Rock Star campers rehearsing at Pali for their Friday Night Showcase.

Creative and Performing Arts Camps- Perfect for your Child!

How can you know whether Creative and Performing Arts Camps are perfect for your child? Well, let’s see: Does your child show the telltale signs of a young and budding artist?  Do doodles occupy every open inch of paper? Do comic strips and characters adorn every page of homework? Does your child like to find the rhythm & rhyme in words? Does he tap on things until it drives you crazy? Or is she always humming, whistling, singing – at the top of her lungs? Are their feet and hands always in motion? (How many times a day do you say “Stand Still!”?) Do the accessories, make-up and clothing choices show a lot of ‘personality’? Do her eyes sparkle at the opportunity to have the center of attention? Does he come alive in front of an audience and feed off their energy?  If you have a young artist, recognized or not, they need to be a part of one of the best creative and performing arts camps anywhere! One that encourages and allows for the exploration of their creativity! Have you found that environment yet?

Perhaps you’re the parent of a child that enjoys funneling their attention into a rewarding creative outlet: music, painting, photography, acting, dance, or fashion design.  Or, maybe your child prefers to express themselves through a variety of artistic mediums, from writing short skits with their friends to making cupcakes that look like happy cats.  These children need the support of their parents to develop who they are as artists. The earlier they can plug themselves into a community of fellow artists, the sooner they can blossom.  Creative and Performing Arts Camps were created with your children in mind.

At Creative and Performing Arts Camps, children get the chance to practice their chosen artistic medium in a safe, beautiful environment that harbors both positivity and self-awareness.  Away from everyday labels and judgments, summer camping offers all children the opportunity to discover and accept their own identity within a highly supervised, dynamic setting.  However, not all Creative and Performing Arts Camps offer children the same choices and the same opportunities for growth.         

At Southern California’s Pali Adventures, known as ‘The Camp of Choice,’ artistic campers choose their specialty from eight professionally run, Creative and Performing Arts Camps. 

1. In the Film Institute, students enjoy writing, directing and producing their own short films, and collaborate with several of Pali’s other specialty camps in each production. 
2. In the Acting Academy, young thespians develop acting fundamentals, create unique characters, perform in a short film produced by students in Pali’s Film Institute, and take part in Pali’s Friday Night Showcase. 
3. The next star reporter, news writer, director or producer may well come from the Broadcast Journalism Camp. Campers run every aspect of KPAL, Pali’s very own news station, from nightly broadcasts at dinner for the entire camp, to daily web updates, keeping all informed on Pali happenings.
4. The Movie Make-Up Academy gives campers an opportunity  to transform themselves and Pali’s actors and dancers, into beings of grace, fantasy or horror, utilizing techniques they’ve learned with make-up, molding clay and prosthetics.
5. Professionals give individualized instruction to both new and experienced dancers in the Dance Academy. Campers learn the basics of jazz, ballet, tap, ballroom, hip-hop, and contemporary dance, then perform solo and/or group routines at Pali’s Friday Night Showcase. 
6. Fashion Institute students create their own ensembles and fashion lines. From imagination to production they watch their creations develop and walk the catwalk at Pali’s Friday Night Showcase. 
7. At the ever-popular Rock Star Academy, children learn and increase their skills in: keyboard, guitar, drums, violin, bass, and singing. They also will enjoy composing and performing an original or cover song with a real band. 
8. Culinary Arts Institute campers are challenged to create delicious meals of varying themes every day, and produce delicious entrees, appetizers, soups and desserts. What a culinary delight!  

Pali also offers two-week sessions for most of their Creative and Performing Arts Camps. Campers can chose to further develop and explore the creative aspects of their personalities, or focus on a completely different specialty like Pali’s Hollywood Stunt Camp or the Watersport Extravaganza camp.   Beyond this option all Pali campers also get to choose three daily electives from over fifty unique afternoon activities, from ATVs to yoga.  This bounty of options is what makes Pali Adventures such a choice experience for artists and athletes alike. 

The positive social environment of Creative and Performing Arts Camps encourages children to become more in tune with their creativity, and helps them discover their artistic ‘voice’. This voice is what the  audience responds to in any artist.  At Pali, children aren’t just having an unforgettable summer, they’re preparing for who they are becoming.

If you’d like more information about Creative and Performing Arts Camps at  Pali Adventures or any of their sixteen specialties, contact our staff at: (909)-867-5743.

Extreme Action Camp: Kids love high-falling for Hollywood Stunts!

Extreme Action Camp: The Ultimate Summer Rush!

Extreme Action Camp is for action-oriented kids that always want to go farther, faster, and higher! You know the kind, the courageous ones that are always pushing the limits?  The kinetic learners. They were the first ones in their group of friends to ride all of the biggest roller coasters, and they were the last ones to get off their bikes or skateboards at the end of the day.  They love to be active in a variety of different activities, pushing their physical and mental boundaries to the limits and being around other kids who feel the same way.  Their parents can’t seem to find enough safe outlets for this kind of energy, and no matter what their local area provides, their child seems to be left wanting to do more and more. That’s where an Extreme Action Camp comes in!

Where better to let them enjoy an unrivaled ‘Summer Rush’ than in a safe and protected summer camp environment that is fully accredited by the American Camping Association? While initial thoughts about our Extreme Action Camp might make a parent cautious, knowing that the safest place for kids to test their limits is in a secure and fun environment really helps. At Pali Adventures Extreme Action Camp, kids can choose from seven different intensives: Extreme Action Camp, Girl Power Extreme, Hollywood Stunt Camp, Secret Agent Camp, Watersports Extravaganza,  Motorsports Extravaganza, and Flying Trapeze & Aerial Arts.

The Extreme Action Camp summer specialty was created to provide our campers with a non-stop array of activities they crave within a positive environment that enforces a high standard of safety.  As parents research summer camping options, they will discover that there are many different extreme action specialty camps available, ranging from smaller, localized camps to more modern, cutting edge camps.  If safety is your primary concern, you should first be sure that the camp you’re considering is accredited by the American Camping Association.  When a camp is ACA accredited, it is subject to weekly inspections and regulation by independent arbiters that ensure that the camp is operating within the ACA’s quality control standards.  The ACA, established in 1910,  also provides excellent safety training for all of the staff of their accredited camps.

At Southern California’s Pali Adventures, which exceeds every ACA safety standard, children enjoy a multitude of extreme activities within the safety of a 3:1 camper to staff ratio.  This high level of supervision at Extreme Action Camp ensures that Pali campers get to have an amazing experience, and plenty of staff around to ensure that the FUN stays fun.

1. Extreme Action Camp kids climb a 53 foot rock wall, race ATVs and Mini-bikes, play paintball and laser tag, ride mountain bikes, and conquer Shred City, Pali’s very own skate park!
2. Girl Power Extreme Camp girls enjoy the opportunity of being physically active away from ‘those guys’, all the while being ‘girly’ to their heart’s content. Girl Power campers test their skill at a spectrum of extreme activities, from the high-ropes course, paintball, and riding ATVs, to skateboarding, riflery, and self-defense classes.  Then they also relax at yoga class, receive spa treatments, and give each other mani/pedis.  You can’t get much better than that!
3. Hollywood Stunt Camp kids learn high-falls, hand-to-hand-combat and fight scene choreography, all from professional stuntmen. And, in the two-week session, get to plan out and perform their own stunt show spectacular, just like in the movies!
4. Secret Agent Camp kids participate in spy games, learn martial arts & self-defense, test their dexterity in group paintball challenges, fly across an amazing 227 foot long zip line, master the high ropes course, and, if they sign up for the two-week session, learn about code deciphering and go on a secret overnight mission!
5. Watersports Extravaganza specialty keeps the campers wet and wild as they get to spend their morning riding and sliding across beautiful Big Bear Lake on water skis, wake boards, knee boards, wake skates, jet-skis and in sailboats!
6. Motorsports Extravaganza specialty campers get to ride mini-bikes, ATVs, go-carts, and dune buggies every day, as well as build their very own soapbox racer from scratch!
7. The Flying Trapeze & Aerial Arts Camp is our newest extreme action specialty at Pali Adventures! Professional artists train campers to soar high on the flying trapeze on an outdoor rig with a safety net, as well as the lyra (aerial hoop), and the aerial ribbon. Talk about High-Flying Fun!

Beyond the extreme activities that these specialties provide, Pali also offers all of their campers over fifty daily activities, from archery, cooking, and flag football, to inline skating, parkour and tubing.  This enables the Extreme Action Camp kids to chose spending their day being physically active, or developing their more mellow, creative skills.  The child who enrolls in a two-week session has the option of spending the second week with their initial specialty, transferring to another extreme specialty, or enrolling in one of the creative/performing arts specialties, like the Dance Academy or the Culinary Institute.  This wide range of choices for athletic and creative campers alike is what makes Pali Adventures such a dynamic, well-rounded experience that is unavailable anywhere else. What a rush!

If you’d like more summer camp information, about Extreme Action Camp or Pali Adventures and their sixteen specialties, contact our staff at: (909)-867-5743.

Summer Camp Friday Night Showcase: The place where Pali Energy reaches its peak!

Summer Camp Generates “Pali Energy!”

Pali Energy is the summer camp buzz you can’t find in brochures! You won’t hear about it in YouTube videos!  But it will be ‘The Experience’ of your child’s life, that allows them to grow and thrive in one of the most ideal and protected settings. You’ll find an extensive range of choices and activities offered that ensures every camper will have a summer camp experience they’ll never forget.  Just talk to a camper or counselor who has invested a summer on Pali Mountain, someone who has made Pali a part of their life, and you’ll start to get a sense of the ‘Bigger Picture’ here.  More valuable than the new skills, new friends, and new perspectives is the infectious, positive energy that our campers inherit, always encouraging them to greater and greater heights!

Pali Adventures is an unparalleled summer camp that does away with preconceived notions that campers have about themselves.  It’s a place where kids that might have been labeled “geeks” can learn to skateboard, pick up yoga, and be the center of attention at Pali’s Friday Night Showcase.  It’s also a place where kids that consider themselves “jocks” can learn about music, film and origami.  Pali’s sixteen unique specialty camps, which range from the creative to extreme sport experiences, allow children to “choose their own adventure”, opening a broad new world of possibilities. It may be an adventure they knew nothing about and didn’t even know they were interested in! Pali gives their campers the tools to grow and surprise themselves, and their parents, with the person that they are becoming.  Shattering limits and expanding possibilities broadens every camper’s world, shining a new perspective on themselves and their future.

Summer camp at Pali Adventures features an exciting, fast-paced daily schedule, another big part of the momentum that builds all week long.  Campers enjoy three exclusive hours at their specialty and then head off to their three, hand-picked daily electives. All this fun is fueled by three delicious, buffet-style meals. Each evening is filled with high-energy, spirited activities, building until the ‘buzz’ fairly permeates Pali Mountain. The more campers test themselves with the unexpected, the stronger the buzz gets: from Girl Power campers that go at paint-balling just as hard as kids in Secret Agent Camp, to impromptu soccer games with kids from Germany and Spain, it is non-stop action, all the way! When a kid has gone farther into their interests than they thought they ever could, and done more in a day than they ever thought they ever would, this is Pali Energy! This is Pali Adventures Summer Camp!

Give your kids the sense that anything is attainable, that they can become whomever they strive to be.  It’s incredible fun!  Pali Energy infuses your camper with a life experience that lasts much longer than a summer. In fact, it lasts a life time.

If you’d like more summer camp information, about Pali Adventures and their sixteen specialties, contact our staff at: (909)-867-5743.

By Ian “Gunner” Brasset

As a Camp Director, I am understandably biased when it comes to believing in the importance of a positive summer camp experience in the maturation of a child.  I consider myself very lucky to have worked at a sleep-away camp every summer since 1988.  Watching just how much a child can grow in a short time in the right environment is something I’ve seen over and over again, year after year.  I am constantly amazed and awestruck by the impact a quality summer camp program can have on a child.  Children, with the loving support of their parents (from afar), attend camps and leave their support system at the gates (parents, siblings, teachers, coaches, cell phones, e-mail/Facebook) to embark on a great adventure of knowledge and play.

