Phase IX: weekend warrior, snow, congress

I have been working on my doctoral thesis for over 6 months now, which is forever in the medical world. I hope to get it published soon, so I'm allowed to carry a Dr. med./MD title with pride.
My research has brought me to a lot of lovely places, like Davos, Paris, Bologna and just recently, Copenhagen, which is always rainy when I visit, but amazing nevertheless!

I had a wonderful time in february in Davos, where I spent a few days at a congress and where I went riding again in the park, really riding the park for the first time since my injury. I started from scratch, with butter boxes and 3m kickers and got my confidence back for the big stuff!

The next few weekends I spent on P60. It's always so much fun to see what they're up to and how they change the setup every couple of days! Many props to Snowpark Laax. Also, the new halfpipe is quite a masterpiece. I don't feel quite ready yet to go big but I'm looking forward to next season for that.

Last weekend, the famous Jib Days by Gaia were on again. I had to pass last year because of my roadtrip through Jamaica but this year I was so motivated. Sadly, the weather killed that motivation a bit but we had such fun times on and off the snow anyways. Best weekend of the season so far!

As always, big compliments also go out to my sister for getting better and better and even developing some seriously good style! :-)

Rehab Phase VIII: doctoring, family injury curse

I'm officially a doctor now! Whoop whoop. I've already been working at the University Hospital of Zurich for a couple of months now and I like it a lot. I'm doing research on a rare lung disease called pulmonary hypertension. My department is awesome, they're sending me to congresses in Paris and Bologna.

I had one day to myself in Paris and spent it cycling around, hiking up the Eiffel Tower, shopping, eating Foie Gras and drinking good wine. 

Of course, I haven't forgotten about my plans to go snowboarding at Christmas, which is still a very ambitious goal. Besides some ups and downs here and then my rehab is going pretty well and I still have enough capacity to work out every two days because my job is not (yet!) very time consuming. 

By the way, my dear sister is injured once again, too (fibula fracture, incl. osteosynthesis, which means screws and stuff). It's a little ironic, since we haven't managed to be not-injured together for about 3 years now. 
For example, I remember Feb 29th 2012, which happened to be my first day of shredding that season (ankle injury at the beginning of the season...) and my sister's last one (ACL and meniscus rupture that day). However, her current injury is not a season-ender, so we are all keeping our fingers crossed for us to have awesome shredding days together in February 15! Keep strong, sista!

I really hope my next post will include a photo of me with white background (as in fresh snow!).

Rehab phase VII: pumping, squatting, proteins

I have been walking without crutches for almost a month now. I'm going to the gym pretty much every day in between studying sessions and my physical therapist sometimes is the only person I talk to all day. My life is awesome! 
Seriously, working out is going well, although it's incredible how fast you lose muscle mass after surgery and how much time and effort it takes to regain it. In order to support my muscles I try to eat as healthily as I can. You know, proteins and stuff. Plus, I have completely passed on alcohol for now, which is very helpful to the process, I can really tell.
Since I hate selfies, especially work-out-selfies, this post is a little minimalistic, sorry. If you want to see me, call me in september. Until then, I'm gonna be in my comfortable studying-working-out-eating-sleeping-bubble.

REHAB Phase VI: Surgery! Finally!

After 6 months of ups and downs, of working out, physical therapy, finally being able to ride again, but also of disappointments: instability of the knee, pain and swelling and worsening symptoms resulting from my meniscal tear, I decided to get my knee fixed for the third time.
Right now, I'm home after 5 painful but still relaxing days in the hospital (my former employer Spital Uster), resting and only going out for physical therapy twice a week, or maybe for some lectures at University.

(Yes, the black band-aid is a tattoo, which ironically, I had done about 3 months prior to the accident. It was supposed to protect my knee from exactly that to happen again. Damn you, superstition!)

I don't regret not having surgery right away, I had a couple of really awesome weeks on my snowboard that otherwise would never have happened (Snowpark Laax). Plus, all my travels wouldn't have been possible. In my opinion, I chose exactly the right time to have surgery: Final exams are coming up in August and not being able to go out and party, to go swimming and tanning at Zürich's beautiful beaches is probably best for me at this moment.

Next season, I'll hopefully be ready to shred again! Gonna be mucho fun!

If you're interested, this is a video of the surgery that was performed on me (in German: Vordere Kreuzbandplastik (Patellarsehne) und mediale Meniskusnaht). To me, this is beautiful work!

REHAB Phase V: YOLOing

Not many words needed. Check out the video.


ACL Rehab 2014 from Gina Somaini on Vimeo.

Also, I have been travelling to Texas and Louisiana, have dyed my hair blue and become a hipster. Plus, powder!

REHAB Phase IV: Curnius all day. CT in Feb.

