What other sports do you like for relaxation? When there are a couple of weekends with no wakeboard comps on during the summer my boyfriend and I go to South France for surfing. I don´t really need other sports for relaxtion.

Do you work out in the gym? I know I should, but I hate the gym. I can´t stand being inside working out on those machines. I know it is important to go to the gym in the winter to train your muscles. If you have good muscles your joints and ligaments have a better protection. The sport courses I have to do at at University keep me fit in the winter. At Uni I have to do all different kinds of sports. I go skateboarding to keep my legs strong.

What do you eat? I try to eat good balanced food. Lots of fruits, vegetable, cereals, some meat and what ever I feel like. I love chocolate!

Do you take vitamins? No, just the ones that come with my food.

What food do you cook / make for yourself? I have Spaghetti on 4 days out of 7. It´s just so easy to make and also one of my favourite foods.

What do you eat as quick energy food? Bananas!

What is your favorite food? Spaghetti!

What do you do for muscle-recovery after a race? Stretch or go for a swim, if it feels like my muscles are getting sore. A hot shower or a massage do a good job too.

What are your 3 best injury prevention tips? 1) Warm up before trainig 2) Stretch 3) Make sure you don´t freeze while you wakeboard, if you do your muscles and ligaments might be in danger!

What do you think of cable wakeboarding vs. behind a boat? I couldn´t really say one is more fun than the other! Both has it´s good points! You can have a good day with your friends hanging out in the boat and at the cable park. The technique of doing inverts are slightly different.

In the US boat riding is definitely the number one. In Germany and many other European countries the cable is more popular. If we had the same conditions as the Americans riding behind the boat would be a lot more popular! In Germany we are not allowed using motor boats on most of our lakes and rivers. Apart from that gas and boats cost about three times as much as they do in the States. You also need a special licence to drive a boat. In most of the other European countries it´s pretty much the same.

Just too many things that make boat riding pretty complicated over here. Instead we have about 50 cable parks throughout Germany. If you think of how small Germany is you´ll see this is quite a lot.

Also competitions in Europe are bigger behind the cable. There is a pretty big media interest in cable wakeboarding over here and the German Wakeboard Tour is the second biggest wakeboard series in the World.

What school do you go to? I am going to a sports university. My major is sportsmedia- and communication.

How long have you been Wakeboarding? I have been wakeboarding for about four years. I was about 18 when I started. The years before I used to waterski. Wakeboarding didn´t really become popular over here before then. When I saw the first guys on wakeboards I wasn´t quite sure what it was all about. When I first tried it, I loved it.

How did you get started? I saw the boys wakeboarding everyday and it kinda looked like really good fun! So I gave it a try. My first day we had this guy called Chip from North Carolina over at our cable park. He was doing a camp for the boys. He loaned me his board and made me try a back roll. At first it felt really wierd being on this big board. About a week later I landed my first roll. I was so stoked!

Do you remember your first competition? My first competition was 1997. Benni Suess - one of the boys from the local cable park - and I were on the way to a trainings camp in Hungary for the European Waterski Championships. On the way to Hungary we stopped at Berlin cos on that weekend the first german wakeboard national championships were on and Benni wanted to compete. There weren´t many girls taking part so I decided to give it a go and entered the comp too. The cable way at Berlin is the wierdest thing ever. It´s going the wrong way round. Some how I managed to land that back roll I learned a couple of weeks before and ended up being first in the womens division. I still didn´t have my own wakeboard by then. I spoke to the guy from Hyperlite Germany afterwards and he gave me my first board.

Who inspires you? Most of the time I have to ride with the boys at the cable park. I guess their the ones who inspire me most. They are also the ones who push me... .

What is your favorite trick? I like it when the boys are doing double S-Bends. That looks just so spectectular. I am too scared of doing one. I almost dislocated my shoulder when I gave it a try the other day.

What trick are you working on? I am working on Front Flips and switch Raileys at the moment. I am trying the Railey off the wakeskate 'cuz that doesn´t hurt as much as crashing on my board. On my Front Flip I am missing the last bit of rotation and I keep just landing on my bum...

Do you have a coach? Not really. The guys I am riding with are looking after me. Benni Suess, Hardy Tunnissen. They are always there if I need them.

How often do you train? About three times a week I go to the park and ride. I don´t really have a schedule for training. I more or less do whatever I feel like. If I feel like sliding, I take my fins off and go for the slider. If I feel like flying I go for inverts. It´s all about fun. On almost every weekend during the summer we have competitions.

Do you run year-round? Our season is limited from April to October. Training isn´t really possible before May and after September. It just gets too cold. You are wearing this 5 mm thick wetsuit and can´t really move. Your feet are getting blue and numb 'cuz the water temperature in April is down to 5 degrees Celsious. Your body cools out so fast and it really hurts when you crash 'cuz the water is so damn cold! I usually go to Florida or Australia for some weeks of winter training whenever I have the money and time off at University. It´s really hard having such long breaks from wakeboarding. The first weeks feel like you´d start from absolutely zero.

What do you think could be done to improve visibility for women's wakeboarding? There should be more stories published about women`s wakeboarding. No wonder so many girls think wakeboarding is a guys sport cos the media says so. Most of the stories are designed for boys and it´s all about them.

What do you think the next steps (advancements) in women's wakeboarding will be? If I look over to the US womens wakeboarding is rising to another level. There is Dallas Friday showing everybody how it´s done. I think that´s good for the respect of women`s wakeboarding

Have you competed in the US? I came to the US for the WWA Cable Worlds at Orlando in ´99 and won first place. It´s surprising that there were hardly any girls doing inverts behind the cable. It´s probably cos they usually don´t ride at the cable park. In 2000 our federation suspended us from taking part. I wasn´t really happy about that!

Where would you like to compete? I guess for cable wakeboarding Europe is a good place to compete. There is quite a lot going on in Australia too. It doesn´t really make sense for me competing behind the boat as long as I don´t get the chance of getting any practising behind the boat.

What sport do you want to try next? Haven´t really thought about that. What ever comes next and looks like fun! When I went to Florida in spring this year we went kite surfing for a day. I guess I´d like to give that another try.