ABOUT
It all started in 1999 when a friend of mine came up with a small 3.5m kite and a buggy. We didn’t know anything about ramair kites nor buggys so we had to learn by doing. Quickly we figured out that the kite was too small and we go in touch with Libre which was based just 50km away from us. Libre supported us and hooked us up with their team riders and local kiters. This was in autumn ’99 when we managed to buggy a little on the fields. The snow came and we changed the buggy to skis and snowboards. Still full beginner level and the high performance race kites we were using didn’t help either. The Libre Team took me to the annual Snowkite Race European Championship in Silvaplana in 2000. There was a handful or bit more participators at this time. It was good training for me and I learned a lot. I practiced every minute I could – hard work in the mountains I come from with nasty gusty winds. The following years up to 2006 I entered loads of completions for buggy racing as well as snowkite freestyle and race.
Some might remember my crazy high jump back in 2003 during the Corona Snowkite Tour at the Col du Lautaret in France. It’s probably been the first jump of this style which is nothing really special nowadays.
Ended up on the podium loads and worked in the industry for 8 years as well. The last 5 years for Ozone as a sales manager in Germany as well as manager for the website, team and technical support. I do all kind of kite sports but snowkiting is where my true love is. In no other sport you are able to discover, explore and play that much. Since I discovered how to use the snowkite in the mountains in 2004 I stopped competitions completely as I didn’t feel that I have to wait for my heat all day long instead of playing in the backcountry. I felt the potential right away using the kite as my personal ski lift away from the busy ski resorts or flats. My kites are my preferred backcountry tools and I’m happy Ozone is building the best kites therefore and is still pushing the sport as no other company. I’m happy that I found like minded kiters in Switzerland, Ronny and Patrick, who are two complete snowkite lunatics as well. With them I hooked up as much as possible and we discovered some amazing new spots around the Alps. Often we had to skin up many hours to reach them but each of them was worth it. They collected all the data of each spot and put together an amazing snowkite spotguide for Switzerland which expands every season when new spots get nailed. Check out their website www.unhooked.ch and follow to the spotguide or click here on top menu “Spotguide”.
Check out one of the video of us playing in winter 2009
For this season I decided to quit my job at Ozone to share some of our good moments with you. We want to introduce you into the full potential of snowkiting and as you can see we have loads of experience and know what we are doing. So check out the dates HERE for the camps and book now. We know you want it too and you can be sure you will have an unforgettable snowkite adventure!
See you out there having fun!
