Gabriele Steindl: Professional Kitesurfer & Freelance Writer - Action, Lifestyle & Travels
14
Aug 08
Removal-assistant to gold medialist
Huff, that was hardcore…. all day lifting furniture, carrying shelves and way more stuff 6 floors up and down perhaps the tiniest staircase on earth… but hey, no worries, right, that’s what friends are for 🙂
Yep, I helped all day today one of my dearest friends, Christoph Sieber, former Gold medalist in Windsurfing Sydney 2000 to move home. Chris and his family swap downtown Vienna for some greener neighbourhood and as I’m fitter than most of his friends – hehehehehehe – I had the honour of shifting furniture….
Christoph has had a mayor influence on my life over the last years. I actually got my first North kite of him, he saw me riding upwind for the first time when we travelled to Morocco in 2002   –   in fact, we drove in a FIAT Uno from Essaouira to Dakhla in o n e go, non stop…all the way through the Sahara. Back then Dakhla was still secret. Chris and Rachid Rousaffi, the founder of the kite-centre in Dakhla, were friends from the Olympics in Sydney, they hooked up in Essaouira and there Rachid told us about his ‘secret training spot’ way down south the desert, far but so perfect… how right Rachid was !!
Yep a lot unites Chris and me. I actually see him as kind of mentor and certainly owe a lot to him, most of all:  he always believed in me and more importantly he believed that I could live my dreams !!   Yes, I learnt a hell-of-a-lot from him and still do. Chris without a doubt is one of the most inspiring people that I know, always positive and optimistic, always good vibes, happy, a great person to be around with.
Today the former Gold medalist holds seminars, teaching and encouraging people on how to tap their full potential. Check out his website !
On the occasion of the Summer Olympics in Beijing, Christoph is currently also publishing his own column in one of Austria’s leading newspapers, the ‘Oberoesterreichische Nachrichten’. Honestly it’s the first time I read some of Christophs mental orgasms and I am truly impressed. Nice way of writing, interesting read with a very unique, personal touch. Check’em out on the net !
My camera today went on strike, not sure why but supposedly simply way too hot… so no pics of the moving action (not that interesting anyway), however, I replaced photos with a funny one from Chris (Rachid, me and Arab friends in the background) during a desert-shower, in the middle of nowhere, when Dakhla was still secret and we stayed there without electricity or hot water or… but oh sooooo happy 🙂