Even though the four boys hadn’t a clue back then: these were the moments that would redefine their own and the future of freestyle in the Alps. Jan, Jürgen, Paul and Andi filled one of the major roles in European freestyle by laying the foundation for what later became QParks.
Hanging out in the mountains celebrating a unique lifestyle and progression together. That’s what it was all about when the founding fathers of QParks started on the shovel and that’s what it’s all about today.
“In the winter of 94/95, we checked out every single potential spot around our home turf in Austria, looking for places to set up kickers. Instead of going to school we tried building jumps in different shapes and sizes,” Andi remembers the beginnings. The four lads strained the trial-and-error-principle and painfully discovered that steep landings in fact are more convenient than flat ones. “We filmed each other and analyzed our style at long sessions in my mother’s attic,” Andi indulges in blurry reminiscences.
“We filmed each other and analyzed our style at long sessions in my mother’s attic.”
If you were too lazy for shoveling these days, you simply rarely had the chance to practice your airtime game: The few and scattered parks that existed were mostly weird and rather special snow piles for a handful of insane snowboarders. If you wanted to peek into freestyle, you were either bound to risk your neck or to grab a shovel and dig for hours. “Freestyle has given us so many incredible moments. And it was our idea to make this feeling accessible to a lot more people,” Jürgen explains.
"It was our idea to make this feeling accessible to a lot more people."
Years later, this idea became big. Really big. By now, you can find 39 QParks in 5 countries all over the Alps, sculpted into the mountains by their Shape Academy by young mountain, the business name of their company. On a sunny winter day, hundreds of riders throw down about 10.000 runs in a bigger QPark and go home with tired legs but big smiles. As a special gift to the scene, the QParks Tour was established which is now the biggest freestyle contest series in the Alps and has already served as a cocoon for several freestyle- butterflies. In total, QParks organizes over 25 events for the freestyle community during the season 17/18 which will be joined by about 1.100 riders.
“In the beginning, our plans were that Jürgen builds a kicker and I shoot the action on photo. This was our masterplan to convince railway companies to grant freestyle its spot on their mountains,” Jan reveals. With these shots, winter sports resorts could attract new customers and finally more and more homes for the ever growing number of freestyle-enthusiasts were founded. We’d call it a win-win-situation.
Well, the whole endeavor turned out to be a little trickier as Jürgen puts it: “In hindsight it’s actually funny but we were basically evangelists of freestyle. We were convinced that winter sports needed our idea – an offer for the young and motivated. We went from ski resort to ski resort and tried to spread our message.” Their presentations couldn’t have been more freestyle too. “At the very beginning, we had to sleep in the car or outside the night before an appointment, there was just no money for accommodation,” Jan smiles when thinking about the first presentations. In Austria, which was extremely characterized by alpine skiing, hardly any railway company was waiting for four boys who wanted to build “hazardous” jumps on their mountains for snowboarders. “Well, the people we and our parks introduced to the resorts were “the wild ones”. And I guess some of the railway companies thought that these guys were more than welcome to ride at one of the neighboring mountains. That was definitely a reason for some initial difficulties,” Paul continues. However, back in the days there were already some adventuresome supporters in the right positions, for instance in Sölden or at the Dachstein, who gave the four evangelists a chance. Well-attended parks soon resulted in a thriving freestyle scene.
"In hindsight it’s actually funny but we were basically evangelists of freestyle."
Crew sessions belong to freestyle like Jerry belongs to the send. That’s why QParks started to organize a variety of events, parties and shred sessions in many of its parks. That’s where the community gathered. That’s where they shredded together and partied together. Whether it was on Dachstein (may Freestyle-God rest his soul), on Diedamskopf or other pilgrimage sites of send – the QParks-events had quite a reputation. One legendary event is of course the Pleasure Jam, which originated from the Superstar Session. For a long time it has been one of the most important freestyle contests in Austria and gave rise to stars like Elias Elhardt and Anna Gasser. Eventually, all of these events which aimed at strengthening and connecting the freestyle-community served as the foundation for the QParks Tour which is a one of a kind contest series for rookies in the alps.
"The QParks-events had quite a reputation."
During its 9 Tour Stops, the QParks Tour goes down in different parks in Austria, Italy, Germany and Switzerland. “The goal of the Tour is to get the different communities from their mountains, bring them together and connect them at the contests,” Jan explains. By now, the contest series has quite a name among the international newcomer snowboarding and freeskiing scene. That’s due to the fact that it has supported young riders like Clemens Millauer, Patrick Cinca or Lukas Müllauer and Lisi Gram during their starting careers. But Jan doesn’t just emphasize the professional stepping stone character of the Tour for the rookies: “The contestants who must be hundreds by now definitely got to know new friends, new parks and new ski resorts at the Tour.”
“At some point we felt that the freestyle-sport was still way too male dominated and that the female snowboarders and freeskiers were unjustified underrepresented. So we wanted to do something for the female freestyle,” Paul recounts. Thus, the Girls Shred Sessions which focus on girls and young women in freestyle were born. In practice, these are free public coachings where girls shred together in the park, meet new shred-sistas and get tips from their female coaches and role models.
15 years after the first hesitant tries, the idea of the 4 shred buddies seems to have worked out. Freestyle is not a niche sport anymore and every curious winter sports(wo)man has the possibility to experience and enjoy this special feeling freestyle gives us.
QParks – For the Community, For Parklife, For Freestyle
Here we would like to show you a Vimeo video.