Date of birth: 02.05.1970

I come from a canoe sport family. My parents have canoed for decades. I almost had no choice. They introduced me to the sport the old-fashioned way, through a club. My parents were very active members of the canoe club in Wuppertal. My father was a trainer there. When I was 7 or 8 years old I started to do canadier races, but only as a student. My brother who is 4.5 years older was also a canoeist. One day my parents realised that we enjoyed whitewater kayaking and trips with picnic and foldboat a lot more than just stupefying training. Therefore they joined another club in Hilden near Düsseldorf which had a much better youth development programme for leisure activities. That was back in 1983. During the week we trained on the lake and on the weekends we paddled on rivers like the Erft.

In 1985 we spend our vacation in the Durance valley in France. My parents weren’t particularly good whitewater kayakers and couldn’t be our guides. But the canoe association offered trips for families lead by experienced guides. My brother and I always took off with the guides. Back then I ran my first difficult whitewater, up to level V. My mother wasn’t happy about that. She didn’t want us to go kayaking in such hard whitewater. However, by that time I was already addicted to the sport. I had been infected by the whitewater virus and I wanted to go kayaking as much as possible. My brother on the other hand quit shortly after that. He was 18 back then and had other interests.

In those years Hans Memminger made it big. He was one of the pioneers of the sport, made expeditions and shot films all over the world. I always visited his film shows and knew I wanted to make such expeditions one day – discovering foreign countries, cultures and whitewater. Due to the dispute with my Mom I waited desperately for my 18th birthday. I saved money for my driving license, bought a car and travelled four weeks through the Alps with a friend. In the river guide of the German canoe association we picked out all rivers with WW level V/VI to unrunnable. Then we checked them all out, from Tyrol to Slovenia. From that moment on I was a fanatic. We drove from Düsseldorf to the Alps or the Ticino just for the weekend. We left on Friday directly after work and returned on Sunday evening. At that time I did my apprenticeship to become a certified industrial mechanic.

What has always appealed to me is discovering new, unknown rivers. Of course that involves a lot of time and effort, because you have to climb a lot, search and explore. But that was my exploration fever. At the same time I was keen to try out new paddling techniques. I watched different movies, tried to adopt these techniques and to improve them. I was really keen on sports back then and trained two hours each day. I would have loved to go kayaking every day, but I simply didn’t have the time. You always had to drive to get to the water. I have also played handball for 20 years and I was ambitious in that sport, too. I played in the regional league. In the A-Youth class we were NRW vice champion. Then I made the mistake and didn’t change the club. Our men’s team wasn’t so strong, but it was still a lot of fun.

End of the eighties I got my university-entrance diploma and did my alternative civilian service. I was still on track for the career my parents had planned for me: mechanical engineer. My Dad always wanted to go to university, but he never had the chance. So he wanted to give me the opportunity he never had. I did my civilian service in mobile care for the elderly and I am proud to say that I was one of the few who did not miss a single day of work, because I really enjoyed my job. There I also started thinking. I realised that I wanted to do something that I enjoy. After all you work all your life.

In 1991, after my civilian service, I made my first overseas trip to British Columbia, Canada. I was there for seven weeks to bridge the time to my study. Two friends accompanied me and we did a lot of whitewater kayaking. When I came home I knew that I didn’t want to go to university. Neither mechanical engineering nor medicine appealed to me. I was matriculated for 1.5 years, but never attended any class, so I left the university after that period. During that time I worked stationary at a residential home for the elderly and always had my vision to do more kayaking. The institution in Haan accommodated well with my plans. I worked there as temp and always filled in for someone who was sick. And since in this kind of job there is always a high number of staff away sick I could have worked 365 days a year. I worked 180 to 200 hours per month, but got only paid for half the time and saved the rest on a time account. Whenever I had three months on that account I made trip into the big, wide world to seeking for new kayak adventures. Between 1992 and 1998 I was in Costa Rica, Canada, California, Idaho, Reunion and Malawi. When I was in Africa in 1995 I did a first descent of the Shire, the efflux of Lake Malawi. There we did not only have to cope with massive whitewater, but also with crocodile and hippo attacks.