My knee feels really good right now. I've been riding the "P60" aka Curnius park in Laax (=lots of rails and creative obstacles) and haven't had pain or swelling in my knee at all. Although I'm still not giving a 100%, I can have so much fun with just safe jibbing!

Today, I had a doctor's appointment. Turns out I have to go get a CT first (an image of my knee that's similar to the MRI I had in september but is more accurate to analyse the bone structures). If the "hole" in my bone from my last operation turns out to be too big, it has to be filled again, which means that after a kind of bone-filling operation I would have to wait another 6 months for my actual operation, meaning the ACL-re-transplantation, which also has a recovery time of 6-9 months. It would really be a never-ending story so please keep your fingers crossed that the bone-filling operation wont be necessary and they can use the old drill canal for the new ACL!

No matter how the CT turns out, I will finish my season in Laax and have a good time just cruising around! Of course, physio and working out still is almost as important as snowboarding itself.

Last week, I had my last day of work so now I'm only snowboarding, studying and traveling. Off to Houston, Texas next week!

Happy times!

PS: I feel bad for Lindsey for having to give up on her ACL-less season. I wish her all the best for her next surgery and hope my experience will turn out better.

REHAB Phase III: hitting the slopes, Lindsey Vonn

I can´t even believe it myself: I´m back in the snow! As my rehab is going really well and I haven´t felt any pain or instability in weeks I thought I would give it a try and hit  the slopes. It felt really good, almost natural and I´m loving the new Never Summer Onyx board!
I will have to take this into consideration when talk about surgery with my doctor soon. I still have to undergo surgery, otherwise I should just about register for a knee prothesis in five years. However, finishing the season first, or at least a part of it, has become my plan A at the moment.
Also, I have some other stuff planned, like trips to the USA, Jamaica and Istanbul. I´m sure this will help me not to get overexcited about snowboarding (and maybe go for it too hard) and also enjoy other things in life. This summer, I will have a lot of studying to do since my final (yes, final final) exams are coming up and if all goes well, I can call myself a doctor in about 9 months!

This might sound weird, but there´s one athlete who has had a huge impact on me this last 3 months. Lindsey Vonn, one of the best alpine skiers at the moment also re-ruptured her ACL and is now finishing her season without an ACL with the humble goal of winning the olympics. I admit, there are only tiny parallels between her and me but she´s still a huge inspiration and I really believe that I can still hit a few rails on P60 this season! Thanks Lindsey. And thanks Don Joy!

REHAB Phase I: Donjoy, physical therapy

Since my knee's swelling has reduced pretty fast, I'm moving on to phase 2 now. My surgeon prescribed me a super stable carbon brace for the last 2 weeks which was sort of replacing my ACL externally. I have already gotten rid of " Donjoy", as it was called, and am now walking normally. Plus, I'm doing physical therapy 3 times a week to work on my knee's stability. Besides some pain after long working days, it feels almost normal again. I'm sure I will be able to spend some days on the mountain  soon.

REHAB Phase I: Resting, figuring out therapy

Yes, it happened again. For the third time in 8 years, I have torn my ACL (Anterior Cruciate Ligament; one of the ligaments that guarantee the stability of you knee). I landed on my feet but on a hyperextended right knee. This and the impact and velocity of sliding down a 12 meter long handrail was enough to violently tear apart the transplant ligament that was drilled into my femur and tibia 6 years ago. Besides that, my medial meniscus (a cartilage cushion that absorbs impacts on your knee) was also damaged a little.

I am still a little bit dumbfounded since I never expected this to happen again. But as they say: 3 is a magic number. So I'm going to take this as a chance to start all over again. And I don't mean that snowboarding-wise. I'm going to try to build up my body from scratch. How I'm going to do that, I have no idea yet.

I'm dividing my recovery in phases. All I know for sure is that now is phase one: Resting, letting the swelling go down and figuring out what to do next. Will I have to go through surgery again? Will I ever be able to do sports again without an aching knee? I don't know.

I'm trying to keep this blog updated about my recovery. Patience is the key to everything now.

Back in se snow

Last weekend, I returned to my favourite summer job, namely coaching jibbing skills to little girls. The infamous Girls Camp in Zermatt was on again and we had a blast, as always. When the weather was too bad to go snowboarding we spontaneously went to a gym hall and played tons of fun games. I haven't had that many sore muscles in years!

Even though I only went riding for one day, I rediscovered my passion for this sport and am super excited about the following season, which I will spend in Laax from January all until April. Yay!

The upcoming weekend, I will be one of the lucky contestants in the stairset battle at the freestyle.ch event in Zürich, hosted by Laax, of course.

