We are happy to report that the 2023 summer (our 12th season!) was the best one yet and it is all because of our amazing campers and the greatest staff in camp history. We witnessed wild watersports progression with campers achieving so many of their goals while also thoroughly enjoying swim parties, rope swing breaks, intense games on the field, SUP voyages and countless meals, snacks and desserts. I hope that all of our campers went home tired and happy with new skills and lasting friendships.
After years of running at capacity our goal for 2023 was to slow it all down. Having a full camp is great but the hustle and pressure to give everyone enough time behind the boat meant always watching the clock. This summer we aimed for 16-18 campers each week instead of 20 and it made a massive difference in our program with campers and coaches not only getting more time behind the boats but also more flexibility to do other stuff like pull ten campers at once for over an hour, surf bowls, extended swim breaks, bonus beach time and, maybe, occasionally sleeping in on a rainy morning.
Here are some fun stats from our 12th season:
8 weeks of camp from mid-June to mid-August.
81.875% full (131 spaces filled out of 160 with 118 unique campers)
Campers stayed an average of 1.1 weeks at camp
Average number of campers each week was 16.375
Campers were 73% boys and 27% girls
Average camper age was 13.55
48% new campers and 52% returners
Campers chose to wakeboard 40%, wakesurf 50%, waterski 10%
Campers came from 10 states (CT, MA, MD, ME, NH, NJ, NY, OH, PA and TX) as well as Italy and Mexico
6 coaches, 1 chef and 1 director
Average coach age was 20.33
3,200 delicious meals served by Chef Cher
55 five-gallon buckets of non-meat food scraps diverted from the landfill and fed to our local pigs
About 175 hours of private lessons on our boats and client boats
1 retired Sunday River chairlift won at auction for charity (our winning bid was $800)
9,040 pictures and videos uploaded and shared with our camp families
21,000 visitors to www.watermonkeycamp.com in the past year (18,000 unique) spent an average of 82 seconds on the site and engaged 36,000 page views
Winterizing our property took 20 gallons of antifreeze
577 hours logged on our two boats plus 23 hours on loaner boats after our new boat blew and engine!
Our boats had 15 motor oil changes, 2 transmission fluid changes and 1 blown engine
3,636.269 gallons of premium marine fuel burned by our boats producing roughly 32.27 metric tons of CO2 (71,132 pounds). We offset this pollution through a donation to CoolEffect.org which has been our charity of choice for over 10 years for carbon offsets.
We have now offset roughly 410 metric tons of CO2 since 2012!
Before we wrap this up here is a little gift…a Fall Recipe from Chef Cher.
We have some big plans for camp in 2024 and we sincerely hope to see you next summer!
Always feel free to email, call, text, message, write or visit to say hello.
-Evan
