interview | Silli Mittermüller

 

Silvia Mittermüller is quite cool. With her incredible smile, she blinds all male snowboarder’s hearts since ever. Rad sponsors, used to film back in the days with Isenseven and recently couldn’t finish off her season the right way, due to an injury unfortunately. We’ve talked with Silvia a bit to find out more about everything, failed AM style on one thing in our research, but enjoyed of course the interview with her a lot. We hope you will do as well!

ShredOn Mag: Hey Silvia, how are you?

Silvia M.: I´m pretty good! Well maybe a tiny bit bummed because it´s still snowing so much in Breckenridge and I just got an amazing bike, but with all this snow in the end of April I can´t use it much so far…

ShredOn Mag: Would you please introduce yourself real quick and tell us where you’re from, who you riding for and what you do at the moment?

Silvia M.: Well, my name is Silvia, I´m originally from Munich, have been snowboarding for a long time by now

(13 years – wow!) , I ride for Oakley, Ride, Vans, Elm, Planet Sports, TSG, Purl and Breckenridge Resort. Right now I am in Breckenridge finishing off the season, but may still go for a film trip to Tahoe and then spend my summer in Whistler and New Zealand…

 

ShredOn Mag: You rode a pretty good season this year, looking also on the BGO events among others. 4th in New Zealand, 2nd in Canada. If there wouldn’t have been that god damn elbow later on, which cost you important points and spots in the TTR and BGO ranking. What happened?

Silvia M.: Yes, that was a bitter pill to swallow with the elbow… I managed to dislocate it superbad in Norway, on the smallest crash ever. And that right before the Arctic Challenge. I was so stoked to compete there and finish things off with the Euro X Games and US Open afterwards, but instead I had elbow surgery in Munich and have been rehabbing tons, so I can ride again now for the last weeks of the season…. It sucks that that happened, but you gotta take life as it comes and I tried to deal with it as good as I could.

ShredOn Mag: Old issue: Women snowboarding progressed in the last couple years a lot actually. Chery Maas was the first woman this season, to land the first 900 in a Slopestyle and also on rails and urban jibbing, the women show more and more each year. No matter what, there are still plenty of male fans of the sport, who rather laugh at it and don’t respect that. How do you see that progression of women snowboarding? Will the girls also hop on the cork hype in future?

Silvia M.: First I have to correct you – already the previous season there were other girls that have landed 9s in contests – Sina Candrian and Charlotte Van Gils (at the Euro Open | „EDITOR’S FAIL! He got fired already and is send in a box, on his way to Somalia. The pirates will do the rest, promise!„ -comment by chief editor). Generally I think that the women will sooner or later catch up with the men to some extent. It just takes us a little longer to work our way up there. We are overall less women pushing each other, think of it as people that are pulling a huge commercial truck. If you have 50 people pull at once the truck will move way faster, than if you have 10 people pull… It will all come at its time.

ShredOn Mag: We are still totally heart broken, that we can’t see you anymore since quite a while now in the Isenseven films! Is there any hope, that it’ll change somewhen in the future?

Silvia M.: Ohhhhh thats making me so happy to hear you actually remember I used to be a part of those.

Hahahaha. Honestly I´d be so happy to have a hand full of shots in a Isenseven movie before I´m done riding on this kind of level. Go back to the roots in some ways… But in the end it comes down to your sponsors and your season plans, if you get a chance to film and with who… this year I have a chance for the first time in a while to film, with Peepshow, thats a North American girls project. But the elbow screwed that up a bit too… There´s gonna be a spring and summer trip still though…

 

ShredOn Mag: What are your plans for the next season?

Silvia M.: I hope to just once have the season that I know I can have. To have no injury. Ride well in contests, get a bunch of video shots on the side, learn some new stuff, get some photos…. basically the major key to all of that is „no injury“. If there´s no injury, you got enough time to do it all. So my major wish is no injury and improve anyways.

ShredOn Mag: Sounds like you’re planning to avoid injuries for the next season. There have been several times, we could read in sponsor profiles or interviews, that you enjoy playing Chess. Does it give you some calm and peace, which you might need every now and then? Or are you in genreal, rather more the strategist, than  the spontaneous snowboarder, who also starts bunch of stupid and fun stuff out of the sudden?