Since Pali offers such a specialized, high energy experience, we have drawn campers from around the globe.  Children are placed into active living situations where 12 individual, distinct personalities from diverse backgrounds coexist in fun and harmony.  This daily cross-cultural interaction offers children the chance to learn from a whole new perspective, and is one of the many benefits of attending Pali Adventures.  In 2011, for example, Pali Adventures cared for campers representing 39 states and 17 countries, including Japan, Saudi Arabia, Russia, Mexico, South Korea, Jordan, Italy, China, England, France, Spain, Germany, Columbia, Gaina, Switzerland and Canada and Ireland.  Wow!!!  And don’t forget our world-class staff members who call 10 different countries home (England, Scotland, Ireland, Wales, Australia, Canada, Mexico, New Zealand, Germany, and Holland). Camps place children in a one-of-a-kind melting pot rich with languages and experiences offered by very few other environments!

While at camp, very close friendships and bonds are formed between people who where total strangers two days prior.  Campers quickly learn to establish their own support systems through new experiences and acclimatization, which is an essential lesson for anyone on the road to adulthood.  In most ACA accredited camps, highly trained counselors observe and guide campers as surrogate brothers and sisters, mothers and fathers, and children discover great strength from “the happy bubble” that is well run summer camp.

This is why I love camp.  I’ve had the pleasure of watching young campers grow into lawyers, doctors, dentists, and big hearted counselors who take pride in giving back to a place that has given so much to them.  I’ve seen children go from critical-state homesickness to becoming my assistant camp director.  I’ve watched a camper that I nearly sent home become my best counselor.  Here, children given the confidence and ability to face the world.

When parents do their part, showing love and encouragement from the sidelines, they allow remarkable growth to occur.  I know how scary and painful it can be for parents to drop off their child at a camp filled with strangers.  Remember this, though- when a child is at camp, they have friends in their cabin, counselors whose only job is to make sure they have a great time, and a program of activities and special events that are designed for non-stop fun.   And don’t forget- while their child is at camp parents get an empty bedroom, a quiet house, and something they are simply not familiar with… time on their hands!

Over the years I’ve gotten many glowing phone calls from parents after camp, though my thoughts frequently return to a call I received a few years back.  A mother wanted to thank the staff and I for the 180° change in her boy.  At 14 years of age, she’d given up hope that he’d ever pick-up after himself without constant “nagging”. After 4 weeks in camp setting, he went home a clearly more mature boy.  “I didn’t recognize him,” the mother said.  “The first day home he made his bed and placed his clothes in the hamper.”  The mother initially said nothing to the boy. This behavior had continued up to the time I received the call… three weeks later.

In this tough economic environment and the frenzy of city life, it seems more important than ever for children to enter an environment that is free from the “doom and gloom” of the evening news.  The daily chatter, subsequent stresses, and national worries that have been creeping into conversations at kitchen tables and in classrooms across the country can serve to seriously confuse and distract a child.  Camp is a place where the only thing a camper has to think about is themselves- who they like to be around, what they want to do, and who they want to become.

Camp may be the closest thing a child will ever get to escapism, if only for a week or two, as they learn to thrive in an environment and program specifically designed for them.  Responsibility.  Self-reliance.  Improved confidence.  These are all amazing by-products of campers having a blast in a safe and caring space.  Everyday I feel delighted and honored to play my small part in this growth.

Ian “Gunner” Brassett
Camp Director
Pali Overnight Adventures
director@paliadventures.com

A Watersports Extravaganza! She's slicing across Big Bear Lake on a wakeboard!

Pali Adventure’s Watersports Extravaganza: One Camper’s Amazing True Story

Julie didn’t have a jet ski, and she didn’t know how to wake-board, but her dreams were filled with her being pulled behind a big, strong boat on a seemingly boundless lake for miles and miles.  She would have the dream at least once every week. Fish would jump past her as she slid effortlessly across the top of the water.  She didn’t even have to hold onto anything, she was just safely drifting on the end of a rope surrounded only by blue. “Rats!”, she would yell out,  as she woke up to find herself dry and in bed, a hundred miles away from any body of water that was like the one in her dream and her knowing mother would come into the room to comfort her.  Mom didn’t understand where Julie had gotten such a passion for the water. However, she didn’t want her daughter to spend her childhood dreaming about something, that with a little effort, could be accomplished.

This is when mom came across the website for the Watersports Extravaganza camp at Pali Adventures.  What an ideal place for Julie! What a beautiful location! Just like in Julie’s dream, this summer camp was created to capitalize on the ideal setting the summer season provides. Plus, Pali utilizes their foundation of safety and well-trained staff to lay the groundwork for a dependably safe and highly supervised camp experience.

