30. August - '911' 2006

One day before I left Switzerland, I got my new passport. Just in time. And once i got no trouble at all with my luggage. American Airlines allows two bags at 23kg each. I removed all liquids and gels from my carry-on. The rubbish container in front of the x-ray scanner is almost half full with drinks, tooth paste and shower gels. It's strictly forbidden but still so many people don't know about it? Unbelievable! In the plane: the boy next to me is inconvenient sitting at the window. So i get two seats for myself. I can see the Normandy. Good bye Europe. Somewhere over the ocean: an arab mixes up the relaxed atmosphere. Using long leather belts, he tightens some strange black little boxes to his forehead and arms. Some people get nervous. A stewardess tells him to stop and go back to his seat. Maybe he was praying for a save touch down in New York? I'm only on transit in NY JFK but they still need my fingerprints and a picture. I'm waiting for my connecting flight to Montreal. Finally we can board the plane. Then I can see how they treat my luggage. Luckily my bag is nicely padded. Two hours later I was in Montreal.

And there's Katreen from Sweden, all alone. Julie is driving us to the city. I got to live at Joëls flat. He works at 'Barracca'. That's a nice bar with spanish specialties.

On friday I met Fabrice, Yvon, Katreen, Ethan and David Price at Parc de Lafontaine. Ethan from Hawaii wants to skate 'the Big O' too. So we're going. The Olympic Stadium in Montreal is the most expensive stadium ever built. It's a crazy piece of concrete. And the soccer stadium is the point of attraction for all the skateboarders. There's a small tunnel, about 10m long, with perfect but very tight transitions. One third is an open miniramp. This world famous spot should be distroyed to build a new soccer stadium. Now a group of skaters wants to move the pipe to another place in Montreal. When we arrived at the pipe, we met a TV team. They made a report about 'the Big O' and they wanted us to skate the tunnel. Each of us gave a short statement too. The architect who designed this tunnel surely didn't think about skateboarding. And exactly this fact makes it even better. It's nice to ride spots like this.

At 17:00 there's a ridersmeeting at the Loft. Aki made it to Montreal. He hitchhiked from Calgary. Unbelievable! I meet alot of new riders and alot of people i met at the races in Europe in the past years. I signed up for the race again and pay 250 CAN$ startingfee for downhill and slalom. Afterwards we ate a big plate of meat at 'Schwartz'.

On saturday we had a few practiseruns and the qualification. There's no timetrials but four 4men heats where you can earn points. Riders are selected randomly. Theoretically this system works. But practically it's unfair and creates wrong results. That's how the 32 best riders were determined. I don't have any hard opponents and I can win every heat. The track isn't technical. The corners are very big, there's a log straight where you can draft and pass and footbraking actually isn't necessary. The road surface is smooth but there are a million cracks and bumps. It's not that much fun to ride. In the evening I participated in the slalom. The course was nice with a few offsets. Mike Cividino wins versus Claude Regnier. I got 8th. After the race I went home to drop my stuff. Then I headed to the party. I met Yvon Labarthe and some other skaters somewhere on the road and they took me to another bar cause the official party really sucked. I'm back at home at 02:00, still hungry. So I cooked some pasta. I was really tired so I sat down on the couch. What's that smell? And where's that smoke coming from? Unfortunately I fell asleep and my pasta burned. The pan was glowing. Luckily the kitchen didn't start burning.

It's raining hard on sunday morning. No need to hurry, I can sleep long. I got up late, had a shower and then I walked towards Mont Royal. I met Michael Brooke somewhere on the way and he invited me for coffee. He also gave me a lift to the racecourse. It's still raining. They're doing practise runs in the wet. I don't like that. It's too risky and really dangerous. In the afternoon the track is dry. I put on my suit and and the race starts. Riders ready, go! I get second in my first heat. I don't risk anything.

