Dirt Camp celebrates 30 years of singletrack culture in Quebec

When riders start arriving at Bromont and Mont Blanc at the end of June it will mark the start of 30 years for Dirt Camp. Those two camps are just the first two of another summer full of week-long riding camps spread across five mountains surrounding Quebec City. At the helm, as he has been since the start back in 1996, is Jeff Silas.

30 years is a long time for any business, let alone a camp in a sport so new as mountain biking. But when I catch up with Jeff over the phone, he sounds as full of youthful enthusiasm as ever. That could be because, after a few years mostly behind the desk organising the camps, he’s stepped back into the fray as an on-the-ground coach.

“Man, it was so fun! With adults, I don’t know if I’d be so stoked. But with kids? It was so fun,” Silas enthuses. “When you get them over a bit step-up that they were really scared of all week? They’re elated, like, the kid can’t even contain himself. That’s it. It makes the whole week worth it.”

Riding the waves in an ever-changing sport

Dirt Camp includes options for more cross-country focused weeks and, as you might have guessed from the above, more gravity focused camps at locations like Bromont and Mont Blanc. Silas says the skill of the riders he sees now compared to when he started running camps is impressive.

“They’re getting so good so early. The most advanced groups we have? I can ride with them, but I don’t try impress them,” Silas admits freely. “They grew up in this era of big bikes and nicely built jumps, reliable suspension, you know?”

The massive change in rider ability is just one of the many shifts Silas’s seen in the sport since he started. Suspension, trail design, riding styles, boom and bust cycles in the industry, Dirt Camps rolled with it all.One of the bigger changes Silas sees is in the demographic of the parents.

“Through 2005-07, when downhill was going through a big boom, we were super busy. After that, it slumped. And then after that? It became a family sport. Suddenly, in like 2015, parents are showing up with their bike and their kids bike on the back of the car. For almost every family that signs up for camp, parents are riding in some capacity. It’s very cool. It became skiing.”

Blazing trails in singletrack

Becoming skiing sounds better than the usual refrain, that its becoming like golf. But whatever sport…