The Westbeach Camp of Champs

Camp of Champs is the current day heart and soul of the summer shred on Horseman Glacier. Their terrain is second to none, all the pros roll in, the level of riding is high, and it’s FUN.

Looking back in time we found this ad from the early 90′s when Westbeach sponsored the camp. Wait, did we mention that we are working with them again!

Long live summer snowboarding and the Camp of Champs.

IN 1990 the contest scene was warming up a bit as seen by the number of entrants below. Pipes were still dug by hand and the entire ethos was a lot of D.I.Y. – if the pipe needed some work, grab a shovel. CONTEST ANNOUNCEMENT -  send the name of  bib #128 to competition@westbeach.com to win a FREE JACKET.

Devun Walsh recounts his memory of the event in  “Out Westbeach: Snowboarding, Westbeach, and a new Canadian Dream”.

I really remember [Sean] Johnson bonking the announcer stand [and] Jamie Lynn doing late-grab 540s and snowboarding way different than anyone else. The first time I saw him was at Westbeach, and he’s doing those frontside fives in the pipe, and he’d come around late mute and bone ’em out straight—it was just like, “That is sick! He’s so different.” There was just a clear-cut difference. It’s not like he was going that much bigger—it was just solid. And that’s when I was like, ‘That’s who I wanna snowboard like.’  – Devun Walsh

Below – Sean Johnson (founder Stephchild snowboards)  bonking the announcer’s stand.

Below – Westbeach team rider Kevin Young – perfect style.

Below – Kevin Young in the news.

IN the mid 80′s before snowboardings’ rise in popularity and commercial appeal, shred competitions were near non existent. Surfing on the other hand, had roots, lots of participants and competitions. Westbeach was the at the epicenter of the California lifestyle scene and knew it had to stoke the fire and blow the scene up. The solution? The Westbeach Classic!

An excerpt from Out West: Snowboarding, Westbeach and a new Canadian Dream by Dano Pendygrasse available at www.westbeach.com.

The first Westbeach Classic was actually a surf contest. it started in the mid 1980′s on Vancouver Island’s west coast and in its very first year had 100 entrants, including four in the women’s cateogry. As Marco Allinott remembers it, Raph Bruhweiler, who went on to some fame in the surfing world, won the novice category that year. In typical style, Westbeach decided they were going to have a contest, set out to do it, and, without asking too many questions, went ahead and did. Only after they showed up to the beach did they find out that they needed to have an event permit from the Canadian Parks Service. The next year they had that covered and had rented and filled the entire campground at Chesterman’s in Tofino.

Below: A poster from the 1989 Westbeach Surf jam advertising sun, surf, sand and prizes.

Skateboarding’s popularity was suffering in the early 80′s and fashion was changing, surf culture was in, while the snurfer and snowboarding were on the rise. Bright colours and Californian culture were being imported in Canada and the California dream was alive and kicking.

Yes, the ad below does say, “DIG THIS BUYERS”. I think I still do.

-Jon Cartwright

This framed advertisement comes from Chip’s personal archive of Westbeach memories. It was probably the first ad that Westbeach did and from what I can tell it ran in a trade magazine in the early 80′s. It is also one of the few pieces of advertising that Chip kept. His archive also contained some amazing examples of the early snow clothing and lots of internal comunications.

Some of the things that I find interesting about this ad is the cut and paste that is a holdover of the recent punk movement, the lack of name identification, The shorts are called “chips shorts”, as well as “2 HIP” just within this ad. Chip has also called them “bbq shorts” and of course they ended up being Westbeach shorts. The name “Westbeach” is relegated to the tiny yellow strip on the bottom right (mostly hidden beneath the frame). The brand was definitely tying to find its name still at this point.

Also, the “surfer” in the top photo, on the left, is Shane Bunting who later went on to fame as “Madchild” from  the Canadian hiphop crew “Swollen Members”

- Dano