September 26th, 2009

I had never heard of Ollie until May this year when he showed up at Jabberwock out of the blue. A crew of kiteboarders was here trying to bag some footage and I had seen him hanging around the beach with his gear. I did not pay much attention to him at first, I figured he was just another tourist that came with his girlfriend to do a bit of kiting, so I didn’t pay him much mind.  He introduced himself  to me at one point and I thought he was a nice guy, really polite, but that’s about as far as it went. It wasn’t until one afternoon when I was helping Kevin Steen snag some footage that I got a chance to see Ollie ride, and that’s when I thought……ok, now you’ve got my attention, who the hell is this guy?

Hey Ollie, nice to be in touch with you again. Can you tell us a little about yourself, where you’re from, who you ride for etc.?

Hey Adam, i´m from Austria and i´m riding for Liquidforce.

Coming from Austria, how did you get into kiteboarding? Did you have any roots in snowboarding or skating?

I´m living close to the Alps, so it´s super nice for snowboarding and snowkiting. I tried Windsurfing when I was 8 but I wasn´t really good in that. During the summer months in 1999 I saw some guys hanging on a kite doing nothing but crashing all the time. Then I thought this is a nice opportunity for me to bring new style into this Sport. After the summer months, I took my wakeboard, bought my first kite and tried to learn kiteboarding.

Whats the local kite scene like there? And how do you cope in the winter?

We have a lot of old and rich people here, so it´s all about speedkiting and high jumps. In Winter I do a lot of snowboarding and snowkiting. The snowkite scene is very big here in Austria. We have our own Snowkiteparks.

I guess the warm water here in Antigua was a nice change. How did you like the trip? Any plans to come back?

Antigua was awesome! This was the best place I ever went kiting to. It´s so nice to have a kicker and a slider directly on kitebeach, which are open for public. Hanging out with you guys and shooting with Tracy was just like a dream.

That afternoon while I was shooting you guys, I saw you throw down one of the tastiest slim chances I’d ever seen. You seemed to paying a little extra attention to that trick. Is it your favorite or signature trick?

Yes, it´s my favorite trick. I had a lot of problems keeping the kite low while doing the slim, so I practiced it a lot when I was in Cabarete. Finally I think the kite is low enough.

You recently got back from kiting in Greece. How was that trip?

It was a nice little 1 week trip. We had regular kicker waves, so I could throw some sick tantrum combinations.

Are you working on any new tricks at the moment?

Not exactly. I´m really into kickers and sliders at the moment.

What’s the coolest thing about kiteboarding for you right now?

Doing wakestyle moves without beeing stuck behind a cable or boat.

Whats the hardest thing?

Learning new tricks.

Do you see a lot of wakestyle riders in Austria? Do you think its catching on?

I think we are about 20 people who ride boots but i´m sure it´s growing.

What are your plans for the near future? You have any kite destinations in mind?

I´m stuck in the army right now but I´m planing to come back to Antigua in March. I´ll keep you up to date with some snowkite footage, during the winter months.

Ok well thanks a lot Ollie. I hope to see some more action from you soon. Definitely keep us up to date on your travels and let us know when you’re gonna be back on our side of the world. 

Thanks Adam :)

I'm really glad that I had the opportunity to meet Ollie. After hanging with him for a few days I can definitely say i'm looking forward to linking up again. Its not too often you meet riders who are super polite and willing to lend a helping hand to lift sliders and lug stuff around at the drop of a hat. Ollie's attitude will get him far in this industry, as long as it doesn't die out before we do ;)