Mike Montgomery at The Camp of Champions

Where The Tricks Have No Names-

There's a reason Mike Montgomery is so good. It was the last day of The Camp of Champions for 2010 - the burgers, chickens, fish, hot dogs, bratwursts, smokies, bacon, veggies and anything else we could get on a grill were getting BBQ'd by Sergi, Eva, Gord and I. Everyone was gorging on all you can eat free food and drinks from Monster. When the line slacked off I went to see what was going down around "The Compound", instead of just what I could see through the smoke of the cooking meat. You could tell everyone knew there was only hours left to live life to the fullest and live the dream of riding, skating, eating, drinking, having fun with, chilling and hanging with and shooting photos with the pros. The mini ramp as getting sessioned into the ground, the street course was crowded with people skating hard Sting Pong was on, and the tunes were bumping. I wondered why so many people were chilling down by the mulch pit. There was nothing going on. Big mistake on my part... The Mike Montgomery Show was just starting up. Mike Montgomery was creating/unveiling/showing off/delivering/whatever you want to call it... something new. Welcome to the last night of The Camp of Champions... Where the tricks have no names.

It had started a day before with Mike trying variations of his backflip superman into the 365 Sports Big Air Bag. The session started off warm and soon got heated. Everyone was throwing down hard. Alan Hepburn was pushing it, Howie had changed his name to Power, Garrett was showing that Casey Groves was in his posse not the other way round and guest JL was pushing it with a crazy flip spin thing he had been trying for a while, hoping the bag would supply the missing ingredient to let him stick the trick. Then Mike started trying "The Trick With No Name". After all the heat he got for naming his California Roll the California Roll, he decided this trick needed no name. You can call it anything you want.


One of my favorite things about camp, even though the coaches are here to teach campers, is they themselves can't help but learn new tricks when they have endless hours of access to the 365 Sports Big Air Bag, the dirt jumps and Mulch Pit in the "The Compound". Just like the kids who get pushed and inspired by being what must feel like being "Airdropped" into their favorite video and magazines with all the pros, the coaches get just as much inspiration being surrounded by campers, up and coming pro riders and straight up legends, who inspired them and continue to inspire them. When all the magical elements like this come together, you know, with out a doubt..."Things are going to happen".

After semi dialing the new trick into the 365 Sports Big Air Bag, Mike started throwing it down into the mulch pit trying to nail the trick. Some of the beat downs he took to nail this trick were something else. He hit so hard on one I thought he broke his forks. No damage to forks, Banshee or Mike, just the sound of someone "hitting the ground from great height". It was an awesome display of not giving it up. "Carpe Bicycle" if you will. The sun was going down on COC 2010. The camp was done, the burgers were eaten, all the Monster had been drank, the tons of free products were given away, the shirts and products were signed, email address exchanged, PB names traded and yet there was Mike - still hucking his carcass into the mulch time after time to get his second new trick of the summer.

That's the reason Mike Montgomery is so good.

I love camp, I love everything about it. Campers, coaches and the amazing good times we all have. Thanks for an awesome summer everyone. See you all next summer. It's going to be even crazier. That I can guarantee.

-Ken