After living in a VW T5 van and chasing waves all around Europe for 5 months this past summer, I was totally ready to move back to the mountains and get the adrenaline pumping through my body while cruising on a snowboard again! Yes, summer was great, but by the end of it, as the weather was getting worse and the water colder, I started to crave the true coldness from winter and the comforting feeling of coming back home after a long day on the mountain.

This year, we decided to come back to Laax a little bit earlier then we did last season. Last summer, my girlfriend decided to extend our summer by going on a trip to Bali. We just couldn’t get enough of sun, beach and surf so we put the winter on hold for a little longer. Therefore, we only arrived in the Swiss Alps around mid-December, and that felt a little weird. We got the feeling that everyone was already settled and that we were dropped in the middle of an episode of some TV series. All the season opening parties were already done, stories about summer were already told and every one of our friends already got used to winter again. It felt uncomfortable. Therefore, this year, we decided to come a little earlier, so mid-November we moved our stuff into our new apartment in Flims. We started the season off right, and I got back to my beloved job as a park shaper. I’m super excited and thankful to be a part of this awesome crew for the third year now! And it’s great to get back in touch with the homies.

But enough about summer and this season’s kickoff… What I’m actually supposed to write about is the good times we had last week with some of the park shaper homies who proudly represent the Ride and K2 family!

Nicki invited us for a couple of laps down P60 early in the morning. It was a beautiful day filled with blue skies and a thin layer of fresh snow. The perfect setting for a quick photoshoot! While some of the guys were still on the morning reshape, Nicki, Pede and me strapped in to our bindings and started the session on the new bench obstacle in Snowpark NoName. Quickly after, when we just made it to the second obstacle of the session, Silvano joined us too. Pede had already stacked some shots on the bench and Silvano was keen to get a picture on the wallride. I was a little over-motivated myself and tried to get a frontside lipslide on the top of the wallride. It went wrong with the first hit, but I didn’t get hurt. I decided to try again, but it was hard to see the pop-off zone because the take-off was lying in the shadow. I somehow popped off to early and tapped the wall before getting on the rail. I lost control and fell down on my back from the top of the wall. The session was over for me as my back hurt with every move. It’s been about a week since the crash now, and all is fine with my back. It was just a little stiff for a couple of days because of the hard impact.

For Silvano and Pede, the session went on and both of them got some nice shots with a sick backdrop and beautiful early morning lighting. I’m bummed out that the session was over real early for me, but I’m pretty sure we’ll have some more of these opportunities over the season!

Anyways, I’m hyped to be back here in beautiful Switzerland. The season started right, with a decent amount of snow, which allowed us to build an awesome park already. Now I’m putting my hands together and hoping for a lot of bluebird days with a fresh dump from time to time.

Thanks for reading and have a great winter!
Dries

Pictures: Nicki Antognini
Words: Dries Meesschaert
Location: Laax, Switzerland
Riders: Patrick “Pede” Camenzind and Silvano Deflorin
Thanks to: Laax shaper team, Ride Snowboards and K2 snowboards for the support