Wolle Nyvelt Interview, December 2006
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Austria has produced many talented snowboarders over the past ten years. Many of them have made a name for themselves, but none have remained seemingly at the top of their game for so long as Wolfgang Wyvelt. Although you may not think of Wolle straight away when comprising a list of Europe's top snowboarders, there's no doubt he's up there as one of the most ripping riders of our time.
Wolle now lives in Mayrofen but spends most of his time travelling to the worlds most exotic snowboard, and more recently, surf spots. We hooked up for a little catch up....

Interview by Andrew Winter

So, what’s up Wolle, how has your summer been? Did you go to Hawaii?
Yeah the summer was good! Unfortunately I didn’t go to Hawaii this year to hang with the absinthe crew when editing the new movie “more” because I was on too many other trips. Billabong invited Risto and me to go to Tahiti to watch Teahupoo and surf over there wich was super sick and after that I went too Chile for snowboardjournal, to New Zealand, and further on to Bali for some more surfing! Summer was good for sure haha....

How is your surfing coming along these days?
I just try to go surfing as much as possible in the summer. It is just perfect to get your whole body back into shape and it s just so much fun! Tahiti was so beautiful, we surfed the breaks there and it was a super good experience for sure. Also I got to surf a bit in Chile. We were on this sick trip with Shane Dorian, Ian Walsh, and Jeremy Jones. 2 snowboarders and 2 surfers. We went to check out the coast there and surfed some epic points and then we went to the mountains for some snowboarding. Definitely one of the best trips if been on so far for sure. Those guys showed us a lot in the water and we tried to give them the best expirence possible in the snow.

Sounds like a cool road trip. So you’re at home now, riding the glacier. Is this a good time of year? Chilling at home and just taking it easy must be good in a way...
Yeah right now is a perfect time here in Zillertal. It's still warm down here and on the mountains slowly the snow is starting too fall. It just snowed 30cm last week and we did our first powturns on the side of the slopes. There is a super pipe now on the glacier and Wille (parkshaper) is doing a great job. Just riding with the äcrew , skating after in Brixlegg just getting ready for the season. Its perfect!!

Do you have many mates who don’t actually snowboard?
Yes and no in a way. I mean almost everybody here does some sort of wintersport even though they are not shredding. Pretty much all my friends skate surf or snowboard! Only one stopped but he is still my friend..haha

What do you do in your time out from snowboarding?
Skating or surfing most of the time. Otherwise I hang at my grandparents place in Oberösterreich where they own a place on a little lake. I like to hang there a lot. Good to get some paddle time in with your board. Sometimes there is good wind so I go surfing or sailing.

Where exactly is home for you? Do you have your own place?
For me home is Mayrhofen. I live a little outside of the town with my girlfriend. My parents are here, all my firends, pretty much the whole ästhetiker crew moved into the Zillertal over the last years.

You Austrian guys have always had a pretty tight crew. Have you always ridden with the same guys? Did you, Steve, etc all ride together from the beginning?
I started riding with the crew from mayrhofen (steve green , andy pramstraller…) who are all ästhetikers too. Pretty soon camps started to happen on the glacier, so many shredders made it into the valley. So did Steve Blue, Dieter Steinhardt, Bernd Egger, Friedl Kolar…. That’s when we all started riding together. Those guys came in here and we did the whole Austrian contest tour together! The ästhetiker crew just kept growing, it was a super funny time for sure, lots of partying and shredding! Since then not much has changed really....haha

What’s the score with Asthetiker these days? Is that still going strong? What are the fundamentals behind it?
Ästhetiker is still the same like it was for sure. Just a crew of friends who share the same interest , which are pretty much the most important fundamentals. The äight crew as a company developed out of it because we wanted to make good snowboard events. All the FIS crap happened in Austria and we were just over it so we said we'd make our own little jams our way and try to give back something to the sport that means so much to us. The contest developed over the years, we joined the TTR because a good friend and longtime ästhetiker Drew Stevenson is running the show there. We had a 4 star last year and we are working on a 5 star for next year. The most important thing for us though is that the park is sick, that the riders have fun riding with their friends, and that nobody gets hurt!!

How do you find balancing your sponsors interests with your own side projects like Asthetiker?
First off all sponsors like Billabong are long time supporters of the ästhetiker tour so they are cool with that for sure. I don’t think it is a balancing act, I think what I do within the äcompany is for the benfefit for my sponsors anyway. We do ästhetiker television with profiles from everybody from the crew, avalanche awareness, how to build a jump….all over Europe! Also the Ädvd “the lost tapes” with parts from everybody plus all the contest we've put on so far! At the end of the day it is a small company and we are stocked on that. All the stuff we do is to give back to the sport, but of course the main focus is riding when there is pow!

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