(Ferit - Frontside Kneebender in the Oververt)
King of the Ramp.
And there I was. On the way to Kufstein in Austria after Deeli had asked, no earlier then two days before, if I could go and shoot some Pictures at the King of the Ramp contest.
Rushing in to such a situation dosen‘t leave much time to think about what to expect and since nobody had time or motivation to join me I was alone. Who would be there? Would I know anybody? Would anybody talk to me?
I knew that the Austrians are friendly guys but somehow I felt lonely and questioned if I had made the right decission. The boarder came closer and the sun went down over the my beloved swiss landscape. I left the safety of my precious homeland and darkness awaited me in a country not so much different from my own, yet unknown.
And what a darkness it was! Arriving at the ‚Batzenhäusel‘, the Restaurant where Roman Astleitner invited his quests for dinner, I felt like entering a movie. The tables had this old deep brown color which they get after years of sweat, smoke and spilled beer and driping. The seiling was low and the warm clouds of cheese, onions and ham blended with the smoke and odours of the guests. The Skaters and Media were already enjoiing the Tiroler Spätzle and Patatoas with ham. I squeezed myself in between and imediatly had a large beer, a plate and the pans with that kind of food in front of me that allows your stomach to handle heavy attacks of liquids. I knew nobody, but felt perfectly comfortable.
Barely finished with eating I noticed that some sort of mashine was in use by some skaters at an other table. When I asked what was up with that the guys just smirked and asked if I never had heard of the drinking games they had? Obviously not. I took a closer look and saw that huge glasses with small hoses were arranged in a way that created a vacum and actually pressed the liquid, some sort of white-wine-sugar-lemonwater mix, into your mouth, allowing a much faster drink. With a raised eyebrow I ordered a nother beer and thought that I didn‘t need such a blast.
The next thing I know a guy with heavy boots and one those typical Tirolan leather shorts which you see in travel catalogues hops on the table, points a davie crocket waterbag at the guy next to me, squeezes it and shoots a jet of that whitewine mix into my neighbours mouth. I just had enough time to realise that I had no other choice than to say ‚ahhh‘ before the jet hit my mouth.
The guy, who turned out to be Leo the owner, kept shooting jets across the tables with an astonishing precision. The only choice to avoid it was to either close your mouth and get all the wine over your face or to hide under a table. Needles to say that everybody was screeming and laughing a great aplause when the bag was empty.Two minutes later the guy comes back with blinking Flashlights attatched to his head and a modified fire extinguisher which would shoot stronger jets of the wine mix into everybodies mouth.
That waiter really knows how to entertain his guest and must have a faible for creating machines that keep the spirits high. Other inventions were a mug made of lead so heavy that you barely could take a sip, a mashine which blasted snuff up your nose with a bang, a self-servive schnaps automat built on to a long wooden arm which could be swung over the guests heads across the tables and a hydraulic table which moved passed outs back into a upright position or lett you spill your drink by suddenly moving up or downwards.
Plus he knew exactly when the point was reached to ask his guests to leave, avoiding a desaster. If you know how to let everybody drink so much in such a short time you also need to know when you have to kick them out. And if everybody had a good time nobody will be pissed if you do so.
So much about the first night..
(Roman - Method Transfer in to the Bowl)
After a moderate breakfast and a cold shower the contest day started and Horwarth, Hackl and me headed towards the Skatehall. No wonder we first had to wait for a while until the first locals arrived with the keys. I thought that after we had to drag some of the Tschec Riders back to the hotel (we learnd later that one of them couldn‘t find his room and had to sleep on the hallway..) the other Skaters would go home to. The late arrival of the others prooved us wrong.
Anyway, time to check the Hall. The Kufsteiner Skatehall is built and run by the locals, lead by Roman Astleitner. They manage to built something new every year bringing consecutive variaty into the contest. What started as a local fun contest has meanwhile a reputation of being one of the best transition contests in the german speaking area. The fact that the Hall barely allows more spectators than riders and the arrangement of the Ramps where every corner is used to the fullest leads to a sort of ‚cave feeling‘. The seelings are low and if you want to get from one corner to an other you have no other choice than crossing the constantly used miniramps. I pitty any Fotografer who isn‘t used to the crossfire of a contest..
The dense arrangement of wallride, spine, miniramp with two depts and the bowl which is transfered to the mini and has an oververt corner, allows various lines without letting them realy cross eachother. There is actually only one dead spot where a corner hides some of the park. The only collision I remember was there and didn‘t cause any casualties. But enough of those Details, if you wnat to know how it really is go and have a look yourself.
How should I describe the contest? Intense? Yes! Fast? Definately! High Level? For sure.
The format of the runs was a bit different then at other contests. There was no division into qualification and finals. 20 minutes were given to five groups of three riders. If you have ever taken part in a contest you know that alone one minute can be exhausting. Now imagine 20 minutes.. Right - the Skaters tore at their substance which was weekend anyway due to the previous night and were fucked after the runs. However, the advantage of this format was that the long run time gave the skaters time to get on fire and do tricks that needed some attempts, something you normally can‘t wait for at a normal contest. There were phases were you could literally feel the heat.
I can‘t remember all the tricks but some chunks of memories I‘ll keep forever. Like David Martelleur inhaling all the energy around him before droping in and doing a crail slide out of the oververt down the Coping. Or Benny Buchwald doing massive Fs 360 grabs over the Spine. Somebody told me later on that he broke his shoulder earlyer, but that couldn‘t stop him from riding his run. An other Memory includes Ferit Bartir doing Fs airs out and back into the oververt while nearly hitting the seeling. Like if it weren‘t enough he added a backside fastplant in the same corner. Roman Hackl and Roman Astleitner had consistent runs doing Tricks everywhere and somewhere inbetween there was Sasha Biehaule doing incredibly smooth bs noseblunt reverts over the spine and even a Bs 180 to Nosestall transfer from the Mini into the Bowl. I don‘t think many people noticed his switch backside flip to tail during the Best Trick Contest because it looked regular and the others were killing the extension. Martelleur won that one with a Frontside Fingerflip to tail and a Pivot to Backtail revert for which he took some realy heavy beetings. Partyman Oliver Gordon, who had been hanging like a monkey from the ventilation tube during his wallrides, must have thought that he could do equally well and placed his nose on the back of the extension before throwing himself earlygrab over and into the transition. On some attempts it looked like he slammed directly into the flat but in the end he made it and should have got an extra evil kenievel award.
Did I forget someone? Ahh.. Yes. The Winner of the contest, Jürgen Horwarth. Somehow it was unfair for the others because this guy seems to be playing in a different league. If somebody can fly over Danny Way‘s Monsters the Transitions in Kuftein must have been like the backdoor miniramp you rode during preschool. Alone the Ollie to Fakies out of the quarter into the top of the wallride he did to get speed for a halfcab transfer into the bowl were ridiculous. He transfered all over and killed the Oververtcorner with fullspeed Back Lipslides, Front Tailslide; Back Tailslide and I think I remember a Back Smithgrind. With such control and finessen there was no doubt that Jürgen rode better than anyone else.
(Asti - One Foot Nosegrab over the Spine)
I was glad that I had made the decission to go there. The Batzenhäusl, the contest the great people I got to meet and the big party in the evening made it a trip I‘ll never forget. Taking the train the next mornig suddenly seemed a lot harder than expected, partly because of a headache and partly because I knew that this exhilarating feeling would soon be gone. Coming home was like plunging back into reality. The show was over. But it will go on. Next Spring.
