2017 season recap

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

insane SUP voyage

We all saw the Instagram posts last week of Chris Bertish completing his insane Stand Up Paddle voyage across the Atlantic Ocean but reading the below article from NatGeo about the entire adventure puts the feat in greater perspective.

Surfer Becomes First to Cross the Atlantic on a Paddleboard

Huge props to Chris for not only completing the adventure but also raising millions for charity. 

2016 season recap

Well we made it…Water Monkey Camp just wrapped up its fifth season of wakeboarding / waterskiing / wakesurfing / wake skating fun on the lake. While it has taken a lot of work behind the scenes to make it all happen, the credit goes to all of our loyal camper families for continuing to trust us to give your campers an amazing experience each summer. (At the bottom of this post are links to all of the 2016 pictures)

Year five was also the second year at our permanent property and we are really starting to get comfortable now. Seeing campers and staff take advantage of our epic location by playing Spikeball on the beach, having flipping contests off the dock, lounging in the hammock chill zone, or engaging in intense ultimate Frisbee matches on the field is just an added bonus beyond the time spent on our ridiculous boats.

Speaking of boats, the 2016 Mastercraft NXT22 was the perfect addition to our program. It is versatile and ideal for teaching and shredding! We told everyone this summer that we would be replacing the 2015 Axis A22 for next year but, by overwhelming popular demand, we will be running it for one more summer. It is just loved by so many of our staff and campers that there is no rush to get rid of it yet.

Now some fun 2016 stats!

• 103 campers over 7 weeks
• Each camper stayed an average of 1.5 weeks at camp (longest stay by any camper was 4 weeks)
• Average number of campers per week was 14.71
• Campers were 61% boys, 39% girls
• Average camper age was 13.9
• 33% of campers were returners, 67% were new (huge growth summer!)
• Campers came from 13 states (AS, CA, CO, CT, DC, FL, MA, MD, NH, NJ, NY, OH, VA) as well as Canada, China, Dominican Republic, France, Hungary, and Turkey!
• 17,068 unique visitors to watermonkeycamp.com in the past 12 months
• 9,308 pictures uploaded for parents and campers to enjoy
• Average water temperature during camp was 76 degrees
• 4 broken screen doors (campers like to just walk right through)
• 1 black eye
• 608 homemade meatballs
• 1,200 water balloons for 1 brand new camp game – Monkey Ball
• 25 flotilla swim parties
• 250 hours on the Mastercraft and 230 hours on the Axis A22 (for a total of 430 in 2 seasons)
• 2,300 gallons of gas consumed on the lake producing roughly 20 metric tons of CO2 offset with a contribution to Cool Effect (cooleffect.org) Alto Mayo Conservation Initiative to protect land in Peru from deforestation. (We offset an additional 10 metric tons to cover camper transportation to/from camp.)

Next summer is a ways off still but it is not too early to start planning! Enrollment is officially open and some families have already reserved spaces for their campers.  As you start thinking about next year I hope that you will keep us in mind for a week or two of camp for your camper(s). Word of mouth is far and away our biggest recruiting tool so please help us fill our bunks and take advantage of our $300 referral bonus for each camper you send our way who enrolls for at least one week.

I hope you all have a terrific year until we see you again and feel free to e-mail, call, text, write, Skype, or visit any time!

Sincerely,

Evan

617-855-9253

evan@watermonkeycamp.com

Week 2     Week 3     Week 4     Week 5     Week 6     Week 7     Week 8

September on the lake!

I have always said that September is the most underrated month in the Lakes Region in New Hampshire.  The water is still in the 70's, the sun is strong during the day and, best of all, no one is out on the lake! I have been having a blast up on Merrymeeting offering private lessons to individuals, groups, and families as well as doing a lot of stand up paddling.  I found the below article on WMUR this week...it is good to see other people having some fun as well!

http://www.wmur.com/escape-outside/september-is-a-great-time-for-a-waterski/35300794

Enjoy the fall!

Adventure fun in Lake Tahoe, California (and Nevada) - part 2

Having scoped out the lake from the shore and from the mountain peaks it was time to get out there.  Unfortunately I did not bring the Axis with me to California so wake surfing was out.  Good thing that paddle boards are everywhere so we (wife and I) grabbed two and some paddles and headed out on the water for some exploration.

Pictures do not do justice to the ridiculous clarity of the water in Lake Tahoe.  We are super spoiled on Merrymeeting Lake in NH with clean, clear water but this lake is on a different level.  You can cruise around on the board and without a problem look down to the bottom at 30 or 40 feet like it was right there.

We started early and the giant lake was perfect glass.  The scale of the lake was hard to comprehend when we were out there.  I picked a remote, isolated beach as a destination to explore and it took almost 90 minutes to paddle there in a straight line.  Coming from Merrymeeting Lake in NH that is only a few miles long it is hard to imagine that just crossing a small bay in Lake Tahoe is equal to the length of our lake.

We arrived at the little beach and parked our boards for a few minutes.  The view of the lake and mountains in any direction was amazing.  In the corner of the beach was a little cave that looked ripe for a grizzly home but fortunately (or unfortunately) there were no bears in sight.

After the beach break it was time to get back out there.  We paddled around some cool rock formations, into little coves, and generally just anywhere we thought looked interesting.  SUPing is always a good time and getting out on the big lake was a new experience.

...we did see a grizzly later that day

It is kind of blurry but this was the best shot I could get on my cell phone at the time.  The grizz came out of the woods in front of our car, sauntered across, and disappeared into the woods again.  Bears are sweet!