Longboard Classic in Austria

This season, winter came early, was fair to middling during the season and came back powerful in the end. Stuben at the Arlberg was blessed with an extra load of snow for the 9th Longboard Classic at the end of this winter. No trace of spring. Far from it! The winter had returned to the little village in the mountains.

300 riders on the starting line of the Longboard classic

On Friday evening the early arrivals came together in the Hotel Post to have a chat and a beer. At 1 in the morning everyone went back to his/her room because they all wanted to get up as soon as possible. The locals had told them that the snow conditions this April were the best in decades and the weather forecast was good too. On Saturday, the day of the race, everyone was highly motivated to draw his lines in the powder before the starting signal at 12h. The sight was not perfect but it was good enough to do some runs. More than 310 people came to Stuben to celebrate the end of the season with the LBC

Captain Kiwi Meyer give the start to the 300

At 12h more than 50 women, 60 oldschoolers and 200 male longboarders arrived at the Albona ridge. Due to the enormous snow masses the walk of the Le Mans Start was shortened from 50 to 300 meters, so that the riders were not too exhausted before the race. Dani Kiwi Meier, technical manager, kept the colourful bunch under control with his megaphone. The oldschoolers went first and they were speeding down the mountain with old Burton Safaris and Cruzers, Crazy Bananas, Checker Pigs, Apocalypse, various Sims, Kemper and other board models. Such a colourful bunch of neon ovealls and design oddities can be seen nowhere else in Europe.

Find your line!

Schoberleitner from Austria and Steffi Hartinger from Germany arrived first at the Red Bull aim sign.Just a few minutes later the ladies started and strapped on their boards. The fastest run had Christine Innerhofer from Austria who already won the event last year. Finally a crowd of 200 men dropped in the Albona backcountry at the same time and raced down like lemmings. Some were more chilled like the Swede who was playing AC/DC songs on his guitar during his ride. The winner was Ralf Castelberg from Switzerland. He won the Longboard Classic already for the 5th time on his Rad Air Tanker. Unbelievable!

At the finish line the scenario was always the same: No matter in which category and when the participants arrived at the blue gate, they were received with cheers and applause. No wonder that the LBC is also called the “The Woodstock of Snowboarding“.After some refreshment and chillin´, it was time for the award ceremony.They were distributed in an extra tent behind the finish line. The award ceremony took about half an hour and was presented by Dani Kiwi Meier and Paul Gruber. Normally you can see a lot of bored faces after 10 minutes but here the crowd could not get enough from the guys. It was more like a mixture of cabaret and award ceremony because Kiwi was entertaining the crowd all the way through with his jokes.As usual, there were also some special awards: The highly desired LBC Neon Award won Christian Greinwald from Germany with a hilarious neon combo. The LBC Oldest Rider Award went to Sigi Reinsbach (61) and Daniela Wolf (43), both from Germany. The LBC Youngest Rider Award went to Linus Knapp, 11 years, from Switzerland. Jonas Knecht (Switzerland) won the LBC Oldest Board Award with his Sims Swallow-Tail from 1982. The LBC Soul Master Award went to two persons this year, to the Swede Jim Magnusson who was playing AC/DC songs with his guitar and an amp during his ride and to Bernie Duenas from Germany who went down the 1,001 meters in superior style despite his handicap (one arm). Respect!

RESULTS LONGBOARD CLASSIC 2008, STUBEN, AUSTRIA

LBC ORIGINAL – GIRLS
1 Christine Innerhofer (Austria)
2 Susanne Arnacker (Switzerland)
3 Kathrin Kellenberger (Switzerland)

LBC ORIGINAL – BOYZ
1 Ralf Castelberg (Switzerland)
2 Volker Weiss (Germany)
3 Christoph Jöchl (Austria)

LBC OLD SCHOOL GIRLZ
1 Steffi Hartinger (Germany)
2 Heike Merbold (Germany)
3 Andrea Stuzmann (Germany)

LBC OLD SCHOOL BOYZ
1 Gustl Schoberleitner (Austria)
2 Günther Stadlbauer (Germany)
3 Gerd Heser (Germany)

Special Awards:
LBC Neon Award: Christian Greinwald (Deutschland)
LBC Oldest Rider Award: Sigi Reinsbach (61) (Germany)
LBC Oldest Riderin Award: Daniela Wolf (43) (Germany)
LBC Youngest Rider Award: Linus Knapp, 11 years(Switzerland)
LBC Oldest Board Award: went to Jonas Knecht (Switzerland) with his Sims Swallow-Tail from 1982.
LBC Soul Master Award: Jim Magnusson (Schweden) & Bernie Duenas (Germany)

Hardfacts:
April 05,2008, 9. Longboard Classic Stuben/ Arlberg
Racetrack: Albona ridge (2408m) to Stuben (1407m)
Number of participants: 312

More info on www.longboardclassic.com