Ice Man

Rossi’s So Cool, He Froze The Lake…

Austrian Pro and Tricktionary Mastermind Michi ‘Rossi’ Rossmeier (Exocet) just couldn’t sit still in the midst of a brutal European winter.

Itching to sail, he braved the chilly waters of his local lake and wrote in to tell us about it.

‘Since my recent training trip to Maui I’ve been at home in the Tirol region of Austria.

Around New Year it was -20°C, but on the first weekend of January we had a "Foehn" wind, which is a strong breeze from the south, which melts snow and gives us more spring-like conditions.

However, at around just 6°C it wasn’t exactly inviting, but as I hadn’t sailed for a month it was about time to get wet!

The weird thing was, on the first day, the Achensee Lake was still half-covered with ice, and I was just sailing a few meters next to the 10cm thick ice field.

A day later the ice had nearly all melted except for a 5-meter band around the lakeside.

I was on my 5,2 and my IStyle 94 on the first day, and a 4.7 the second time round.

It’s not the greatest of places to sail, and it is hard on the body but it reminded me of some great sessions a few season back when I landed my first few flakas.

You can see some video of it at YouTube – there’s not a load of moves there because of the cold, and believe me, it’s quite hard to film yourself!

Ciao everyone. Keep sailing whatever the weather!

Edited by PWA / Brian McDowell