About

My full name is Christoph Pressler. I’m 46 years of age, was born in Salzburg, studied Geography & Economy & Sports Education in Vienna and actually live in Burgenland. I actually work as an editor of www.continentseven.com. Additionally I work as a travel journalist, photo assistant, video assistant and a professional windsurfing coach or teacher. In the past I have been attending the PWA World Cup tour for about 13 years (2003 – 2015), travelled the world, worked at Lake Garda for a few years and as well got experience in board testing for Starboard or sail testing for GOT Sails and Challenger Sails.

Looping just a few meters from the beach (Pic: ©Kerstin Reiger)

Looping just a few meters from the beach (Pic: ©Kerstin Reiger)

All in all I want to be a great ambassador for the sport of windsurfing. I tell stories about the sport, interview windsurfers, film action and never want to lose the passion for this fantastic board riding lifestyle!

I closely work in a team with Kerstin Reiger and her brother Florian. Additionally I get supported by Starboard, Challenger Sails, Camaro, Mission to Surf, Fitnessstudio Resch and Aeron Booms.

“Windsurfing is the key to my lifestyle and to my success in life. I collaborate with many people, who are very dedicated to the most exciting sport. 

In 1996 I met Thomas Miklautsch, an Austrian (Krumpendorf, Carinthia) World Cup rider, travel windsurfer and producer of documentaries and short films. When sitting on the beach of Vargas he asked me to join him on a trip to the States. More details I will receive later. I cancelled the plans travelling to Greece. Instead of that we travelled to Alaska, California, Oregon and Oahu, Hawaii. Thomas and I windsurfed next to huge glacier walls, next to whales and tried to cross the Bering Strait in 1996, following the tracks of Arnaud de Rosney, who successfully made the crossing in 1979. We almost made it half way, but didn’t reach our goal. Nowadays there are ambitious efforts by Russia and China to build 103 km long tunnels to connect Sibiria with Alaska. I definitely would like to try the crossing again, but it’s a very dangerous adventure. The weather can change really quick up there, the current is really strong and not many ships are available to rescue a windsurfer, who is in trouble in between Alaska and Sibiria. The crossing is just possible during the summer months from July till September. During the other months there is too much ice and fog in the Bering Sea and the weather is too cold.

Alaska, Knik glacier in 1996 (Photo: Richard Pichler)

Alaska, Knik glacier in 1996 (Photo: Richard Pichler)

“In the future I will travel together with Kerstin Reiger, my girl friend, co-founder of continentseven and professional photographer, to many more places on this earth, where the wind blows and waves are breaking. Recently we travelled to our neighbored country Hungary. Over the years we made it to several countries in and outside Europe and produced photo stories for magazines. Alaska, Morocco, the Western Sahara, Tunisia, California, Hawaii, Vietnam, Thailand, Malaysia, Taiwan, Philippines, Mexico (lower California), Malta, Argentina, Peru (we had our feet in Chile, too), Venezuela, Croatia, Italy, Spain, San Marino, Germany, Czech Republic, Hungary, Austria, Egypt, Portugal/Azores, France, Catalunya, Canary Islands, Slovenia, Denmark, Belgium, Netherlands, Turkey, Greece and South Africa. And each trip was a success in its own way.

And I always try to keep all the new friends in my mind, whom we met during the trips, because there is a true chance to meet them again” THE ROAD TO A FRIEND`S HOUSE IS NEVER TOO FAR”

A Cutback in the afternoon in Gran Canaria

A mellow cutback in the early afternoon in Gran Canaria (Photo: Kerstin Reiger)

My Slalom windsurfing career (2005 – 2015)
I did not compete from the beginning on in windsurfing. When I was young, a kid at 5 years of age, I started with ski racing, while all the top slalom sailors were already on the slalom course. My skiing career lasted for 10 years. Later I studied Sports and Geography/Economy, had to make it through all the tests and limits at the Sports University of Vienna and started competing in some freestyle events around 2000 while living and working in Torbole at Lake Garda.

