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Skateboard Your Summer Away
At CA's SkatePark Tour & Travel Camp
 Columbia Association (CA) is constantly striving to enhance its services and offerings. Nowhere is this more evident than at Columbia SportsPark. Staff have revamped their skateboarding camp in order to better accommodate parents and campers alike. Last year, the skate camp was a half-day camp. Parents complained that the camp was too short and that it was hard to leave work at 12:30 p.m. to pick up their kids. The time frame of the camp wasn’t their only complaint.
Parents also took issue with the age limit of the camp. Last year’s skate camp was for grades three through eight. Parents did not like that the camp excluded middle school and high school students who were too old for other CA camps but lacked driver’s licenses and the ability to drive themselves to skate parks.
This year, CA’s SkatePark Tour & Travel Camp is offered in a week long format with four different sessions. The sessions are July 5-9, July 19-23, August 9-13, and August 23-27. The hours of the camp are 9:00 a.m.-3:30 p.m. with extended care available at Columbia Athletic Club 5435 Beaver Kill Rd, Columbia.
The camp is designed for more advanced skaters, grades six through ten. This is the only travel skate camp in the region. Very few other venues offer a skateboard camp, let alone a travel skate camp.
Columbia SportsPark birthed the idea of a travel skate camp which takes participants to various skate parks within an hour and-a-half radius.
“The idea for the camp was based off the already existing CA Trek camps,” said Matt Basch, general manager of Columbia SportsPark. Trek camps consist of various field trips throughout the week. Campers get to choose which destinations they would like to visit.
“We thought: ‘Hey! Why can’t we do something like that for skating,’” Basch explained. They also desired to give skaters a chance to use equipment not available at the SportsPark.
On the first day of Columbia SkatePark Tour Travel Camp , campers will be presented with a list of eight skate parks and must vote the four camps they would like to visit. Campers will go home with a schedule for the chosen camps. In the event of inclement weather, campers will travel to GVC indoor skate park in Laurel to skate the clouds away.
The idea behind the voting and scheduling is to save the farthest skate parks, in either York, Pennsylvania or Arlington, Virginia for Friday, said Mike Ecker, SkatePark Tour & Travel Camp instructor. Fifteen-passenger vans will be used to transport campers. The vans will be rented and driven by certified camp instructors. “We took a defensive driving course that specialized in driving with kids,” Ecker said.
Not only will parents save time driving their kids to various skate parks, they will also save time filling out forms. As any parent of a skater knows, each skate park requires a waiver for entrance. Sending one’s child to multiple skate parks will require signing multiple forms. Fret not, pen-weary parents. Registration forms for the camp waivers for each skate park to be visited during the session are included in the camp registration and will already be completed. Mornings will not consist of the challenge of remembering a permission slip. Rather, the challenge will be to get your teen awake and at Columbia Skate Park by 9 a.m. each morning. Helmet, elbow and knee pads are required for each participant.
The reasoning behind the camp’s concept, Ecker said, is to give the ability to visit skate parks to kids who can’t travel. “We want to let the kids go where they wanted.”
If one week is not enough for your budding Tony Hawk, campers are allowed and encouraged to attend more than one session.
For more information, please call the Columbia SportsPark at 410-715-3054.
To register, visit CA Headquarters, 10221 Wincopin Circle, Columbia, MD.
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