On top of being a big plus, did you know the Swiss flag was square? I didn’t.
Where do I begin? Everything is so different.
From touchdown I was greeted by airport staff at customs. Unlike customs in Germany, they were very polite and let me through with minimal questions. Perhaps they are so confident that Swiss bureaucracy and due process will weed out the overstayers? Who knows.
When I first got here I was sick, and injured so I stayed indoors, in hopes my coughing would not pop out my shoulder (it didn’t, hurrah!), and ventured out with the significant other in small bursts.
So Basel is situated on the Rhine river, at the tripoint of Switzerland, France and Germany, several minutes walk from where I stayed. In the summer, the people congregate around and in the Rhine. Many jump in and float downstream to cool off (the temperature is often 30+ degrees during summer), and then get out and repeat. When you get bored, there are Biergartens by the river, and bbq areas! Delicious. If you float too far, you end up in Germany/France…which you probably shouldn’t do given the boat traffic further down the river. Not to mention that border security won’t be too pleased.
There’s also an annual event called the Rheinschwimmen, where people meet at about 6pm and then float down the river en masse. It was a fun sensation, having great conversation with friends while drifting down the river.
The way the city has been set out encourages people to use its amenities. In neighbourhoods, there are random table tennis tables in between buildings. There are also water fountains every few hundred metres in the city itself.
Why yes, that is a sculpture of a naked little boy strangling a duck with drinking water pouring out of its mouth.
There is much to see and do. In summer, there are free concerts at night on the banks of the Rhine, where bands perform on a floating pontoon.
View of the concert from one of Basel’s main bridges. If you look closely, there is a wee boat between the pontoon and the crowd. Their job is to sell beers during the concert. Great idea huh?
In Autumn, there is a massive festival/carnival, which I happened to miss. Boo.
In Winter, and much like many European cities, there are Christmas markets!
It looks like the movies because…it feels and looks exactly that way. Haha. The moose heads on the top of the picture periodically “talked” to each other and sang. Cool huh?
Yes, that is a Santa doll doing flips in the middle of the video. This is a Glühwein (mulled wine) stand in Basel. At Christmas markets, you will often find not one, but many stores selling this delicious concoction. And for those who do not imbibe, there is also hot spiced apple juice and hot chocolate.
Christmas markets sell local produce. The Christmas Market in Basel sells fondue stuffed bread, and the market in Colmar, France sold foie gras and escargot, amongst many other food items. There are also local artisanal wares - in Colmar, I chatted to a lady who had produced all the glass jewelery she was selling (for an excellent price too)! Super cool.
Also locks on the bridge are a thing here:
I wonder who came up with this idea. I am not romantic, but the colours and configuration are particularly pleasing to the eye.
City transportation is by bus, tram or train. Everything runs to the minute - so when your train timetable says it is leaving at 11:27am and arriving at the destination at 12:37pm, it will be there. Shockingly, skaters here appear on time, but most likely because most of us have trains to catch to reach the destination.
The architecture is old, and fantastic. The view from the bridges never gets old.
There are streets that wind through the city with gorgeous houses beside. Makes getting lost easy, and fun.
There is also a smattering of street art that one randomly encounters.
And a lot of churches in the city. So, in Switzerland, church bells toll every hour, and if one is flat hunting one must take note of proximity to a church. We lived for approximately a month in student accommodation near the university, which was in turn about 100 m from a church. The pealing of bells at 7am for several minutes was not very welcomed.
The picture of the offending church. But isn’t it beautiful?
Some of the older houses tended to be marked with the date it was first inhabited, with the name of the first owner. This is the oldest house I’ve found so far:
Yes, it was first inhabited in 1291, which means that this house could be several years older. I also found Erasmus’ old house in my walks around town! The University of Basel itself is the oldest university in Switzerland. Cool.
Switzerland seems to be an ode to what can be accomplished in long periods of peace. Basel city itself is prosperous and beautiful. Most people are highly patriotic and you will often spot small Swiss flags flying from houses in the city. And rightly so - it is an amazing country.
Oh the road again - Slovenia and the road back home
And the end of Kozakov featured more rain. Yup. Rain on the final day, splattering the tents as people rose from their drunken stupor into a hazy hangover haze.
Because we had 4 skaters with skate gear it took us awhile to have everything tetris-ed up well enough to allow us to sit comfortably until our next destination - KNK, Slovenia!
KNK is a long standing successful freeride that takes place in Osilnica, Slovenia. The road looks like this:
And we were frothing as we drove down. Hairpin after hairpin after glorious hairpin.
We made our way from the Czech Republic to the tiny town of Osilnica. The highways were dotted with castles, ruins and several minarets which really gave you a sense of the history of a place.
We eventually reached the campsite; a soccer field at the base of an adventure themed hotel! We arrived after the sun set, but I’m sure you guessed that already.
We set up camp, bracing ourselves for a downpour that was forecasted to happen during the night. Whilst setting up in the dark, a tall figure walked by and stopped at our wee group. Turns out it was one of my dearest skate buddies from the Netherlands.
Bart <3!
Ladies, hit me up because I think he might be single (well, I can ask him for you). I bunked in Bart’s tent and caught up while watching a movie. Great catch up.
The freeride started at 11am the next day, which was great because sleep-ins are amazing and I am not a morning person. I went to have breakfast at the hotel, which was only 5 euro for a massive buffet spread, or free for people who had paid for accommodation. We learned that waffles were in high demand and that one had to wake early to obtain said waffles. The announcement of “They have waffles!” was usually followed by a skater stampede.
I had been warned about the food at this hotel. Warned that it was alarmingly good food. Dinner was 5 courses - soup, salad, bread, mains and dessert. All for 7.50 euro. A vial of pumpkin seed oil was also provided at every table and it really complimented their cooking. Unfortunately we totally demolished their pumpkin seed oil stock by day 4...whoops. One of my most favourite things at KNK was chilling and eating with the other skaters. Great vibes and company.
We headed to the hill. It was awesome to finally go downhill on a mountain I’d heard so much about and to get some gnarly close skating!
Unfortunately, I got bricked on the second day...or you could say I got Pross-ecuted during a film run with Emily. Ouch.
Thanks Emily. Kidding. We’re still bros. Maybe.
When one gets bricked, what can one do? Well. I got some free beer. I also did a lot of face swaps.
Great photobomb by Brendon that I only noticed a month or two down the track.
I look great with a beard!
I also partied with team broke-off on corner 8.
As I really dislike living life vicariously watching people skate down a hill was not as exciting as actually skating down a hill. So I stayed back at camp one day, explored the little town of Osilnica, and then walked to Croatia.
Walking to Croatia wasn’t nearly as epic as it sounds because the campsite was situated next to a stream, that stream being the border for Croatia and Slovenia. Handy eh? Some skaters had even put up a slackline across the river. Probably one of the few times you could say you had slacklined or swum to another country.
Croatia and Slovenia simultaneously!
On the penultimate day of KNK, I caught the dreaded KNK flu. I have a theory that patient zero in Europe, the harbinger of the flu is the Eurotour. We meet, party, skate, live in close proximity...and spread the flu to our numerous countries when we return.
And on that note, I flew out of Ljubljana (I can finally pronounce it!!) to my new home, Basel. I had read several weeks before that there was an attempted coup in Turkey. Despite this and because the significant other booked my ticket out I had a brief transit in Turkey. The airport seemed to be a melting pot of Africa and Europe - amazing cultural dresses and Western culture. And I discovered there was more than one kind of Baklava. It looked amazing.
As I boarded my flight to Basel I was met with a cheery message from the airline:
Yikes.
Despite the slightly ominous/intense message, it was a rather uneventful flight to my new home. Cheers to new beginnings and adventures!
I personally think it’s called the Kozakov challenge purely because it’s a challenge to do all the parties (often ending past 3am) and skate all the runs. I personally rate my attempts as 6/10 for skating and 4/10 for partying. Disappointing, but always room to improve in the next year. ;)
We finally reached the Kozakov track at 1am. We drove up and down the track, awe-stricken and sleep deprived. It is as narrow as it looks in the videos and steeper.
I managed to find a friend’s tent, asked her sleepy permission to crash beside her, and went to sleep.
Unfortunately for us it was placed on a slope, and had no shelter from the sun. The thing they don’t tell you when you’re travelling is that sleeping bags + tent = very little friction. Whenever I turned, the slope threatened to avalanche me into my friend, who was sleeping downslope. And we both woke at 7am because circadian rhythms (i.e. too much sun in zee face). I wandered around the campsite. It was in-tents (geddit, intense?? Bwahhaha).
