Boarding School vs OWC
 

I am gonna be in Orlando a few days in November. I thought about going to either the boarding school for a single day or the OWC for some lessons.

I am an intermediate rider. Learned both my hs and ts backrolls this season. I am close on my TS front. Looking to overall improve my riding.

My wife and 7 yr old step son will be with me. They both also like to wboard. Where should I go? The boarding school is more expensive but i know they are great. The OWC we could also spend some time on the cable. I don't know how OWC teachers are.

I'd never pass up a chance to hang with Shaun and Travis.

Wed at 4pm and Sat at 10am you can ride the boat at OWC for $35 (1hr up to 3 people on the boat). You will get instruction included. If it's Wed then you can ride the cable for 1/2 price afterwards. I just rode the boat for the 1st time this year today (Wed 4pm) at OWC. The G23 is the best boat I've ever ridden behind. So maybe you could hit up both places. There is also Freedom Wake Park, which is pretty near OWC. I've never rode there but a lot of people seem to like it.

Not sure when the season ends for the OWC Aqua Park, but I bet your 7 yo would have a blast if it's open in Nov.

Shaun is coaching at OWC and Travis is running the boarding school at the old Projects location. You can't go wrong with either one. Travis has amazing coaches working with him. The only issue is I believe Shaun's schedule is limited to certain days and times plus the prices are different from the regular OWC coaching rates. But double check the OWC website or call to be sure. I also second Cobe and Tarah at Freedom WakePark.

Have a look at Freedom Wake Park. I've rode at all three and they're all good but Tarah and Cobe helped me significantly more than the other two. I only did 5 sets with them at the beginning of this year but the tips they gave me changed my riding.

I've found that coaches often go back to canned responses for something not working like "you let off your edge" or "you didn't stand tall" which never seemed to help me. Some of the advice I got from Cobe and Tarah was things like "holding your edge is a half-truth. Too much edge going up the wake creates too much line tension which makes it hard to grab or spin or flip." The other big thing that they caught was my weight distribution between front and back foot which instantly improved things. They really understand the sport and caught things for me that no one else did. They watched the whole time and took vids of my backroll to give feedback on every fall. They're also cheaper than the other two (for camps as wells as drop-in prices).

Travis and Scott are good too and the facility can't be beat. The pricing also include room and board if you want to stay there.

I found that the lake at OWC was a bit small for boat and was always turning around. Shaun was a great coach too but only did two sets with him so it's hard to say how much I could have taken away. His prices are quite a bit more than the other two but he's a legend.

The one thing you'll find with all of them is that they're all genuinely good people and great to spend time with. Have fun, I'm jealous!

I went to the Boarding School for a weekend in November a few years ago. It was fun. It was super awesome watching Scott Stewart ride in person...worth the price of admission right there. Travis and Scott were fun to just talk wake with and hang out. Can't speak for the other two spots for wake. Hit OWC to ride cable on the way to the airport after doing the Disneyworld thing with the family...that was fun too.

"Too much edge going up the wake creates too much line tension which makes it hard to grab or spin or flip." "

So true. I always cringe when I see people say to hold a hard edge all the way up the wake. Watch any pro do any trick and you'll see that everyone of them back off of their edge before popping.

While that holds pretty true now. Back in the day with the smaller wakes you really needed that progressive edge for certain tricks. When I learned back mobes I started maybe 4-5ft from the wake just outside the white wash and really loaded the line going up wake. With smaller wakes it's like loading the line to do air tricks on the cable or in the flats behind the boat. The wakes are so big and nice now that you you can flatten off and drift into the wake to do a raley. LOL