Flo Orley Shakes Off the Seawater to Join FWT11

Good news! After a year at sea including an 8000-mile crossing of the South Pacific, Austrian snowboarder Flo Orley is cutting short his planned circumnavigation of the globe to focus on raising his soon-to-be-expanded family. That’s right, Flo will soon become a daddy and in between Lamaze classes he’ll be competing on the FWT11. Welcome back, Flo!

 

FWT: How long did it take you to sail across 8000 miles of Pacific Ocean?
Flo: Our journey started just over a year ago on my birthday, October 13, on the east coast of Guatemala. We sailed down the east coast to the Panama Canal, stayed in Panama to work on the boat followed by a quick stopover at the Galapagos Islands. Then, after about 4000 nautical miles we were in the Marquesas Islands before cruising west unsure of whether we were going to Australia or New Zealand. But then with Nina getting pregnant and getting super seasick, which she’d never been before, we realized we couldn’t go on any more long passages so our plans changed. We’re now in Tonga and have decided to sell the boat and head back home to have our baby.

 

 FWT: What is the best memory from your trip?
Flo: The trip never stopped being exciting and the boat’s still floating so that’s good. The best memory is probably the beauty of the time spent with my girlfriend, Nina, living close to nature without needing anything, just a bit of wind in the sails. There have been beautiful waves and we’ve met cool people and there’s the crazy food and we’ve mastered rough passages, but just being together is probably the most intense thing for me. The fun time really began when we were cruising around the Marquesas Islands, Tahiti, French Polynesia, had some friends visiting, surfed almost every day.

 

FWT: What is the worst?
Flo: Hahaha! That’s a tough one but possibly the worst situation was getting stuck in a reef pass leaving an island in the Cook Islands archipelago. It was a very small, narrow pass maybe 10 meters wide and 100 meters long with currents and wind coming in from the side and I had a miscommunication with Nina. Basically I thought we needed to go left, she went right and suddenly we’re stuck on the sandbank. I jumped in the water, which was only waist deep, and started pushing the boat. It’s big, 11x6m, but it’s a catamaran so it’s light. So I started pushing it and with the help of the currents and waves and engines going full reverse we managed to get off the sand bank before the tide went out which would have left us sideways on the reef, which could have destroyed the boat. We were pretty lucky. But in the end, there was nothing too bad. We’re both healthy. In fact, we’re so healthy that there are more people coming home than left Austria – hahaha!

 

FWT: When are you planning to come back and how will you train in such a short time to be fully prepared for the FWT11?

Flo: I’ve tried to do as much as I can while here. I’ve been running and training with a stationary bike on the boat, even on passages between the islands I could train on the bike. But about three weeks ago I broke the belt on the main flywheel so the bike went overboard and it hasn’t been replaced. So much for keeping in shape. Anyway, I’ll be back at the end of November which gives me almost eight weeks before the FWT starts. So there’s plenty of time. I’ll go riding with friends, take it easy for the first couple of weeks then slowly start to push hard. I’m looking forward to the challenge. I love challenges in life, like this trip for example. To prepare the perfect line in a competition, I still love that. I love the whole procedure of starting days before, checking the face, going up the hill, feeling the tension at the start gate with everyone else, getting ready in the last seconds before your run and then releasing all the energy in the following minute. I love that. The first time I really experienced that was in Verbier in 2000. I hadn’t done any competitions before that and I’ve been loving it ever since and I’m really looking forward to that.

 

FWT: Who will be your biggest competition on the FWT11? What are their strengths and weaknesses?
Flo: The guy to beat is Xavier. We’ve all won against him on various occasions like Mitch did last year, but Xavier’s just so consistent. In five contests he might make one mistake and have four almost perfect runs and that’s hard to beat. We’re all pretty good at doing one perfect line and a few not-so-perfect lines and that’s just not enough. I just watched last year’s winning line from the Verbier competition on the Bec des Rosses, and that’s just amazing. That’s a level that I’m just not at right now. I know I will be there in four or five months when Verbier is on but this is something I have to focus on.
For the others it’s more of a day-by-day thing. It seems like the freestyle side might be well represented and I’d love to see someone do a line like Xavier and put in some freestyle moves. It doesn’t have to be sick, not like a double backflip off a 100-foot cliff but something like a Rodeo off everything that comes along? I’d be stoked to see that. I think it will depend a lot on conditions.

 

FWT: Which stage of the FWT do you hope to do the best on and why?
Flo: I’m super, super stoked that there is an Austrian stop, Fieberbrunn, on the tour because it’s very close to my hometown and I have a very close relationship to the guys who organize it. I helped them organize the earlier stand-alone events and then the Qualifier there. I won there once already and I have very positive memories.
I still haven’t won in Verbier. I’ve won the Rider’s Award, I’ve won Best Line, I’ve been third and fourth three times but I’ve never won the judges award in Verbier so that’s still a dream for me. The mountain, The Bec, is always good to me so I’m looking forward to that one but first of all I have to qualify. Hahaha. But once I get to Verbier I know that anything is possible.

 

Watch for upcoming info about Flo’s LineCamps that teaches up-and-coming freeriders how to win. Or check out http://www.floboarding.com/linecamp.htm