Steve Gruber 

Riding since: 1992

Profession: Snowboarder

Why are you Ästhetiker: : Maybe because Dieter Steinhardt, Bernd Egger and myself started the whole thing?

Inspiration:Nature, Flying, all kinds of progression.

Best story to tell: Doing the ISF  Halfpipe Wold Championships 99 in Italy ,where I was surprised enough to qualify for the finals in first place. I was so happy about the good ranking and the nice party the night before the finals, it made me go crazy in the bar.
I was in good shape that night and even when the party was over, I still kept going and ended up in a private room party, with Drew, Dieter Happ, Tommy K and some other friends, which I have to admit, I can’t remember anymore.
 The room party was in a hotel on the hill. My hotel was in the valley, so Drew had to drive me home at six in the morning being totally sober, yeah right!!! On top of everything I forgot my keys in my hotel room so I had to climb the balcony into my room, which was on the second floor. Sketchy!!! Fred, my manager at that time, came to wake me up around 8.00 am in the morning for breakfast.
He could not believe, in which condition I still was after only 2 hours of sleep therefore he left me so I could sleep some more until about 2 pm.
I then took a cold shower and made my way to the final practise. It wasn’t the best practise for me, I have to admit, yet I was calm and remember how Daniel Frank was all nervous about the comp. I thought that if I get 2 runs down, everything would be just fine for me, and we can go for another party after that. 2 out of 3 runs worked out really good so I was satisfied with myself and in the end I even got second which was a nice bonus for those finals. The only bummer was that for the first time during a price-giving ceremony I wasn t able to pop open the champagne bottle, which was kind of embarrassing because everyone else was already spraying around with theirs. It was too bad that my friends could not be there. We would have turned that party place up side down. Those were the good old times, during which I could drink, party and ride like there is no tomorrow. Nowadays however I take it easier since I have to pay more attention to my body to be able to ride to my fullest potential. I believe it’s nice that things change, and I enjoy every minute on my snowboard even more now then ever did before.
Now go shred!