Author: wakecarro

 

Now I’m back home again after claiming my fourth European title this past week! The contest was probably one of the most challenging I’ve ever faced since the level of female wakeboarding has never been higher. Especially Giorgia Gregorio impressed me a lot!
The day before the finals the organizers put on a special event for us. I was thrilled to get selected to participate and I ignored the fact that my ankle, which I twisted one day before leaving Texas, was hurting quite a bit.  I went out in the semi final but on my first jump, I landed a bit harder than I expected and i immediately felt that something had gone wrong. I tried to finish my contest run but after screaming in pain in the water I crashed out on two tricks and didn’t make it straight to the finals.
Now I was faced with a pretty hard decision: Do I keep competing in this extra event through the LCQ round and risk not being able to ride the European finals or do I give up and lost the chance of the 2000 USD cash price? In the end for me, money is just that: money. I decided to give my ankle the chance of rest and had a big lump in my stomach as I told the judges I wouldn’t be competing again during that same day. Spending the day elevating and icing my ankle I prayed that it would feel better the next morning, the time of the finals. I was wrong.

On saturday morning I woke up feeling quite cheerful, that was until I tried to walk to the bathroom and I noticed that my ankle was even worse than the day before. Super disappointed I skyped my dad asking him what to do: I didnt want to risk the rest of my season by riding the finals but at the same time, I got this far! I didnt just wanna give up. In the end I decided to give it a go but to throw the handle if I felt too much pain.

I was pretty nervous that morning and made my poor team mates drive me to the arena two hours before my division. Once there I found the french teams physio Axel, who had helped me make the decision not to ride the previous day. He helped me tape up my ankle so much it felt like I was wearing a cast. In some angles it still hurt but I was thrilled to discover I now could put weight on it without whimpering in pain. It had one downside though, after about 10 minutes my foot started to go numb so I had to prance around the site to keep a steady blood-flow going. Again Axel looked at me with a worried look and said “If it hurts, you stop okay”. “Okay” I answered, and in my mind I had some doubts that I actually would keep this promise.

Once the women’s finals was up, I had the advantage of starting last, as I had won my semi-final. This usually is good because you can look at the other riders and plan your run. My problem is, I get way too nervous if I do that. Instead I put my headphones in, looked the other way and zoomed out to some Taylor Swift.

When it was my turn, I asked the Swedish Team Manager: “How did they do?” and he just told me “Don’t worry, you got this just do your thing”. I put my board on, feeling like my foot wasn’t part of my body, more like lump at the end of my leg but at least it didnt hurt. Then I was off, I had decided to make my decision after my first jump, if I should keep riding or not. Nervously I cut in towards the wake and actually got booted even higher than I was expecting. Its amazing how much time you have to think as you are floating through the air that split second. I was wondering “is it gonna hurt? Am I going to blow my ankle now? I should’ve taken it easier. oh crap…”. I braced myself for the landing, not knowing what to expect and… …BOOM just like that, my ankle felt fine! Thrilled I kept moving on with my run, thinking one trick at a time and actually forgetting that I was hurt for a second. Everytime you land a trick in a contest run you get this rush of satisfaction and even though I did take an unexpected fall on a Moby Dick, I came back into the dock with a big smile on my face.

I had done okay! I did most of my tricks and I hadn’t hurt my ankle!! As soon as I came in my friend Charlotte greeted me with “Yay Carro, Well done you just won!”. It took me a few minutes to realize as I hadn’t watched the others ride. I was honestly so happy to just be feeling okay that I would’ve been happy with any place in the finals and since I had taken a clumpsy fall, I was pretty surprised with the results. Charlotte came in a 3rd place having killed it and second went to Meagan Barker, both from the UK.

It wasn’t long until a huge smile shone across my face and I got hugged by all my team-mates. I still feel like maybe it was all a dream, I can’t believe I just won another European Title! Now I’m back home with some time to rest my ankle and be with my family. Thanks so much all my sponsors, my team mates and the Swedish Waterski and Wakeboard federation for all your support. And of course, a huge thanks to Axel for saving this contest for me, I don’t know what I would’ve done without your help!

 

Here are some more shots from our Betsafe Wake Camp last weekend, stolen from Eevi‘s blog and Froggy’s cameras. The whole reason I started wakeboarding was because I tried it at a  wake-camp so it’s great to now be giving other people the same experience. I hope everyone had an awesome time, I know I did!