I then realised that in order to run more whitewater I need another income source. Friends of mine, Manu Arnu and Michael Neumann, took photographs and refunded their trips by organising slide shows and selling their pictures to canoe magazines. In 1997 I thought that I could start doing that, too, in order to get a little sponsorship. However, since the market is so small the guys said we would just compete with each other and suggested I should buy a video camera instead and start filming. That was the year in which the first digital mini camcorders were launched. I bought the first ever 3-chip consumer camera on the market for 5000 Marks. From then things were looking up. In 1998 I moved from Haan in North Rhine-Westphalia to Nussdorf at the Inn near Rosenheim (Bavaria). I desperately wanted to live in the South, closer to whitewater and moved into the kayak flat share. When we were in California in 1997 we had the idea to open a flat share and launch kayak activities together. A friend of mine found a house at the same time and moved in with a few friends. Fortunately I immediately found a job as elderly care nurse.

I filmed for two years, from 1997 to 1998. Then it was time to do something with all my footage. I couldn’t afford a fancy edit. Hans Mayer, the owner of La Ola, Europe’s coolest kayak shop and one of my motivators and mentors, encouraged me to produce a film. I had financial problems, but he had motivated me so much, that I pushed it through anyway. Through Horst Führsattel I got in touch with Udo Neumann. He produced rock climbing movies and he edited my first film - Boof Chicken Boof. At that point in time it was clear in my mind that I would not become a professional kayaker and that I have to live off something. So I started an education as professional elderly care nurse which I completed in 2000. At the same time I produced four movies (Boof Chicken Boof, Sickline 1, ‘Richtig Rodeo Fahren’ and Sickline 2). Sickline 1 I still edited with Udo Neumeann. With that film I won several first prizes at adventure and mountain film festivals. However, I was always hard-pressed for money and Udo said I should buy my own PC and he would give me the software, because now I knew how to do it. He still supported me, of course, but I started editing the movies myself.

In 2000 I stood at a crossroads. Right after my education I worked six months as an elderly care nurse. However, the development with my films Sickline 2 and ‚Richtig Rodeo Fahren’ went so well that I decided to give it a chance and try living off my projects. I gave myself a deadline of five years. After five years I had to be in a position to create financial reserves for the future and not to live from hand to mouth so I could support a family one day.

In 2001 we were the first European team to run the Grand Canyon of the Stikine (Canada) which is somewhat the Mt. Everest of whitewater. We were also the first to run it completely from source to estuary mouth. With the film „Stikine the Great River” I had my breakthrough. I organised a Europe-wide film tour with screenings in clubs and kayak shops. Since then I have arranged a big film tour and smaller trips every single year and opened up an additional income source by means of DVD sales, film shows and sponsoring.

In the past years I have been about thirty times to Norway, the result of which as a river guide which I produced together with Jens Klatt. According to the feedback we received thus far it is the best river guide on the market as yet. I also continued with my travels all over the world. I was at Canada’s largest cataracts, the Slave River, at Zambesi in Africa, in Turkey as well as all over Europe like Spain, Italy, Montenegro, France, Austria and Switzerland. On the Maldives I produced a sea kayaking film and on the Boron Lakes in Canada a canadier film. In addition I started encouraging young people to produce movies. One of the most successful projects was certainly Painkillerz with Jens Klatt.

I came to adidas via Peter Hertrampf, the owner of Quattro Media, one of Europe’s leading actions sports film production companies. He had seen my movies Sickline 1 and 2 at the film festival in Trento and hired me as Norway and whitewater expert for his team when he got the job from adidas to produce a kayak film in Norway. It was a very intensive time, just five days for production. I loved this project and was very committed to it. I met Axel Burkhardt from adidas, who also put his heart and soul into this project, in Norway. We liked each other at first glance and the result was a friendly work relationship the output of which culminates in adidas Sickline Team.

For me, the fascination of the kayak sport lies in the combination of nature and sportive achievement in a moving element. It creates a prickle of excitement that brims me over with enthusiasm. It is also the experience to have mastered something difficult. You learn to make decisions. And you instantly feel the consequence if you have taken the wrong one. Trough kayaking I’ve learned a lot for life. In extreme whitewater it is also the adrenaline that gets you addicted to the sport. You simply want more.

Strengths
My EQ (Emotional intelligence quotient)

Weaknesses
My IQ