Open Faces Hochkönig (1* FWQ Contest) & ISPO

from january 24th until 27th, Roman and i stayed in maria alm for the Open Faces freeride contest at the aberg in the hochkönig region.
we went freeriding on the 24th, did some nice runs down from langeck & had a very nice day there. on the 25th, we visited the kitzsteinhorn, where we met up with mr. totz. too bad that it was pretty foggy, but we still had a great ride down to niedernsill.

in the evening of the 25th, we checked out the start list for the contest and i got supernervous, as i read that i had scored bib number one, meaning that i will be the first person to start. early on the 26th we got up & got ready for the contest. we checked in at the aberg valley station, got our bibs & went up to the middle station. there, we listened to the explanation of the contest rules and then were allowed to examine the contest face. it was really hard for me to think of a line that i could possibly ride, so i decided to just go to the start and take it from there… wherever i may go along.
it was a bit tricky to get to the start and after a short wait, it was my turn to ride already. i immediately messed up & fell 2 times. i managed to ride the bottom part of the face without much problems, which was good, but overall, i was highly disappointed with myself. i came in 2nd.

it was a very good experience for me and i guess i have already learned a lot from it. i have gotten to know new people and next time, i’ll try to do better.
here’s a pic from the price giving ceremony, on the left is Jenny Farrah.

i have already signed up for the next contest, the X OVER RIDE at the kitzsteinhorn on the 22nd of march.
the contest face for this 1* freeride world tour qualifier event can be seen in this picture, it’s the light violet area on the left hand side. i’ll keep you updated about the contest.

 

 

yesterday, i’ve been to the ISPO for the first time, thanks to the invitation of PIEPS. it was overwhelming! of course we were not able to see all booths & products in one day, but we gave our best. we saw lots of interesting new products and talked to many people, including Jeremy Jones, snowboarding icon and founder of Jones Snowboards.

if i get invited to next years ISPO, i will make up a plan prior to going there. i feel that i might have missed out on a few opportunities to meet people (for example at the Women in Boardsports lunch) and that it would be better to focus more on single products instead of trying to see it all. but hey, i was an ISPO newbie and i survived!

corona wakeboard cup 2012 @ the jetlake

 

on july 14th, i competed in the corona wakeboard cup at the jetlake in upper austria. the jetlake is a beautiful lake near linz, which features lots of obstacles, nice people and other attractions like beachvolleyball, trampoline, and lots more.

sadly, the weather was pretty bad. it was cool and rainy the whole day.

i arrived with my mother (my driver and coach for the day ) shortly before 8am. i took the chance to warm up and get used to the cable between 8 and 9 am.
afterwards it was time for the riders meeting, where the judges and organizers explained the rules and timetable of the day.

the qualifications started. in the open ladies class, everyone proceeded directly to the finals, because we were only 5 women. this was good, because it took away the stressful part of the qualification run.

the startlist for the first final run.

i really dislike waiting, i am an impatient person. the nearer the open ladies finals came, the more nervous i got. the good thing was
that as soon as i started from the dock, i felt relaxed and confident again.
i completed my first run successfully, landing an ollie tailgrab, a backside surface 360, a frontside ollie 180 aswell as a switch
frontside ollie 180 and an indy grab over the kicker.

i was content with my first run, so i decided that i could risk more in my second run.
i had never before tried to ride an obstacle other than a kicker, but my team mate rené rappl insisted that i should give the funbox a
try… and so i did. what can i say? i rode the damn thing and everything went well!
i landed everything in my second run.

i placed 5th. taking into consideration that i haven’t been riding for a long time and that we sadly don’t have any obstacles in vienna at my
homecable except for 2 kickers, i am very, very happy with my performance.

thanks to my team from AWC VIENNA!

now all i wanna do is ride obstacles!

results:

 

overall standings:

national currently 5th:

 

international currently 46th:

my first wakeboard contest

on the 24th of july, roman and me were helping out a bit with the organization of the austrian wakeboard cup tourstop in vienna. in the morning, we brought some speakers, a mixing desk, etc and started to build up everything.
after a while, austrian wakeboarder astrid schabransky approached me and asked if i wanted to participate in the open women category, since only herself and another girl were going to compete…
i had not planned to compete, because i’ve only been riding for about a year and so far, my trick repertoire isn’t really big. i didn’t practise for the comp or anything… but still i thought that i should give it a shot and try my luck, just for fun and to see what a wakeboard competition feels like.

luckily, i was able to nail at least SOME of my tricks (in the qualification… in the finals, not so much ) and so i came in second – this came as a total surprise for me. thanks to the awc vienna for the awesome trophy and thanks to liquid force and corona for the nice goodies
i had an awesome day, even though the weather was absolutely horrible (cold, windy, rainy – lots of waves on the water).

next week, i will be attending a wakeboard camp in upper austria. i’m hoping for the summer to return for at least that week, because i guess camping in the rain won’t be lots of fun. i want to try new things and maybe learn one or two new tricks… i can see myself competing in other wakeboarding contests in the future, but for now, it’s all just for fun and i still have loads to learn.

 

 

bmx masters 2011

so, in a weak moment, i let my boyfriend convince me to sign up for the bmx masters. i’ve been thinking about going to the masters for years now and never had the guts to do it.
this year, i was sure that i wanted to go, but at first, i thought that i’d only go there to watch the contest and get to know the other girls.
well, somehow after some time i started to like the idea to compete there better and better. i signed up end of may. since that day, i’ve been thinking about the masters and riding my bike nearly constantly. first, it was more of a “shit, what have i gotten myself into? why am i doing this to me?”-feeling and i was more than nervous, but over time it turned out to be pretty motivating.
last year, i wasn’t as motivated to ride as i had been during the years before, so this was a welcome change.

i’ve been riding a lot again lately, i noticed that i’m not really as bad as i was thinking.
at the moment, i guess that i’m gonna do somewhat well in the contest… maybe i’m going to mess up all my tricks, maybe i’m going to be overly nervous and not able to think straight, maybe i’m gonna get hurt (just like on thursday when i slammed my bars into my ribcage)… but i don’t think i’ll make a fool out of myself. and that’s basically all i’m hoping for… this and having a really good time with new friends i will make at the masters.

so… here i come
looking forward to seeing everyone that i’ve so far only talked to on the interwebz!