The biggest Euro Cup in R4 discipline is in Wildalpen, Austria, so we’re going to present to you a home team that now has both male and female crews. The sweet taste of their first race during last year’s summer hooked them on rafting. They are new in the sport rafting so this will be a great opportunity to get to know them a little better and give them support for their future work.
First, we will talk with the men’s team and Florian Zielbauer helps us with that.
Florian, tell us something about how you started all this story?
“We are a group of friends studying at the same university, Montanuniversität Leoben, who started to raft last summer just for fun. Quickly we registered a club, Pub o’Cino Rafting Team Leoben, to take the whole of rafting more seriously. Our first competition was the Eurocup in Solkan last autumn where we came second last. During the race our passion and motivation for this sport was raised and so we decided to train hard for the upcoming season. Because of the fact that we only have two rafting guides in the team and the others are complete newcomers to the sport, we don’t expect too much for the year 2014. We want to take part at several Euro Cup races and of course at our national championship and have fun.”
They link pleasure and sport not only in rafting, but also in climbing, running, kayaking, swimming, sailing, soccer and so on. – “We love to do sports and be out in the nature. It is nice to have a dynamic club like ours.” – say Florian –“And thank you for the opportunity to present our team on the IRF website.” – You’re welcome, it’s our pleasure.
Florian, introduce us to the team. – “The members of the men’s teams are: Pit Arnold, Raphael Esterl, Stefan Fabbro, Andreas Gerstmayr, Markus Kastner, Markus Kohlmayr, Volker Matl, Fabian Niklas, Gernot Schwaiger, Andreas Weber, Thomas Zauchner, Florian Zielbauer. The coach of both teams is Florian Zielbauer.”
You started the season with Solkan in Slovenia, and what else do you have planned this year? – “We would like to compete in Wildalpen and in Augsburg, Trnavka and maybe some more.”
Who is the Austria 1 team in your country?
“The other Austria team is “Roughters Wildalpen Raftingteam” with whom we have good contact. They help us a lot ’cause of the fact we are new to this sport. I think we are Austria 2 ;)” – That’s fantastic, congratulations. Take advantage of this opportunity to participate in both the European Championships.
On which rivers do you train and how often? What is your favourite discipline?
“We train mainly on the river Mur in Leoben and sometimes we train on the river Enns and Salza. We prefer Slalom because it’s the most interesting and challenging discipline. It gives you great pleasure if things work out the way you expected them.
This is the video of our second training on the river Enns in Styria. We had good water and learnt a lot of things. We also had to handle some problems but it was good fun.
Will the women’s team go to all the competitions with you?
“No they won’t go to all the competitions with us. At the time we are struggling with the fact that they don’t have enough time for the competitions. But we try hard and will encourage them to participate at the Euro Cup in Austria.” – Gentlemanly of you.
At the moment we leave the men’s team, to give the girls a word.
Ladies of the “Pub o’Cino Rafting Team Leoben” are: Julia Berger, Christina Hagen, Tanja Jörg, Teresa Rinschede, Violeta Schorn, Agnes Staudigl
Julia Berger will help us answer some questions.
A special welcome to you girls. a women’s team from Austria! Since you have not been to any competitions, which competition will we first see you at?
“First of all, thanks a lot for welcoming us so nicely! As our first competition, we are going to participate in the Euro Cup race in Wildalpen. We are really looking forward to this event!!!
How did you decide on rafting? And what is it that attracted you to it?
“Wow, actually it is not so easy to give a reason for us starting rafting. I think, the majority of us were just curious about this sport. It’s always nice to try out something new! The boys of the Pub o’Cino Rafting Team, who are fellow students and good friends of ours, have both invited and motivated us to check it out. We have trained a couple of times together and I think we fell in love with it! Moreover we are on very good terms with each other, so there is always a really good atmosphere in the boat. It’s a good feeling to exercise in the fresh air together with people you really like, trying to give the best for the team! Furthermore, it is really interesting to incrementally learn how the water behaves and due to the fact that we have just started rafting, we still have to learn a lot!
Where can we follow your progress?
“We have an official Facebook profile. We would be happy if you would visit our page.” – We will.
Florian, tell us – do you have some sponsors?
“We really want to thank our sponsor “Klarmann Max”, owner of Hotel Kongress and Pub o’Cino Leoben, for his great and generous support. Without his help we wouldn’t have come this far. It is really nice to have such motivated people in the background who love the rafting sport as we do. Also we want to thank HelliWelli and AOS Strobl for their support.” – Thank you from our side.
I will have great pleasure this year enjoying the first competition of these girls, and the girls from Denmark in Wildalpen. These young boys and girls inspire a new freshness in our sport. It’s always nice to enjoy chilling with new clubs and following their development. It was a pleasure talking to you. See you soon in Wildalpen.
