The beginning of the school year marks the end of the summer holidays, along with the end of the summer skateboard camps that we organized this summer, not just one but a total of two!

The last Skateboard Progress Camp, which carried the name Finisher, exceeded all our expectations. One of the reasons was the large number of female participants, which enriched the overall atmosphere of the camp, and we are delighted about it. We hope to see more girls on skateboards in the future.

The second main reason was a foreign visitor all the way from America, none other than American coach Ian Kirk, who has been involved in coaching and organizing camps worldwide for over 20 years. Ian brought a great atmosphere that was reflected throughout the camp, and we also got to see fantastic tricks from America that inspired both the kids and us instructors.

The weather was as good as it could be. The first days were more or less beautifully sunny. It looked worse on Wednesday when we were hit by numerous showers. However, since Wednesdays are more of our rest days, we used this fact to our advantage. Unfortunately, we didn't have the same luck on Thursday, and we had to flee across the country from the approaching clouds, which finally caught up with us, but only later in the afternoon when we had already done quite a bit.

As for the progress of this camp, it was exceptionally remarkable. Countless tricks were falling for each participant from the first day, which brought great joy to both the campers and us instructors.

We started the whole camp on Sunday when we had an icebreaker directly at Via Jasná accommodation. The kids got to know each other, we determined the campers' skill levels, and we also set plans for the following week.

On Monday, we kicked off with a visit to the revamped park in Liptovský Mikuláš, which the kids really enjoyed. From early in the morning, we worked with each group on tricks according to their own riding level.

One group worked on their initial attempts at ollies, another was dropping into the ramps, and other campers were learning more advanced tricks like kickflips, heelflips, or similar flip variations.

Lukáš Chalachan spent the entire day with us, pulling off big tricks on rails and high FS airs in the biggest ramp.

On the second day, we moved to the most popular skatepark of the entire camp, located right in Martin, which currently has the best skatepark in Slovakia. It's confirmed by the fact that the park is excellently designed for progression at all levels, from small ramps for complete beginners, through various small boxes and rails, to progressively more challenging street obstacles like rails and boxes of various dimensions.

Another fact is that right next to the park is an extensive pumptrack where beginners, who still have problems with balance, can learn the basics of pumping, balancing, and copying surfaces.

It was beautiful to see significant progress in the beginner group, who made enormous progress in the pumptrack during the week. From the first day when all beginners mostly rode with the help of instructors, they were already riding independently along the entire length of the pumptrack on the final day, from both sides.

Wednesday traditionally belonged to the rest days. We started it with a light warm-up in the new pumptrack located in Liptovský Mikuláš, where we rode until lunchtime. Then we moved to the town of Liptovský Mikuláš, where we walked through the city center. We had lunch, ice cream, and then we had a transfer to the thermal spring Kalameny.

Since upon arrival at the spring, we were immediately caught by a heavy rain shower, most of the campers were hesitant to get in the water. However, the rain passed, and suddenly we were all in the water.

After the initial reluctance, there was no sign of any problems after 2 hours in the water, and the opposite problem was getting the kids out of the water.

After a beautiful rejuvenation in the healing thermal water, we moved to our accommodation, where a barbecue awaited us, followed by a workshop on how to grip and assemble a skateboard.

Thursday started with a morning problem, an intense storm that prevented our planned training in the skatepark in Liptovský Mikuláš.

Therefore, we decided to travel as far away from the stormy clouds as possible, heading southwest to Martin's skatepark, which, according to our information, was free of showers. We managed to arrive at the park at around 9:30 and we were able to ride until a beautiful 12:00 noon when the first showers started in this area as well.

So we decided to have lunch and then move to the Žilina skatepark. Our attempts to avoid the rain were reasonably successful, but upon arrival in Žilina and after about half an hour of riding, it started raining in this area as well.

Therefore, we decided to go for activities that were very popular with the kids, such as running around the skatepark on a running track. In three categories: juniors, girls, and youth, we competed for great prizes.

Since the rain in Žilina didn't stop, we decided to transfer to Liptovský Mikuláš, hoping that the park there had dried out since morning. Liptovský Mikuláš looked completely dry, so we ended the day there with another beautiful 2-hour ride.

The final day on Friday began with a trip to the last park in Poprad, but it was wet from the morning showers, so we once again turned towards Liptovský Mikuláš. Here, we summarized most of the tricks learned and went over everything we had practiced during the week.

After lunch, we had a pizza served right at the park, followed by a summary of the whole week.

After lunch, we had the distribution of prizes, of which there were truly a great number, and for this, we THANK our camp partners - Intersport, Boardparadise, and Deska Trenčín.

The prizes were handed out, we said goodbye to the campers, and we successfully completed another successful summer in 2023.

It was an amazing ride that was worth it! We hope you all enjoyed it at least as much as we did!

We're already looking forward to the next summer with you!!

Team 3StyleAcademy.