Career highlights Slopestyler Timo Pritzel: "I've never seen anything like it!"

In the early 2000s, freeriding was in its infancy. I was a BMX rider and knew little about the mountain bike scene. My first contact was more of a coincidence. BIKE magazine was planning a report in Berlin and wanted me to be there alongside John Cowan, Tibor Simai and Tarek Rasouli. I knew Tarek and Tibor, but not yet John. We liked each other straight away, became friends, but didn't hear from each other again at first. After all, he lived in California and I lived in Berlin.

A few months later, the phone rang. John was on the line and told me about his project for the action film New World Disorder. He had built a course of XXL jumps with a mate, but the mate had injured himself. He asked me if I wanted to stand in. I said yes straight away, without knowing what to expect. The name New World Disorder meant nothing to me.

A few weeks later I travelled to the USA and was amazed: John had piled up monster hills, he called the jump sequence "Hell Track". And rightly so! I'd never seen jumps like that before, nobody had ever seen anything like it. It was filmed from a helicopter - crazy! Only now did I realise what a big deal it was and how lucky I was to be able to take part. I wasn't scared, because as a BMX rider I had a good feel for big jumps. Later, I even flew through the air in a backflip. That was a sensation back then. In 2001, a backflip was what a cashroll is today, and the jumps seemed as monstrous as the giant jumps at Darkfest today.

The film crew were beside themselves with joy and I was impressed by their professionalism. One crew member screwed a camera onto my helmet, as bulky as a shoe box. No comparison to the mini cameras of today. A year later, the film NWD 2 came out and hit like a bomb. Suddenly I had fans all over the world. It was amazing!

This was followed by further appearances in New World Disorder. In the fourth part (2003), I almost achieved a sensation: the first double backflip. I landed it by a hair's breadth, but not quite. I lacked that last bit of rotation, so I landed at an angle. I wanted to take my time with the second attempt. But then I broke my foot at the Crankworx slopestyle in Whistler. When Greg Watts jumped the double backflip at the 26Trix in Leogang shortly afterwards, I didn't have the motivation to try again. Looking back, I'm a bit annoyed that I wasn't the first. Maybe I thought a bit too much about the consequences if the double backflip had gone wrong.

About the person: Timo Pritzel

The Berliner is a BMXer and slopestyler from the very beginning. Timo Pritzel, now 46, has won the Joyride in Whistler, had several film appearances and starred in the TV soap "Gute Zeiten, schlechte Zeiten".

>>Read also the interview with cult filmmaker Derek Westerlund, who made the NWD series.<<