Thursday, January 03, 2008

The first of January has always been one of my favorite riding day of the year!!
Because you are riding with your friends and family, and because they are many less people on the hill due to that international hangover day!! This year I went riding in Bareges-La Mongie in the french Pyrénées.. The cool thing there, is that it’s warm, riding in the sunshine helps making it a better day!! And people from the south are friendly and smiling in all weathers. (www.tourmalet.com)
We just went crewsing down some slopes jibbing here and there..
We had a delicious home made soup up on the mountain with the extraordinary view on the Pic du Midi, which is one of the highest star observatory in Europe.. from which the panorama is absolutely fantastic! I highly recommend the visit of the site.. quite impressive place to see.. (www.picdumidi.com)
The snow conditions were good and that first small kicker of the park made that whole run totally worth it!! The park can be soo epic! it s shaped by the Ho5 crew (www.ho5park.com) good friends of mine who always make it super fun to ride..
Big ups to all who went riding on the first of January!!
And happy new year 2008!
aflore

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Published by anne-flore: 5:48 AM

Thursday, January 03, 2008

Hi all!! Yes I was in brazil for some surfing before the season really takes off!!
It felt soo great!! The trip was my brother, my boyfriend and I! We landed in Rio de Janeiro and directly drobe to Ubatuba on the beach of Itamambuca where you can surf all day long!! We found a sick Pousada (www.tocadoguaiamum.com.br) at the very end of the road.. we would wake up, grab the surfboards and walk to the beach.. we had to walk 5 min in the jungle and then cross a river to get to the beach!! We felt like adventurers..that place is soo sick!! All the 10 olds from the village surf there all day and they kill it!! They are mad good!! I got some surf tips from a 7 year old brazilian piece of woman who was surfing 1 meter waves!
After a week we drove back through Rio to Buzios.. the St Trpez of Brazil.. we found the good local spot just outside of Buzios in Tucuns, it felt so nice to be with just some locals and not the whole jet setters crowed.. we couldn’t speak a word of Portuguese.. but made friends with the other surfers in the water.. I got soo stoked to surf some waves that were kind of big for my swiss surf level.. anyways we got kind of tiered of the spot and went back to our paradise itamambuca for another week of chill and surf..
Which was soo awsome sick sweet yeah!! Loved it!!
Of course we went to Rio for another 3 or 4 days to enjoy Copacabana, ipanema, see the Christ and Dance Samba..
It felt quite funny to celebrate Christmas in the south atmosphere where where santa was melting under his red coat!!
Aight!! Up for winter now!! Cant wait to shred some powder!!

 

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Published by anne-flore: 5:47 AM

Thursday, January 03, 2008

I LOVE Japan!! Stoked to be there again for the Burton store Opening in Osaka!!

Japanese Madness. My ears and my eyes are overwhelmed lights, sounds and people everywhere.. polite, polite, maybe impossible, karaoke my favorite, sushi, crazy fashion, mini crewsers, best spray toilets ever, sake, photo, photo..

The cool thing on that trip was that we weren’t stock just between snowboarders.. Sweet to have Nicolas Muller in the crew as always but also gravis surfer Kassia Meador and Analog’s  Arto Saari!!
To honour japanese traditions we serve sake to all people coming to the event.. obviously we cheared with them, each of them and had a sip! But that was alright since there was only about 700 people.. Arto (wearing an dupa stylish 80’s wig) takes the mike and welcomes the crowed to the store opening with the gayest Carl Lagerfeld’s attitude ever!! Very fashionable..
The sake session is followed by a 3 hours signing session.. I find it hard to find 700 different very special dedicated comments to give to each of them.. so I just got artistic.. I drew moustaches, pretty flowers and about 650 I LOVE Nipon.. it s like writing fitness!!

Japanese people like to fire us with their digi cam.. so I just fire back with my plastic one way use camera!!

