We recently caught up with team rider Gianni Vermeylen to learn a little more about Woodwings Longboard Camp and how they're helping build the skate scene in Belgium!
- For those people who haven’t heard of it before – what is Woodwings all about?
WoodWings Longboard Camps is a concept ‘by boarders, for boarders’ , which started in 2015, offering ALL-IN longboard camps in France, for Belgian and Dutch youngsters. Because of the high demand for international registrations, we opened the camp in 2016 for international riders. Longboarding has become very popular amongst young people the past few years, especially in Belgium.Unfortunately, in Belgium, there is hardly any infrastructure that meets the requirements of most longboarders. Which often results in to irresponsible longboarding on public roads without proper protection, without adequate safeguards and above all lack of experience and knowledge.
With the WoodWings project we want to share our knowledge and our passion for longboarding and the freedom we experience in young people. We want to create a community where young people have the freedom and opportunity to enjoy the sport in a safe and unique invironment where they can continue to develop their passion and experience. Therefor we will work hard to provide youngsters with the best training, holiday, leisure and camp facilities you can imagine.
- Was there anything new this year from years past?
A lot has changed compared to last year, like the location of our basecamp for example. The new basecamp existed out of a couple apartments with a restaurant, big garden, hot tub under the stars and much more. This located at the top of our closed road downhill track. Next to that we were able to get a taste of other gravity sports as well.
- What is your role at the Camp? Who else works there?
At WoodWings, I fulfill the role of main monitor. This means I had to make sure that everything went according to the manager’s plans, this in a responsible way. Something I wouldn’t be capable of to do all on my own, so I would like to thank, my crew:
Bas van Engelen (Gravity Supplies, NL)
Robbie Larock (Sector 9 , BeNeLux)
Remy Sneek (Sector 9, BeNeLux)
Eliseo Roos (Sector 9, BeNeLux)
Tamara Minnaar
My manager: Dominiek Grauls
Special participants:
Bert Lebbe
Erik Derycke (Shoot Magazine, Be)
Maria Arndt (Spin Magazine, De)
Fee Bücheler and crew (Womans Longboard Camp, De)
Next to that i learned the youngsters fresh tricks during some of freestyle lessons. I have spent a lot of time in the kitchen though, with short breaks for a downhill run of course.
- What is the best way for people to get involved?
Getting envolved with WoodWings is pretty easy!
Booking and information: http://woodwingslc.com/en
If you want to catch some stoke: https://www.facebook.com/woodwingslc/?fref=ts
Don’t forget that we’ll be roaming around at ISPO as well.
- Any big plans for next year’s camp?
Of course there are a lot of plans for next year. Some of them big, some of them small. But wouldn’t it be a sin to upload super awesome secret plans to cyberspace? Some of these plans are even kept secret to me, which means that something very BIG is going to happen. All I can say about this is that I’m full of stoke for WoodWings 2017!
