Akamp Summer Snowboard Camp is Eastern Canada's Best-Kept Secret

words and photos: Ely Campeanu

Canada is that best friend that doesn't really use Instagram and just lives their life without telling anyone about it. For such reasons, Akamp , Canada’s only on-snow snowboard summer camp, has been flying under the radar for far too long. For the past eight years, unsung hero Dave Brown has been running Akamp , holding it down with his band of volunteers and maintaining a 300-yard-long strip of snow that, for one week a summer, provides a different set up every day. The labor of love at Sommet Saint-Sauveur brings together a collection of the most dastardly rail riders on the East to destroy it. There are hot names like Seb Toots and Seb Picard in the mix with up-and-coming talent like Nate Lund, Louise Ethier, Eli Bouchard, Jake Legault, Westley Willyams, and way too many more to count..They all come to the park that blooms for one week each summer for the last 14 years with no signs of stopping.

The origins of Akamp come from a line of passionate people who were willing to make it happen for their community. I sat down with current owner, Dave Brown, to get the scoop on the origin of Akamp.

“I didn’t create Akamp,” says current owner, Dave Brown. “It was actually a local guy, Max Brochu, who used to ride for Axis Boardshop. He was really good and one of the main guys around the community here. He decided to create a snowboard camp that costs less for people who can’t fly out West for camps like High Cascade or Camp of Champions, when it was still around.”

“The reach wasn’t there because there was no social media at the time,” explains Dave. “So [Max] put out flyers and reached out to regional people, which is why it stayed lowkey for a long time. At some point, Axis Boardshop took over and the owner tried to help and keep it alive. I was always a part of this process and learned how it worked year-by-year. The owner started to give me more control over the years, until one year they couldn't afford to do it. So, I decided to make it happen. I just asked them for a little help and covered the rest. We basically made it happen with nothing and still cut even once it was over. After that, I started building the camp up step by step. We invited more well-known people in the community, put the word out more. Seb Picard, Seb Toots, and other bigger names started to come. We sort of had a renaissance of Akamp. Since then, we have been improving and growing every year.”

Last year was my introduction to Akamp. I tagged along with Mike Rav, Naima Antolin, and Skylar Brent and we all had our first taste of the French Canadian summer scene. Seeing a top-to-bottom park with lift access on the East in July had me in complete disbelief. We rode 9 am to 9 pm for five days with the most electric group of up-and-coming Canadian riders you have never heard of.

Dave Brown and Joey Leon got us on the right daily program. We learned the schedules and strategies to make it through the five days of non-stop riding. Stop riding before lunchtime, hang in the parking lot with your crew, go swim, go golf, listen to some music, and start riding again after 4pm once the heat laid off. You caught on quickly once you realized no one is snowboarding at noon when it's 90 degrees out, but this schedule creates a fully rounded summer camp experience. Time to take your boots off and kick back.

“The cool part about Akamp is that there is an evening session around 4pm, so you can chill all day and do other activities. It’s usually way too hot during the day. The vibe for the late sesh is always better I feel like. There are just more people and more energy.” - Seb Picard

This year our Salt Lake-based friends didn’t make it, but I made sure to bring my friend Jesse Warrington, who had never been to Akamp nor set foot in Eastern Canada. He was ripe to be exposed to one of the best communities in snowboarding. Once we got there, I kept looking over my shoulder to see how long it would take for someone to blow his socks off. I had warned him about the scene many times before, but like Tom Hanks said in the Polar Express , “Seeing is believing.” You definitely believe after you see a high schooler casually throw a hardway back 270 pull back on the down rail before noon.

“The thing I took away from Akamp the most was purely the culture of it. If they saw you trying the hardest you could and having fun, everyone was stoked for you. Even the token frontflip kid got his time in the sun” - Jesse Warrington

There is something to be said about the Canadian scene, which is: Not enough is said about the Canadian scene. One of the most inviting and skilled sects of snowboarding exists just north of the border and asks for nothing in return.

“It's Canada, so there are literally the best snowboarders on the planet and nobody knows them because they're humble and it’s so quiet up here. You come up here, the level of riding is actually ridiculous." - Joey Leon

There’s a lot that sets this place apart from an experience like Mt. Hood or the snow dome in Jersey. It seems like everyone who comes here gets bitten by a little piece of magic that makes them remember why they love snowboarding. Local rider Brendan Poly accredited it to the unique social setting it has created. “Seeing all the homies that I wouldn’t see otherwise, from the US, or from Ontario, from everywhere—they all come because it’s the only place we can ride during June,” Brendan says. “You get to see all your homies in the same spot for the same purpose. It does it all.”

There’s no park crew, no ski patrol, just a crew of volunteers that comes up every day from 6-9 am and hand builds and grooms a new park every day. There’s always something a little more special about riding something you and your friends build. On the spot, feature-to-feature, deciding what the slope will look like, and at 3 pm they do it all over again to whip up some new features for the heavy hitters in the afternoon. The final day build this summer included a hip for some much needed air time after a week of steel. The hip eventually turned into standard jump and we watched the afternoon turn into our very own sunset shoot (despite it being fully overcast). It was the perfect bow to tie off another successful Akamp before the rain came down. No amount of moisture could dampen the hype we all had by closing time.