When the stoke finds you

Yes, yes. I absolutely agree that the „spreading the stoke“ thing becomes old.

Yet, have we looked at the exponential growth of stoke theory yet? This one goes back to a friend in Vancouver named Mischa, thank you for sharing this with me. Like no other he had explained to me quite a long while ago what it was all about. I am not sure I can get this down 100% as it was brought to me but certainly it was along this line:

„The exponential growth of stoke happens when you are able to gather individuals that are able to get stoked on some else’s stoke. This will provide a never ending/ exponential growth of stoke.“

It takes no more than someone being happy for someone else having the best time. Sounds easy, right?

At the Pumpkingchallenge, a little bugger kicked my ass & in return I get to show him the fun of longboarding now.

Much love to parents who give a sh* about growing old & coming out to shred and have fun with the juniors!

This little guy is also called Mischa. His mom shreds, his dad also shreds & his younger brother will soon be there too.

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Aeschbacher SRF

Aeschbacher – Farbig wie das Leben

There is Swiss TV talk shows. Who would have thought!?

I had the pleasure to be invited to our talk show master Kurt Aeschbacher, it was a hot summer day and the studio was at +42° Celsius … steamy. Once more I got to give the safety and legality talk and it was all about convincing the guy that I am not mentally handicapped, even tough I downhill skateboard.

Another great experience with the SRF putting me in front of a camera! Thank you very much for giving me this opportunity.

Watch here.

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Philippines, VLT 2014

End of March, Pat and I took off to be a part of the 5th Visayan Longboarding Trilogy. Three events in three different locations. A freeride, the Super Mango Skate Clinic hosted by Pat & myself with the help of countless hands & an IDF World Qualifying race at the end.
Patrick and I finally managed to double win an IDF race!
The Philippines were a whole new adventure! Traveling, the food, the people, the nature… literally everything was a new and exciting!
Morning wake up ritual: grab a mango & sit in the ocean to eat it! One gets used to that way to quickly!
Check out the rest of the photos and the full write up on the Loaded site!

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Mango mornings!

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Finally we won a race together! Photo by Colin Beck

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Siquijor Island

Gipsy feet

What a year!
My updates here get rare with a remarkable increase of my CO2 foot print… my gipsy feet took me to the Greener Pastures film trip, Japan, to North America twice and all around Europe again.

New people became friends, old friends were visited.
The mountains and the ocean filled my heart with impressions. Never was the mood between the ladies racing so positive and motivating as this year.

Life goes away from the rhythm of the gipsy for a little bit now.
Sleeping on wonderful memories, preparing the next adventure.

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Photos by tamara prader & patrick switzer

 

South Africa – Hot Heels 2012

Novermber in Zurich was as grey as usual. Makes me work more & live less… which technically isn’t a disaster… but when December comes and South Africa is on the travel list: Life tends to be that tiny bit better.

We had everything this year.
To start with the good part… I got two podiums! A second at Hot Heels Africa, last IGSA World Cup race of the season, and I got second as well at High Rising.
We saw spiders, snakes, baboons, chameleons, penguins, camels…
We ate big animals, and generally ate well and a lot, we went geo caching and go carting, hiking and swimming, we drove on the left side of the road and we had the best host we could wish for!

Have a look at the rest of the pictures on my flickr!

In the semi finals of Hot Heels, Felipe Malaga, our friend from Peru had a horrifying crash resulting severe head injury. He is today, 28th of December, still in the hospital in South Africa where he recovers slowly.

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Photo by Brittany Fine

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Hot Heels 2012

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Photos by Tamara Prader

EuroTang

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.

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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!

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San Be, Photo by Tamara Prader

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What to do with so many roads?, Photo by Tamara Prader

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Péyragudes before the fog rolled in

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Waves on our Gaudi tour

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Kelowna DH

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!

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