{"id":676,"date":"2019-04-06T00:00:32","date_gmt":"2019-04-05T23:00:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/boardgeneration.ch\/?p=676"},"modified":"2019-08-09T14:53:33","modified_gmt":"2019-08-09T13:53:33","slug":"das-woodstock-vom-snowboarden","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/boardgeneration.ch\/en\/das-woodstock-vom-snowboarden\/","title":{"rendered":"The Woodstock from snowboarding"},"content":{"rendered":"Reading time: <\/span> 8<\/span> minutes<\/span><\/span>\n

30 cm of fresh powder the day before and bright sunshine, this is how the 20th anniversary of the Longboard Classic (LBC) was celebrated in Stuben am Arlberg. With 560 participants it was probably also one of the biggest events in the history of snowboarding.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Meeting place Moonlight Bar<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Friday night. We got in the car right after work and headed for Stuben. After feeling 100 radar controls in Austria, we reached the Arlberg and thus Stuben. Already at the entrance of the village you can see the camps of the snowboarders, which had formed along the main road on the parking lots. Small skateramps were set up and the one or other veritable campfire was already burning in the middle of \"Wagenburgen\".<\/p>\n\n\n\n

After\nwe had checked in at the Apr\u00e8s Post Hotel and had eaten there deliciously (Hotel\nand food are highly recommended), we went on to the Moonlight Bar for the \"Welcome Party\".<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the Moonlight Bar the Mortal Kombat sound system was playing. But I stayed in the adjoining restaurant where I met many old faces. Not old, because of age, but because I knew them from before. Mmm, also old, because of age... Item, among many well-known Swiss people I met Dani \"Kiwi\" Meier and Oliver Holzmann, the latter came spontaneously from California to the LBC. Some lucky ones arrived already on Friday morning, could make their tracks on the Albona with 30 cm of fresh powder and let the late arrivals find out with pleasure what they missed. The many old hands who arrived already showed the evening before that the twentieth edition of the LBC will be something very special.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Dani
Pascal Kesselmark<\/a> | board generation<\/span> Dani \"Kiwi\" Meier and Oliver Holzmann<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

At some point, relatively\nearly, but I pulled the rip cord and allowed myself the necessary night's rest.\nOther riders, I was to learn the next day, had a very\nshort, but intense night...<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Paul Gruber and the beginnings of the Longboard Classic<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Paul was Jake Burton's first customer outside the USA in 1980. After a few years as a team rider for Sims, he founded the Crazy Banana brand with his partner Harry Gunz in 1984. At that time snowboarding was still unknown and also many of the lifts let them on the mountain mostly only after long negotiations. In Stuben it was completely different from the beginning. Rudi Pichler from Tourismus Stuben said to them \"Don't make any trouble and come back down before the lifts close. That was the starting signal for a lifelong love of the snowboard heaven Stuben with Paul's favourite mountain, the Albona. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Die
Julia Kesselmark<\/a> | board generation<\/span> The Albona<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

The brilliant idea\nfor the LBC came then in the restaurant Mittelstation in Stuben. Just in time for the\nWeekend friends called and asked where they were going snowsurfing? The answer\nwas always the same: meeting at 07.00h in the office and then immediately to Stuben.\nSo they said to each other: Why don't we organize a\nspecial snowboard day, where we all friends and their friends\ninvite you to sail the Albona together. In the first year 80 people came,\nthis year, it was 560. Paul's old friends from the '80s, including Terry\nKidwell, Shawn Farmer and Jose Fernandes, are regular visitors. What\nWhat fascinates Paul above all is the fact that Stuben is the cradle of the\nSkiing applies. The ski pioneer Hannes Schneider went already in the 20's and 30's\nyears with his friends on the Albona and the motto was: Whoever is first in the\nVillage has won. They copied exactly this format, because snowboarding\nis most beautiful together with friends.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I think we can give him\nnothing more to add.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Unexpected rush<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

As an LBC rookie, I didn't know what to expect. That's why I didn't want to show up at the registration at the last minute. After a comfortable breakfast we went to the event tent, which was about 1 minute away from the hotel and the parking lots. In the tent itself there was already a long queue of Elho and Oxbow porters. <\/p>\n\n\n\n