 

So pumped on being back in a boat and back in Texas! Went for my first boat ride in 6 weeks and things did feel a little strange (having fins and riding my Maiden instead of Socialite) but super fun.

Had a pretty different experience on my flight this time around. Being cheap I booked a flight through new york with a 5 hour layover in New Ark Airport. While there I did pretty much everything one can do to pass time, including making conversation with strangers and watching every video there is on alliance.
Right before my flight was meant to board there was a message about a gate change so I packed up all my stuff and rushed to the new gate. As I am standing in line to board the aircraft I reach down in my bag to pick up my boarding card and my… PASSPORT!!! It’s pretty much the same feeling loosing your phone in the lake; realizing that your passport is not in your bag. After having time to think around a hundred thoughts within 30 seconds (thoughts like “How am I gonna go to Europeans in Amsterdam, where can I get a new passport, what if someone pretends to be me?”) I explained my very unfortunate situation to the air hostess. She told me “I’m sorry but you’re going to miss your flight if you leave now to try and find it. The best thing to do is contact the staff in Austin and maybe they can send you the passport if we find it”.
With a big lump in my belly I boarded the flight, even though I was quite sure that my passport was lying there, all alone and scared, waiting for me in the first gate where I’d rushed to get my stuff. Once on the flight and after all hope had left my chest the pilot announced that due to bad weather all flights had been postponed and that we would be grounded for at least an hour! Immediately I pressed the flight attendant button, once again explained my situation to a very friendly member of the cabin crew and was told “wait here, I’ll see what I can do”. After a few anxious minutes I heard the pilot call “Cabin crew, crosscheck and ” whatever it is they say and I was told that I could go look for my passport! I was out of my seat before they could change their minds and did my version of Tas the Tasmanian devil as I ran through the airport. Once I got back to the first gate and looked under the chair I was sitting, I could’ve hugged the mom with the infant screeming its heart out right next to me! MY PASSPORT was still right there on the ground. I got back to the flight with a big smile on my face, a smile that didn’t go away even though our flight ended up being 3 hours delayed.

“I’m sorry” I leaned over to the guy next to me in my seat “I think it’s my fault our flight is delayed, somewhere somehow I guess I must have some good Karma stacked up”.

Busy days coaching the winners of the Betsafe Wakecamp! No-one had ever tried wakeboarding before and I’m pretty sure they were all feeling quite nervous but everyone progressed so far! Pumped on seeing these guys and girls all get up on their first ride and by the end of the day they were charging at the wake, jumping and killing it! Thanks Betsafe for the chance to bring more people into the sport and for all the support during this weekend. Today seems to be a bit rainier that our beautiful summer day yesterday but everyone is still keen to get in their wetsuits and out on the water! Let’s do this!

 

Thanks so much Breddas for another epic event. After spending two weeks at the Breddas parks I am now back at home! The time there got a great end when I managed to take the top spot at their event, Battle of the Backyard. It was great to see Breddas sister Judith killing it and stomping a HUGE backmobe in the finals and big congrats to Mattias Hoppe for winning the Pro Men’s event.

The past two weeks has been some of the most challenging ones in my entire career. I’ve been working on breaking mental blocks like never before and there has been a whole lot of bruises, hard crashes and tears involved. I’m both proud and disappointed in how this trip turned out since I didn’t reach all of the goals I had set up for myself but I accomplished a hell of a lot. Thanks to JB O’Neill I pushed myself more than ever and he was also there to swoop up my negative thoughts and turn them around. I honestly don’t know how he was able to handle me this past week with all the “I can’ts” that I’ve heard myself say. I don’t know anyone who can motivate me like he can so I’m truly lucky to have such an amazing boyfriend!

Anyways, two weeks of sleeping in a tent, waking up at 7am, trampolining and riding has come to an end. Now I’m back in Stockholm for a week before heading to Texas on the 21st of July! Excited to be home and to hit up The Cable Park, Stockholm Arlanda to just ride and have fun!!

Talk soon 🙂

What a day! Yesterday I got pick up by Sami from Monster Energy and we drove out to Juväskylä where the second stop of the Wake Tour Finland was being held. We arrived right as the riders briefing was about to end with a bunch of riders already in their wetsuits ready to hit the water. I got changed and managed to squeeze in around 5 laps on the, very high, two tower cable before the women’s competition started. I was surprised on how high the level was with the women and how many of them there were competing! In Sweden a lot of female riders don’t like competing (I think because they put too much pressure on themselves) but in this event everyone was cheering each other on and the atmosphere was perfect! After crashing a lot, and laughing it off with the other chick I managed to put a decent contest run together and ended up taking a first place! Since I’d traveled so far to attend the organizers let me compete in the mens division as well and I was pumped on making it in to finals! Unfortunately my crashing spree continued as I knew I had to go all or nothing to beat the guys 😉 I ended up with a 5th place and big contrats to the winning guys, they all killed it!

Now I’m about to meet up with the local ripper Krisse who’s a professional snowboarder and definitely made it tough for me to keep up with her rail skills!! We’re hitting the cable here in Helsinki before I fly out tonight, back to Sweden!

Thanks Monster Energy for bringing me over here, it’s been such a great experience discovering the wakeboarding scene in Finland! I’m amazed with how many cables have opened here the past few years and I’m looking forwards to watch the wake-community explode here in the future!

Just made it to Helsinki for the Wake Tour Finland stop this weekend!! Yesterday I got picked up by the guys from Monster Energy and taken around the city! Even though Helsinki is only a 45 minute flight from Stockholm it’s so weird not understanding a word here! Finish is impossible to even pronounce and even though Sami, from Monster has tried to teach me how to say “Juväskylä” a million times I now officially give up. 😉

We had an epic day in the city, checking out the two tower cable here, some amazing tourist attractions from WWII and ended with our belly’s full of delicious mexican food. Now after a good nights sleep recovering from the one hour jet-lag I’mr easy to hit the rain and get back behind the boat!! 🙂

Way too much of this lately! But being really productive and planning the final touches of my season! This is easily my most busy season yet with so many events and project coming up! I’m both excited and a little overwhelmed but hopefully some more of this will get me through it 🙂 Here are my next two months:

25-28 June          – Trip to Finland with Monster Energy
29 June-5 July   – JB comes to Sweden and we’re filming a video project at Breddas Wake Park
6 – 12 July           – Battle of the Backyard
14-19 July           – Wakeboard Clinics with Froggy Vattensport in Linköping
21 -31 July          – Austin, Tx for some boat riding before the Europeans
1-9 August          – Amsterdam for the European Championships
10 -16 August     – Cable riding in Holland
17 – 19 August     – Chill and Ride in Germany
28 -30 August    – Swedish Nationals
2 – 13 September – Orlando and Surf Expo
18 -20 September -Triple Crown, Atlanta
24-28 September -World Cup China
2-4 Oktober          – Houston Pro

 

Things are about to get crazy but first I have a few more days here at the Breddas park and then a quiet weekend at my family’s summer house to celebrate Midsummer, one of our biggest holidays here in Sweden. I can’t wait!!

Last few pics by David Holmqvist

On friday we all got in our cars to drive down to Gothemburg and another city event! We got there and watched to guys from Swedish Wake Parks finish the setup with kickers from Scandinavian shapers that looked great. I’d never seen an event quite like it with the system 2.0 set up on either side of a canal. After hanging out in the sun for a bit the practice started with riders from Sweden, Denmark and Germany.

I was sitting watching while chatting to one of Swedens best wake board photographers, Peter Wahlfridsson. He had this amazing idea about trying to shoot later at night when the city lights had started light up. Since Sweden is so unique during the summer with the sun setting so late, I was immediately game for this idea and went to grab some food and wait until the light was perfect. Around 10.30 pm the city lights came on and we started shooting. By then the sun had set but the sky was still fairly light so I could almost see where I was going. Hopefully we got some cool shots.

During the actual event I was the only female rider and so I had to ride against the guys. I bet it made them nervous 😉 I was super excited about my riding but unfortunately the guys rode even better so I missed out on the semi’s by a few points. It was insane watching the Hoppe Brothers Mattias and Jeremia ride the head to head finals and after Mattias took a gnarly crash and had to end his run with a broken rib, Jeremia took the win!

Thanks Nicolai and Martin for another sick event, I love being at home!! 🙂