They've done these camps for a while in BC and I think CA and WA, but this was the first year in Utah (Park City). 45 women attended and there were 55 more on the waiting list! So hopefully next year they'll do more than one here, but regardless, register early. I know a bunch of ladies who wanted to attend and didn't get to.
They divide you into groups based on questionnaires that you fill out ahead of time. Then we broke down into 5 groups for the morning session and worked on various skills. (Manuals, straight line riding and teeter totters, drops, braking...) and then rotate you through. Sat afternoon you break into 8 groups and do an XC ride. Saturday evening they have classes on bike setup and maintenance. Sunday you pick which skills to work on in the morning and then do a lift served ride in the afternoon. Some of the groups were more XC oriented and just went on XC rides again on Sunday afternoon. They also had an excellent selection of Rocky Mountain demo bikes, body armor, flat pedals, full face helmets, etc. available so the women who normally just ride XC were able to try new gear that helps you step it up comfortably.
We started off by breaking into groups to work on skills. My group worked on Manuals first. Up until maybe a year or two ago, I always figured manualling was something trials guys did, and the guys I know always said it's really hard, just try to wheelie instead. Anyway, it's probably the most useful skill you can learn for trail riding and I've been working on it for a few months. A wheelie requires getting in the right gear, timing the pedal stroke, etc. A manual just takes a shift of your weight and you can pop over a rock, log, whatever, and you can also use it to roll off a drop and land with your wheels even - much more useful. So we started doing them on flat pavement, and then moved on to dropping off boxes in a manual. The trick there is that you have to time it right, but it's great to work on landing smoothly.
Next we worked on tight cornering. They set up a series of cones and rope on the ground to simulate a tight trail and we worked on how to get around a corner tight enough you can't just roll it at normal speed (without cutting off the corner with your rear wheel anyway). I've known that ratcheting your pedals and inching around in a near track-stand lets you tighten your turning radius, but it never occurred to me before to keep the inside pedal forward. That made a huge difference in not having to dab.
My group then switched over to straight line riding. Sounds easy, right? They started us on a couple of boards that you rode onto and tried to stay on. Then they added a section in the middle so you'd ride up, then down the other side, and then raised it some more. It's mostly just a matter of taking sufficient speed and looking ahead. We learned how to dismount off a skinny in an emergency. Then we tried the teeter-totters, which was fun, and then a ramp on a corner. Nothing super challenging or dangerous, but enough to work on the basics and get you comfortable with how to do it (committment and thinking happy thoughts being key...)
Then we worked on rolling drops, which was fun. I've been comfortable doing that for years, but the coach added in a few key elements. She called it "Pause, Peek, Push". Which is a good idea. When you're riding a new trail, see a dropoff but can't tell what it is or if it's rollable, you roll up and pause, look over the edge, and assuming it looks rideable, push the bike out in front of you to roll down. She then stacked the boxes up to make it higher and added a stick at the bottom so it was like a steep roll down in the middle of a switchback (which we practiced later at Deer Valley on the trail). So again, fairly basic stuff, but with those couple extra elements to make it safer and just make you feel more confident when you see that on the trail.
For the afternoon, we split up into groups and went on an XC ride. This wasn't my favorite part, though we were on a fun trail and our coach did a great job of stopping to go over climbing techniques, and bike-body separation while cornering. Good info, but the XC ride just takes up a lot of time that I'd rather have spent working on more drills and such.
That evening they had an IMBA presentation, and classes on bike maintenance and setup. Unfortunately I had to leave a little early, but it sounds like that was all good stuff too. Before we left, we picked two skills classes to attend in the morning. So Sunday we showed up, split into our chosen classes and got working. I took the bunny-hopping class, which was the "real" bunnyhopping, not just springing up with both wheels off the ground. see:
http://www.bmxbasics.org/new/bmx0703.html Basically, it's a manual, very quickly transitioned into a rear wheel lift, resulting in lofting your front wheel up, then pulling the rear tire up so you can clear obstacles. This isn't easy to learn. While I have no problem with the manual and no problem with the rear wheel lift - connecting the two together feels like doing the worm on the ground but... on your bike in mid-air. Heh. I finally got a little one and Utsnowgirl got a good one, but it'll take practice for us to get them consistently. It's one of those things my husband learned as a kid and his instruction was always... "Just do it." Thanks. Very helpful...
So it's nice to learn from girls who had to figure it out too!
We broke for lunch and all got some really cool give-aways, and then all headed out to do some lift served riding. This section was great. My group went out to Deer Valley with Lisa Sher (who is wonderful!!) and we rode Homeward Bound (stopping on the stunts to try things out), and then Aspen Slalom to work on those technical tight switchbacks. It was nice to put things together. I just wish we had time to do some more lift served riding, Well, and I'm bummed I didn't get to ride with Kristen (except for her trials lessons in the parking lot after we were done. I'm now totally inspired to learn to track stand and hop around on one wheel like she can - she's totally amazing!)
Anyway, now I have tons of things to work on and can't wait to head down to Brianhead this weekend!