The happy, water loving kids that attend Pali Adventure’s Watersports Extravaganza specialty camp launch from King John’s Harbor in Southern California’s Big Bear Lake every morning and spend three hours improving their skills at a variety of different water activities.  This can mean exciting tandem jet-ski rides with their instructors, zipping over the lake on water-skis or wake-boards, bumping along on various types of inner tubing, or having a calm day of sailing.  Sometimes, after a long, wet day of sliding, jumping, and boarding across a gorgeous mountain lake “Turbo”, the director of the Watersports Extravaganza, tops the day off by buying his campers pizza in town! Yummmm!

The day-to-day structure of Watersports camp is fluid, kind of like water itself, based on what the campers want to do and learn from day to day.  All Pali Watersports Extravaganza instructors are certified bus drivers and lifeguards and are experienced in introducing the fun of water-sports to kids who have never even been on the water before, along with improving the skills of kids who grew up with one leg on a water-ski.  The Watersports Extravaganza camp is also the most quintessentially summer specialty that Pali has to offer, as nothing cools off the summer heat like a three-hour long dip.

What an awesome time Julie had at Pali Adventure’s, Watersports Extravaganza Camp! She got to experience her dream – and more!

Now, Julie has started to dream of a new, though equally vast, setting: Outer Space!

If you’d like more Watersports Extravaganza camp information, or about Pali Adventures and their sixteen specialties, contact our staff at: (909)-867-5743.

Watersports Extravaganza campers taking a ride around Big Bear lake on their flying, yellow couch

Watersports Summer Camp

What kind of kid is attracted to a Watersports Summer Camp? Obvious answer, the kids that feel like they would rather be fish than be people!  These are the kind of kids that can boogie board for hours until the sun goes down, and then be back at the beach the next day to do it all again.  These are the kids that are always last to leave the swimming pool, who actually like it when their skin gets prune-y.  They love to ‘go with the flow’ of the water, and seem relaxed, natural, and at peace when surrounded by the blue.  Rarely, however, does the perfect setting for exploring this love of water present itself to a child.

So, with all the time and money wrapped up in getting the expensive toys, and securing the permits, the training and safety checks that boating and water sports require, not to mention, finding access to big, beautiful, desirable bodies of water… What’s a parent to do? Luckily, these are easy problems to solve for seasonal summer camps. The watersports summer camp was created to capitalize on the ideal setting the summer season provides. Pali Adventures Watersports Extravaganza has a foundation of safety and well-trained staff to lay the groundwork for a dependably safe and highly supervised camp experience. All Pali Watersports Extravaganza instructors are certified boat drivers and lifeguards and are experienced in introducing the fun of water sports to kids who have never even been on the water before, along with improving the skills of those more accomplished.

The water crazy kids that attend the watersports summer camp at Pali Adventures launch from King John’s Harbor in Southern California’s Big Bear Lake every morning and spend three hours improving their skills at a variety of different water activities.  This can mean: exciting tandem jet-ski rides with their instructors, zipping over the lake on water-skis, knee boards or wake-boards, bumping along on various types of inner tubing, or having a calm day of sailing.  Sometimes, after a long, wet day of sliding, jumping, and boarding across a gorgeous Big Bear Lake “Turbo”, the director of the Watersports Extravaganza, tops the day off by buying his campers pizza in town! Yummmm!

The day-to-day structure of Watersports Extravaganza is fluid, kind of like water itself, based on what the campers want to do and learn from day to day.  Whether your goal is just to stand up on a wake board and ride the wake for the first time, or something a little more difficult like spins, grabs, or air, the skilled and devoted staff is there to help. At a watersports summer camp, confidence building and fun go hand in hand.

The Watersports Summer Camp is the most quintessentially summer specialty that any camp offers and at Pali Adventures nothing takes the heat out of the summer like the wind in your hair and a wet & wild, three-hour long dip. COOL!!

If you’d like more information about Watersports Extravaganza at  Pali Adventures or any of their sixteen specialties, contact our staff at: (909)-867-5743.

Secret Agent Campers learning self defense.

