It is almost summer and we are starting to get ready for the next academic year starting September 9th.  Students that will be attending the academy for the full year are welcome to submit applications for a scholarship.  We require a 1,000 word essay explaining why you are the best candidate to receive a scholarship along with video that is 2 minutes maximum in length.  We have already started receiving application submissions and will close the date for submissions on May 31st.  Get those scholarship applications to us at info@windellsacademy.com.

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It is snowing right now!!! I’m serious…..check NOAA or Timberline’s web cams.  The forecast is calling for almost 1 foot of snow in the next few days.  We have a great base of snow that will make the summer months epic for skiing and snowboarding.  There is no other school in America that can give you the opportunity to get your education and ski or snowboard in the summer months.  Take advantage of some extra training while exercising your mind.

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Windells Academy has completed its fourth year as an educational institution and we are proud to announce that we had 9 graduating seniors this year that came to us from around the world.  On April 6th, a graduation ceremony was held at Mt. Hood Meadows to honor the accomplishments of Kelsey Yoklavich, Zoe Mayers, Jada Garcia, Kristaps Thompson, Henry Savage, Eric Whitworth, Philippe Dalliare, Cole Welter, and Austin Hesby.  The weather turned out to be a little bit snowy so families were shuttled up the mountain to ensure that they would be able to attend.  Although, some families enjoyed the fresh snow and took advantage of a day of skiing in the beautiful Northwest.  Mike Hanley, president of the academy, delivered an excellent speech that highlighted the strengths of each student.  Lynn Lawson, of the International Community School, provided an empowering speech about fear and not allowing that fear to hold you back, instead, overcoming those fears.  The ceremony was followed by a delicious dinner provided by the catering department at Mt. Hood Meadows. Windells Academy would like to extend a special thank you to all of the families that came from near and far to show support to our graduating seniors.

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Students Henry Savage, Austin Tattom, and Jake Day chillin at Starbucks right before laundry

We went on an industry trip to the ski company ON3P where we learned and got see where and how all of their skis are made. We also got to see some of their next season’s product and designs. The academy has also taken us on a weekend rafting and Bowinkles day which were both fun times. Next week we are going on a school trip to Southern California to just have fun in the sun so definitely look out for some cool pictures and content soon. I’m not going to lie, Windells definitely keeps us busy 24/7 but that’s not a bad thing at all.

Academy student Jake Day filming a line with skate coach Jamie Weller

On the skate side of things we’ve been going out to new skate parks and spots every single day. Jamie the skate coach has been teaching us so much and has been helping as progress at an amazing rate. Every single day a new trick or crazy banger goes down! Each day we have been filming at the parks and are about to put out a montage very soon so be on the look out!

Academy student Arlan George killing the vert wall in the Windells Concrete Jungle

The weather and parks have been so great. I can speak for everybody when I say that we are really capturing that dream here at Windells Academy.

Stay tuned.

Jake Day

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What is a Bully?

If you didn’t already know, October is bullying prevention and awareness month. Bullying is such a big issue nowadays that there is actually a month dedicated to it. So many kids in our country and others don’t realize or understand what bullying is or how it affects others.  It is really hard to understand what crosses the line between joking around and bullying. Everyone has a different level of sensitivity about certain subjects, so it’s our duty as human beings to really be understanding of differences between individuals. There’s that old saying, “sticks and stones may break my bones but words will never hurt me”… unfortunately doesn’t always apply, words can really hurt. As someone who was bullied throughout my elementary, middle, and high school careers, I hope I can help spell this out. No one wants to be bullied or be labeled a bully; it’s just not nice for anyone!

B – Belittling others because of their differences. These can be small differences like favorite brands, style of clothing, freckles, scars, smells etc. or larger differences like appearance, race, gender, sexual orientation, ability, or socio-economic status.

U – Under-estimating a person’s ability before they are able to express themselves. Even if someone does not have the capabilities that others do, they probably already know and understand that. You should never point out others deficiencies to make yourself feel better.

L – Labeling a person by one aspect of their personality. A bully often uses terms that describe a person based on preconceived ideas of different races, religions, abilities, or basically anything that can be different about a person. Doing this not only makes it impossible to get to know them as a person, but also makes them see you negatively.

L – Laughing at others in a situation that causes harm to their self-esteem, self-worth or which causes them to question themselves or their abilities. Like I said before, everyone has a different sensitivity level, so what may just be annoying to you may be seriously damaging to another.  Try to think of the last time someone laughed at an idea you had, you tried to take it lightly, but your feelings were really hurt. It doesn’t feel good at all!

Y – You may be a bully and not know it. Try to think of the last time you made a comment to someone and could see a look of sadness on their face. In this situation, you may not have intended to be doing so, but you’re hurting someone’s feelings, which could open the possibility that you are being a bully. Ask yourself, does this happen often?

The biggest lesson I can teach you in hopes that you yourself do not become a bully is very simple… BE NICE!!

Yours in being a good person,

Big Bully Busting Betty

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It’s fair to say that Jeff Curry is a boss when it comes to skiing. Check out his ESPN interview and see what brought him from Pittsfield, Massachusetts to Windells Academy.

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Capita just posted his full part from their 2011 team movie, “Defenders of Awesome” online. Watch Brandon’s part and if you haven’t seen the rest of the movie, go pick it up right now! You buy get it on iTunes here.

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Windells – BMX. Skiing. Skateboarding. Snowboarding.

