Interview Gian Simmen

Gian SimmenI was born in Chur Switzerland on the 19. February 1977 as son of a hotel manager. I grew up in a little town called Vallbella where my parents run a hotel. It was super cool because it was all out in the green so I had a lot of space to run and play around. Also I had to learn how to ski but I never really liket it. In April 1980 my brother Mauro was born and then in November 81 my other brother named Nando was born. When I grew up I had to go to kindergarten and to school, but when I was nine years old my family moved to Davos.At first it was rally hard for me to get iused to a city like Davos. In school I meet my first friends so the city wasn’t to bad enimore. I started Skateboarding in summer 88. I liket it so much that I started snowboarding in the following winter. This two Boards changed my life for ever from then on all my spare time I spent with skating or snowboarding. In the summer vacation I went to some Golfcourses to work as a caddy to get some money for buying new skate-and snowboards. After 5 years of living in Davos my family decided to move to a small town called Arosa.My problems started back in school because the school was on a rally high standard. But I found a lot of new friends. My snowboarding was getting better and better. I starter travelling to contest to figure out how good I was. At my first contest I was super nervous and didn’t ride very well. I went home and I knew that I had to train some more, and I did. At my second contest everything went better and I was ranked in the top ten. Along with the good results the first sponsor came, a shop in Arosa. Because of my bad grades I had to change school so I had to go to the city called Chur. That meant to sit in the train for 2 hours every day.In the season of 92/93 I got the hook up with Santa Cruz. At first I was in the junior team but I worked my way up. I finished school and started an apprenticeship in a Office in Arosa. It was hard and I worked a lot of over time and my chef set my free for snowboarding.When my apprenticeship ended in august of 96 I disseidet to work for the Office till end of November and the try my luck as a pro Snowboarder. It worked out rally good and I had some pretty decent Contest Results. I was so stoked to be pro because I was able to ride every single day. In the summer of 97 I had to go to the army. It is meanentory for all male guys in Switzerland. I had to go for 15 weeks so I had not enough time to ride my Boards. But I was getting trained pretty well. So I built up a lot of muscles on my body. After I was done I started riding again the extra power helped out a lot. Switzerland put together an Olympic Team. I was not in there because I was in the army by that time.But my Team Manager told me which contest I had to ride to go to Nagano. So I did and made the Team.When I was in Nagano I was kind of tired from Contest because I had to do so many just to go there. But then the 12. February changed my life forever!! I won my first big Contest it was the Olympics. I never won a big Contest before so it was just to much for me. I had no idea what it meant to win such a Contest and I was not prepared for it. I had to give a lot of Interviews and Information about myself. And when I was back in Switzerland a few days later I advanced to be a hero. They had parades for me and the Interviews just would not end.In this Time I had no time to go Snowboarding but it showed me how much I love Snowboarding.In the following Winter my riding progressed again and I won some more Contests. I also started to spend more time in the USA for filming and shooting. I rally liked it because filming was a new challenge for me. We filmed for the Santa Cruz Video, just digi, but it was fun but a lot of hard work. Our crew was king of slow so I had to play the motivator for everyone.My part in the Video turned out pretty good and I was happy with it.Last Season started incredible with to Contest wins. But winter wasn’t as good as a lot of people hoped it would be. So I was travelling to all the Contests on the ISF Tour. Santa Cruz had a Team House in Truckee at Lake Tahoe so from mid February I spent all my time there to shoot for Blacklight. It was new for me to go out on snowmobiles and film 16mm but the Filmers helped me out and motivate me a lot. Beginning of April I was invited for the Arctic Challange in Norway. It was a big honor for me to ride with Terje Haakonsen. The Quarterpipe was rally big. Everyone was going as big as possible. I ended up winning Best Trick and Overall Impression. After this I had to go to the last Competition of the Season in Switzerland. Everyone knew that I was World Champion already because I was leading with a lot of points. So I had to give a lot of Interviews again and everyone told me that I have to defend my tittle at the Olympics. I will but it is not so easy.I will train this summer and try to learn some new tricks so I can keep up next Season. The Olympics are for sure a goal for next season just to go there. If I am allowed to go again I will do my best. An other focus is to get another good video part done. Blacklight already told me that they will go out shoot with me. Other Film Company told me their interest as well. Also I like to go out with photographers to have some photos out there as well.As long as I can keep up with the young guys and my body is holding up I will to try to snowboard on a top level. I am healthy right now and I try to stay healthy for the future and enjoy Snowboarding.