Stunt Camp

«This camp is dangerous but fun.» That quote from my 7 year old sums it up.
Let me caution you that you may want to take this review with a grain of salt. My 7 and 9 year old were on the younger side of the Stunt Ranch campers and did have some cool experiences, but there were a few issues with the way this camp is run that cause me to rank it so low. My boys attended camp July 14 – 19, 2013.
The facility is a sprawling property with fixed rope courses, shelters, a pool and various spots for blowing up cars etc. It is also the home of the owners/​organizers I believe. So it looks a bit in disarray, but understandable given the nature of the things they do there (shoot movies, do action team building, etc.). My problem with the camp is it fails on one key aspect of camp and that is the parent being able to drive away, knowing their kids would be in a nurturing, safe atmosphere for the day.
As far as safety, being stuntmen, that should be paramount on the counselor’s priority list, however it feels like they do these slightly risky activities so often that they’ve become complacent. An example, is their super high tech air bag suffered some damage on the third day by a bachelor party the night before causing a hole in the top tarp that gathers and cushions the fall. Instead of calling off the airbag activity for the camper the next morning they went ahead. My older son happen to jump and impact right through the hole created the night before meaning he did not get the full affect of the cushion. He did NOT get hurt but could have. Why risk this happening? Even the counselor had a sheepish look when she recounted the story to me. She also said, «You did sign the release.» The point is if safety is compromised at all, you should cancel the activity. This would have been an easy one since the kids had done the airbag every day that week. During the action hero flying, my older son landed between the crack in two pads and banged his knees on the hard ground underneath. He was sore for two days. Why is that allowed to happen? How many other safety issues were lurking that fortunately didn’t end in an injury?
On nurturing, one of my kid’s issues was there were other campers who were bullying. My youngest got the «There’s a bug on your face, [slap], got it» from an older camper. My little one was stunned. This is not the counselors fault, however, that type of behavior among the campers needs to be monitored and corrected. My boys have been to about 25 camps in the past few years, and this was the first one where they complained, «the other campers were bullys and the counselors did nothing about it.» If a camper misbehaved, the corrective measure by the counselor was pushups. Now I’m okay with physical fitness, but again, this is not very nurturing or constructive, kinda more Frat boy like. One camper threw a water bottle at my youngest and he had a bruise near his eye. I hope someone did pushups for that.
Other surprises:
«Counselors allowed a lot of cussing.»
«Tommy called us ‘turds’.»
«They told us that was blood on the pole from a kid who died here.» — I asked Camil about this one and she said, «People have been hurt badly here.» She may have been referring to stuntmen or grownups, but really, that’s how you position a kids camp?
«The zip line was the worst one ever.» — This is referring to the fact that the harness they use is not around the hips, but a fire hose around the back and under the armpits attached in front of the chest resulting in an uncomfortable ride (See newsman Fred Cantu’s suffer ride in the site’s video).
«I cried on the high ropes course because it was slippery and they were wanting me to let go and I didn’t trust them.» — My youngest has been on numerous zip lines, climbing walls, and ropes courses all over since age 4. This was the first time he «didn’t trust» his safety person. Rather telling.
Again, my kids were on the younger side of the campers ages and I think my 7 years 8 months old was one of the youngest ever, but they accepted them and should be able to handle them and give them a great experience, otherwise, don’t accept them. They did learn some cool movie making things also. I think in my examples above I have demonstrated that while this is a unique action experience, it needs to remember its mission changes a bit when it is «A Camp»; safety, fun, respect, and positive experiences should be higher priorities. Given the nature of the camp, I’d also like to know the First Aid, CPR, first responder training (if any) of the counselors. An emergency backboard nearby might also prevent Stunt Ranch from becoming «my ranch» should some unfortunate incident occur.