Pali Adventure’s Secret Agent Camp: Caden’s Journey

Join me on Caden’s journey to Secret Agent Camp.

Caden’s heroes were detectives.  Batman was a detective. His dad was a detective. That was all the convincing evidence Caden needed to know who he wanted to be.  If you had the time, he would tell you every single scene, blow for blow, from Lego Batman for the Nintendo Wii.  He knew all the characters and locations, he knew the intent, and he always stood for what was right.  When Halloween came around, he was always the Caped Crusader. That is, until he played a Special Ops video game at his friend’s house.  From then on it was real-life spy stuff only. Things like secret messages, booby traps, disguises, and flash grenades. He couldn’t get enough of it!  For Christmas his parents bought him lots of spy accessories and gadgets, but watching him in the backyard they realized that it didn’t seem to make Caden as happy as in the past. Older now, he still had his keen sense of perception, his strong memory, and a focused interest in secret service agencies. Where could their Secret Agent fulfill his ambition?

This is when his parents happened to come across a news story about Pali Adventure’s Secret Agent Camp, a unique place that offered its campers the choice between sixteen different specialty camps, and fifty extraordinary daily electives, from skateboarding and sailing, to basketball and broadcast journalism.  The unique camp was a draw for kids like Caden from all over the world, providing a safe, beautiful environment for young “agents” filled with paintball, group challenges, raids, ATV rides, and zip-line practice.  Pali also offered a two-week session, and if they signed him up for that one, he would get to go on a secret overnight mission, learn code deciphering, and SWAT-team style rapid room entry techniques, and play laser tag at night!

They told Caden about Pali and gave him the option between a one or two week session. His reply? What do you think?

“Of course I want to go on a secret mission! Where do we sign?”

How about your Secret Agent? Is he ready for his mission?

If you’d like more information about Secret Agent Camp at  Pali Adventures or any of their sixteen specialties, contact our staff at: (909)-867-5743.

Secret Agent Campers ready to hit Pali's paintball course.

Secret Agent Camp: This Summer’s “Mission Possible”

Do you want your child to be confident? Fearless? Ready to face challenges? Perhaps nothing can completely do that, but after a week at Secret Agent Camp, your child may feel a wonderful, healthy self-confidence.  This unique camp is for kids that love to play cooperative, mission-based video games with their friends, that have dreams of working in the FBI, or that just think that being a spy is super cool!

When a child is at summer camp, they are in a protected, positive environment. Secret Agent Camp allows boys and girls to fulfill their spy dreams and desires in this safe, beautiful setting while also teaching them how to be tenacious, how to work as a team, and how to sneak up on their buddies!  Traditional summer camping can’t come close to delivering this awesome fantasy environment. That’s why camps like Pali Adventures, Secret Agent Camp are so special.

At Pali Adventure’s Secret Agent Camp, “Spy Kids” of all ages: engage in paintball for hours on ten acres of paintball fields, master group high-ropes challenges, and learn martial arts and self-defense.  When Secret Agent campers fly down Pali’s 227-foot long quad zip-line with three of their best Secret Agent friends, they’re actually emulating real US special forces agents.   When they don camouflage, learn archery and riflery, tackle the high ropes, and go on team building raids against one of Pali’s sixteen other specialty camps, they’re developing skills akin to real special agents.  They also hone their skills on inflatable obstacle courses, and go on multiple team missions that create a Secret Agent’s bond by requiring them to communicate using various alternate methods.

In addition, Pali’s Secret Agent Camp offers an amazing 2-week session, also known as (aka) their “Special Ops” session. This includes a secret overnight mission, longer and larger paintball battles, lessons in rapid room entry and room clearing, night time laser tag, and classes in code deciphering, orienteering, and field communications. It can’t get much better than that!

The Secret Agent Camp is just one of Pali Adventure’s ‘dream come true’ specialty camps, and one that’s sure to produce more than a few real-life secret agents. Your young spy will love it!

If you’d like more information about Secret Agent Camp at  Pali Adventures or any of their sixteen specialties, contact our staff at: (909)-867-5743.

Rockstar Academy students encourage and support each other throughout the songwriting process.

Pali Adventure’s Rockstar Academy: A Note On Tom!

