BPS SKI CAMPS
Join a limited opportunity to ski with Big Picture Skiing instructors this winter. Led by renowned ski instructor, Tom Gellie and his team of expert coaches, including Jason Simpson, and Demelza Clay. These exclusive camps are designed to elevate your skiing abilities. With a focus on honing, your skills, developing a strong foundation and unlocking your best ski turns. Our camps guarantee an unforgettable experience.
CAMP DATES 2024/25
(More dates coming soon)
Nekoma Resort, Japan Feb 17-20th ADVANCED/DEVELOPMENT CAMP
SilverStar Resort, Canada March 5-7th ADVANCED CAMP
Sun Peaks Resort, Canada March 10-12th DEVELOPMENT CAMP
Three types of improvement camp
We offer a variety of camps based around skill level and fitness. If you have never done a BPS camp we encourage you to begin with a Foundations Camp to solidify some of the key BPS concepts around stance, boot setup, turn transitions and body alignment. From there Development camps are great for honing skills on specific turn types and Advanced camps offer high skiers a chance to really push their level on steeper terrain and more technical skiing in bumps.
BPS Camps 2024-25
BPS Camps have limited spaces. In order to create a great experience for the participants that join we ask you submit an application detailing your ability and fitness (including video if possible). We try to offer a variety of ski camp levels over a winter season.
Mystery Resort (TBC), Canada Advanced Camp
$1500 CAD + Taxes
5-7th March 2025
COACHES
Tom Gellie
Demelza Clay
Jason Simpson
Camp Outcomes:
You will learn and do:
Creativity and playing with terrain
Advanced Carving techniques for steeper terrain
Retraction-Extension turns
Advanced Mogul skiing techniques and tactics.
Exercises to improve upper body stability.
Short Turns in steep terrain
Ability level (Advanced)
A solid level of skiing similar to that of a level 3 CSIA or PSIA Ski Instructor is mandatory. You should be comfortable Pure Carving on Blue runs and skiing fall line black diamond moguls. We will be skiing at higher speeds and a foundational level of all skills is necessary to participate as well as a willingness to ski black bump runs.
Terrain: Ability to ski all terrain including black diamond bump runs.
Physical:
In good shape to make the most of 3 days of skiing all day and not hold the group up.
Accomodation and Lift Tickets:
Travel to the resort, lift tickets and accomodation* are not included in the price of the camp. These are left up to the individual to organise.
Sun Peaks, Canada: Development Camp
$1500CAD + Taxes
10-12th March 2025
COACHES
Tom Gellie
Demelza Clay
Jason Simpson
Camp Outcomes:
You will learn and do:
Advanced Carving techniques for steeper terrain
Retraction-Extension turns
Advanced Mogul skiing techniques and tactics.
Exercises to improve upper body stability.
Exercises for pole planting in bumps.
How to ski fast but in control
Ability level (Advanced)
This is a camp for skiers that are ready to try carving steeper slopes and ski moguls on black runs. Ideally for returning BPS Camp participants and Online Academy students. An example of the ability would be to be able to already cleanly pure carve turns on an easy blue run, make short turns on a steep blue run and ski in the fall line in the moguls. We will be skiing at higher speeds and a foundational level of carving skills is necessary to participate as well as a willingness to ski black bump runs.
Terrain: Ability to ski all terrain including black diamond bump runs.
Physical:
In good shape to make the most of 3 days of skiing all day and not hold the group up.
Accomodation and Lift Tickets:
Travel to the resort, lift tickets and accomodation* are not included in the price of the camp. These are left up to the individual to organise. Sun Peaks is part of the Ikon Pass.
* we can arrange for discounted lift tickets and accomodation at the Sun Peaks Grand Hotel once your spot has been paid for. This will be arranged via email after confirmation of payment.
Resort Info and getting here:
Sun Peaks is an ideal location for technical ski improvement. Great snow and grooming, a wide variety of terrain, fast lifts and no crowds. Camp participants commented on how ideal Sun Peaks was for improving their skiing.
Please see the Sun Peaks Website for further information.
Nekoma, Japan: Advanced Ski camp
$2000USD
16-21st Feb 2025
COACH
Tom Gellie
Number of skier spots: 6
5 Days skiing (4 days coaching Mon/Tue/Thur/Fri with Wednesday being free ski/rest day/explore day)
Camp Outcomes:
Depending on weather (Nekoma receives lots of snow) we will work on the following areas of your skiing:
Powder skiing - Woohoo
Advanced Carving
Short turns
Moguls (Nekoma is amazing for moguls as it has easy to difficult mogul runs so we can work on building up your skills.
