karpathos for the weekend...

(mythos and ouzo - for sure one of the most lethal combinations in liquor history)

had to go down to karpathos for a couple of days to sort some stuff out with our old windsurf equipment from the surf station. the weather sucking big time in germany, this wasn't the worst idea. also, the whitsun holiday on monday made a perfect extended weekend for this.

(byebye, rainy germany - sunshine, here i come!)

with no existing direct flights until after the weekend, i had to fly down via rhodos island and take a small 'island hopper' plane the next morning... a perfect opportunity to visit my friends at the surf station at theologos beach. we had a nice evening, chatting about all the changes in the windsurf biz and all rumors that had been summing up since our last get-together.

(hotel irini - all brand new!... the new puppy at anemos bar does not care)

arriving in afiartis/karpathos the next morning, i found the hotel completely renovated and finished. they were just about to flood the brand new pool. i'm pretty impressed how fast (especially for greek conditions) the finishing process went. holy moly... here's some shots i took:

(the pool area with the new restaurant...)

(hotel overview... really nice done!)

the days went on with pretty hard work, cataloging and repacking all the station equipment and preparing the boardbags for the flight home. at night, i visited some friends at the anemos bar nearby. lots of talks there as well... thanks for all the raki!!! ;)


having everything finished, i'm now looking forward to come here in already two weeks for our first real holiday this season...


stay tuned!

summer season has started!

(view on the lake from our room... this spot rocks!)

beginning of may is always somehow a turnpoint in the daily routine as well as in the course of the year. last shoots (except camp of champions) are done, season preparation for 10/11 is in full swing, which means more hours in the office again. the slopes being more water than snow anyways, its also time for me to change the element and finally switch to summer mode.

(from bed to board within just 10 meters or so... niiiice!)

karpathos being still some weeks ahead, we decided to take a small break and go down to nice lago di garda in italy. hotel pier is a famous spot here with perfect sideshore conditions both in north and south wind, the rooms just meters away from the waterfront.

(the 'speedy', a tourist motorboat throws the only 'wave' on the lake. good for some airtime! upper right pic shows heidi cruising back towards the hotel... below: water is still pretty darn cold... around 14° celsius... brrrrr...)

the weather wasn't too good, yet better than expected with a wild mixture of sun, rain and everything in between. we were super lucky and catched two days with really good winds, so i could try out the gopro in the water for the first time. still no luck with mounting it on the masttop, i have to think of some proper way to fix it there. boom angle is okay, but a bit too close yet...


all in all a nice weekend with good italian food, lots of surfing and even more relaxing... summer can come!

item of the month...

yeah, i decided to post my personal 'item of the month' here... starting off with a new gadget for my lumix GF-1... i just love this camera with its 4/3 interchangeable lens system... the small 20mm kit lens with its 1.7 aperture is already pretty sick, yet i was searching for a possiblilty to use the canon EF lenses of my big cameras.

(the-all-new 4/3 to canon EF adapter ring)

found this small adapter-ring on the internet. now i can use all the 'big' lenses on my lumix. focus only works manually and due to the lack of aperture adjustments on the lenses, it only works with fully open aperture. still, its amazing, what effects are possible with the use of that small piece of metal. imagine the 300mm tele lens (which is a 600 due to the 2.0 crop factor of the lumix) or a 80mm tilt/shift... or the huge 85mm/1.2 (see the mounted lens left)... endless possibilities... besides i can now just take the GF1 and some lenses with me when i'm not shooting snowboarding or when i don't need the high speed of the EOS bodies. perfect for holiday trips or just random shots...

(some examples shot with the tilt shift and the 300mm tele lens)

kaunertal recap...

(beautiful view on the reservoir 'lake')

oh, kaunertal... soo different to all the other spots! for those who are unfamiliar with the 'kaunertal phenomenom': it is a small, remote valley in the back of beyond of western austria. the small village of feichten (which is pretty much the 'capitol') is already far back in the valley, the glacier is even half an hour drive farther back. you pass a massive reservoir lake (which is dead empty most of the time), past the most beautiful mountain road. its about a million turns in the way, like half of them make you shift down to the lowest gear.

(mugl and I found the gayest beer helmets ever made and realized, that they are perfect for mixing jacky coke!)

the terrain is incredibly good and every year we swear to ourselves to come back here mid season to find all the rollers and windlips rideable. never happened though and so we were back for another 'spring classics', couple of weeks with the park shaped properly, lots of party, barbecue and hanging at the appartments. oh... getting some last shots for the next season of course :)

('the beer game' was funny for about an hour, before we realized, that we could drink 

even without being forced by the game rules. alex, paying some debts)

the weather was surprisingly good the first couple of days (meaning bluebird and tee-conditions), the chairlift still rideable, which is one of the best arguments to come here: take the upper t-bar, cruise through the park, then take the long run down to the chairlift. sooo much fun!

(öfi and klaus, chilling on our balcony... that's the way you do it!)

this year, we returned to 'haus gfall' and had the big appartment there. alexandra and her husband - the landlords at gfall - are super mellow and have a sick appartment on the upper floor. its just a 200 meter walk to 'kiwi' and just a 50 meter walk to 'pfiffalm', two of the local bars and it has a 'milk station' right across the street where you can get fresh milk 24 hours. sweet, especially when coming home late from a party.

(the 'pfiffalm' is always fun, just 50 meters away from the appartment. 

check out alex' sunburn on the middle frame!)

shootings went very well, did some stuff with the MOG crew with flo achenrainer, julia baumgartner, bobby dangl and wulle wanner the first day... they had prepared a nice rail feature near the dam, flo and julia killing it till the sun went down.

(the rail spot of the MOG crew... nice one!)

next day, i shot a 'stick-a-trick' with nicholas wolken. he did like 200 handplants and was pretty much done after that... thanks, fäst... it worked out super good!


the MOG crew had spotted a nice 'natural halfpipe' in some avalanche debris halfway down the valley, which we did on the third day. before, it was time to go up to shoot sani on the huge film/photo kicker on the glacier. he brought shitfaced maurer with him, who came home from the party at 6 am, so all he could do was roll around, cursing and having som not-so-amusing date with a guy called hangover... :) so funny to watch... sorry, mu ;)

(sani brought his very own 'mu' in the trunk, then nailed some nice sevens... thanks, bro!)

after sani nailed some decent front 7 and a super clean front 3 (yeah, dreamteam!), i went back down to the avalanche thing to shoot with the isencrew (fips, basti, alex) and flo achenrainer... the guys had already shaped two nice hits into the 'halfpipe' when i came there. 
we were just about to get going when we heared some rocks tumbling above us and realized, that there must have been a big slide going on atop the mountain and everything was coming down through a small ravine towards us. we were super scared, it looked like a fucking hollywood movie, all the slush shooting through the ravine above us. all we could do was running sideways. surprisingly, the whole thing stopped literally inches away from our spot, so we could shoot the feature, still a little bit nervous that more could be coming down the hill.

(basti kuhn, hitting it... scary moments, when the 'lochfickende berg' came down... 

see where the small pole is? that was the 'halfpipe spot'... the brownish debis is what the avy brought down...)

the next couple of days brought a lot of bad weather, so i decided to call it a day and have a 'normal' weekend at home (which was a good decision photowise, but i missed some good party i heared)...

(we tested some rubber gear (not what you think) for the shoot next week)

thanks, 'kauni'... we'll be back next week for some 'super duper mega last shots' for the boardtest :)