That super people shower luckily came to an end and the whole burton extended crew went for dinner.. I sit next to Moblow and his wig, he tells that girl who was wearing a moustache something like she was nice and doll, or something like that.. she didn’t like it and answered that she could beat him up.. I said he would love it!! So she punshed him in the eye and left him with nothing else then a black eye.. you shouldn’t mess around with those girls who wear the moustache!! The night goes on to a karaoke bar.. my all time favorite!!
Marc and I end up walking with no where to go in town.. a guy is pying in the street, I run and catch the perfect moment and angle.. all his friends laugh, so do i.. I really wish I hadn’t forgotten the cap on my almost digi and actually got the shot!!

The next day, the snowboarders crew travels to a dome.. tons of people come to watch.. they are like an orchestra.. I make them do the HOLA.. I take some family portraits etc.. everyone is so happy and friendly here!! Trevor sings, we sign tons of things.. everyone politely waits in line for hours.. that is what impresses me most from Japanese.. they are soo patient and respectfull!

The next day we are all in Tokyo for he first birthday of the burton store.. everyone sits down like kids in school..cute!! they watch the movie.. we get a huge cake in snowboard shape with bindings.. Jeremy Jones claims he is gay, some more pictures, signing and graffity later I drag Arto, his sushi and Moblow to a gay bar on a Monday night.. everything you need to become intimate with the bar tenders!! Some more karaoke and this trip made it to my top 3 favorite trips ever!! 1000 Thanks to my friend Kosuke who makes each of my Japanese experiences magic!!

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Published by anne-flore: 5:46 AM

Thursday, January 03, 2008

Hello my name is Anne-Flore I come from euroland, I hate cigarette smoke. I love chocolate, dancing, ice cream,  karaoke, yoga, laughing and surfing. My favorite colour is blue.. sometimes purple.. My favorite trick is bs 180.. easy but fantastic sensation!
This is how the camp stsarted.. Silli, Gretchen, some Radler all the girls and I..
I m not sure if I can teach anything.. besides how to brake your arm, knee and nose.. but anyways these girls are all here to have fun and fun snowboarding! That I can do for sure!! First day up in the blizzard.. we ride all day but cant see shait! my crew is extra motivated they keep on riding even when everyone is down already! it s only once the lifts close that they finally give up! Ouf!! I was ready for some rest!! Back to the hotel room! Silli goes yeah!! Let s go to the gym.. she drags me in.. and then to the swimmingpool! The pool  was cool! All the girls are in there.. 3 poor boys are lost in the female crowd.. we play with it.. we follow them around.. they pretend we are not there.. 3 boys for 23 girls What!? They get scared and leave.. boys.. soo sensitive..
Aight dinner and sleep.. I m smashed!
Second day blue bird! Sweet!! The park is groomed! On the mountain I find some of my filming boddies.. Mone gives me a slash everytime he passes me.. haha! It s Aleksi Vanninen’s birthday.. the method TV crew is here too! it s like the day back on snow! Ok girls!! We are gonna do some runs!!
What do you want to do? Anything special?
-I want to ride the box!!
-I want to learn how to do an alley oop
-I want to do a 360
-I want to learn how to jump!!
Woaw!! Ok well The pipe is super fun today so we are gonna start with that!
We ll do alley oops and we ll use the very end of the pipe as a mini jump.. where we ll do fs 180.. then we ll hit the rollers and we ll do some bs 180.. aight!! Runs after runs, makarena after the lasso dance in the lift line, the girls were just killing it!! YEEHAH!!
 By the end of the day the could all do alley oops on both fs and bs, cab, fs and bs 180 some perfect fs 360 too and box tricks!! that s a lot of new tricks in one day!! Plus they are cool I m having a great time! aight we go down but hey!! Here is an après ski party!! YEEHAH!! Let s dance like mad!! And for once, I m not the only one on the dance floor!! That s the best part of hanging out with girls!! They are always up for a good time!! Sweet!
We get down and all get a massage!! I like!!
Tonight is the party night! We go up in a typical Austrian Mountain Hut!
We order tons of food.. Wiener Schnitzel, Schpatzle and some salads.. we all jumped on it and the only left overs were the poor fitness salads.. no time to waste on that kind of boring stuff! Ten comes Peter.. or whatever his name was.. he plays acordeon and sings après ski songs!! Everyone holds each other’s arm, sit dances with each other, klaps hands and sings! That s what I call a good time!! all faces happy! Then we dance.. Gretchen looses a bet.. and get to dance on the bar.. I m glad I did not play that bet! That s for sure!!
The next day we are all kind of tired.. but still the girls are cool!! They ride no mater what!! We have more then snowboarding in comun.. we share the passion for FUN and GOODTIMES!! YEEHAH!!
I still think I m not any good at teaching anything but hey!! I had such a good time!! cant wait to do it again!!!

