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.