Team Sweden obviously arrived on time and had time to put up a midsummer pole (see the vegetation above the Swedish flag).
Day 1 was a freeride day. We took it chill and made some breakfast before attempting to make it down the track.
Then we got geared up and made our way to the start line. Heart pounding, I pushed off, following my friend who told me the track was “chill”. I’m no pro obviously, but I made it safely down, hairpin after hairpin. I had finally skated a run of the legendary Kozakov! And to top it off there were cherries lining the bottom straight where the buses were. Nom.
The thing about this track is that it is well deserving of its World Cup status. It’s fast, very technical, smooth and there are so many ways you could play the race game. There are also raspberries which line the track - perfect for snacking if you’re intending to rage quit/spectate.
The campsite was well furnished. Portaloos that were regularly emptied, a canteen at the top which served breakfast, lunch and dinner, a rider’s party tent which served as a meal tent and two other party tents. There was also a mini ramp and small inflatable pool.
Kozakov is super lit - take it as chill or as intense as you want it. Quintessential skate life I’d say.
Quick shot of the start line.
We also golfed into the sunset. Fun.
I skated the 77a Longboardmodels’ the whole time. Interestingly this was the first time I really tested them out. The grip of these things is awesome and the slides were mmmmmm. I finally realised why freshies were the shizz. They felt so good sliding fresh when going fast (yes, you were right Paddy). Thanks LBM!
Pic of me railing through the scary 90km/h corner. Eeeek. Poor form, due to lack of practice prior to the Eurotour. Would highly recommend practice prior to attempting the eurotour.
And true to my normal routines I decided to switch bushings on qualification day, and got the hookups from the Venom boys, and “I told you so” looks from my friends. Thanks dudes, much appreciated!
Loved the vibes from the skate community. Everyone was friendly, approachable and up for some banter. We’re all friends off the race track anyway.
(insert warm fuzzy feelings here)
We had a chance to explore the nearby towns. Loving the architecture.
And their cuisine. We were introduced to a diner (Rokabar) by the French Canadians. I love Czech food so much - SO MUCH GARLIC IN EVERYTHING.
Fully satisfied (geddit? Fully? Bwahahaha).
The party on the last night was especially lit. In short, Emily made a mix, Rachel kept topping it up with 40% pear liquor...I went to sleep on my skateboard, missed the awards ceremony, someone dropped crutches on my head, I got shot in the knee by a roman candle as the Swedish people danced around the burning midsummer pole and the French girls (+ an american Bagel) started a water fight and tackled/wrestled each other to the ground.
It rained so much in Austria that we couldn’t wait to leave. In short, I know I will have to come back to properly explore Austria because it was amazing. Imagine stark mountains cliffs plunging into a lake, or rising from flat land, and 14% gradient roads - Austria is gorgeous and full of contrasts. Shame it rained so hard on the mountain.
I partied hard in my gumboots and Kathmandu leggings, ensuring appropriate New Zealand representation.
But here’s a cool picture of some of the riders during qualification.
If you look at the ground it appears dry, which was probably not the case. It also wasn’t raining at that time which is probably why they were smiling.
Obligatory photo of me, at the top of the track (thanks Daniela).
*epic orchestral music plays*
I also managed to take some photos of parts of the camp, on the rare occasion it was dry and we were at camp.
Call me childish but I love it when things don’t make sense if not translated (the mountain we were on was called Loser). Teehee.
So after the festivities we travelled away from the pouring rain, over the border to the Czech Republic. The rain stopped when we made our way off the mountain. Murphy’s Law hey?
My friend standing in Austria and the Czech Republic, simultaneously. The fact you can be in two countries at once still blows my mind, especially coming from New Zealand where our border is the sea.
We left Austria intending to overnight in a small town called Tisa in the Czech Republic. En route to our destination we were stopped by the Czech police who pulled us over (maybe we looked suspicious?). They took their time checking our cars at the gas station, and we played ninja to pass the time. If you don’t know what ninja is, you need to ask me next time, and I will teach you. It is quite possible the best group game ever.
We finally reached Tisa past midnight and found an abandoned house to stay in. Drinking games were played and we slept much later than we should have.
