Please Join Us!
The mission of Sparks challenge camps is to intensively train athletes in key areas of rowing development while exploring their personal relationship with performance.
Families who register early receive our best pricing. As spaces fill in our carefully designed programs, rates increase gradually to reflect remaining availability. Optional cancel-for-any-reason insurance allows cancellation up to two days before camp.
Category
Challenge
Ages
14
-
16
Strong Rowing = Strong Fundamentals
The Canadian Training Challenge is a two-week program where committed athletes discover how far their potential extends. You'll focus exclusively on singles, doubles, and pairs—the boats that build the skill, balance, and water sense that anchor everything else you'll do in rowing.
You'll train on Vancouver Island's protected waters at Brentwood College, the same region Canada's national team uses for world championship preparation. The fleet includes 40+ small boats specifically chosen for skill development, plus weight rooms and erg facilities that match what you'd find at top-tier college programs. The setting itself—with seals surfacing during practice and mountain views from every stroke—makes training here unforgettable.
Each day combines two focused water sessions with targeted work on technique analysis, goal-setting, and self-coaching strategies. Coaches sit down with you individually to review video and discuss what you're feeling versus what's actually happening. Evening reflection sessions in groups of 6-8 help you process the day's training, identify patterns, and plan specific focuses for tomorrow.
This structured reflection process is what sets the program apart. Instead of just logging meters, you'll learn to read your own rowing, troubleshoot technique issues, and build the self-awareness that separates developing rowers from those who plateau.
We created this camp for athletes who want more than the typical 4-5 day college camp. Two weeks gives you time to actually change patterns, not just identify them. You'll leave with measurably improved boat movement, a clear development plan for the next phase of your rowing, and the confidence to coach yourself through challenges.
Our challenge two week programs offer athletes a chance to improve their athletic self-awareness (rowing "IQ") so they may better pursue rowing performance. The Canadian Training Challenge provides intensive small boat technical training with Canadian coaching in a focused environment for improvement.
First: you should aspire to improve your relationship with athletic performance.
Second: you should possess the emotional maturity necessary to integrate with the group and your own relationship with performance.
Finally: you should possess the fitness to get the most out of the program.
Step 1: Initial Application
Submit your registration and pay the $895 deposit; we will accept the deposit to process your application and hold your place. If you are not offered a place, the full deposit is refundable.
Step 2: Video Response Prompts
Sparks uses video response prompts to get a genuine sense of who you are as an athlete. Keep your response natural and conversational. We're excited to hear your authentic voice and learn what drives you.
This program informs athletes' approach to rowing performance by enabling the self awareness to guide independent development. Athletes should seek a deeper relationship with rowing performance, possess a drive to learn and improve, and an adventurous spirit.
The application contains these response prompts:
- Tell us a story about a team (yours or another) that stands out to you and why it means something to you.
- Tell us about a time when you had to choose between what was right for you personally and what was right for your team. What did you do?
- How would you like to grow as an athlete and why?
- Why do you want to attend a Sparks camp? Also, what specifically draws you to this program?
- Please provide a brief summary of your rowing experience including a recent 2,000m ergometer score. Alternatively if you don't feel your 2K is representative of you - while we'd still like to see it - you can also provide a 5K run time.
- Please provide a short (~1 minute) video of yourself on the ergometer or water.
(Please do not worry about editing or perfect quality - 10-20 strokes from the side will do.)
The prompts will be submitted on your Sparks user dashboard and are due within 14 days of initial application.
Step 3: Zoom Interview
You will schedule your interview from your Sparks user dashboard after you submit your written application. During the interview we will talk about the program, your written application, and how the opportunity aligns with your experience, values, and goals.
Step 4: Decision
Upon acceptance full payment is due by March 1. Full payment is due within 14 days for applications received after March 1.
Admissions occurs on a rolling basis. Timeline for decisions is within a week of the interview; if your timeline is shorter, we can work with you. Written applications must be submitted within 14 days of initial application, and interviews must be scheduled within 30 days of initial application.
At A Glance
Excellent Staff at Low Ratios
Thoughtful Admissions
High Standards of Behavior
Reading and Writing at Camp
Healthy Hospitality
The Reflective Cycle
Camp Focuses
Small Boats
Sculling
Cross Training
Sweeping
Goal Setting
What goes into a Sparks Camp?
You get more out of a Sparks camp because we put more into a Sparks camp*
*These numbers are an approximation across all of our camps.
†Housing includes meeting and activity space for the camp during the day as well.
FAQ
What is the cancellation/refund policy?
Camp purchases are fully refundable minus transaction fees until March 1 for summer camps.
- We strongly recommend you purchase travel protection with cancel for any reason coverage.
- We offer these plans from Travel Insured International during the check-out process for our four and five day camps and during final balance payment for deposit-based multi-week camps.
- Learn more about travel protection here
- If you withdraw after the above dates, there are no refunds for any reason whatsoever (including, but not limited to: voluntary withdraw, illness or injury, summer school, security concerns or other reasons).
- If your camper leaves camp after it starts, there are no refunds for any reason whatsoever, including but not limited to: voluntary withdrawal, illness or injury, dismissal by Sparks (due to discipline, behavior, lack of fitness or motivation, etc.) security concerns, or any other reason. Any costs incurred by Sparks as a result of an early departure are the sole responsibility of the parents.
- In the unlikely case a camp does not proceed, we'll work to notify you by March 1. You'll be offered a different program or a refund. In some cases, we may extend the 'go, no-go' date. We recommend buying your flight after March 1 or later, if we advise.
Do you offer scholarships or discounts?
Our prices increase as spots fill. The earlier you register, the better the price you’ll get. We also offer travel insurance that provides "cancel for any reason" coverage until 2 days prior to camp.
