GIRLS SHREDDERS: KATHA BUCHEGGER “IT WOULD BE COOL IF GIRLS WERE MORE INCLUDED IN SNOWBOARD MOVIES”
Interview by Marina Alonso
Meet Katha, our new Girl Shredder!! Another multitasker female Austrian jibber that works, studies and shreds hard around Innsbruck and Mayrhofen. As regular rider of Dachstein, she gives us her opinion on the closing of such an iconic Glacier, center of some of the best European jibbing.
Name: Katha(rina) Buchegger Age: 24 Nationality: Austria Sponsors: Rome SDS, Deeluxe, Stance A spot: Mayrhofen Board: Rome Heist Girls to ride with: Of course everybody from Team Malibu haha and girls in particular: Sandra, Alina, Tini, Sina… Favorite trick: Front lip
Katha, for those who still don’t know you, introduce yourself, please!
I was born and raised in a small town named Hall, which is about 10 minutes away from Innsbruck. I’m 24 years old, I still study in Innsbruck, but I’ll hopefully finish very very soon! Besides that I’m also working a little bit and try to spend as many days as possible on the mountain.
This is Katha!
There is a first time for everything, how and why did you start snowboarding?
Since I was born in the mountains I started skiing very early. Then my older sister Sandra started snowboarding and I always thought it looks more fun to do, but I didn’t want to swap because I thought then I couldn’t keep up anymore. So when she started to ride a little park with the snowboard I wanted to do that too. So I thought I’m either going to buy twin tip skis or I pull myself together and learn snowboarding. And I’m pretty happy right now that I decided to learn it haha!
You spend your seasons in Innsbruck, how is the snowboard scene there? What do you like about it? Do you have any plan of moving anywhere else in the near future?
Innsbruck is a really nice, small city and I’m also very happy that I grew up here. I mean there are a lot of people here who only come for skiing and snowboarding which is nice because you can always meet new people from different places, but when you live here for a longer time it can also get a little bit too much sometimes. I don’t think that I want to move anywhere else because Tirol is such a beautiful place to live, but I definitely want to travel more and see new places and it’s also just good to get out of here sometimes haha.
You are also one of the affected people by the closing of Dachstein, as we’ve seen some of your video parts filmed there. What do you think about it? As an Austrian, I guess you’ll have some more information on this topic.
First of all we were all pretty sad when we heard the news because the summers at Dachstein were always the best part of the season. I also don’t have more information about the closing, but they said they did it to protect the glacier… There are still hundreds of tourists going up there everyday, so to be honest, I think they closed the park because it was just unprofitable and used the glacier as an excuse. Unfortunately the people riding there got less and less every season, so it would make sense to close it because they probably didn’t make any money out of it anymore. Which is somehow understandable, but it’s still very sad for us.
Let’s talk about something funny. Do you have any funny stories about snowboarding that you would like to share with us?
There are so many funny stories, but I always feel like if you write them down, they are not so fun anymore haha. I can try though and sorry if it’s not that funny. Ok, I was at the Stubaier glacier in spring and it was a very warm day. When my sister and I came down from the mountain I realised that I forgot my shorts, but it was way too warm to drive home with my snowboard pants, so she said I should just drive home with my T-shirt and underwear because I’m only sitting in the car anyway. Then on the way home I got pulled over by the police because I was driving a little bit too fast. They asked for my licence which of course had to be in the trunk. So I got out of the car, only wearing my undies, to show them my licence. I felt pretty uncomfortable standing around like that, but at least I had to pay less then they said in the first place. Then I could finally get back in the car and drove away, until I heard the police officer whistling. He pointed at my trunk and then I realised I forgot to close it before driving away. So stupid me had to get out of the car again to close that damn thing.
How do you see the female scene?
There are so many good girls and they also keep on getting better and better. I think that’s very nice and also very motivating. There are already girls’ parks, contests, movies and everything, but I think it would be cool if they would get more included in movies and everything, so for example that there is not just a girls movie or a guys movie, with maybe 1 girl in it, it would be nice if there would just be a mix out of it.
Thank you so much Katha. It’s your time now, would you like to add anything else?
I want to say thank you to all my friends for the fun days, to my sponsors for the support, and also to you Marina for thinking about me with this interview and to everyone who’s making an effort to read this.
KATHA BUCHEGGER 16/17 from Katha Buchegger on Vimeo.
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