So, does your Rockstar sound like Tom? Is Rockstar Academy in your child’s future? As far back as his parents could remember, Tom was a musical child.  He was always fiddling with the radio searching for different types of music. He mastered most of the instruments in the video game ‘Rock Band’, and he absolutely loved getting up to sing in front of people at a very early age.  His long (loud) relationship with the drums started off by Tom banging on all the pots and pans in the kitchen with different sticks and spoons, and progressed to his first drum kit at ten.  For the next eight weeks, he woke up every person in the house every morning with that drum kit, as well as making his presence very clear until he went to sleep at night.  His friends quickly started called him “Animal”, like the drummer from The Muppets, due to the fact that at times he produced more gusto than accuracy. Actually, he liked the name, so it stuck.  He tried putting a band together in his neighborhood, and before he had any other members than himself, he proclaimed the band would be called, “Animal and the Humans”.  He even made t-shirts with glitter and black Sharpies!

Tom’s parents could hear that he was improving, and he was starting to be able to play along with songs on the radio, but were saddened that they didn’t know of any other children or family members with whom he could play.  His school offered Tom some chances to play, but not the music Tom really loved and really wanted to play.  He liked to be slightly unhinged, and wanted to meet fellow musicians that could keep up with him.

As the summer approached, his parents came across the website for Pali Adventures, and for its Rockstar Academy specialty camp.  This camp provides students with practice that is led by real music professionals on a variety of instruments: keyboard, drums, guitar, and bass.  And vocals, don’t forget vocals! Tom hadn’t told anybody, but he secretly wanted to learn all of those instruments, and as soon as he got a brochure in the mail, he wanted to head straight for Pali!

When he arrived at Rockstar Academy, Tom headed straight into the studio, and over the course of the week was guided through the creation and composition of his first original song! Everything from conception and recording to overlaying the harmonics, chorus, and other instruments.  The ultimate experience came when he performed his song with three of his fellow Rockstar Academy students, or as he preferred to call them, “Animal and the Humans”, at Pali’s Friday Night Showcase! He got the first of what he felt was going to be a long line of many standing ovations.

Check out the two week option of Rockstar Academy. More studio time, more one-on-one instruction, more performing, more everything! And, your very own performance DVD!Pali’s Rockstar Academy struck an amazing chord in Tom’s life! Is your Rockstar ready to shine?

If you’d like more information about Rockstar Academy at  Pali Adventures or any of their sixteen specialties, contact our staff at: (909)-867-5743.

Rockstar Academy students work hard to "find the sound" at music summer camp!

Music Summer Camp: Get the Score!

Not just a “band camp”, but, a Music Summer Camp! What’s the difference? Band camps are where kids go if they want to be in their school’s band next year. Specialty music summer camps offer so much more! Specifically, a dynamic musical experience that meets the call of young musicians who want to spend more quality time with their instruments and collaborating with other young musicians.  Many children have a strong desire to learn music, and a music summer camp offers them that opportunity.

Live musical performance is one of the most consistent and enduring features of music summer camp traditions, and Pali Adventures surrounds campers with inspiring musical role models. At Pali’s  Rockstar Academy, “Tracks”,  the director, takes in both beginners and experienced musicians, and tailors each camper’s experience and training to their own deepest wishes and Rockstar dreams.  Some will choose classics like “Imagine” on the keyboard or violin, or “Stairway to Heaven” on guitar, possibly a Les Claypool creation on the bass, and just maybe their choice will be composition classes to create their own material.  More advanced students can form a band with other campers and play original music.  The goal is to let creativity lead! At the end of the week, Pali Rockstars perform live for the entire camp at Friday Night Showcase, the decisively favorite activity of many campers!

The Rockstar Academy offers one of Pali’s most popular two-week session camps.  This extended music summer camp session includes all of the same one-week activities, plus, campers star in and take home their own music video to their very own song!  Pali’s media team scouts locations for each musician, then shoots them to match their specific style.  The two-week session also offers more career-minded campers more technically in-depth rehearsals.

Pali Rockstar campers have been known to use the compositions they’ve created at camp for demo tapes and studio auditions. Who know what the final score will be! Only time can tell who will rise to be Pali Adventures’ next Rockstar!

If you’d like more information about Rockstar Academy at  Pali Adventures or any of their sixteen specialties, contact our staff at: (909)-867-5743.