In my childhood and youth, I spent my winter weekends at ski races or training. In the fall vacations, I was already off to Kaunertal, Sölden, Laax and club training to prepare for the season. My successes in slalom and giant slalom were mediocre, despite the great efforts of my parents. I found the constant traveling and commuting from one ski race to the next, the constant training between poles and honing my skiing technique a burden. It was restrictive and not very playful.
We lived in Freiburg and spent the weekends and vacations at my grandparents' house in the Black Forest. The house was at 1000m and the lift was only five minutes away by car. We had a lot of snow. We built ski jumps in the meadow behind the house.
The races in the Black Forest were held in places where the lifts are rarely in operation today. Fischbach, Muggenbrunn, Hasenhorn, Heidstein, Stollenbach, Todtnauberg, Altgalshütten, Saig, The Saig downhill race was my favorite. We didn't have to travel far. Everything was close by.
Then came 1983 and Apocalypse Snow at the movies. I had just saved up my first skateboard and now I saw these guys in colorful overalls surfing in the powder. That was the end of my skiing "career". My horizons broadened. Tom Sims founded Sims Snowboards and doubled Roger Moore in 007 James Bond "A view to a Kill". From then on, the slopes of the Black Forest were no longer the only place in my dreams.
I bought my first snowboard on a school exchange to La Clusaz. When I was 14, I turned my back on ski racing for good and only "rode" snowboards from then on. It was trial and error and there were few role models. I didn't think Perter Bauer was cool and I had to work hard to earn the acceptance of the local Lepertran crew*. At the weekends, we went to Andermatt, Engelberg or Meiringen. The gas was affordable and the parking lots were empty.
The USA was the place to be for me back then. It was where my idols met. After graduating from high school, I packed my bags and flew to Seattle with a brand new Black Forest Burning custom-made board made of vertically glued ash in my pocket. I made my debut on the Mt. Baker Banked Slalom in 1994. Craig Kelly had set the course and Terje won - Switch. I was extremely unhappy with 23rd place. The circumstances had not been ideal. I knew I could do better. Then 5 weeks Whistler-Blackcomb with a fake lift pass, Squawvalley, Lake Tahoe, Mt. Hood. I met the guys from Dogtown Snowboards at the Tradeshow in Las Vegas. They brought me into their team. They produced the boards at Morrow. They were quite ok. We rode parks in Bear Mountain and Snow Valley.
Back in Europe, I continued my travels. For the opening in Kaunertal, WPT Boardercross in Sölden then Val d'Isère, we started the King of the Forest, a banked downhill cross. That was in 1999, my injuries increased and so did my breaks.
