The sixth season of Water Monkey Camp is in the books and with autumn officially under way we are closing up for the year and reflecting on all of the good times, funny stories and great friends made in 2017. As always, camp would not be possible without our awesome campers and we thank you and your parents for keeping our program going.
Six years is such a short time for a summer camp when compared to the century-old programs in New England but we already know so much about what makes camp special. While we will always focus on offering superior watersports instruction it is the 'other stuff' that we all seem to remember the most. Being goofy, making up new games and sports, jamming out to great music on the boat, riding doubles just to high-five (or spray) a friend, using stand up paddle boards for everything except paddling, going back for thirds or fourths or fifths of a meal and so many more ridiculous 'activities' make up our summer at the lake.
In the middle of the summer we filmed our new promo video (below) and the campers that week all got to take part in that unique and fun process.
In September we said goodbye to our two camp boats, 2015 and 2016 model years, respectively, to make way for two brand new 2018 Mastercrafts! A moment of silence to remember the 'old' boats...
Our dearly departed fleet. Practically antiques!
Now some fun 2017 stats!
- 113 campers over 7 weeks (plus 18 in our family week!)
- Each camper stayed an average of 1.5 weeks at camp (longest stay by two campers was 4 weeks)
- Average number of campers per week was 16.14
- Campers were 66% boys, 34% girls
- Average camper age was 13.4
- 39% of campers were returners, 61% were new (another big growth year!)
- Campers came from 15 states (CT, DC, GA, IA, IL, MA, ME, NH, NJ, NY, OH, PA, RI, VA, VT) as well as Canada, China, France and Mexico!
- 15 trips to Boston Logan and Manchester Airport
- 15,668 visits to watermonkeycamp.com in the past 12 months
- 8,950 pictures uploaded for parents and campers to enjoy
- 1 day of intense paintball carnage!
- 9 lost SUP paddles (how do campers leave the shore with a paddle and come back without one!?)
- 5 camper items retrieved from the lake by our scubadiving chef!
- Shortest lifespan ever of a wakesurf board: 1 rider!
- Average water temperature during camp was 74 degrees
- Average boat MPH was 15.08 (estimated based on % of time waterskiing / wakeboarding / wakesurfing / chilling) which means...
- About 7,087 miles driven on the lake
- 14 hours spent waxing boats
- 220 hours on the Mastercraft and 250 hours on the Axis A22 (final hours were 450 on the Mastercraft and 680 on the Axis!)
- 2,600 gallons of gas consumed on the lake producing roughly 25 metric tons of CO2 offset with contributions to https://www.cooleffect.org/ (Specifically the Alto Mayo Conservation Initiative as well as The Society for the Protection of New Hampshire Forests to aid in their goal of protecting the Lakes Region (where we are located). Our donations will offset about 35 metric tons with the extra going towards camper travel to/from camp.
We hope that you have a successful and fun-filled year and that as you start to think about next summer you will keep us in mind for a week or two again! We already have a number of eager campers signed up for 2018 so if you are ready to enroll just let me know.
Lastly, please let us pay you to find us great new campers. We offer a $300 referral bonus deducted from your tuition for every camper you send our way who enrolls for at least one week. This is the best way for us to get awesome guys and girls who will enjoy our program here at camp and we cannot thank you enough for helping us spread the word.
Feel free to e-mail, write, call, text, FaceTime, telegram, carrier pigeon or visit any time!
Sincerely,
Evan Goldner
617-855-9253
evan@watermonkeycamp.com