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.

 

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.

Kegel release

Orangatang-Kegel-lowres

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.

kody and the dragonfly Kopie

Fuji at night Kopie

Endless Corner Kopie

IMG_2962 Kopie

IMG_2990 Kopie

IMG_3023 Kopie

IMG_3104 Kopie

IMG_3263 Kopie

IMG_3466 Kopie

IMG_3525 Kopie

IMG_8431 Kopie

Photos by tamara prader & patrick switzer

 

czech formalism

Triangle

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!

Bubble

Dam

Power

Tower

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.

eurotang
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!

Sanbernardino
San Be, Photo by Tamara Prader

san be

See my arms?

what to do at nufenen

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

venice bogen

venice pat

venice

peyragues
Péyragudes before the fog rolled in

barca bank

barca gaudi

Waves on our Gaudi tour

sargada barca

Sion