Special Guest!: Working on having a superstar guest Japanese mogul coach for one morning.
Technique immersion working on various drills that will refine and make you a well rounded skier.
Video analysis to track progress and understanding.
Ability level (ADVANCED)
Terrain - Ability to ski black runs including moguls and powder skiing. Don’t have to have great technique but a good level of fitness is essential and a level of confidence to try things above your ability. Please include some video of your skiing in the application if possible. Not absolutely necessary but highly recommended.
Physical - In good physical shape to be able to ski all day for a number of days. No serious physical limitations like chronic back pain that would stop you from completing the five day camp or slowing down others in the group. This is an important respectful consideration to others in the group.
Outline
Depending on weather (Nekoma receives lots of snow) we will work on the following areas of your skiing.
Powder skiing - Woohoo
Carving
Short turns
Moguls (Nekoma is amazing for moguls as it has easy to difficult mogul runs so we can work on building up your skills.
Technique immersion working on various drills that will refine and make you a well rounded skier.
Video analysis to track progress and understanding.
TRAVEL/ACCOMODATION
Flights are to be arranged by the individual to Tokyo, Japan.
Tom will help you arrange travel from Tokyo Station up to Nekoma Ski Resort via fast train and then a local train. Travel time here is about 3 hrs.
Accomodation:
3 nights at Nekoma Hotel (16th-18th Feb)
3 nights at Urabandai Lake Resort (19-21st Feb)
LIMITED SPOTS AND FOR ADVANCED SKIERS ONLY
More information from Tom will be available once we receive your application.
IMMERSE YOURSELF EACH CAMP INCLUDES
Deep dive on ski boot setup.
All day coaching from BPS Coaches
Video analysis of your skiing
Recordings of your analysis saved for you to review later
Progressions emphasising exploration and feelings of good skiing
Drills to take away and work on after the camp
Where to go next via recommendations of videos in the BPS library.
Socialise with the coaches over lunch and learn more about self analysis of your own skiing.
How The Big Picture Camps Came To Be
The dream of running camps without any constraints on what you had to teach and how you had to communicate the information has always been there. This freedom of expression, license to be creative and teach how skiing feels is what binds the Big Picture Skiing coaching team together. But how did the current team find each other?
Tom launched a few technical skiing camps in Thredbo Australia, but he soon realised that a one man coaching team can be a somewhat solo adventure that lacks the collaborative magic of coaching with others, with the capacity to help very few people with their skiing. So Tom decided to be on the look-out for a coach with aligned ideologies, a growth mindset and of a caliber in the ski industry that he could trust.
As luck would have it, on a ski trip to Canada Tom bumped into his friend Demelza Clay; a former teammate on the Australian National Demo Team, Heli Guide, Examiner/Trainer and Technical Director. She was residing in British Columbia now, and upon learning about the impact that BPS was having in the industry, Demelza was excited to accept Tom’s invitation to coach BPS programs with him. The collaboration begun and soon they were sharing coaching ideas, pushing each other on snow, and much to her delight, Tom helped Demelza transform her skiing after a recent knee surgery and decades of battling with her ski boot setup.
Soon after, a Senior Examiner/Trainer and Ski School Director in western Canada named Jason Simpson sent a note to Tom that made him smile. Jason was feeling stagnant with his skiing and coaching, frustrated by ‘high level’ questions that neither his peers or those in his professional circle could answer. But his search for clarity ended when Jason subscribed to BPS. When they eventually skied together, Tom shared with Jason some further insight into ideas that challenged traditional beliefs held at the core of the instructor education system. With his mind freshly blown and his skiing going places again Jason was inspired. Tom soon realised that Jason would compliment his little gang of two coaches fantastically… and so the BPS Tech Camp coaching team was born.
Tom, Demelza and Jason are coaching together from the founding principal that efficient technical skiing is the instrument that increases our longevity as skiers. Underpinned by a progressive understanding of the body in movement, a ‘high performance comfort’ bootfitting philosophy and a combined 70+ years of coaching experience, we are lifelong students of skiing who deliver on-snow content that you’ve probably never encountered. Join us and discover what great skiing feels like.
BPS COACHES
Demelza Clay
Level 4 APSI Alpine
1 x Demo Team Member
Heli Ski Guide
Tom Gellie
Level 4 APSI Alpine
Level 4 APSI Telemark
2 x Demo Team Member
Jason Simpson
Level 4 CSIA Alpine
PSIC L4 Examiner
Former Ski School Director Panorama Resort
