That Webisode shows the sketchy moments during our trip from Arlberg to Spain. Luckily nothing serious happened. There are no bails from skating because Stephan Günther didn’t crash that often. The next WEBisode will be released in two weeks.

The main movie will be released mid of june.

Riders in appearance: Benno Postert, Matze Reif, Maximilian Meisberger, Matze Vogt, Paul Grey, Yannie van Leek

Song: Nola – Mr.Ondioline

maximilian, benno & matze

Webisode 3 – Interview with Tony Butt
Those who know the Stormrider Surf Guide already read some of his words. We met and interviewed the oceanographer and big wave surfer Tony Butt. He lives at the northcoast of Spain in Asturias where we spent most of the time on our surf trip.

Song:
Wiregrass – Southern

Amazon list of his books:
amazon.de/Tony-Butt/e/B001KME3KA

Next WEBisode called “baileria” will come in two weeks

The main film will be released mid of june.

stay on the road with

3FWB

Pictures by Miguel Rodriguez

When the radio speaker revealed that march has been the rainiest march for 60 years we knew that we just experienced something rare and special. Nice waves made us smiling though. After a couple of fun surf sessions on a dying out swell a new serious swell has been coming in from the west. A little smaller as expected, the spot near Foz we slept at was too small, so we had to go further east again and luckily found some nice waves.

Of course it was still raining, again and again. The next day after a short morning surf the wind turned to southeast and we were able to surf a spot which was more exposed to the swell. Paul and Matze were rippin it, catching some overheaders while Maxi and Benno got heavily washed. Driving to another spot we were planning to surf the next morning we found some more clean nice waves for a good night session. With 3 surf sessions this day we totally exploited our bodies and were happy having a huge supper for the night. Wind turned northwest and after a pretty crap morning session Paul had to leave down to Lisbon sad to leave the crew and happy to get some sun again.

12►

It still kept raining. As the luck was following us in any other aspect, our Photographer Miguel Rodrigues organized a private skate session in a mini-ramp in a church. Yes you  got this right, we skated in a church. Super fun session there with two local guys who are building the ramps. Its a former laborer church which has been used as storage depot. After a great time with Jannie, Tamara and Miguel we had to leave them and start heading back.

In Bilbao we met Günni, a german pro skater, who came down to skate and surf with us. Super relaxed session with him in ‘Algorta’ one of the few sunny and dry days with 16 degrees and first feelings of summer. The next day another cold front hit the coast and we desperately searched something to skate. We found out about the indoor skatepark http://guretxokoskatepark.com/ but finding it in the middle of nowhere it was closed and the number on the door did not work. We found another number in the internet but the owner had to disappoint us as he was in the mountains, coming back on sunday. Unbelievable, he called us back and sent some friends to open the pool for us and even more unbelievable was how those guys were ripping it! Those super nice local basque guys were well known skaters, Ivan Rivado, one of the best spanish bowl riders and his friends. What a session.

In the End of our trip we were blessed with another incredible surf session at La Triangular close to Bilbao. Wind turned to south again and the lines were  rolling in overhead high as if it was a dream. It was hard work for Matze to kick Maxi and Benno out of the van really tired early in the morning with the sun just coming up and 4 degrees outside. Another last joyfull submerge into the wet and cold wetsuit and one of our best session gave Benno the longest wave he ever surfed so far, Maxi was totally screaming after getting a superlong righthander with some nice turns. A perfect finish for our trip.

Now it´s time for some hours in front of the screen selecting and editing around 500GB of footage into a 15min travelmovie that will be released in mid of June. The next WEBisode will come in two weeks with an interview of Tony Butt, a living legend and Bigwave-surfer from Asturias.

benno,maximilian & matze

 Pictures by Miguel Rodriguez

It´s hard where to begin. Our surftrip is a blast.

Ok we started in Innsbruck by packing our stuff and driving trought snowy swizerland and france straight to spain. Arriving there with 3-4ft waves waiting for us was totally awesome. After having a first warm-up surfsession we fastly moved to Asturias where we met Matze´s good old friend Jannie. Blessed by a big winterswell we enjoyed plenty of good surfsessions together.

He took us to surfspots you can´t imagine. One day we went into the mountains where Benno and Matze took their Longboards to cruise down a nice 12km  ride to Luarca. Such a good time – but after 6 days of camping in a bus with 4 stinky guys and 2 surfsessions per day we needed a little break. So good that Jannis´s girlfriend lives in Oviedo. A city famous for its „Sidra“. So we went there and started with snacks and ended up busting Oviedos partying scene.

Freshly motivated for more surfsessions Paul Grey, the german surfer from Lissbon joined our trip for the next 10 days. Doing snaps and turns all day long he killed every spot. We got some sweet 120fps slow motion shots with our Action Camera Sony AS-15. Paul almost snapped our lens with his fins. We added a shot from the water angle to get a first taste.