SilviaM.: Chess is great to switch off everything else that´s going on. When I play, I barely think of anything else than my moves. It´s relaxing. Same with long distance swimming. Well I do think a bit more when I swim, than when I play chess, but it still turns off most of the thoughts that could possibly stress or worry me.  Generally I like thinking, but I prefer thinking the things that I enjoy to think about. But you can´t pick your thoughts, because in the moment that you think about them they are already there. So I guess, I pick activities that channel my thoughts and therefore the way I feel in a way, where I know from experience, that I will feel good and happy. So that´s Chess, long distance swimming, snowboarding, good music, playing piano , sleeping and doing new things. Wow, thanks for the good question, I haven’t realized that before, that I like the things I like, because of how they channel my thinking. Hahaha.

ShredOn Mag: You’re welcome! How does the perfect day in the life of Silli Mittermüller look like?

Silvia M.: I like waking up in Breckenridge with a jetlag from Europe, that way you´re so awake in the morning and just feel amazing. I love it. So wake up early in Breck, have a good breakfast, go ride the insanely perfect jumps in the park here all day, jib a bit too. No lunch break. Just ride until I can’t go anymore. Go home and eat a lot. Maybe play some piano and go to the gym and swim, later have a beer with friends, realize I´m deadly tired with my Euro jetlag, go to bed early and exhausted and do the same things the next day.[pullquote] to be honest, I am a bit worried F.I.S. will be too proud and stuck up in their shell to communicate and cooperate with us, the way we hope for it to happen…[/pullquote]

ShredOn Mag: Let’s switch back again to more serious stuff: Currently it is highly discussed, if Slopestyle should be included into the Winter Olympic Games for Russia in 2014. But still, there is plenty of people saying that it’s bullshit, having the F.I.S. to run snowboarding. What do you think about that? And how important is it, that pro riders take initiative on their own and start movements like “We Are Snowboarding“?

Silvia M.: First I have to say that it´s out of the question, if Slopestyle is at a level that it´s ready for the olympics, and also that Slopestyle would rejuvinate the Olympics in a very positive way. So without considering the political questions that surround the subject, Slopestyle should for sure be olympic.

But yeah then there is the politics. I don’t like the philosophy of the F.I.S., but most likely the Olympics will only be accessible through F.I.S. again, that will make things complicated with the qualification. We already have so many events through the year. We´ll see if WAS can change anything there, I think it´s good we´re trying, but we´ll see how much we´ll really change. I think it´s good to have all key players in snowboarding united, so WAS is good no matter what, but to be honest, I am a bit worried F.I.S. will be too proud and stuck up in their shell to communicate and cooperate with us, the way we hope for it to happen…

ShredOn Mag: Okay, let’s get back to less serious and more personal things here, with some quicky tricky questions: Bier vs. Whiskey?

Silvia M.: Beer for sure!

ShredOn Mag: Summer Camp vs. Surfen in Bali?

Silvia M.: Tough call… never been to Bali so I´d take it for one summer to be able to have a better founded opinion afterwards! Ha!

ShredOn Mag: “For the next season, you let yourself make some dread locks, because ..?“

Silvia M.: You should never say never! It would be the best proof for that saying, because I´d for sure say never right now…

ShredOn Mag: Silli cast away on a lonely island. Lucky her, that she could safe a suitcase, with the 7 most important things she would need, to make it through. Which are these and why?

Silvia M.: For sure some food and water, then a solar energy system, my computer, my diary, friends and a boat to be able to leave that place again, once I want to leave…

ShredOn Mag: Pilates vs. Yoga?

Silvia M.: To be honest neither… I do my own gym work outs, stretch, swim, am an active person. Maybe I´ll rethink Pilates and Yoga when I´m 40 or 50 but so far nah….

 

ShredOn Mag: Burger King vs. McDonalds?

Silvia M.: Neither! I don’t eat meat and barely any other animal products. Also I try to avoid GM foods, and pretty much all the fries you get at non-European fast food chains will be GM potatoes…. so if you really want me to admit, I´ve eaten at BK or McD before – yes, fries in Europe. That´s about it.

ShredOn Mag: Dope! I thank you so much for your time and this interview Silli and that you’ll have a nice and relaxed summer time and a good start into the next season! Last words?

Silvia M.: Hahaha relaxed summer? I´m still riding here in CO, considering a film trip before camp of champs in Whistler, going from there to NZ until the fall… Should be good! Anyways, for last words… thanks to family and friends and to my sponsors Oakley, Ride, Vans, Elm, Planet Sports, Purl, TSG and Breckenridge resort – without all of you it wouldn’t be the same! Thanks for the support! Love you all! Ha.

ShredOn Mag: We’re out! Bye!