On July 5th this year, Ash Wilcomes took a plane to LA with his friend Max Mater and finally realised his dream of going to Woodward. Here’s how he describes his experience:
Arriving in LA was so amazing! We were really excited so we went straight to Venice Beach skate park. Itʼs amazing how much better the skateparks are over there. And the skate scene… it was really cool to see all the locals of Venice.
We stayed two days in LA before getting on the bus to Woodward. The bus ride is really long, itʼs about three hours but itʼs all worth it when you arrive. Itʼs so amasing, I just couldnʼt wait to get out and skate!
We weren’t allowed to skate straight away so I went to have a look around. Then, they did camp introduction and everyone was just go go go! Just after introduction, we had to do an evaluation. That’s when they test your skills level so they can put you into your instruction group for the rest of the
week.
Every day at Woodward:
You get up in the morning in your cabin and you go straight to breakfast. All action sports campers are not allowed to go and do their sports ’til 9 oʼclock, so we all just wait around at breakfast.
After breakfast, the skate group goes into the big indoor skate park called the hanger. We stretch and then split off into our instruction groups. Your
instruction group is made up of about 10 kids that are your skill level. You have an instructor that takes you around to different skateparks from 9am to 12pm. Your instructor just helps you with all the tricks you want to learn and makessure you have the best time.
After that, your group gets together and your instructor sends you off to lunch. After lunch, youʼre allowed to just go off and skate where ever you want. Sometimes, if you want to, you can go off and chill in the cafe or the canteen.
The instructors, if theyʼre not supervising, are always there to help you with tricks you want to learn or just to come and skate with you. During that time between lunch and when you have to go back to your cabins, the skate crew are always running really fun and crazy events that anyone can go
in. Sometimes they donʼt involve skating! Some events are the mini ramp comp, the street comp, the ding dong derby, THUGGUN, the air bag race
and many many more!
After a long and fun day of skating, you go back to your cabin and you feel like not even getting changed and just going straight to sleep because youʼre so tired.
Lights off are at 10pm but you have to wait up because they do roll call at 10.30pm. You have a cabin counsellor that stays with you all throughout the week in their own little room. They look after the cabin and keep everyone in line.
The staff are nice, the skate parks are amazing and you learn amasing tricks. Altogether, I got a really good outcome of Woodward West and it was such a great experience. I would love to go back there someday…