The weekend after that, I will be heading off to The Hague, where I will be trying to defend my podium rank from last year at the Rock A Rail event in the middle of the city. Always a pleasure to party with the Dutchies!

As you can see, winter has made its way slowly but surely into my life again and I really don't mind..

Wakesurfing, doodah

I went wakesurfing for the first time 2 weeks ago. Very enjoyable indeed. I recommend it to everyone who just wants to have fun, be outside and around water. I had sore muscles for a couple of days but it was totally worth it. Check it out here!

But wait, there's more! I quit Rip Curl after 4 wonderful seasons. They always supported me and I met a lot of lovely people. Since it's hard to survive without an outerwear sponsor I now ride for doodah and I'm really excited about it! Doodah is the no. 1 skate and snowboard shop in Switzerland and has always had an excellent team. Together with mama Carmen Beccaro, Elena Könz and my little sister Carla, I am proud to be in the Zurich shop rider team.

Late later latest

Very late update, my bad. The ending of the season was excellent, for once the weather did a great job and I had two days of super slushy  spring session in Laax. I have started my job in the hospital in April thus my free (snowboarding) time is very limited at the moment. I love working though and I feel very excited to be a full-grown doctor in a year.
I have recently taken up skateboarding again and love it! Although it's much harder to develop board-control and style in skateboarding than in snowboarding I am enjoying it equally.

Here are still some leftovers from the past season:

DOODAH meets Luke Mitrani in Mythenpark

DOODAH MEETS. LUKE MITRANI (GIRLS EDITION) from doodah on Vimeo.

Jib Days 2013

Crystal Ground - Jib Days 2013 from crystalgroundtv on Vimeo.

JIB DAYS II 2./3. März

Finally, the second edition of the amazing Jib days is near. My good friends Carmen and Gaia have put a lot of effort in making this event absolutely awesome for girls all over the continent who love jibbing in slush and having a great weekend with friends! The hotel they chose is lovely and has great food. I'm really excited!!
 Link: JIB DAYS
 Video from last year:
 

The Crap Show #26

Another small part in the Crap show. It was a lot of fun to ride and Film with Joelle and others. I'm having a blast in Laax right now, riding a lot of powder but also the infamous P60 aka Curnius park.

The Crap Show #26 LAAX from BlumePictures on Vimeo.

Crap Show #25

Finally, I made it in the Crap Show! :)

The Crap Show #25 from BlumePictures on Vimeo.

Just a frontblunt to reg at 2:40. I hope there's more to come soon, but I'm still taking it very easy, letting my bruises heal. Lots of powders here!

Collecting bruises in Austria

I did a nasty scorpion on the stairs at the street vs. snow in Austria last week. Sadly, it happened at the end of practice, so I didn't even get to ride the contest. I liked the setup a lot and a stupid catching of the edge led to some bad bruises and a strained shoulder. I was in a lot of pain but the disappointment about not being able to ride the contest was even bigger. This was my second invitation to an excklusive rail jam this season and I was so hyped to go there.
However, I did have a lot of fun with JJ, Rachida, Mary, Stephi and Dina! And congrats to Anne-Sophie for taking the cash home. I hope to be there again next year.

At the moment I'm just hanging out in Flims, working a little and waiting for my bruises to heal. Dina is here, too, shredding some pow since the Burton European Open are being postponed every day. I might try to ride tomorrow, see what my body tells me to do.

Street vs Snow livestream

http://www.methodmag.com/live/street-vs-snow-2013.php

Curnius forever

I'm enjoying my holidays in Laax, shredding the famous Curnius park all day, après-skiing and making gangsta poses on the lift.
Tomorrow I will be heading off to Kaunertal with Joelle and Stephi. There will be a livestream (Thanks Methodmag) of the Street vs Snow rail jam. I will be riding on friday, between 3 and 6pm or so. As soon as I find the link I'm going to post it here.

By the way, from 1.-3. march, Gaia and Carmen will once again host the amazing and awesome Jib Days which brought me back to life last season and were a true blast! All the girls should be there!

Kaunertal Snow vs Street contest

I got an invitation for the Kaunertal Snow vs. Street rail jam next weekend. Setup looks interesting, I'm excited to see the boys destroying it and see myself pee my pants. :)

I had my last exam this week and am heading to Flims right now, which will be my home for at least a month now.

PBRJ

Check out the usual edit. I have 2 shots (black hoodie, beige pants)
Volcom PBRJ LAAX 2013 web from Volcom on Vimeo.

And here's the article: http://www.volcomeurope.com/site/pbrj/switzerland/

I'm honoured to be on the top photo in the report. Thanks to Lorenz Richard for taking it!
All in all, I had an amazing time but I feel like there's a lot more to come this season. I'm really motivated and have been trying new stuff and feeling quite confident.