Chris in the alps
Hi all, Chris here typing from the couch of Teo in Helsinki. Just got in here yesterday after a few days down trying to find some powder in Austria.
Me and Kalle jumped in our car shortly after new years, a great new years ewe by the way! Went to a contest in Stuttgart and after some days we arrived Innsbruck with the thought of leaving street rails and urban jibs behind us for some fresh powder. First thing we both realized was that there is not really powder around here, not even close. More or less it was spring time! Super tired from the contest and all the driving we decided to shoot this rail that same night we arrived. 22:00 we were at the spot digging, shaping and trying to get the lights going. It all ended up with me and Kalle had 2 tries of gaping this kink and almost killed ourselves. Unlucky, or should I say luckily the generator broke down, session was over. I use to be bummed, but at that time, that moment, we where both pretty damn stoked :) .
We went there the day after. Kicker was solid hard and even though there was barley any snow we had enough to get this session going….. again. We both ended up with good and well deserved shots. Almost felt like it was worth driving 1700km for that one shot, crazy! :)
The next coming days we didn´t have many options. Because of our little snow issue. But we found a spot and Kalle did one sweet "stall drop down thingy". I didn´t! I don´t do stalls :) haha
Day after we went back to the same spot to hit one pretty nasty kink next to the dropdown. We finished the shaping and had in mind to gap this monster. I don´t really know what we were thinking, because that rail is huge!! I did tie my boots and was scraping the wax of my board when the mayor from the town showed up…. We tried to convince him that we will not destroy anything, just a little bit of snowboarding… that´s all?? That ended up with a big BIG no go! Shortly after the police came and even closed the whole area. Biggest bust ever! But again we were not to bummed. That was a spot you could really hurt your self on and we were both super committed to actually go for it. Maybe it was for the good we got busted, or we just got rubbed of the ending trick in the part, who knows?
But before we left we got another chance to shot one more thing. A bit different and actually fun and safe. We did good and I have to say that the trip was totally worth it.
After those days we packed the car back up and drove to scandinavian. Now we´r over in Helsinki for even more jibbing. I guess that´s the schedule until snow starts to fall for real down in Europe land.
Have a good one, and see you guys soon
//Chris
