From May 28 to June 25, 4 surf instructor courses (three level 1 and one Level 2, always including the ISA accreditation) with a total of 42 participants and on June 20 the AS Champs took place in France.

Coaching Courses
 

The Highlights:

1. This year’s courses welcomed another interesting group of international participants, including surfers from Austria, Germany, Switzerland, Australia, France, Portugal, the Netherlands, Spain, the Czech Republic and the US!

2. Lovely accommodation was again provided by the Atlantic Surf Lodge, run by Uli and Jodie (atlantic-surflodge.com/asl_gb/start.htm). This time, thanks to our partner Verival Bio (www.verival.at), we achieved our objective to offer a training course that is accompanied exclusively by organic food: except for the baguettes that, unfortunately, were not available of organic kind in Vieux Boucau, all food was ORGANIC. We wish to thank Verival, Jodie and Uli for actively supporting our idea!  

3. Girls on board: 2011 saw more female participants than ever – this can most likely be interpreted as a confirmation of the trend of more female surfers in the lineup. Gender equality finally seems to find its way into the surfing world!

We are already looking forward to the next surf instructor courses to be held in Vieux Boucau from September 24 to October 1^st as well as from October 8-15.
 

Organic breakfast in the Atlantic Surf Lodge - bon appetit!

Austrian Championships
 

During the 2011 Austrian Championships, as in previous years, the participants of the level 2 course had the chance to translate the knowledge they obtained in the chapter of “contest surfing and organization” into action. By perfectly conducting their tasks as judges, beach marshals and tabulators, they contributed to the success of the 2011 Austrian Champs.

Training supervisor and chief beach marshall Boris Lehner makes sure things are running smoothly.

Our judging tower.

Judge Tommy Schmidt knows where the goodies are ;)

The weather and waves also demonstrated their love for Austrian surfing once again: after weeks of mediocre conditions, the contest day was characterized by sunshine, offshore and good waves, as can be seen in the photographs:

Holger Hassenpflug who has won the Austrian Champs already a few times has overcome his injury from last year and succeeded in making it to the finals with big floaters like this one.

Whose survival-stash is that? Organic doping ;)

But now we get to the results. First of all: nothing remained the same in this year!

In LONGBOARDING, Mathias Richter was able to outperform his brother and three-time Austrian champion Benjamin Richter:

Mathias Richter giving that longboard a lot of speed on the left...

..meanwhile, his brother Benjamin Richter is showing his skills on the right:

 Mathias Richter is the newcomer Austrian Longboard Champ, here with an eco board made by Kuntiqi – once again, nature is on the advance!

The OPEN CLASS saw a big surprise: 13-year old Jonas Bachan won the title of Austrian Champion and the gold medal over his brother Jakob (silver medal) and Mathias Piskernik (bronze medal)!

 Perfect cutbacks..

..and buckets of spray: Jonas Bachan on his way to victory :)

Mathias Piskernik has done a surfing degree in the UK - and it pays off!

The "Heaviest Barrel Award" goes to Jakob Bachan with a super steep drop and a smooth backside barrel:

That's what I call commitment!

A little insider-info: the apple didn't fall far from the tree: Jonas and Jakob are the sons of Chillandsurf-legend Philipp Lamprecht!

 The winners:

and the prices :)

Thanks to all participants in the courses and the AS Champs, to Anna and Steve for the great pics, and to our partners Wavetours, Verival, Smith and Kuntiqi for their support! See ya next year!

Ride on,

Johnny and Boris