In the round of 16 I started slow. I knew I'm faster on the straights. It worked. After the first corner I started catching up. At the end of the straight line I was on second place. Blake was leading. Then he crashed, going into the left hand corner. I went over the bump, into the corner. My board went sideways and I crashed too. Danny Connor hit me with full speed and his shoulder popped out. A boy brought my board and I rode down to the finishline not feeling any pain. The race is over for me. No prizemoney! At the very same bump Aki and Tom Edstrand crashed in the round of 32. We all didn't have problems with this bump before. But then, all of a sudden, one crash after another! I don't know why, maybe we were a bit faster. I'm feeling dizzy. Somethings wrong with my ass. My tailbone hurts. I got ice. Should I go to the hospital and get an x-ray? Yes. No. Yes. After half an hour I decided not to go to hospital. I packed my stuff and just saw the end of the pricegiving. Mischo Erban got first. I'm happy he won. And I'm a bit sad I didn't even make it to the final. But this time it wasn't my day!

On tuesday we're driving to Mont Tremblant. JimZ, Ross, Aki, Ethan, Katreen and I rented a van with dvd player and screen. We're watching 'Dogtown and Z Boys'. There's a 3m wide concrete luge track in Tremblant. The corners are pretty tight and some of them are even banked. We're walking through the bushes to the track. And then already somebody tells us to walk down the hill and go home. But the next guard is a skateboarder too and he knows we're gonna ride the track no matter what they say. They close the track at 17:00. He tells us to wait until 17:30. Then we can ride as long as we want. The track reminds me of a narrow swiss mountain road. It's not very fast but so much fun to ride. I'm riding my green carveboard. After a beautiful sunset we're driving back home.

Wednesday is my last day in Montreal. Once more Katreen, Ethan, Rookie and I are having breakfast at 'Universel'. Afterwards we're rolling through the city to the old town and to 'Habitat 67'.

That's a crazy condominium built out of concrete cubes. These prefabricated containers are stacked on each other in a confused order. This piece of art was built for the worlds exhibition 1967. Joël invites me for dinner at 'Barracca'. One more night and I'm off to NY.

Ned, a skater from New York is coming to get me at the JFK airport. I think i never found his house on my own. He's got a spare room in his house and I can stay there for a few days. We're going to Manhattan by metro. I wanted to see and ride the Brooklyn Banks.

On friday i went to Bayridge on my own. It took me about a one hour ride with the metro to get there. Somewhere in Bayridge there's a skatepark with a nice concrete bowl. What direction is west? I should have brought my GPS. After half an hour I found the park. The bowl is nothing special but there are a few nice, fast lines to ride. The deep end has tiles and pool coping. I skated for at least two hours. Then I went back to Manhattan. I cruised through Central Park and didn't find my way out. On saturday we're driving to New Jersey. The guys told me there are good hills with steep roads for downhill skateboarding. Ok. The first spot wasn't even a hill in my eyes. I know i'm spoiled with the roads we have here in Switzerland. Sibbald was pretty cool. A steep straight road, perfectly tared.

Carving this road was alot of fun. I did big frontside standup slides. I really enjoyed this hill. The third spot was a big condominium in an old quarry. The roads were newly tared but not as smooth as Sibbald. The tomato mozzarella salad was definitely my last one in a restaurant. And then we had to wait a half an hour for the pizza. Back home we watched the movie 'United 93'. It's a tacky documentation about the plane that crashed in Pennsylvania at '911'. Everybody speaks about '911' just a few days before its 5th anniversary.

On sunday morning I skated from Times Square all the way down the Broadway to the southern end of Manhattan and back to Union Square. The city is huge and I'm impressed by the high buildings.

I took the R train for going back home, unfortunately it was an express train. I didn't know where to go. Once again my GPS would have helped much more than the wrong directions people gave me. I found the way home and Ned brought me to the JFK airport. Check In. I'm happy to fly back home.

Chris picks me up at the airport in Zürich and we're drinking coffee at 'Sphäre'.