Regarding Scholarships:
Please see this link to our NCAA Compliance webpage.
Regarding Scholarships:
Please see this link to our NCAA Compliance webpage.
What level of experience is necessary for this program?
No prior small boat experience is required for this camp.
Ability levels in the group will differ - but that is why we maintain a low staff to student ratio. What matters is not your ability relative to the others in the group, but rather your desire to accurately evaluate your performance and plan to improve.
As a result, while this camp requires a higher level of maturity and thoughtfulness with some athletic experience - specific rowing ability is less important.
Tell me more about admissions - how selective is it?
Our admissions process is the most thoughtful in the sport and we evaluate each athlete on a case by case basis.
While we look 2K and rowing experience, we are also very interested in your motivation and passion for rowing. At our camps, the drive to improve leads to increased maturity and thoughtfulness - which leads to performance.
We also consider your ability to live, train, and support others in a community committed to utilizing challenge for personal growth. Sparks camps are unlike traditional training camps in that progress in self-awareness per your relationship with performance is as important as acute technical progress. Ideal candidates will complete the program with gains in both self-awareness and corresponding ability to improve long after camp ends.
Italy is designed for athletes who seek to better define their relationship with performance utilizing cooking as a primary activity alongside rowing. You do not have to be a high performer relative to others, but you should be interested in how you might define peak performance for yourself. To be clear: we are not a performance "boot camp" whereby students are pushed beyond themselves so much as an opportunity for students to unlock the mechanisms that contribute to performance within themselves in a community committed to doing the same in a thoughtful, intelligent manner.
We welcome your questions either via phone or in the chat box in the right hand corner.
What differentiates Sparks camps and this program specifically?
We are the only camp in rowing with a full-time staff that has academic and professional backgrounds in experiential education. We also have a summer operations staff (many are returners that teach during the school year) who buy into the idea of personal growth at camp not just for campers - but for themselves as well.
The result is a culture sincerely committed to the power of rowing as a personally transformative experience built on vulnerability, thoughtfulness, responsibility, and initiative. These qualities along with our values of growth, kaizen, and plus one stroke dictate the culture our camp community forms around. Our focus is on utilizing rowing to create the self-awareness necessary to master one's relationship with performance.
Canada is one of the greatest countries in the sport, and Brentwood college offers some of the best facilities and campus in the country. These provide the foundation for an excellent classic two week camp focused on technical mastery and visualizing further direction for one's self in the sport.
What can you tell me about college recruiting and this program?
Engaging in gaining a unique understanding of how nutrition fits with training will increase your rowing IQ.
That said, how you apply your rowing IQ in your pursuit of the sport after camp ends is what will differentiate you in the recruiting process.
Training and racing overseas will speak to some recruiters more than others, but after academics and erg scores are sorted - recruiters care more about your personal engagement with the sport than the particulars of your summer program choice or race results. Given recruiting is a globally competitive "talent marketplace", getting some international perspective will help you - but in the end no one race or camp is going to provide the competitive rowing intellect necessary to succeed at the recruiting process. You are a composite of your experiences - so best to make them unique and highly educational.
How big is the program?
Sparks multi-week cohorts range between 10 and 16 athletes, averaging 12 athletes per cohort. Coaching and operations staff ratios are set at 1:6, making overall staff to student ratio 1:3 - however, sometimes it is even lower.
Of chief importance to us is the quality of our cohorts - which we believe is a product of admissions, staffing, and group size to facilitate activities (eg. sweep boat rowing v. singles) as well as friendships that last long after camp ends.
We seek the highest international-quality level in coaching staff and our senior operations staff is made up of former rowers turned educators with a number of years of prior experience in our camp system; many hold graduate degrees in education.
What can you tell me about housing and supervision at camp?
Campers will stay on campus at Brentwood during the program in their dormitories.
At Sparks camps, we have two staffs: a coaching staff and an operations staff. Our operations staff is responsible for the experiential education and pastoral care at camp. In Italy, we seek a 1:3 overall staff to student ratio.
The Program Director lives amongst the student athletes, and has oversight 24 hours a day. Unhealthy substances and/or behaviors are strictly prohibited.
Tell me about safety at Sparks
We employ safety and risk management practices from the adventure education industry, where some risk is inherent but must be quantified insofar as educational value. These practices are initially employed in program design and we work hard to train operations staff to seek to maintain an awareness of specific risks at all times. No outdoors programming can guarantee safety, however professional management of risk is key to the art of providing consistently excellent experiential education programming.
Please also see our essential eligibility criteria
How do you handle travel to/from the camp?
Flights arrive and depart out of Victoria (YYJ). We seek to help families connect who would like their students to travel together. The journey itself is part of the experience and our international camps invite athletes to take a personal journey with sport at its center.
Our Program Director (already on the ground as students depart) tracks student travel into Victoria, where they are picked up from the airport. In the case you will arrive in Canada as a family and drop your camper off, we will meet at Brentwood College.
You will fill out a travel form after registration that enables our staff to make sure your camper arrives and departs camp safely.
If you have questions, we're happy to answer them in the box in the lower right side, or you can schedule a call with us.
Where are camp forms found?
Camp forms are issued at least six weeks prior to camp on our site via your dashboard.
I have questions before I apply. Is it possible to speak with someone?
Certainly - we completely understand your need to connect about this commitment!
We just ask you schedule a call with us (click here) given we're a very small office.
We're considering providing this camp but want to ensure we can provide a solid program. To help us make the best decision, we'd love to hear from you!If you're interested in attending or learning more, please take a moment to share a bit about yourself. By filling out this form, you're not committing to attend – you're simply letting us know what would make this camp meaningful and how it aligns with your interests.
Once we’ve gathered feedback, we’ll be in touch!