We also woke too early the next morning. Thank goodness for stove top coffee. All hail coffee who gives us strength to fight against natural sleeping patterns.
If you look closely you’ll see the bags under my eyes. Running on 2-3 hours sleep yo.
A view of the tiny cabin we slept in, by day. Yes, the windows had already been broken, which allowed for adequate ventilation.
First things first - breakfast by the lake, and a swim and slackline. The lake was was the closest thing to a shower I had had in awhile. Here’s a pic of the boys, post-swim, post-slackline and pre-lunch.
And next, skating a road nearby the lake! No pictures, cause busy skating.
We then went for an amazing dinner (4 items for under 15 euros!). First time I had been full in a long time.
I also got to pet a bear (ok, it was a dog).
And true to skater fashion we finally reached Kozakov at 1am. #teamtakeforever
A brief update about Austria sans racing because their sauna blew my mind - more on the whole race experience when I have wifi and time to type. Apologies for the lack of pictures - and one really shouldn't be taking these at the sauna because it'd look really dodgy. The above photo is an aerial photo of the Narzissen Bad Aussee spa we visited (sans snow). Picture this - salt water open air spa spanning the perimeter, allowing one to look over the forest, with reclined surface in the water…with massaging jets. So. Much. Yes. There was an additional 5 dollar fee to visit the saunas on the second level the We only realised later that these were naked saunas.. Which is apparently the norm. It quickly became ok because really, no one cared what you looked like. There were 60 - 90 degree dry sauna rooms. There were also Turkish saunas which were basically hot steam rooms - by far my fav. There was beer and schnitzel. There was a local band that walked around with their tubas and accordions. There was also a Turkish sauna where the sauna master ladled honey into our hands and you'd put it all over your body. I found out that honey in the eyes stings, a lot. My skin felt amazing after. It was also women's night. Which meant we all hung out in the 80 degree sauna drinking prosecco with the sauna master throwing melon smelling water onto the hot coals and blowing the steam around the room with his towel. There was even a relaxation spa room. You'd dip your ears into the water and float around suspended in the water, listening to soothing music being piped into the water. I forgot the fact that I had been skating in the pouring rain and camping for the past 3 days. I was reborn. I cannot recommend the sauna experience enough!
I write with the flu from Gotenburg, Sweden, on a Swedish keyboard I am struggling to type with (I can't find the apostrophe, so I am cutting and pasting from Google Translate).
It has been an amazing few days in Lillehammer, Norway. Absolutely stunning country with beautiful people and crew, with first rate facilities everywhere.
Trains are on time (or early) - something NZ could do well to follow.
A bad aerial photo coming into Oslo, and Norway still looks amazing.
Triangle shaped milk on the plane. Fascinating. Perhaps it is easier to pack and therefore signifies the Scandanavian commitment to efficiency? We may never know.
Met up at the airport with some fellow shredders and hopped on the train to Lillehammer! For those of you who are unaware, the track is the road that leads up to the ski jump area for the 1994 Winter Olympics. It also hosted the 2016 Winter Youth Olympics. Rad!
This is the ski jump beside our race track we'd occasionally see ski jumpers doing jumps as we drove back up the hill. This picture doesn't capture how blimmin' steep the ski jump was. We also saw people practicing skiing uphill, for cross country skiing. I was told it was probably the most Norwegian thing one could do.
Another bad photo, taken at midnight - but illustrative of the fact the sun doesn't set. The sun rose again at 2am. Eye masks for sleeping are highly recommended.
Breakfast at Birkenbiener was amazing. Not pictured here were the different salamis, salmon, cheeses and drinks you could get.
Day 1 of freeriding was amazing. 12 to 13 runs, and I managed to get some footage! I may upload it later once I'm more settled.
Some new friends - the beautiful Lorenza (Sweden) and Linn (Norway).
Lyde and Rachel. “Pass me the mayonnaise” - Lyde.
We made lunch sitting next to cow poop. Which was sorta ok because it smelled a bit like blue cheese, and not totally like poop.
Day 2 was rainy, with no qualification times. Still, we managed to make it out to the city centre after 2 runs for unlimited pizza. Yum.
Spend the evening lurking with Lorenza around camp and ended up hanging with the Scandanavian skaters in the evening. What a rad and welcoming crew (with many moustaches). Which makes sense given that the organising group is called TMI - The Moustache Initiative.
