The Our Camp diaries continue, with day three, and the thoughts of camper Simone Binczyk...
Hailing from Cologne, Simone works as a sign language interpreter. She’s been riding for eight years, and this is her second Our Camp. Having previously attended another snowboard camp, she found the Our Camp coaching more tailored to the individual, and the smaller group a friendlier environment. And Our Camp didn’t even have to pay her to say that…
“I do the pipe, and not bad – I dropped in even though I said that I wasn’t going to. And I do the rail, the first time in my life. Before I came to Our Camp I swore that I would never do rails or boxes, I just accepted that I could never do it. It look so hard and suicidal. And then my first Our Camp I did a box, and now, I did rails. I even jumped on. It’s crazy. I was really proud. And it is not so hard as I thought. And Sonia said – “Today, it’s Simone National Day.” Awwww … because everything worked good.
After a short, short break, we skated to the gondola that goes down into the valley, where we were going to go rafting. Really crazy, it was my third day on my skateboard, but the first day on the street, with cars, people, bikes, cracks – but I liked it very much. We had a destination, I felt like it was my street, you know. Because before Our Camp I had tried to skate but I didn’t feel safe; but now we have been practising and I knew how to push properly and how to step off.
We got to the gondola and went down to Venosc to go rafting. I never rafted before and we had to wear all this funny wetsuits and lifejackets and helmets, and old Lacoste shoes.
We had a safety talk and had to rescue Gilly from the grass. Finally we went into the very very cold glacier water – very very cold. We spun 360s around rocks and I almost fell out but Sonia pulled me back in – I was a little bit afraid. In the beginning everybody has a little bit of fear, but by the end we had all really loved it, because it brings so much fun and it was so good to do it in a group, because everybody must work together and we all laughed so much.
At the end we went underneath a bridge; I thought it was going to be a joke because the tunnel was so small, but we went through the small window … oh, oh, oh, this was really really crazy. But we’re all still alive.
Want to go on camp? Visit Our Camp to find out more.
Like that? Read day one by Alena and day two by Helen.
