Camelback Mountain School

This year marks the third season that Camelback Mountain School (CMS) is offering snowboard competition instruction. The program offerings are the only ones of their kind in Pennsylvania and consist of weekend, midweek, and traveling competition instruction. This innovative, snowboard-specific conditioning and instruction program includes a wide variety of training methods. Our off-snow preparation will include team and take-home instruction, including aerobic and anaerobic workouts combined with a unique blend of snowboard-specific agility and plyometric movements. Our daily on-snow training will take place on Camelback Mountain’s slopes; the Progressive Park and F.I.S. Competition-Certified Pipe are leading the region in park and pipe development, adding to the program’s ability to introduce the most progressive snowboard competition training program.

This season we are proud to offer two separate programs within CMS. "Team Meadows," our stay-at-the-mountain program, will focus on younger athletes, instructing them in all disciplines of competitive snowboarding. "Team Rhodo" is our elite program that will be traveling on a regular basis to regional competitions. This program will help individual athletes focus on their strengths and weaknesses in order to improve their competitive ability. Team Meadows will be the perfect training ground for Team Rhodo, and together they will create talented riders who will excel in the elite program and in competitions representing Camelback for years to come. In our 2nd season, seven of our competitors received top 10 rankings, and all of our competitors were ranked in their top 20 categories nationally. Click here to see more.

Team Meadows $599 per athlete (season pass not included)

• Saturday and Sunday training only
• Complete overview of all disciplines of snowboarding
  (park, pipe, boardercross, alpine, and freestyle)
• Basic video movement analysis
• Snowboard/equipment tuning and maintenance
• 8:1 athlete to coach ratio (approx.)
• Feeder program for Team Rhodo

Team Rhodo $799 per athlete (season pass not included)

• Training Thursday and Friday nights, Saturday and Sunday days
• Competitive instruction at predetermined regional events
• Advanced snowboard/equipment tuning and maintenance
• Athlete-specific training and direction as per discipline
• 5:1 athlete to coach ratio (approx.)
• USASA membership required (possibly USSA/FIS)
• In-depth advanced snowboard specific workouts throughout the season
• Detailed training and competition video movement analysis
• Competitive mental preparation and awareness coaching
• Individual rider feedback – one-on-one coach/rider interaction
• Team does involve selection process, and not all applicants will be accepted

PDF regarding registration information coming soon

CMS Program Manager Bill Van Gilder aka "BVG"
BVG began snowboarding over 20 years ago and has not stopped since. He started competing as a young athlete in the Green Mountain Snowboard Series in 1988. Bill moved to Vermont to follow the competitions and attend Green Mountain College, where he was the founder and president of the college’s first snowboard club. His competitive run ended with the 1998 Olympic trials in Nagano, Japan. A few years after graduating with a degree in business, Bill moved home from Vermont to manage his family’s restaurant, the Jubilee. That same season, Bill took over the reins of the Mid-Atlantic Snowboard Series. It’s now 2009 and Bill is in his 10th season as series director of the Mid-Atlantic Snowboard Series. Bill is in his third year as the president of the USASA (United States of America Snowboard Association) and also works closely with the USSA (United States Snowboard Association) as a technical delegate, technical advisor, and chief of competitions at events including the U.S. Olympic Trials, FIS Nokia World Cup, U.S. Snowboard Grand Prix, and Revolution Tour. As the program director at Camelback Mountain School, BVG adds a wealth of competitive and organizational snowboard knowledge to the program.

CMS Team Director Sean Naughton
Sean Naughton is the team director at Camelback Mountain School. He has been coaching competition snowboarding since 1998. Before leading CMS, he was the head snowboard coach at Jack Frost/Big Boulder ski areas. Long before coaching snowboarding, he coached ski racing, and he has taught skiing since his teenage days as a PSIA-certified Level II instructor. He is Level II certified with the American Association of Snowboard Instruction (AASI) and is a certified Level III National Coach with USASA. Sean is also a certified Level III judge with USASA.