The late nights meant by day 3 (race day!) I was so tired and sick (caught the flu on my first day here) I took naps in my fullface and leathers. The advantage of wearing both was that naps were very comfortable on muddy, rocky ground. The disadvantage was that it was only ergonomic to sleep with my head facing up, which meant I snored. My snores were amplified by my closed helmet, which meant I snored myself awake. Awkward.
Women's podium!
Racing was fun, but I kept crashing (boo). Still, alles in butter (everything is great) and lots of race learning this Eurotour!
We left an hour or so after podium to a friend's place in Sweden. I had to take a photo of this on the way. The above structure is actually a toilet.
With a beautiful view over the Fjords while pooping. Norway, you are so first class.
I was told by the locals that Lillehammer was pretty average looking compared to the rest of the country - I will definitely be back to have a proper tourist look around.
Takk skal du ha Lillehammer! Onward to Austria tomorrow for the next race, a 16 hour drive that will take us through Denmark - Germany (or Czech Republic) - Austria!
Or translated non-literally - everything is great.
German sayings are amazing. Just like the country.
It’s odd being in another country and I guess it’s a bit cliched when I say that most things are different - food, language, culture and even smells. Biergartens take place of cafes (or sit besides them).
Was greeted at the airport by a dear friend, who kindly brought me German beer for consumption as we traveled along the autobahn. Apparently it’s always beer o’clock at his place.
Managed to squeeze in a skate and a crash course in driving a manual car at high speed.
A sign besides the hairpins we were skating. Apparently horse drawn carts aren’t allowed. That’ll show you, you hooligans.
Also found (and ate) wild strawberries. Aren’t they cute?
We also went to the zoo, which was free. No pictures of the animals we saw (they were pretty varied!) but got a picture of a mohawk bunny!
Feeling the rebellion.
Klappe zu, Affe tot., that’s all folks! Or translated literally - close the lid, the monkey is dead.
First leg en route to the Eurotour. I love Singapore! Clean, safe, amazing facilities and delicious food.
On the down side, the rat race is very apparent in Singapore - crowded commuter trains in non peak hours, a never ending flow of humans on the way to their next destination, a city that doesn’t sleep (well,not heavily anyway).
First things first after landing - FOOD!
Mmmm, chilli crab.
1.3kg of crabby goodness!
And after the overnight stay at my relatives’ house.. more travelling, and more food at the airport. Singapore’s Changi Airport so massive that they have ETAs on their signage. I guess it pays to not miss your flight.
The sheer scale of the airport is mind boggling.
Managed to finally explore the butterfly garden at the airport. Humid but a pretty rad attraction - a waterfall, pitcher plants and of course, butterflies.
Pretty.
Pretty awkward.
And after, a 12 hour flight to Frankfurt - a Singapore Sling to tide me on my journey.
And now, an introduction to another on of my passions. Freediving!
Gliding in the ocean is the closest thing I think one can get to controlled flight. The rocky reefs, the denizens of the sea and the underwater forests are magical, even despite the chilly water (and I have my open cell suit to thank for that. We had a seal circle us, I was cut off by a massive stingray literally an arm's length away and had fish come out of the seaweed to have a geez at what I was doing.
Managed to get three paua despite my obvious noobness. Stoked. Decided to not use the speargun this time since I was just getting my bearings in the water. Next time I will go home with a fishy dinner :D.
Dive day today! Beautiful visibility. Loads of fish but still trying to get the hang of stalking and using the sling spear - new respect for pole fishers. Saw two pods of dolphins and friend caught a cray. What a rad day.
: skated the Rimutakas, learned 5 different squat slide variations & no grab toesides and raced 32km around the bays today. Legs have seized, and the knee is swollen but great weekend!
Regram from @emilylongboards selfie run on Ruapehu after the finals with the Prossecutor, Ling and Julia! Great way to end the event. I'm a lot happier than my face is looking, hah
Exploring waterfalls at Mt Ruapehu after torrential rain and gale force winds. Fingers crossed for fine weather for qualification today. #rgf2016 #waterfall #skatetrip #ruapehugravityfestival
Had a great time racing in Mt Keira. Flowy corners and some pretty concentrated chunder where you'd least expect it. Qualified 2nd, finished 4th. Tight heats. Crashed a bit and learned a lot. Bring on Ruapehu!
