28 Februar 2013

Swapping places?

I heard there might be a protest about the day we flew in really strong wind conditions at the worlds - if the day is cancelled, Primoz will move into 2nd place and Alex to 3rd. Manfred will still stay the world champion. Will be interesting to see how CIVL deals with a late protest.

07 Februar 2013

Ispo in Munich

It is always fun to visit Europe´s biggest trade show of sporting equipment. The latest gadgets and inventions are just waiting for curious people like me to be tested. At adidas eyewear, I could customize my own individual sunglasses. The computer "snapped" my face and clipped my design on, the sunglasses moved around with me on the screen. Very cool!
Many shops seem to go natural now, Ive never seen more brands with merino wool products as on this years ispo. But there´s nothing like the traditional Icebreaker original!
A huge crowd of people gathered in front of the GoPro exhibits - no wonder, they raffled two GoPro Hero3 black edition cameras off! I didn´t win unfortunately...
It was cool to see Sebastians F1 racing car with the GoPro mounts and cameras clipped to it, as well as some really cool flying footage of Kirby Chambliss in his Air Race plane!


05 Februar 2013

World of Red Bull app on Nokia!

Tonight one of my favourite events of the year - the ispo is on, many athletes are in Munich, and Red Bull invites their athletes and friends for dinner in a hip location, this time at the newly opened "Cordo" tapas bar. Always great to catch up with the crew from the Red Bull office. Also the chance to meet Bene Mayr, Matthias Dolderer, Tarek Rasouli and Guido Gehrmann, cheerful as ever.
With my new Nokia Lumia 920 I could use the World of Red Bull app to quickly check out the other athletes backgrounds - sure I have admired Chris Pfeiffer´s smooth tricks on the motorbike both on the screens in Munich airport (BMW tower) and he was incredible at the Race of Champions in Bangkok, performing right in front of my nose. I was in awe when I finally got to know this artist on wheels personally today, he is so chilled, down to earth and pleasant to talk to! Funny, I think each of us Red Bull athletes thinks that the other guys must be completely crazy to do what they do, and then we meet each other and find out we have an insaturable passion for our individual sport (which helps to build special skills), and we share the passion to cross limits and persue our dreams.
Cool to meet Austrian paraglider pilot Paul Guschlbauer who finished 3rd at the last Red Bull XAlps. I had so crossed my fingers for this talented young competitor to get to Monaco when I followed the race online, he did not fall short of too many km and he will compete again in the hardest race across the alps this year!
It´s fun when you try to find out where you met some of the athletes - Jason Paul, the amazing freerunner, was at the dinner tonight, I had also just met him in December in Bangkok. Talking to him at the Race of Champions, I was like, "What, you did THAT freerunning domino video??? Fantastic!" Tonight I just dialed into the Red Bull app and watched it again!
For the first time I met Robin Benzing, a pro basket ball star who plays for Munich. Next to his 2,08m I felt like a little child... he must have been 5 years old when he was my size ;)
After dinner at the "Cordo" tapas bar, Guido and Matthias dragged me into the Red Bull bus where the next friendly surprise was waiting with a loud "Attacke!!!" - there´s only one Schorschi Schauf, and I hadn´t met him for a few years now.
We had a few drinks while the bus took us to the adidas party where we picked up the next lot of people. The trip ended at the Muffathalle party (Ispo sports exhibition is on, so there are lots and lots of parties until Wednesday) which was great because then I could party a bit more with Guido and Matthias and then walk home.
And yes, I missed Mario Gomez who usually turned up as well (he is training in Frankfurt to play against France this Wednesday), but I´m sure he will be back next time as he seems to enjoy hanging out with some of us normal people from the Red Bull family!