Roadtrip and camping! That was the plan for Paderborn this year. Me, Bastian, Felix, Juan and Walti headed down to Paderborn via Denmark and a ferry ride. It was lots if fun, especially to hear Felix and Juan trying to speak Danish.

Our plan was to stop in Malmö and stay at a hotel over the night. But when we got closer to the date of arrival, we decided to go nonstop, and take needed breaks on the way, stretching our legs, and the drivers could sleep in turns. We did take quite a few breaks, Juan needed to make sure he had enough candy, and he and Felix enjoyed some nighttime skate sessions. We stopped a few hours in Hamburg and did some sightseeing.

Weather forecast promised rain on Sunday and unfortunately they were right. We skated Friday evening at the skatepark, and also Saturday but the session ahd to be cut off due to rain. It rained all night and Sunday morning I thought the contests would not happen. The Germans talked about skating in a tent, but I could not imagine how a tent would work when the ground was already wet. But they set up the tent and managed to sweep off the wet from the ground. We then had a super fun jam session in the tent. It was too small but we all adapted pretty good. Then the weather cleared up and we could skate on the regular area.

Contest started with the am division first. Two runs. What I did not know what that ams and pros would do their runs with no break between ams and pros, i.e everyone, both ams and pros, did one run, and then starting over with the second run. I found out this just a few minutes before my run and almost panicked as I was not ready with my warm up. Due to my herniated disc I always do a very good warm up with Hatha Yoga and dynamic stretching.

I started my run and suddenly felt like I was in the middle of nowhere. In the session in the tent the crowd was so close, and I felt I could easily have this contact with the crowd. But now the crowd felt so distanced and that made me feel uncomfortable. I stepped off a little in a footwork sequence, and the second to last trick was a 360 shove it to crossfoot that I missed. When my run was over I had a few seconds left and tried it again, but missed. I gave up, but the announcer told me to make another try and I did and landed it perfectly. I don’t think I will do it in a contest again, as it works in practice but not always when I perform. I will only be paranoid and my focus will be too much on that trick that I can easily miss. I was not too happy about my first run and lost all inspiration.

When it was time for the second run for the pros, it started to rain. We all had to head to the tent and witn ni warming up we started. I was first out and I felt so very comfortable being able to have eye contact with the crowd. The inspiration came back and I had fun and enjoyed skating. Suddenly my arm got stuck in a piece of the tent that was hanging over the area. Due to this I missed the Danish spacewalk but they fixed they tent in 1 second and I did it again. Due the the small size my wheelies was more or less pathetic, but I still had fun. The 360 shove it to crossfoot suddenly worked perfectly.

I was competing in Paderborn in 2009 and placed 3rd, and repeated that again.

The trip back home went fine, and Felix and Juan continued their imitation of Dansih when we got to Denmark. We were supposed to go to Copenhagen and the bridge over to Sweden, but the GPS took us to the Helsingør and the ferry. What to do when we were at the gates to enter? We turned back and headed to Copenhagen!