FreestyleXtreme Magazine Issue 18 | Page 46

I t’s always rad when you get an email from Monster, as 9 times out of 10 it’s a sneak peak or an invite to something crazy they have planned. Late January I got the invite to head out Vienna to cover the Masters of Dirt and interview some of Monster’s athletes taking part. Masters of Dirt holds a bit of special place for me as four years ago I nervously interviewed Rob Adelberg there - my second ever interview and first one for this mag. Time sure flies by. If I needed any more convincing they sent over the list of guys I could interview and I was more or less set. You can read my chat with Sam Reynolds about DarkFEST over on page 19, but there’ll be more to come in future. One very minor wrinkle was that after the birth of my little man last year, I had a made a pact with my wife that if I travelled so did the family! So some hasty online booking later, we had a stay in Vienna and a wholesome trip to Masters of Dirt all booked. Travelling with a 6-month-old is bit challenging to say the least, but honestly put a refreshing spin on what would have otherwise been a work trip. Where I would ordinarily fly in and out without a thought for the location (other than how long the cab ride is from my hotel to the venue), I now found myself planning a list of all the tourist-y clichés as long as your arm. Most of these would be our first as a family so the itinerary left nothing to chance. We visited mountains, palaces, churches, art galleries, butterfly farms and, best of all, cake shops! Vienna is truly the home of coffee houses and we sat in places visited by everyone from the famous to the infamous, including Hitler, Stalin, Trotsky, Tito, Freud, and Mozart. u £ Colton Satterfield shows us why is the current king of big air