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Mount Hood is known as a place where progression is amplified and trends begin. Whether it’s double and triple corks, new rail tricks, or outerwear fashion, summer in Hood is the origin for many movements that take flight during the rest of the season.

Last year, building on a legacy that includes the longest running summer snowboard event ever, the Bonfire Pipe 2 Pipe, Bonfire/Salomon brought their team to Windells and they held the First Annual Zeach Invitational. For this week’s Take me back: Tuesday, we go back to this radical day of crooked boardslides and frontboards and get excited for summer 2012!

What is a zeach, you ask? Well, a zeach is a trick named after Zach Leach, who earned notoriety in the early 2000s for doing boardslides and frontboards crooked on rails, as you can see this camper doing in the above photo. Check out Grenade’s movies for some awesome zeaches. So, any boardslide of frontboard that isn’t perpendicular to the rail or box, is classified as a zeach. Zeaches are fun, silly tricks, because they don’t look quite as nice as locked in boardslides or frontboards.

Bonfire/Salomon team riders Scotty Arnold, Harrison Gordon, and Chris Carr put on the First Annual Zeach Invitational during Session 3 at camp last summer and everyone loved it! Zeaches are so fun to do, and the set up was a mellow flat box, so campers of all ability levels were able to get in on the zeaching. Campers that had never done a zeach before got to learn from the best, and campers that were zeach-familiar started doing combos and presses–the event probably saw more zeaches happen at one time than ever before.

Thank you to Scotty, Harrison, Chris, and Bonfire/Salomon for once again creating something new and fun at Windells!

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Windells familiar faces, Chas Gudlemond and Spencer O’Brien, were dubbed Slopestyle World Champions after their impressive performances on the perfectly groomed course. Gudlemond earned his $40,000 bounty with a frontside blunt 270 out, front board to 450 out, switch back 1260, back 1080, tailpress to back 180 and a huge cab 1260 to put the icing on the cake. Spencer’s run sent her to the top of the women’s Slopestyle podium accompanied by Jaime Anderson and Enni Rukajarvi. O’Brien was able to stump Anderson’s success streak with a front board, noseslide, back 540, switch back 540, 50-50, and a lofty front 720.

Louie Vito and Matt Ladley, contenders for the Men’s Halfpipe Championship title, have spent plenty of time at Camp. Windells camper and Burton team rider, Kelly Clark, made this her 15th consecutive Halfpipe win. Clark made her run look easy: frontside air, backside 540 mute, frontside 1080 mute, cab 720 mute, and frontside inverted 720.

Windells has given these world class athletes the opportunity to ride and train in the off season on world renown facilities. We’re proud to see the hard work of team members and campers pay off, clearly, in big ways. Want to get in on the action? Head to www.windells.com to see what Windells can do for you. Reserve your spot for Spring and Summer Camps today!

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Nial Romanek is a staple out at Windells during the summer. He’s a down-t0-Earth, friendly Minnesota native, with a strong work ethic in his riding and a bag of tricks that is so deep he was turning heads all last summer on the Windells’ jib lines. Nial came out to camp to host Session 1 with Forest Bailey, Johnny Lazz, and Will Bateman last year, and he’s returning Summer 2012 with his teammates from Flow to takeover Session 7. Nial will be lapping the park, putting on games and events, and hanging out with campers along with Brandon Reis, Tim Humphreys, the Shane Fortier, Sarka Pancochova, and more. Nial is an incredibly creative rider with an awesome attitude, so if you want to come shred and hang out with Nial, make sure to sign up for Session 7, when the Flow Team Takeover Session is going to be out of control!

Last summer, Nial let us in on some of the fun that went down during Session 1. Check it out below and get ready for even more during Session 7 2012!

Name: Nial Romanek

Sponsors: Flow, NXTZ, Saga Outerwear, 3L,

Home mountain: Giant’s Ridge, Minnesota

Where do you live now: Truckee, California. I’ve lived there for four years.

When were you at Windells this past summer? In 2011, I was at camp hosting Session 1.

What was your favorite part about the park on hill? Probably the down-flat-down rail. It’s perfect. There’s a bunch of lines that flow together really well. You know how the park is, you choose your line at the top of the hill, either left line, center line or right line, all of the lines are really flowy and you can mix it up each run.

What is your favorite thing about Windells campus?

Just that it’s all there together and they have the illest skatepark that you could possibly have. I think it’s just sick that there’s a full-on campus, everything is together—once you’re in Windells, it’s this huge area of skating and having fun. You have everything you need right in front of you.

Tell us about the line contest you guys held on hill.

We did a line contest, which included the Nike 6.0 wooden spine, into a pole jam. We wanted to see more of campers showcasing their skills, if you can do two things in a row that are sick, that’s really what riding in the park is about. Doing lines, hitting features in a row and putting down sick tricks. We rode with the campers to encourage them to go for it. It was awesome.

Tell us about the Flow event you held?

I did a popsicle eating contest, which consisted of campers eating two popsicles (which were double-wide), and then the winner from each round got gear from Flow and also got to go into a final round, where they got the big prizes, like boots and a bag. The funniest, was this one girl in the final round, who had so much cold-ness, she was about to puke. She kept putting her hands up to her mouth like she was going to puke, but ,she didn’t. It was mellow.

What was a memorable moment off hill for you? When the Lifeblood team came to skate. One of the guys did front blunt to regs around the pocket with the loveseat in it. I thought that dude was amazing.

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