So you appreciate your life a lot more now?
If you’ve been to a point that you’ve almost lost your life, afterwards you’re fucking happy. I don’t know, weirdly good mood, although I was in hospital with my leg in pieces, but in a way it’s also changed your perception of life. It shows you that life is really valuable and that you can appreciate it more and enjoy small things and little things in your life more.
It comes across in the film, that you apply an extreme version of mindfulness in your pursuit of adrenaline and it really benefits your wellbeing. Would you prescribe the same medicine for others with negative mental health?
I believe that stepping out of your comfort zone on a regular basis is like the key to happiness. Because every time you do and you do something that you never do and that freaks you out brings your body in another place, you know. It’s really, I don’t know, makes you feel proud about what you’ve done and proud about yourself that you were able to do it, that you dared to do it. And physical exercise on a regular basis is really healthy, you get the circulation, your brain cells don’t, you know, shrink or cool down or whatever. But yeah, I would say that adrenaline rushes now and then are really healthy and they can sort out many things. For example, I was suffering from depression and from eating disorder and if you are physically active like that, you need to eat and you just realize okay this is essential for being strong and being able to do what I want to do and I can really recommend you have your regular adrenaline rushes.
Where sits in your heart as the best bit of road that you’ve explored as a traveller but perhaps also you know careered down at high speed as well?
I think the one that comes like two two tracks come to my mind that are like deep engraved in my heart and one is Yaku Raymi it’s in Peru okay and it’s the spring of the Amazon. We had a race there and it’s like four and a half thousand meters altitude so the air is damn thin up there. And that’s who we really struggled with, that actually a lot of people got super sick. You really have to acclimatize and doing an extreme sport like that we all fainted we all you know had that moment of “I can’t breathe” that place was mind-blowing. I mean I’ve never seen a road that high and that long like we as they were being on that race we went down all the way down the mountain and we skated for like two or three hours constantly usually a drop is like two or three minutes so after a bunch of time you always have to stop rest your legs because it’s like squat squat squat high mountain and there was a blue lagoon and there was snow on the mountain and we had a shaman lady, Patricia, to like there was a bit of rain clouds and she prayed away the rain and the rain went away and the road dried and we could skate and it was just this I don’t know such a sacred place. I got the goosebumps all the way through. Awesome. And also the experience in that village where we slept, where we had our camp. The people were amazing and a mountain village in Peru is just, you know, wow. It’s just something you don’t see every day. No, quite. Especially being a European, it’s very different and beautiful. So that one I think it would be my favorite place or most, like let’s say the best experience I ever had to skate.
Is there a perfect gradient for what you do? I mean is some of some passes just too steep or is there such thing as too steep or?
I mean if you can’t walk there then it’s probably too steep to skate but then no one would build a road where you can’t walk. So I guess it doesn’t matter depends on what you like. I like steep and fast. Others like flat and windy. I don’t know, it depends on what you like. But definitely steep. Steep means fast. And eventually if the road is windy and steep, there’s like a lot to do because you have to slide a lot. You have to slide, slide, slide, slide before you even manage to stop. So there’s a lot to do and it’s fun.
Talking of speed… You have a world record, I believe with a team of Men?
Yeah, the only girl as well, I get this world record It’s the fastest connected downhill skateboard chain in the world. I have to admit that we did this in the UK and the UK really doesn’t have that many steep roads unfortunately. And it was a real quick thing because we had to do an advert for Virgin Media too so they most The easiest road they could find or the fastest and it was only steep enough to go 52.7 I think miles per hour but that’s really not that easy because we have to do it over a hundred meters and We have we had to stay connected like all people behind each other. Yeah that’s why you get faster as well because you’re heavier and The first one okay has all the drag, he has all the wind resistance and everyone behind him doesn’t so whoever’s behind is like pushing him.
You’ve talked about the possibility of film number two coming out if all the planets aligned to do so what’s next on the list what are your plans are you back out on the roads are you camping down in Innsbruck for a bit or what’s the what’s the future?
I love South America and I want to come back as often as I can and there’s a bunch of places that I haven’t seen yet and there’s also the Andes mountains that I would love to to explore more. Patagonia. I think that’s the next place I want to stay.
I’m inspired by your journey and your honesty with the difficult parts of it so you know keep keep sharing that because I think it will help an enormous amount of people. The loss of your Dad had a massive impact on you.
My dad he was so brave, he was so brave and he taught me all those things I needed to know. I don’t know when I was three he taught me how to ski. He showed me that travelling will educate me and that it’s important for life to know about the world. And he did a really good job. And every time I’m scared or I’m on the top of a mountain and I don’t know, you know, what will happen skating down, he’s there and he’s my companion and my guardian angel.