Thanks to all the Oakley crew and to the girls!! That was an amayzing trip!
You can check the Oakley camps on
www.womencamps.o-juice.de
www.oakleywomen.com

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Published by anne-flore: 5:45 AM

Thursday, January 03, 2008

Chaque ete, je vais au Chili avec Victoria Jealouse et Natasza Zureck pour le photoshoot Burton. Ce qui me rejouis le plus c’est qu’on rejoint les 2Tiempos, un crew de riders qui ont ramenes des sleds au chili. Du coup ils nous emmenent sur les spots incroyables et inaccessibles des Andes..  Cette annee on va a Lonquimay, une parcelle abandonee du pays.. C’est au bout le plus sud de la route.. après elle s’arrete et il faut retraverser et longer du cote argentin avant de finallement retrouver le chili sur la pointe du continent sud-americain..

Le camion des 2Tiempos vient nous chercher a l’aeroport, un enorme camion amenage maison avec 2 sleds suspendues au dessus de 3 autres autres submergees par nos boardbags.. La route est longue et on s’arrete a Chipilemu, un spot de surf ou les vagues sont monstrueuses ce jour la.. E N O R M E S !! Des Tubes de 12 metres off shore!!

On n’arrive a Lonquimay que le lendemain soir.. il fait trop chaud et la neige fond a grosses goutes! On part explorer les environs avec les sleds mais la neige est vraiment mauvaise! Impossible d’imaginer faire quoi que ce soit  sur cette colle! Deception.. Apres deux jours de photoshoot en studio pour le catalogue et puisqu’il pleut encore, on decide d’aller voir le marche local.. J’adore les missions culturelles et shopping avec Victoria! Qu’est ce qu’on rigole! (et qu’est-ce qu’on achete!) je me suis ruee sur les cagoules en laine tricotees mains pour les jours de sleds et plus encore sur les boucles d’oreilles.. et j’etais pas la seule!

La pluie ne nous lache pas! Heureusement que Victoria a la langue facile! Elle nous raconte des histories acadabrantes avec le son ssurrounded et les grimaces! Le soleil pointe son nez pour le dernier jour de ride.. Tous curieux et excites de pouvoir enfin trouver des spots, on s’est d’abbord enlises dans la boue! Mais les mecs etaient persuades de pouvoir nous en sortir et nous pousser jusqu en haut de la cote.. bien evidemment ca n’a pas marche et ca leur a mis une heur avant de s’avouer vaincus! Du coup on a pris les sleds en traversant la route tous les 50 metres pour trouver un passage entre les buissons, les clotures, la riviere et la boue.. tu parles d’un parcour d’obstacle! Toute la neige avait fondue et il a vraiment fallu forcer le passage!
 
C’est donc 3 heures plus tard qu’on atteint le sommet de la premiere crete.. qui donne sur une gigantesque riviere de lave qui date d’une explosion de 1988.. M A L A D E !
On etait juste a cote du volcan, du coup j’ai decide de grimper jusqu au sommet du crater..
La pente etait faite de gravillons volcaniques chauds qui s’ecroulait sous mes pas, je me demandais a quell moment j’allais etre emportee par un jet de lave..
La chaleur avait creuse des caves dans les metres de neiges encore la, et de la vapeur s’en echapait de temps a autre..  J’etais vraiment contente d’y etre montee!
La premiere et certainement aussi la derniere foi que j’etais au somment d’un volcan actif! Et puis j’ai pris ma GTwin et je suis descendue en ridant..

TROP BIEN! Voila pour cette annee en amerique du sud en esperant que la neige sera meilleur l’annee prochaine!