Sean is no stranger to competitions, as he has judged for the Mid-Atlantic Snowboard Series for more than six years, but his true passion is working with young athletes to help them achieve their goals. Favorite quotes: "Go big or go home!" and "Speed is your friend!"

CMS Team Advisor/Coach Michael Jennings aka "Yukon"
Michael Jennings has been a snowboarding instructor for more than seven years. He is the park and pipe freestyle coach for Camelback Mountain School, the snowboarding technical director, and the resort trainer for the Camelback Snow Sports School. Also known by the nickname "Yukon," he'll be designing and supervising the terrain park this season. Michael has explored some of the best snowboarding terrain in the world. He is a certified Level III member of the American Association of Snowboard Instructors and a certified Level II coach with USASA. Michael has played and coached a variety of sports over the years. Notably, he played football for Columbia University from 1993 to 1997 and was elected Second Team All-Ivy League as a defensive end. Michael is eager to help riders achieve their goals on the mountain while having a great time doing it!

CMS Freestyle Coach Jarrod Barto;
 Jarrod has been riding for 9 years and started instructing beginners at Bear Creek. He soon caught the freestyle fever and has since dedicated all his time on the mountain to understanding the physics behind flatland and aerial maneuvers. This led to working park crew for Bear Creek and Camelback Mountain which proved a great asset in understanding key concepts to freestyle riding. Since then, Jarrod has been competing with the Mid-Atlantic division of USASA and local competitions for 6 years. Last season, Jarrod also acquired his level II USASA coaching certification and plans to further his coaching career in the coming years.

CMS Coach Hayley Sedwin;
Hayley has been snowboarding since the age of 5. Her home mountain is Camelback where she learned to ride and taught Snowboarding for 4 years. She competed in the Mid Atlantic Snowboard series for 4 years, each season qualifying and traveling to nationals when she could, and landed in the top 10% nationally in Halfpipe. Her credentials include certification as a USASA Level 200 Coach and certified Judge, membership in the USASA since 1999, and a member of the USSA since 2007. She has judged the MASS series for the past 3 years and was invited to and judged at national events like the Revolution Tour. She currently is a student at East Stroudsburg University majoring in Secondary Education in Biology and a coach for the Camelback Mountain School. Other interests are mountain biking, hiking and the preservation of our environment.

CMS Alpine Coach Marian Dziak;
Marian has been coaching snowboarding for 14 years. He began his snowboarding career in his home country of Slovakia in 1987 when (to his mother's dismay) he dismantled his brand new closet in order to use the wood to craft his very own snowboard. As the saying goes, "practice makes perfect." Marian, one of the very first snowboarders in Slovakia, was crowned National Champion in 1992 (the first year of official snowboard competion in the Slovak Republic). He went on to enter the West Continental Open and then opened one of the first snowboard clubs in Slovakia in 1994. There he began by training 5 students, which quickly grew to 25. Two of his students went on to the World Cup. He continued his coaching career in the States as an alpine coach at Blue Mountain for 5 years. He has also competed with the USASA (and medaled at the 2004 USASA Nationals in the slalom & alpine combined). Marian is also a Level II certified coach with the USASA and is looking forward to his 2nd year with Camelback Mountain School. Ride like hell - Go to heaven!


You can e-mail Camelback Mountain School at cms@skicamelback.com.



Camelback will introduce the New Glen Terrain Park this season—This new park will consist of 6 trails, over 25k in new rails, new snowmaking including tower mounted fan guns and to top it off we have purchased a new Bison X terrain park groomer.  Visit our snowboading and Terrain Park pages to learn more. Click here to see shots from our parks.

Camelback offers two halfpipes for training. New this season will be a 650-foot handle tow lift at the halfpipe. A 300-foot-long, 14-foot-high walled halfpipe is featured on Oak Grove, and a 250-foot-long, 6-to-8-foot-high walled pipe is on Laurel Glade. Both pipes are groomed regularly by our new Zaugg pipe groomer from Switzerland. Click here to see the Oak Grove Pipe.

Snowmaking: All terrain parks and halfpipe areas are 100% covered by snowmaking equipment.

Click here to see photos from the Pipe Competition on 2-24-08.