16
SEP/OCT 2019
“Govy was a super
laid back, hippie ski
and snowboard bum
hang out.”
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Traditionally, snowboarders from the east coast and mid-
west have always had this fascination with Mt Hood. For
east coasters, Hood was 3,000 miles away, so it was a chal-
lenge to get there. Not to mention, Hood is bigger than
five ski areas combined back east, the magazines featured
crazy amounts of Hood photos all the time, and Govern-
ment Camp sounded like a military base where you were
going to have to be on your best behavior. On the contrary
they found out, Govy was a super laid back, hippie ski and
snowboard bum hang out. Van and camper license plates
were spotted from all over the other mountain states.
Govy was a place where pro snowboarders could let their
“hair down” and relax after a long season of travel, film-
ing, competing, and many sponsor obligations.
Hood became the place to make lifelong friends, meet new
friends, and progress snowboarding to new levels. Many
companies took stake in testing product, innovating,
creating and dreaming up new snowboarding companies.
Later on, the US Snowboarding Teams came to gather for
training camps. Campers went to Hood to progress their
bag of tricks, but in many ways Hood and Govy was/is the
teenagers dream come true: no parents, no homework,
no teachers, skating everywhere, and snowboarding all
day. Sometimes this leads to “experimentation” (not at
the camps of course) but I won’t go into too much detail,
let’s just say the stores in Govy had much larger condom
orders during the summer.
Left: Camp and coaches skate session
Top right: Todd Richards
Bottom right: Todd Richards was a east coast ramp skater but he showed up to Hood with bleached hair and destroyed the HCSC street set up.
Top: Campers hanging out on the street course, mid 90’s
Bottom left: Jimmy Holopoff tramp session with campers at HCSC 1990.
Bottom right: HCSC beginner skate session at the ramp set up.