camp, and showing off a couple of new MasterCraft’s courtesy of Boat Town on Saturday 6/21/08, Saturday 6/28/08, and Friday 7/4/08. Oh yeah, and if you come out to West Marine on those days and donate even at least a dollar towards this cause, we’ll enter your name into a drawing to win a free wake board lesson from CTWC or a kid’s board donated by West Marine.

However, if you’d like to donate but can’t make it out, you can always donate using PayPal to paypal@texaswakecamp.com and entering “Down For The Cause” in the description box or by mailing your donation to:

Central Texas Wake Camp
7301 RR 620
Ste. 155, PMB #280
Austin, TX 78726-4539

We’re stoked to be spearheading the effort for Down For The Cause 2008 and offering an opportunity to kids who wouldn’t otherwise have the chance to attend camp. So come out and help us reach our goal of sending these kids to camp.

Camp News!

Mon, 2 Jun 2008 11:50:10 -0500

Hey guys, it’s Wes. We’re super stoked about camp, and we’re really looking forward to the weeks to come. As of now we still have a lot of spots open so if you’re thinking about attending camp this summer, hit us up!

Unfortunately, there is no camp this week as everyone is still taking a breather from school just ending. Trust us, we totally understand the feeling. As for what we’ll be doing all week, we’ll be out riding pretty much every day since we’ve got the week off. It’s a rough life, I know. Private lessons are still in effect if you’re wanting to schedule something this week, and if you happen to catch us out on the water stop by and say hi. We’d love to chat with you.

Oh, and don’t forget to come out to Austin Boats and Motors “Ride With a Pro Day.” We’ll be there signing autogra...err I mean talking to people about camp and teaching lessons out near Hula Hut that day. It’s going to be a great time.

And lastly, CTWC wants to send out congratulations to everyone on a job well done this year, parents included. So take this week, some deep breaths and even longer naps. You deserve it. That and it will help you get rested for camp in the weeks to come. See you guys there!

Storytime with Uncle Wes

Camp Recap from July 7th - July 11th

Down For The Cause 2008

Camp News!