Beach camp a ‘hidden jewel’ in Edmonds
By Sara Bruestle
The Beacon
Instead of going on vacation to an expensive resort in Hawaii this summer, kids can enjoy several miles of sandy beach and a half-acre wharf at the Water Sports Beach Camp at the Sunset Bay Resort in Edmonds.
“We’ve taken the best vacation activities we have run across over the years in Hawaii, Florida and the Caribbean and put them all together in one place,” said Jeff Thomas, manager of the beach camp. “We think of it more as a vacation experience – where we’re saving them the airplane and hotel bills – than what most people think of as a summer camp.”
Water Sports Beach Camp is one of a variety of summer camps offered through the Edmonds Parks and Recreation Department.
“This is only our second year doing the beach camp,” said Renee McRae, the city’s recreation coordinator. “I think it’s still somewhat unknown that there is this fabulous, fabulous facility right here, just up the road in Edmonds. It’s kind of a hidden jewel.”
Other camps available this summer through Parks and Recreation include day camp, preschool camp, acting camps, Discovery Program camps, Lego engineering camps, computer camps, sports camps and gymnastics camps.
“Camps provide kids with summer opportunities to get outside, to be active and to engage with other children,” McRae said. “Kids need to create memories so that when they’re 25 and somebody asks them to think of a fun experience they had when they were a kid, maybe they’ll talk about a summer camp experience.”
For $350 a week, kids from 11-17 can go kayaking, windsurfing, wakeboarding, wake surfing, dinghy and keel boat sailing, skim boarding and inner tubing at the beach camp. A 5-1 student to instructor ratio ensures that the kids will be safe while learning the different water-sport activities, according to the resort Web site.
“Every imaginable type of water sports equipment is there,” McRae said. “It’s totally incredible.”
Kids can also try out the beach camp’s over-water flying trapeze and zip line and over-water tight rope. They can go sea lion watching, catch crabs, go on a beach hike, build sand castles and roast hotdogs and marshmallows at a bonfire, according to the Web site.
When they’re not out on the water, the kids can enjoy the resort’s hot tub, indoor skating ramp, batting cage and roller hockey floor.
“Every kid who has been out here has said ‘Wow, this is the coolest camp I’ve ever been to,’” Thomas said. “They’re totally agog about it. But that’s to be expected, because there’s nothing like it anywhere in the country. It will definitely blow your mind.”
Weekly beach camp sessions run from 9:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. Monday through Friday. Early drop off and late pick up is available.
For more information about the Water Sports Beach Camp at Sunset Bay Resort go to www.sunsetbaywharf.com.
Contact the Parks and Recreations Department at 425-771-0230 or go to www.reczone.org for more information on the summer camps and to register.
Kids at the Water Sports Beach Camp take a boat out to some seals sunning on a buoy at the Sunset Bay Resort in Edmonds. The beach camp is one of a variety of summer camps offered through the Edmonds Parks and Recreation Department.
