Stefan Gimpl

Stefan Gimpl

Biography:

Austrian national snowboarding icon Stefan Gimpl is a humble guy that prefers to let his riding do the talking. The extent of Stefan's talent on the hill is quite simply mind-boggling, with supercharged performances in the backcountry only outweighed by his outrageous feats in the park. In the contest arena, the rider from Leogang is famed for continually pushing his own limits and is always primed to pull it out of the bag when it matters most. With several World Championship Big Air titles already to his name, Stefan is considered by many to be a veteran of the contest circuit, and still teaches the world's best up-and-coming riders a thing or two about the importance of stomping tricks cleanly. When he's not busy competing at some of the world's biggest freestyle competitions, Stefan can be found shooting photos and filming with the infamous Aesthetiker crew. Outside of snowboarding, Gimpl maintains his active lifestyle by climbing and playing soccer, golf and tennis.

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GIMPL WINS BIG IN LONDON

O'Neill team rider Stefan Gimpl celebrated his 30th birthday in winning style last weekend by claiming a memorable first place at the LG Freeze Big Air World Cup event in London.





Gimpl wins

The Austrian freestyle stomp master triumphed over a stacked field of more than 50 international riders, putting on an incredible aerial display for the 15,000 amped spectators packed in together besides the city's iconic Battersea PowerStation.
 
The rider from Leogang – crowned 2009 FIS Big Air World Champion earlier this year –edged out Switzerland's Gian-Luca Cavigelli and Slovenia's 
Domen Bizjak to claim his first Big Air victory of the current season.
 
The standard of riding was mind-blowing throughout the 3-day event, with all manner of tricks being thrown down by the super motivated pro riders. Once again though, Gimpl reminded everyone that class is permanent, stomping "the best frontside 1080 of my life" in the finals to claim top spot.

frontside 1080

Speaking after the event, Gimpl said: "To win an event of this size and importance is a dream come true for me, and to do it on my birthday is just the icing on the cake. It's a good sign for the rest of the coming season, but right now I'm just going celebrate my birthday and this win – it's a great moment!"
 

Happy Gimpl

Stay tuned for more Big Air madness courtesy of Stefan Gimpl later thisseason as he looks to retain his FIS Big Air World Championship title.And if early season form is anything to go by, it would take a verybrave person to bet against him doing just that.

Stefan GIMPL scores 2nd spot at FIS Big Air stop in Grenoble

It was a French dream come true: The competition couldn't have went better for the hosting home country as with Mathieu Crepel (52.1 points) a representative of the Equipe Tricolore took home the Gold medal in the first ever Big Air in the history of the LG Snowboard FIS World Cup on French soil. In an exciting final in Grenoble's Park Paul Mistral, the reigning Big Air and Halfpipe World Champion relegated 2008 World Cup winner Stefan Gimpl (51.4) from Austria with a lead of only 0.7 points to the second rank. In the class of its own battle for the podium in front of 15,000 spectators, Finland's Jaakko Ruha rounded out the podium with a score of 47.7.

Stefan Gimpl

Although France saw the desired win by one of it's riders it didn't seemed to end up like this after the first two rounds of the final as Stefan Gimpl had taken the lead due to an as usual stylish "Frontside 1080" earning a score of 27. Crepel followed with a gap of 1.8 points after he had performed the same trick. But although he had not competed in any Big Air contest after his big success at the 2007 World Championships in Arosa, the 24-year-old underlined in the decisive third run of the final that he rules the roost impressively winning his first ever Big Air World Cup.

Stefan Gimpl

Encouraged and whooped by the deafening cheers of 15,000 enthusiastic countrymen, Crepel sticked a "Switch Backside 900 tail" in defiance of the rain being awarded with 26.9 points by the five judges. Thereafter, the Austrian freestyle legend Gimpl couldn't counter in an adequate way any more – a fact, the new World Cup leader ungrudgingly accredited: "It was awesome today, simply high-class snowboarding at its best. I really enjoyed the battle with Mathieu although I lost it and finished as runner-up. In the end, he was spinning in the other direction while I was only able to throw in a "Frontside 900". However, I will take home only good memories of this outstanding event!

Stefan Gimpl

Stefan Gimpl wins freestyle.ch super final!

Stefan Gimpl is the winner of this year’s freestyle.ch snowboard competition. The Austrian O’Neill rider performed a perfect Frontside 1080 Mute Grab to beat Hampus Mosesson, Peetu Piroinen and Scotty Lago grabbing himself the “freestyle champ” title.

Stefan Gimpl

"I am super stoked that I won an event in front of so many people and up against such world class riders" said the newly crowned "freestyle champ". Congrats Stefan!

Interview

Q: What has been the biggest highlight of the past 12 months for you?
A: My 30th birthday in London. 20,000 people sang me happy birthday after I landed a 1080 to win the snowboard World Cup contest there.  

Q: What's the best thing about riding for a living?
A: You can pretty much just go snowboarding every day and all year long. That is the best thing.  

Q: Who do you enjoy riding with the most, and why?
A: My brothers. It's always good to share the same passion with my family.  

Q: Other than home, where is your favorite place to ride, and why?
A: It has got to be Alaska - the terrain and snow conditions there are so unique and impressive. 

Q: How do you see your sport evolving in the next few years?
A: I think riding techniques will get better. Snowboarders will start to think more about what tricks they are doing and as a result they will fine tune their own individual ways of doing those tricks.  

Q: What do you do for fun when you are not riding?
A: I play tennis and golf.  I like sports in general, and more specifically surfing, skateboarding, mountain biking and climbing. Other than that I spend quite a bit of time occupying myself with another one of my big interests: photography.   

Q: What achievement are you most proud of so far in your career?
A: I have done pretty well in some big contests. I can think of a few contests in which I was totally pleased with my snowboarding. I think I liked those best.  It is an awesome feeling when you are 100 percent satisfied with your riding. All that within the framework of a big contest and in front of a huge crowd makes it pretty amazing.  

Q: If you didn't ride for a living, what would you have liked to be doing now for an occupation?
A: Any other sport would have been good. Not as good as snowboarding but I guess I would still be happy. I would probably have wanted to be a tennis player.  

Q: What trick do you enjoy the most?
A: Frontside 540 indy.

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