downhill skateboarder – architect – feminist – mountain lover
When you travel, you often feel like you see the most beautiful things but your heart isn’t big enough to capture it all!
… That’s when you can take out your camera, if you’re lucky, and take a picture. Calvin Russell sings the following lines in „Crossroads“:
I’ve travelled many roads
And not all of them where good
The foolish ones taught more to me
Than the wise ones ever could
It is good to leave the highway every now and then!
The Euro Tour is already over. I can’t believe how fast those four weeks flew by!
I am happy to bring home one podium! My results over all could have been better, I finished with a 5th in Kozakov, a 3rd in Teolo and a 6th quali time in Péyragudes.
Graphic by Tamara Prader
The crew this year was Patrick Switzer, Maxim Garant Rousseau, Alex Tongue, Mauritz Armfelt, Josh Torres, John Barnet, Caio Cezar, Luke Melo, Thiago Lessa, myself and Olivier Séguin- Leduc our photographer and videographer.
After talking to a few travel crews that had issues here and there or even split the group half way through the tour, I felt lucky to have such an incredible team. Little fights were fought quickly and out of the way before they could become a bigger issue. It is not always easy to travel in a group of ten to twelve people basically spending 24/7 for a month. Our trip took us from Paris to Switzerland for some freeriding. Then to Kozakov, CZ for the first race, to Prague, to the most beautiful mountains, the Dolomites, further down south to the race in Teolo and then for a day to Venice. After that to the Pyrénées, south to Barcelona for a week of relaxation and scooter racing through the city and finally back to Switzerland before everybody had to fly home again.
A very big thank you to Orangatang the guys I traveled with!
San Be, Photo by Tamara Prader
See my arms?
What to do with so many roads?, Photo by Tamara Prader
Péyragudes before the fog rolled in
Waves on our Gaudi tour
Next weekend, next race. Time for the Kelowna DH!
The nice windy and wide, open road is in a residential area, overlooking two valleys. And again, we found the most scenic spot to park our RV. At the top of the hill, 50 meters from the start- line.
Unfortunately, this race again started rainy and therefore slow. Racers weren’t too eager to roll down a wet track and the organizer’s idea was to get as many runs as possible with skipping qualifying. Since the heats were set, there was not too much pressure on the first day.
This race- course was a decent bit longer than the races before. Runs take a bit more time, shuttles too. Things moved quite slow again on Sunday and unfortunately, half way through the first round of racing, one of the residents decided to be a dangerous and douche- baggy and had to be taken away from the police. This 2 hours intermezzo was very unfortunate but after that, riders were ready to kick ass! A fast track with heavy winds and more than one corner made it more interesting to find spots to take pictures at and watch people skate! The results for the Kelowna DH:
1. Kevin Reimer
2. Andrew Chapmen
3. Dillon Stephens
4. Patrick Switzer
Women:
1. Elena Corrigall
2. Marisa Nunez
3. Amy Brendon
I am very done with not being able to skate!
Stay safe and go play!
On the way here down from Kelowna, we crossed the border in Osoyoos where the Americans took our garden! We had expanded and had a pineapple sage and a thai basil next to the peppermint. Gone.
We slept at a lake and drove through the land of „cowboys and indians“ in the morning. Passed by Maryhill and ended up in front of Jon’s and Billy’s.
… no need to support that. This place would have a hard time trying not to be weird anymore.
One of the highlights of this week was the Mount Tabor race! Enjoy.
Spending a week in Portland, I learned some – more or less – important lessons about the survival in a group of skateboarders.
1 The dynamics of a group of skaters
The easiest way to make a group of skaters move is, to point out a place with cheap beer and food! Success rate: 95%
Coffee can work, sometimes.
Skating will most likely not work. It is too specific and depends on too many factors that you can never guess. The circumstances under which skateboarding happens are not the most obvious ones.
2 Drinking habits
You can’t keep up with the drinking pace of all the different teams! Some might simply have more practice than you do. Goal is, to realize early enough and when you do, stop drinking at their pace. Your liver might be happy about that. And you can avoid many headaches.
3 Spandex makes you win races!
4 Helmet safety
When we were kids, our moms told us to protect our heads. For all the sports we did, we had a different helmet, protecting specific regions of our heads, depending on the activity. Then, downhill skateboarding happened! The aero helmet is a self-made shell with some recycled helmet foam inner shell. It’s not about how protective this helmet is, it is about how cool it looks! It tells how much the rider cares about his style of riding. F* your brain. Who needs it anyways?!
So, get a very aero and expensive outer shell. If it looks ridiculous, the better!
Invest a lot of money in a rad paint job!
Don’t forget to find a fabric with a print that matches your individual style.
Consider that if you can still see because your self- tinted visor doesn’t fog up, you lose a decent amount of style points.
Quite important for this protection plan is not to crash!
5 Injuries
You hurt yourself? In the United States?
First and most important rule: DON’T GO TO A HOSPITAL!
You can buy painkillers. And if you want to rather spend your money on drugs, they most likely do the job too. If you’re not into drugs, go get the painkillers and mix them with alcohol, preferably stronger than beer.
Never get something stitched up! It’s a waste of money. You are a downhill skater so you’d typically carry around superglue.
Sit down, take a deep breathe, and superglue the sh* out of the gaping wound! Don’t forget that superglue tends to spill and superglue things together while you’re waiting for the pain to go away.
