Gabriele Steindl: Professional Kitesurfer & Freelance Writer - Action, Lifestyle & Travels

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Victory: One Foot Offshore Pipemistress 2008

Yeeeeeah, I’m super stoked about my victory at the Open Wakesurf Championships in Marbach, Lower Austria on the weekend, where my performance on the wake of a super pimp 350 horsepower Mastercraft speeing along the Danube secured me the title: ‘One Foot Offshore PIPEMISTRESS 2008’ !!

Wakesurfing is gaining rapidly in popularity all around the globe. Here in landlocked Austria with the nearest surf some thousands of kilometres away it’s the only option for wave-addicted souls like me !   Yes, the thirst for waves during my visits back home in Vienna can get incredibly strong, after all it’s my lifeforce, the ocean and its sheerly supernatural powers and until I found out about wakesurfing, all I was left within Vienna was dreams about watermountains and the hope for the next trip coming up soon.

The Danube Pipemasters were held at the ‘Wakesharks‘ wakeboard-school and some big names in Austrian surfing showed up:  Freeski-legend Flo Edenberger came all the way from Innsbruck in Tirol, same accounts for Johnny Nesslinger, the president of Austrian Surfing –  check out their website  –  a huge bunch of locals and obviously Kitegabi, who could not have missed this fine tete-a-tete !

The format oft he event was as follows:  a judges panel consisting of 2 experts gave set points to participants that were posted and explained earlier in the riders meeting. Besides standard moves like 180‘s, 360’s, Grabs, Double D’s, One Footers, Cut Backs, Floaters, judges wanted to see innovation and style that could skyrocket the score of a classic conservative routine!  Surfing without handle counted 50% more. Competitors were taken out on the boat in pairs of 2. Each had a warm up of 5 minutes, then was SHOWTIME in 4 minute heats.

Wooooooooooooooow, hihihihhi, you would not believe all the stunts the judges could observe!  Striptease, juggling, drinking beers out oft he can, reading…  lots-and-lots-a crazy, funny stuff that’s for sure.

Me, I was up against the local super-chick julie, a true wakesurf expert. I was up first. I had not really thought about any tactics beforehand, just wanted to have fun, feel the wave, get into the flow and forget about everything else…  and YEAH, I did exactly that and more, darmn I totally got into the groove and felt one with the wave. In fact I managed to surf through the entire 4 minutes of my heat without even grabing the handle once, sick !!  I ripped the wake with a huge amount of cut backs, did grabs of all sorts, even kneed down and was on eye-level with the wave for a long time. Whilst enjoying the surf and the gangsta-tunes that came out oft he speakers of the mastercraft right in front of me, I thought to myself: mhhh, what else to do, how to impress the judges…mhhh…?

Hahahahaha, then ‘Bingo‘ I had an idea:  first I asked the judges to throw me over my 02alive bottle for some extra power kick and then…yes then I did a strip J   hihihihihihi, yes, I pulled my super tight lycra over my head and swirled it around. C’mon guys, YES, of course NOT, no, I did not surf naked, I had a shorty underneath. Mind u I have to tell u that another competitor also did a strip lateron just that he only was wearing boardshorts and nothing underneath…

Julie also went off and showed a truly mindblowing performance with some sick one-footers and highly technical moves, well done girl !

In the male division nobody could touch the local hero ‘Dudzi‘, who showed the sickest show of he event. Starting in one of the last heats Dudzi pulled off  pretty much everything that they judges had already seen in previous heats combined plus way more, and it was a joy to observe his technical stunts besides total nutcase-actions like sitting down and reading newspaper, gulping a whole can of beer in one go and more innovative-trick-orgasms.  It did not come as a surprise that Dudzi was awarded the title ‘One Foot Offshore Pipemaster‘ followed by Alex Kittl and Johnny Nesslinger.

And me…weeeeell, Kitegabi is thrilled and stoked about the female version of the title, YES, I came first with an impressive amount of points, in fact, the points would have even gotten me onto the 3rd spot on the mens podium… yes yes yes, u herewith u can call me One Foot Offshore PIPEMISTRESS 2008 !! 

Thanx to Stylehunters, the organisers of the contest, Wakesharks, all sponsors and of course all the lovely people involved on-site for 2 truly amazing days !

Yours Kitegabi