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Published by anne-flore: 5:45 AM

Thursday, January 03, 2008

Chaque ete, je vais au Chili avec Victoria Jealouse et Natasza Zureck pour le photoshoot Burton. Ce qui me rejouis le plus c’est qu’on rejoint les 2Tiempos, un crew de riders qui ont ramenes des sleds au chili. Du coup ils nous emmenent sur les spots incroyables et inaccessibles des Andes..  Cette annee on va a Lonquimay, une parcelle abandonee du pays.. C’est au bout le plus sud de la route.. après elle s’arrete et il faut retraverser et longer du cote argentin avant de finallement retrouver le chili sur la pointe du continent sud-americain..

Le camion des 2Tiempos vient nous chercher a l’aeroport, un enorme camion amenage maison avec 2 sleds suspendues au dessus de 3 autres autres submergees par nos boardbags.. La route est longue et on s’arrete a Chipilemu, un spot de surf ou les vagues sont monstrueuses ce jour la.. E N O R M E S !! Des Tubes de 12 metres off shore!!

On n’arrive a Lonquimay que le lendemain soir.. il fait trop chaud et la neige fond a grosses goutes! On part explorer les environs avec les sleds mais la neige est vraiment mauvaise! Impossible d’imaginer faire quoi que ce soit  sur cette colle! Deception.. Apres deux jours de photoshoot en studio pour le catalogue et puisqu’il pleut encore, on decide d’aller voir le marche local.. J’adore les missions culturelles et shopping avec Victoria! Qu’est ce qu’on rigole! (et qu’est-ce qu’on achete!) je me suis ruee sur les cagoules en laine tricotees mains pour les jours de sleds et plus encore sur les boucles d’oreilles.. et j’etais pas la seule!

La pluie ne nous lache pas! Heureusement que Victoria a la langue facile! Elle nous raconte des histories acadabrantes avec le son ssurrounded et les grimaces! Le soleil pointe son nez pour le dernier jour de ride.. Tous curieux et excites de pouvoir enfin trouver des spots, on s’est d’abbord enlises dans la boue! Mais les mecs etaient persuades de pouvoir nous en sortir et nous pousser jusqu en haut de la cote.. bien evidemment ca n’a pas marche et ca leur a mis une heur avant de s’avouer vaincus! Du coup on a pris les sleds en traversant la route tous les 50 metres pour trouver un passage entre les buissons, les clotures, la riviere et la boue.. tu parles d’un parcour d’obstacle! Toute la neige avait fondue et il a vraiment fallu forcer le passage!
 
C’est donc 3 heures plus tard qu’on atteint le sommet de la premiere crete.. qui donne sur une gigantesque riviere de lave qui date d’une explosion de 1988.. M A L A D E !
On etait juste a cote du volcan, du coup j’ai decide de grimper jusqu au sommet du crater..
La pente etait faite de gravillons volcaniques chauds qui s’ecroulait sous mes pas, je me demandais a quell moment j’allais etre emportee par un jet de lave..
La chaleur avait creuse des caves dans les metres de neiges encore la, et de la vapeur s’en echapait de temps a autre..  J’etais vraiment contente d’y etre montee!
La premiere et certainement aussi la derniere foi que j’etais au somment d’un volcan actif! Et puis j’ai pris ma GTwin et je suis descendue en ridant..

TROP BIEN! Voila pour cette annee en amerique du sud en esperant que la neige sera meilleur l’annee prochaine!

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Published by anne-flore: 5:45 AM

Thursday, January 03, 2008

Back in Chile for the Burton’s summer photoshoot

Victoria Jealouse, Natasza Zureck and I  are going to Lonquimay which is about 10 hours drive from Santiago.. I love to come down here for the Burton summer photoshoot cause we team up with 2Tiempos, a sled company pull together by Christian Vahrhan.. this guys guys are dope! Los Andes are huge  and deep mountains with Volcanos and the sleds make them easily accessible.. they  avoid extra hiking too.. J

The Orange Truck came to pick us up at Santiago’s airport for a long drive.. we decided to stop at the ocean in Pichilemu on the way after we heard that the waves were huge that day! And they were! Man I had never seen such big waves and by the time we got there, they were much smaller they said! The morning of the same day some Chilean surfers had droped into 12 meters high waves.. one of the surfers even just paddled into it! C R A Z Y !
Last year one of them had won the Billabong XL Award on one of these waves..
I m glad we got to see that! Cause traveling like mad I often don’t get the opportunity to see anything else then mountains..

