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Sport and Hobbies

This page presents info about my hobbies and interests and I try to give an impression how wonderful water and winter sports can be. In summer I do waterskiing, wakeboarding, kite surfing and play baskatball and in winter I love to go snowboarding and skiing.

I got the perfect conditions for all that in St.Wolfgang, Austria, where I grew up and still live. The small town is surrounded by mountains, so it is perfect to go snowboarding and skiing in winter but also has a wonderful lake where you can do various kinds of water sports in summer.

Wakeboarding

For all who don't know what wakeboarding is, please have a short look on the photos on the left. Wakeboarding can be compared to snowboarding but you are pulled over the water by a boat or water ski lift. It's fun to jump over the waves and do tricks in the air. On the Wolfgangsee we have a lot of water ski schools, but no water ski lift, so we do wakeboarding behind the boat, what I think is more fun.

We are always a group of friends in the boat and so it's always a nice time. It is a wonderful feeling to go for a ride at sunset on a 24 degree Celsius warm lake.

Waterskiing

I started water skiing in 1992, around that time when wakeboarding was developed in the USA and when in Austria nobody had an idea of it. I learned slalom skiing, trained a lot and went to a few national and international competitions. I finished twice in 2nd place at the Austrian Junior Masters Tour and was a member of the Austrian Junior Team for one year. This particular year the Team went to the Mickey Mouse Cup in Italy and we finished 4th in the overall ranking.

Today water skiing is not my favourite any more, because wakeboarding got more important for me. You can have more fun with your friends in the boat and relax on the lake while the others ride. It's more of a group sport than waterskiing where everybody trains on his own.

Basketball

Well what can I say about basketball? I started playing in high school in Bad Ischl and played in Salzburg at the Union Basketball Club Salzburg for 2 years. Then in Hagenberg we had a little University hobby team and participated 4 times at the University masters in Linz and St.Pölten. We finished twice at 1st place and twice at 2nd place which was quite ok. Now I play mostly in summer in St.Wolfgang at our nice outdoor streetball court near the soccer fields.

Snowboarding and Skiing

Winters in Austria are quite long and cold. Often we are lucky and get a lot of snow, so the mountains and skiresorts around St.Wolfgang are perfect for snowboarding and skiing.
I started skiing when I was 4 or 5 years old and till I was around 13 years old I trained a lot and participated in a lot of youth and junior competitions in Slalom and Giant Slalom races.
When I was 13 a lot of my friends started snowboading and, of course, I had to try it too. I took 2 private lessons at a snowboard school and I was able to go down as good as all slopes at our skiresorts. So it is really easy to learn snowboarding!!
From that time on I spent most of my winters on a snowboard. Our favourites at snowbaording changed a little bit over the last few years. First, when we started, it was fun to go down the slopes and ride in fun parks, but as you get better in snowboarding you start enjoying the backcountry of the skiresorts and you try to find the best powder runs you can find.
Now we are already that far, that we don't go boarding if it didn't drop fresh powder. Sometimes we even take our skies to have fun on the slopes if there is now powder to ride with the board.
Well but this is exactly what all snowboarders say. Sooner or later you find out that the real snowboarding happens in powder and this is the place where snowboards give you a much better experience than you could ever have with skies.