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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Pumpkingchallenge keeps khur cool

Dani aka Gummi Rietmann called me up early in the year for some video where they needed some female skate support. What he forgot to mention was that it was in a pumptrack. Some vert skating would have surely been helpful. So I was given 2 hours to figure things out…

The beginning of a wonderful love story!

Dani is doing it again. He brings to us the bestest of winter season funs in the banked slaloms and now he takes over the summer season with the Pumpkingchallenge. This is a series of little events in the freshly shaped pump tracks of the rad crew around Velosolutions. Goal was to bring together the people of shred, everybody was invited: the skateboarders, the longboarders, the bikers, the snowboarders, the young, the old, the expert & the beginner. And: THEY ALL  CAME! Simply to have a great time together. Easy as.

I really sucked at pump- tracking (fast). But I couldn’t care less. It brought me to new people, to new things I can do on my skateboard and to people who are interested in learning how to longboard. It worked and I would love to give a huge hug to Dani & Corinne, to the Konstanz crew for helping me with the first moves, to the Madrid crew for helping & shredding & all the friends of the skateboard Sunday fun for sharing the stoke.

I am a true fan and believer of the MGM.

For all who missed it, we’ll talk Dani into doing it bigger & better next year. You’ll get your chance, young Jedi.

 

Virus Voyage – TV time

„Adrenalin – Junkie mit Hirn“ (adrenaline junkie with brain) is easily the nicest title I came across for interviews I gave. The TV crew of Virus Voyage accompanied me to this year’s Wolzen Bolzen free ride. Not a place where I can really shine with my riding as I still consider racing my pony… but the view was great, the event simply lovely, there was a chair lift, sun & a really long and very windy mountain road.

The footage and photos the Virus Team gathered makes me really happy!

A very big THANKS to:

Andi Rohrer, Anic Lautenschlager, Ivo Amarilli, Noëlle Guidon & Tobias Bühler from Virus Voyage as well to the Wolzen Bolzen Crew & the Burning Wheels Tour! And of course a kiss for my personal camera operator Patrick Switzer.

Take a look at the portrait here:

 

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Photos ©noëlleguidon

Chixxs get together – Longboarding

For the third year now, it is a pleasure to work with Tanja at Chixxs on Board.
The first „Chixxs get together“ beginner clinic this year we held in a local 20km/h spot, perfect for the first meters on a longboard.
The second edition is about to come up & I can’t wait to see the girls who are signed up for the intermediate clinic in September. Sign up here. That one will be happening in Luzern where Number One Skate Shop hosts the group.

My favorite quote for edition #1 of the girl who just came for the stoke of skating in a ladies group: „I’ll just try all the stuff switch now!“ she made me wanna hug her!

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KORUA Shapes – Snowboard

At the moment, I really enjoy to have creative friends taking off in different directions. They are writing, experimenting with electronic music… and they shape snowboards!! KORUA Shapes

In snowboarding, I think I missed the point where I would have been fearless enough to become really good. It was always fascinating for me to jump kickers and experiment in the half pipe… but to be honest, it just never was quite good enough! Carving, going fast and cutting lines into fresh pow on the other hand was always my thing!
Eventually I got bored by the standardized, soft-ish, rocker/cambers that were available and I cut down on snow time simply because I was bored.
…just until Nicholas Wolken put an Apollo56 under my feet.

The huge nose and tiny tale make it a playful, squirrely companion. Fast turns and tight carving on slopes are super fun and if you take Apollo56 for a swim in some powpow, you’ll be the first one to run up the hill again to get a another line!
A huge THANK YOU!  to KORUA Shapes for hooking me up with my new favorite toy!

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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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The Kegel

Freeriding is for between the races. This year between Kozakov and Peyragudes, I got the chance to film what I love to do, with the favorite guy by my side.
A huge thanks to Orangatang Wheels for giving me the opportunity to be a part of this.

Watch the Orangatang 80mm, 80a Kegel release video.


Funny enough that Mercedes Benz had exactly the same schedule for shooting an ad. Not too surprising was that they wouldn’t want to share the road with us while they blocked traffic… shame… so we got to go with the good old spotting corners.

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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