For us as surfing snowboarders it´s perfect to have a pro in the water with video coachings at night.

Right now we are sitting in a little beachbar in rainy Xago having house wine, beers, tea and tapas. The surf session 2 hours ago was one of the best ones so far. Wintertime is swell time and we are looking forward to Friday where the next huge swell is predicted to hit the coastline. Waves around 3 meters with a period of 15 seconds consistent for 4 days – we will keep you updated on our following adventures.

By the way, thanks to our filmer Markus Klaes for staying out there in the bucketing rain filming us all the time.

Mother Nature thanks for the swell but please give us sunshine once in a while.

benno, matze, maximilian, markus, paul and jannie

Images by eignerphoto.com

The second part of the week started with Benno and Maxl Horn arriving just in time to join our daily breakfast celebration. New day next adventure. So many possibilities, different spots and heaps of motivation. After such days you come home tired  and totally enjoy your dinner.  Some beers for Benno, a lot for Maxi none for Matze and straight into bed- K.O.! Oooor not! We soon got bored of our UNO game and invented “Anarchy-UNO”, that’s the sh**t, real fun. Maxi taught Benno how to fill in the Weizenbier – barkeeper way. Now he´s officially a member of the premium Weizenbier-Drinking-Association.

The next two days we played around Stuben hitting some lines close to the town. Great riding  together – some pillows here and there and Benno with the “Egg-Snurfboard” trying to shred some lines while the rest was hitting jumps. It´s a big playground, a sandbox for adults. Matze’s eating behaviour, the more the better, as well describes his need to hit high cliffs, so he found his mission in bombing the biggest holes into the ground. In the end of the day we were building a third jump for the next day. Unfortunately there was no sun the next day so we went to another spot. The weather turned better in the afternoon and we decided to try to hit the kicker at St. Christoph. Good choice. We all got some tricks done or lines down. A good ending with all the guys.

On the last day of the week it was just us, Matze, Benno and Maxi. Perfect weather again and some fresh snow. All day we got the sickest lines, the splitboards brought us where we desired to drop in and hell yeah… nice day! Looking forward to show that footage. All in all a perfect week with tons of footage and good experiences out there in nature. We have one of the best backcountry areas with Arlberg in the Alps so no reason for us to travel all around the world.

Thanks to all sponsors and especially Christian Wander and Carla Twelkemeier from O´Neill, Wilma Himmelfreundpointner from Tourism-Office of St. Anton.

There will be a story in Playboard Magazine in autumm 2013 with all pictures by Stefan Eigner (http://www.eignerphoto.com). The main film will be released in june 2013.

Now it´s time to go surfing.

Benno, Matze & Maximilian

Images by eignerphoto.com/

We are on the road – first destination “ARLBERG” weapon “SNOWBOARD”;) Matze and Maxi fit but Benno unfortunately injured one of his curls in January badly, he was not allowed to jump which was a downer, but he recovered pretty good and was looking forward to send some serious pow turns with his mates. We invited some friends and took off…

The first part of the week we were 4 riders (Matze Reif, Maximilian Meisberger, Otto Veijola and Matze Vogt) our filmer Markus Klaes and good old friend and fotodawg Stefan Eigner. The weatherforecast predicted super nice snow conditions. We started the week on a foggy and snowy day by hitting some pillows and cliffs in the forest. The sun appeared on the second day – our good old friend and second filmer for the next two days Bene Schnecker motivated us for a hiking tour,  1,5h hike rewarded us with some deep powder runs. On the way back be spotted a perfect place to build a jump. After the construction team had finished we finally got some mellow airtime. Although pretty tired after a long day we decided to build a kicker for the next one.

Sunrise and knowing a jump with pow-landing is waiting for you just feels awesome, hmmm. The session was great fun, only Otto decided to leave us at the jump and went on a hunt for pow lines in the surrounding backcountry. After airtime and pow-landing we joined the hunt and drew some lines down the mountain. Thanks to the Sony FS-700 we watched pow turns and flight manouvres in super-slow-motion with 240fps all evening.

The fourth day was a little foggy and windy again so we went back into the forest hitting some pillows. Otto and Filmer Bene went back home and we started with the second part of the week were Benno Postert and Maxl Horn joined our crew.

There will be a story in Playboard Magazine in autumm 2013 with all pictures by Stefan Eigner (http://www.eignerphoto.com). The main film will be released in june 2013.

The second gallery of the Arlberg-week will be released next week

Now it´s time to go surfing.

Benno, Matze & Maximilian

“Next tuesday Next add” – Stay tuned!

Main film –> june 2013.

It´s already two months ago since we went to St.Christoph/Arlberg for the first time of the season. Every year it´s an excitement to drive up  there and take a look over one of the best backcountry-areas in europe. Just a big playground over there. We had a nice first session and went back again the next day.

Stay tuned for the 2nd WEBisode called “Who we are” next week. The main film will be published in june 2013.