This article was originally published in Vol. III of the City Blights Magazine
Besides beer, Wienerschnitzel, and a wide assortment of cakes, Austrians also take pride in their beautiful landscape (for good reason). The crisp air, thick forests, and emerald green rivers have enchanted not only their own population, but also the flocks of visitors who travel to Austria, year after year. However, if you were to ask any Austrian what the absolute best part about Austria's landscape is, they will most likely say that the mountains are the best. Mostly because there so many of them. For such a small country, Austria is mostly in higher Alpen regions. About two-thirds of the country’s land mass is at least 500 meters (1900 feet) above sea level, and there are over 100 mountains whose summits exceed 3000 meters (9800 feet). The tallest of these mountains being the Grossglockner whose peak exceeds 3800 meters (12,461 feet). Austrians are definitely not at all discouraged to reside in a landlocked country.
With a landscape so endowed with vertical topography, naturally Austrians have come to greatly appreciate the land laid out around them. 19thcentury artists looked to the natural landscape as a source of inspiration for romantic paintings. Astro-pop star Wolfgang Ambros has written an extensive, depressing rock opera about the Watzmann -- a giant mountain located on the Austrian-Bavarian border. But more importantly, the steep slopes in the small village of Kitzbuehl hosts a leg of the Downhill Skiing World Circuit. With racers regularly skiing faster than 120km/hr and flying sometimes more than 30 meters through the air, this race has earned the reputation for being one of the fastest, most dangerous, and most physically challenging racetrack in the world. The steep Austrian slopes have definitely raised the bar and standards not only within the context of world cup ski racing, but also in other extreme, gravity-driven sports. So if you haven’t caught on yet, Austria is a perfect country for mountain lovers.
Knowing what we now know about Austria, someone could assume that the Austrian’s lust for extreme, gravity driven sports would result in a long history of downhill skateboarding. I mean, any skater who has ever searched for roads by skewering google earth would look at a topographical map of Austria and easily assume there would be a thriving scene of speed demons trying to bomb every steep and windy road offered to them. Early in the millennium there has been years of IGSA-ran Almabtrieb in Jungholz, IGSA “Hot Heels” races in Kaunertal, and an Austrian Championship series hosted by Luger Alexander “Tiki” Frischauf. On top of this, a simple Youtube search reveals a couple old videos on Youtube displaying an “old school” mountain-skate-rat mentality. Unfortunately these examples of older Austrian Downhill skating hasn’t been widely talked about or word-wide distributed like much of the skating on the US and Canadian West Coast. It seems like for a long time Austrians have left their lemons on the trees, unpicked, while COAST longboarding, Maryhill Ratz, and LA have already been making lemonade for years. Austria has come late to the party. That comes to me as a surprise, but they just might be brewing the best lemonade the skate scene needs.
Despite the rest of the world’s ignorance to the Austrian skate scene, lately these mountain men and women have been bringing something really special to the table. There’s a new kid on the block, and they go under the moniker of ‘Big Mountain Skate’. With very humble beginnings, BMS has kept a very simple but effective philosophy: to find the sickest mountain roads, and close them down to skate. So far, they’ve been pretty successful. Their first attempt was a very humble race in the small village of Loedersdorf. Maybe race isn’t the right term; it’s more of a village festival. With multiple events and attractions in one weekend, it draws a lot of attention from lederhosen and dirndl clad farmers to come by and watch multiple disciplines of skating on a beautiful little Austrian road along with a miniramp in the party tent where locals and skaters party into the wee hours of the night. After such great success, and support from the local community, BMS and it’s community knew they had a solid start to something great. And just like the big bang, the idea exponentially expanded as time elapsed.
After reflecting on the success in Loedersdoef, the next step seemed logical: why not go bigger and better? That’s exactly what BMS has done. Along with a small festival in a village, BMS has been able to take over the reins of KnK in Slovenia (one of the world’s biggest freerides), but they have also managed to close down 2 other big mountain roads for three-day long freeride festivals. But these aren’t your average ‘pitch your tent and skate a chill road’ type of freeride. These hills challenge even the best of skaters. Both of the Austrian roads being longer than 8km long, the strait sections send skaters to careen down mountain passes into tight 180 degree hairpin corners, which have minimal padding and protection (seriously Europe, not all of us have socialized health care services. Get some padding on those roads). These hills are so physically demanding, that world class athletes are happy to call it quits from exhaustion after 3 or 4 runs to retire and start partying at noon.
The skating portion of these events are just half of the attraction. These events really attract skaters from all over the world to skate and party together under one flag. Plus, the event organizers make it as comfortable as possible. Whenever available, BMS organizers try to rent out lodges and restaurants exclusively for skaters. These aren’t hostels either. These lodges usually are the hotels that ski resorts use during the winter season, but instead they rent every single room out to groups of skaters (it’s nice sleeping in a bed and having a private shower). Oh yeah, plus there is a kitchen cooking you fresh dumplings, and Czech bartenders bringing you pints of beer for the low price of 2EUR (and I’m not talking about a paper cup, I’m talking a glass of beer). These hotels are more than happy to rent their entire ski lodges out to destructive skaters for a whole weekend. In fact, they consider us their blessing during the off summer season. Because we can drink…A lot. In one weekend, we managed to clean out their kegs, and drinking more than 1,300 liters (about 2,500 pints) of beer in one weekend. No race, but a sick hill, rad hotel, delicious food, and endless cheap beer in one event. What more could you ask for?
The two dudes that make it all possible. Florian Wagner (left) and Felix Rupitsch (right) put in countless hours of organization to put on all of these great events. Photo: BIGMOUNTAINSKATE
Being new on the block, BMS has really found a hole, and niche in the DH skate market. These 4 events (2 or them being brand new) all sold out in a matter of minutes this year. This is a clear indicator about the new intentions of our community. We are a multi-national group that is continuing to grow, but more importantly, we are a community that is now putting less emphasis on competition and racing, and much more into new experiences and traveling. Don’t get me wrong, I love me a good race. I love being forced to give my all in a small pack of people, and being forced to skate with people that I wouldn’t normally skate with. But, we as a community sometimes need to sit back, and reflect on the changes we are going through, and it seems like these types of events the BMS crew throws speaks to the wider community we have grown to become. We need to learn from this and do what we can to promote this demand world wide, and in North America. We do have Deano’s Maryhill freerides, Giant’s Head in Summerland BC and the Burke Mountain freeride on the east coast, but I feel like we have more work to do. I would love to see more potential event organizers going to these events, and learning from the crews that organize major freerides that cater to a diverse, multi-national audience with various skill levels. Big Mountain Skate has really raised the standards in terms of what terrain is now possible to shut down for a whole weekend to skate, along with what else organizers provide in terms of comfort and convenience. Once again, Austria has raised the bar in gravity driven sports, and it is up to the rest of us to match that sort of motivation.