The modern freestyle has developed over the past 25 years. I learnt to do Vulcans and Spocks, Willy Skippers, Spinloops and Grubbies around 2000. And I really had fun participating in freestyle events. In July 2005 I started to sail on fast modern Slalom gear and really enjoyed it. I participated in the highest possible tour, the PWA tour, from the beginning on, but also attended in lower level events or local events.  The more and more I raced, the more I got hooked. 2015 was my 11th and last season. In total I participated in 48 PWA World Cups, 4 IFCA World Championships, 1 IFCA European Championships, in the Asian Windsurfing Tour 2007/2008, in the Vietnam Fun Cups and Pro Races, in long distance races in Turkey, in the Race of Champions at Lake Garda in 2007, at Austrian Speed, Slalom, Formula and Long Distance races, in a Speed World Championship in Fuerteventura and several National Slalom Championships in Croatia.

The races during the past 11 years brought me to many exciting places and countries: Germany – Sylt, Italy – Lago di Garda and Reggio di Calabria, Spain – Costa Brava, Catalunya and Canary Islands (Fuerteventura, Lanzarote, Tenerife and Gran Canaria), Netherlands – Island of Texel and Brouwersdam, Portugal  – Terxeira / Azores, Croatia – Premantura, Jadrija, Supetar or Bol, Taiwan – Penghu Islands, Vietnam – Mui Ne, Malaysia – Kuantan, Philippines – Boracay, South Korea – Ulsan, Jinha Beach or Turkey – Alacati

But here are so many more spots I have never visited. The options are endless. The world is huge with a total coastal length of 520.000 km. Two third of our planet is covered by water and there are plenty undiscovered spots and beaches.

In 2016 I decided to stop my racing career and focus on free windsurfing, far away from competitions. This decision was the right one. Now it’s time again to go for trips to new places, to live the passion at the fullest and get on the wave or freestyle windsurfing gear more often. I as well started to practice Yoga in autumn 2015, keep on training in the gym, ski a lot, do some snowboarding, surfing and get on the bike during the warmer months of the year. Lately I started with ski touring, what’s a fantastic combination of hiking and skiing. And when the snow is gone we hike on mountains. There are plenty in Austria.

I like literature and movies

During my whole life I liked to read and to write. Watching movies got more interesting recently as so much good productions are available online. I like stories, documentaries or films with a story, which could be real or had been happening once. Explorations, actions, lifestyle, historic novels. T.C. Boyle is one of the authors I would like to post: Watermusik is quite an interesting book. In the beginning I read a lot of books from Ernest Miller Hemingway and John Steinbeck. Orhan Pamuk’s “Das neue Leben” or Milan Kundera’s “Die unerträgliche Leichtigkeit des Seins” I want to mention, too.

And about movies: indeed I prefer movies with not too many special effects and intense stories. “Once upon a time in the west” is a movie, which inspires me to work hard to film better in the near future. A Bronx Tale or Once upon a time in America are movies I watched several times. Inside the sport I like productions from my film making friend Thomas Miklautsch, especially the part he windsurfs in the Antarctica.

And my favourite surfing vids are: “Crystal Voyager”, “Thicker than water” and “Sipping jetstreams”.

Coaching young riders

Coaching young riders

I love teaching & coaching

In 1999 I finished my studies and became a teacher for sports and geography afterwards. After two years working in public schools I decided to focus more and more on coaching in windsurfing. It’s a huge field with a lot of different target groups. I spent several seasons at Lake Garda or created youth freestyle camps together with Kerstin in Fuerteventura. Nowadays I still like to teach and develop my own new ways how to create little sensations in each lesson. If you are interested to book me teaching you, just contact me

Teaching at Mission to Surf in 2016

Teaching at Mission to Surf in 2016

4 comments on “About”

  1. Simon says:

    Servus Chris,

    bietest Du eigentlich auch Slalom bzw Race Training an?

    Wäre sehr interessiert!

    Lg,
    Simon

  2. Hallo Simon,
    danke für deine Nachricht. Bitte schick mir deine Email oder Telefonnummer.

    Lg,
    Chris

  3. Brian says:

    You rock! Cheers from Santa Cruz.

  4. Hallo Chris,

    schön dass wir und in Rindbach getroffen haben. Kannst du mir bitte deine email und Telefonnummer senden.
    Vielen Dank im Voraus.
    lg. Markus

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *