So there it is, the next Corona winter.

I can only hope that we don't get used to the canned life.

Home office, home sports, home service.

However, there is one positive side effect of the home exam: You can muck out all the odds and ends that have accumulated.

And sometimes a little treasure emerges from the pool of faded memories.

That's how I found an advertising poster for a snowboard and ski event a while ago. It is from 2004 and is offering the “Taravana Freestyle by Gary Zebrowski” in Les Deux Alpes from April 13th to 16th. Zebrowski, a Frenchman born in Tahiti, was one of the world's best half-pipe snowboarders at the time. What he launched next to a halfpipe in Les Deux Alpes was huge: DJs, BBQ, waterslide, palm trees, the scent of islands, flower chains, dancers, the rhythm of Polynesia, Tahiti in the snow. But that was not all.

The special thing was that Zebrowski offered not only invited world-class athletes but also a qualification for professionals and amateurs. Yes, for amateurs. One of my sons went with us, 14 years old, a special day. There was no prize money for the winners. Instead, surf trips to Tahiti. The favorites came with their swim trunks and bikini packed in their suitcases, and the plane took off the day after the final. Theoretically, I could have registered for the qualification. In view of the huge halfpipe, it would have led to a longer hospital stay.

So my snowboard career was limited to another, essentially similar event. To the Banked Masters at Hohen Ifen in Kleinwalsertal. This, too, is a mixture of high-performance sport and amateur efforts, between competition and happening. The then world champion Peter Bauer organized it for many years, for the first time in 1996. "Banked" was a throwback to the early days of the sport, when the American forefathers of snowboarding hunted through courses with steep turns. The Kellerloch Gorge on the Ifen offered perfect conditions for this, with fifty steep turns over a length of two kilometers.

There were 200 places, allocated in the order in which they were registered.

Fastest Woman and Fastest Man won surf trips to Hawaii.

There at the Ifen I have taken courage.

And hit my brother-in-law.

A tough duel.

I don't know how often we fell on the two kilometers, at least often, he less than me.

But in a bad crash he lost glasses, hat and half of his equipment and had to find everything again.

That's how I got my biggest win on the snowboard, my only one.

Banked Masters!

Maybe I'll find another poster in the basement.

It would be nice.