We got here in Lonquimay which is a very remote place, in poor snow conditions.. the worse snow conditions I had ever seen actually! After a day of scoping and a day of studio shoot we went to the Market waiting for the rain to stop.. that was cool! I got cool bellaclavas for the cold times.. like sledding days or bike missions or anything like that..
Victoria and I were on a mission.. we love south American markets and any cultural shopping days! And we got tons of really cool sick dope earings!

Victoria always has crazy stories to tell.. and this time she came prepared with tons of dvds and printed sheets etc.. she is rad! Finally the weather cleared up for the last day.. all excited and curious on what we would find we first got stuck about in the mud.. but the guys thought they had big muscles and could push us through that crazy f*cked up dirt road..
Only an hour later they admitted we wouldn’t make it.. so we got on the sleds.. crossing the road bank from one side to the other.. trying to find a way through the bush the river the houses and the dirt.. most of the snow had melted and the way was hard to find..

We finally made it to the top of the mountain from where we could see a huge lava river from a volcano that exploded in 88 I think..  C R A Z Y !
we were right next to the crater that exploded.. so I decided to hike and to check what was in there.. it took me quite wild to get to the top.. all rocks were falling under my feet and the heat coming out of the ground didn’t make me feel any more comfortable.. scared that I was gonna blow up the next second.. the crater was cool! The were caves sucked in the snow to deeper level of the earth.. with smoke coming out from time to time..
I felt blessed being up there! First and probably last time I was gonna be on top of a volcano! Then I straped in my Gtwin and rode the dirty black sticky snow down the volcano..
S T O K E D !

That’s it for 2007 Chile. Hopefully we ll get better conditions next year!

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Published by anne-flore: 5:44 AM

Thursday, January 03, 2008

august 2007

I…. Have the time of my life…<br>Taking Marty Kudelka's dance class!<br><br><br>Marty is one of the very best choreographers in the world.. He is directing Justin Timberlake's show all around the world and I met him while I was in NYC in august this summer..  I always loved dancing.. it s the one thing I always loved but never got the chance to get into.. or never took the time.. besides the party aspect of it of course.. but anyways.. Marty and his dancers.. while they are tour teach dance classes all around the world as soon as they get a day off! and I wouldn't have missed it for the world! <br><br>So here I am, in English Town at the Icon Dance Complex for my very first dance class given by the best dancers in the world! The first class was given by Nick Bass and he was way too good! I wasn't able to follow a single move.. but I was loving it! So I stayed for the second class given by Sky Hoffman.. and that one was dope!! He teached us some moves of Locking! Which is a super fun 70's west coast dance.. picture it: all dudes with huge pants up their chest with suspenders and exaggerating each move!! Hell fun! And I got lucky on that one cause Dana Wilson another pro dancer followed that class right next to me.. which allowed me to check her feet and gave me a chance to do some of the moves!! That class was for sure my favorite! Somehow it felt way easier by the fun of that dance style!! I had a smile stock up my face for the whole day after that! And I stepped to the side when Marty's class started.. it was quite impressive to see all these people following all these crazy moves! Insane! <br><br>Marty s got skills for sure! <br>And he loves snowboarding too! He went skiing for the first time when he was 25 in Big Bear Mountain.. holing ass through the whole park with the only solution crashing to stop! Then he learned how to turn and how to slow down.. Classic! Everything felt quite easy and he had a blast but after 2 days of skiing he decided to try snowboarding.. and that's where things got challenging he couldn't just go for it.. he had to work for things to happen the way he wanted to..  with crashing and the whole progression process.. and that's what made snowboarding interesting and fun.. since then Marty has been riding sick other spots like Mammoth and Whistler.. or Scotland!! Even though he seems to keep a quite bad memory of the Tbar that he wouldn't let go! His favorite grab would be a big suitcase!  Yeah! Marty!!
Check videos of Marty's class! Soo sick! google him! he s got sick dance videos on!
And THANK YOU MARTY so much for the good times!

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Published by anne-flore: 5:41 AM