Fear and Loathing in East Europe

From November 11 to 26, six professional snowboarders took a road trip which led them to some of East Europe's biggest cities. Their mission: to scout secret spots for the Red Bull Drive By where nobody has ever snowboarded before – and to shoot photographs of their coolest tricks. But the locations turned out not to be the only major challenges for Louie Vito, Darrel Mathes, Dmitriy Fesenko, Juuso Laivisto, Max Legend and Hans Ahlund – as the following extracts from the Drive By diary show.

11.11. – Early start in Vienna

“… the Red Bull Drive By tour started early doors with an epic session at 6.30am(!) at the Convention Centre Vienna. The spot was perfect for the start, as it was a medium-length downrail with nice architecture in the background where the riders could warm up for the two-week tour …”

 

After a two-day stop in Vienna, including a cheerful kick-off bash, the tour moved on to Bratislava.

14.11. – Attention! Right of way in Bratislava

“… we drove to a ledge which Dmitriy had scouted and it turned out to be an interesting spot. Unfortunately, there was a car parked right in front of the right-hand ledge, so only the left one was doable. Hans was stoked about the spot and started a cool but sometimes slightly sketchy session – the landing was downhill and despite the parked car that was still slightly in the way, the outrun ended on a three-lane main road …”

 

Destination Romania via Brno and Katowice.

21.11. – Coca Cola vs. Red Bull in Timisoara

“… on day one in Timisoara we went scouting for spots in the morning. Hans was doing the best job at scouting and found a good drop in an industrial area and a wall ride at Iulius Mall, a new shopping centre with amazing architecture.

There are many security guards at the mall, so we were expecting some problems, but the local Romanian guys cleared the situation by talking to the marketing boss of the shopping mall, who gave us the permit for setting up the wall ride. Just before Hans was about to drop in, the security guards arrived and made us stop what we were doing. Bummer!

We found out that we had to stop because Coca Cola had called the mall, threatening to sue them if we continued to snowboard there because they have an exclusive contract with the mall and won't allow any other company to do anything there. So we went to the next spot – a crazy drop from a factory building. There we had some problems with the security guard as well, but the Romanian locals solved it …”

 

After two exciting days in Romania, the Drive By crew headed off towards Serbia.

23.11. – On the run? From Timisoara to Belgrade

“… Bernhard left Timisoara before us to take Louie to the airport early in the morning. At the boarder to Serbia they refused to let him into the country because the insurance card for the car wasn't filled out correctly. As a result, Louie missed his flight and they had to drive back to Timisoara. We checked the insurance cards for all of the cars and set off towards the Serbian boarder.

After a short drive, Hans managed to drive a Mercedes straight into the one in front of him, driven by Scott. Great job, bro!

Fortunately, both cars were able to continue the journey. We arrived at the boarder and encountered the next problem – Fritschi didn't have his passport with him, just an ID card. The police weren't too stoked about that and refused to let him cross the boarder. Luckily, Nikola from Red Bull Serbia was able to sort things out with a few phone calls and faxes, and in the end our cameraman was allowed to stay with us …”

25.11. – Grande finale in Belgrade

“… the next spot was a gnarly down-flat rail/box with a drop of 7 metres on the side … Only Hans and Max were hitting it, as the others were either injured or too tired. But the session was unbelievable.

Then we began scouting for something special, as we didn't want to do just another down or kinked rail. Finally, we found it – a kind of A-frame box with a down-flat-down rail in the end. We decided to use the stairs at the beginning of the A-frame as a kicker to jump on the rail. The major problem was building up enough speed for that kind of obstacle, but the locals organised a quad bike to tow the riders in, and so began an epic session …”