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Gigi Ruf
A child prodigy, Gigi hails from the Voralberg region in Austrian, on the back side of the St Anton valley. He grew up a child of the mountains and has maintained this simplicity despite his world travels and the international recognition his skills have bestowed. Not your a-typical snowboarder, his slender, light frame is seen as often on the steep summer slopes of his family’s mountain top farm – scythe in hand – as it is descending from helicopters in Alaska or the Canadian ranges – board in hand. Despite Gigi being recognized as a developing talent at the age of 13, he has never lost touch with the simplicity of his upbringing nor let the hype that followed him as his career exploded distort his laid back, carefree and life loving character. He is as grounded today as he was at 13, proudly recently becoming a father of a baby boy with his home town sweat heart. A tweak master, constant innovator, style sergeant with a pack mule work ethic – if there is light, snow and a slope, Gigi is out there playing with it. Gigi doesn’t really ride a snowboard, he dances with it. He doesn’t simply read the terrain, he teases it. His touch and finesse when riding has the precision of a watch maker, the power of a heavy weight boxer and the grace of a ballerina – his style has overtures of a Nic Müller or Jamie Lynn. Outside of his filming duties with Absinthe, he has consistently found time to bag parts with his local crew, Pirate Movie Productions. He created the Back Yard camp, hosted at his Uncle’s remote and isolated Mountain Alm above his village, where he also co-organized the European Nixon Jib Fest with Nic Droz and Romain de Marchi. Gigi’s infectious personality and cheeky laugh is reflected in his riding style and make him a first choice in any planned road trip or shooting project. Be it backcountry, rail, jib line or kicker – Gigi Rüf does it like few others. He is undoubtedly one of the best riders to have ever come out of Austria, Europe – or Planet Earth for that matter!
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Austria