6 Strip clubs
Strip clubs in Switzerland are not worth going to because the lowest bill is worth more than 10$.
Before taking off to Vernon, we made a pit stop at Kevin Reimer’s house. After watching the hummingbirds and observing the squirrel- crazyness, Kevin took me on a tour with his Blue Bird!
Happy to leave the different scales of grey behind us, we took off to the wine country. Home of Mischo Erban and more sunshine: Vernon!
All Photos by Tamara Prader
The Vernon DH 8 race, in the driest area of BC started with a very rainy and gray day of practice. The sunday was as sunny as a summerday could be and I got the chance to work on my cast tan again!
Since the event was an IGSA race, things rolled a litle bit slower. Scott Peer and Justen Ortiz battled for an inline title, there was a decent crowd of classic luger and street luger and the ladies had a good crew on the startline too.
I was hoping for Kevin, James, Dillon and Patrick in the finals. Things didn’t work out well for James, he dislocated his shoulder and couldn’t finish the race. One of the local groms made it to the open finals together with Kevin, Zen and Pat.
After the race, we took off to Summerland to ride the Giant! …the closest thing to Swiss freeriding. I cried a little bit, not being able to skate. Being broken isn’t fun.
… but I keep myself busy doing the things that I like but usually don’t find the time to do.
The Ladies podium: Marisa 1st, Elena 2nd, Anna 3rd
Open: Kevin 1st, Zen 2nd, Brendan 3rd, Patrick 4th
… not a question I planned on having to find an answer for! I guess there is always a reason for how things like these come along. At least I had no issues so far with keeping myself busy!
Kevin Reimer is back! A happy winner of the Britannia Classic 2012, one year after he got injured on this track.
Patrick landed in second, Byron Esset in third.
My disappointment about not being able to race was … huge. The first bummer was to realize, that there were only 3 ladies at the Britannia Classic after having a field of 16 at Danger Bay. Quite as disappointing was the level of riding… but I am not to judge this since I was busy taking pictures – not skateboarding.
The organisation of the event was excellent, Lee Cation did a grat job and made the riders happy with good food, two days of freeriding & a good coverage of the event. Way to go Lee!
Bouldering in Squamish with Audrey & Max
What a magical place!
All Photos by Tamara Prader
Before taking off to the Sunshine Coast, we made a visit at Landyachtz where I got myself some rain wheels! Whoop whoop – ready for the Canadian race weather!
Thanks to Mike at Landy!
Hopping on the ferry from Horseshoe Bay to the Sunshine Coast! I was so excited to skate these races and to get to skate with some of the Canadian ladies.
After what I had heard about the party at the Danger Bay race I was more scared to go there than excited… turned out that even the skaters get a little older and it was no where near as wild as I expected.
The womens division was the biggest one I had skated in. We had 16 ladies at the start-line!
I managed to make it in the finals and had the lead until I got taken out ending up in 4th place.
Ishtar and I didn’t get to skate together at Danger Bay. It turned out we were the only ones racing Jakes Rash. We had a sweet battle down this mellow road with quite some leaning action. And drafting her all the way down, I just had enuogh speed to beat her at the finish line.
After coming back from the Coast, we heded up to Squamish for the Britannia Classic. I was very excited for that one and than very disappointed when I realized that there were only two other ladies registered. May it be this fact or some other reason that I don’t know about yet, I broke my left radius in the first run of the second day. That means if I am lucky, I’ll be able to be back on a board for the Maryhill Festival of Speed.
4th at Danger Bay
1st at Jakes Rash
down at Britannia…
We got ourselves a new Housemate. Peppermint at any time!
Carole, the Team Green ‚manager‘ invited a huge crew over for dinner after Danger Bay. What an incredibly beautiful place the Sunshine Coast is!
Oh, we had to leave California way too early! I collected a few impressions for you…
LA Freeways, Photos by Tamara Prader
Definitely one of the highlights was my win in Avalon at the Catalina Island Classic!
An unforgettable treat! Adam Colton tried to sabotage us… opening up a little plastic box with the words: „this will change you life!“, I expected the most incredible goody I’ve ever had… it definitely changed my life for the rest of the day.
These balls were made of dates, honey, nuts & the hottest chili in the world, the Bhut Jolokia chili pepper, also known as Ghost Chili.
… I didn’t know food could do something like this to a human body. As I was down sweating with numb arms and feet, feeling nauseous, Adam talked me through a wet and cold forest.
Adam’s treats, Photo by Tamara Prader
My stomach was mad at me for eating the cili balls so I skipped Surfing with the O-tang crew and played with Pat’s long lens while they gave their best to catch a wave in Malibu!
Surfing in Malibu, Photos by Tamara Prader
I had an open bill with this canyon road that cost me my PCL last year… time for a pay back! Skateboarding in the Malibu hills with some of the most scenic views and most challenging roads.
Dane & Patrick had a NOS day!, Photo by Tamara Prader
We flew out of LAX on Tuesday, May 15th. This is a small world as I ran into Corina Parpan, a friend from back home in Klosters at the Vancouver airport.
After the public transportation mission with two HUGE bags and way too much and too heavy carry on luggage… it was time for Sushi!
We could finally pick up our RV in Chilliwack, BC! And it works! We have a home on four wheels and start to get comfortable in our ‚Slumber Queen‘. Now, all we need is a name… Ideas anyone? We figured she’s a little bit like an Italian Donna…
Happy owners!