A few months ago, I received some photos from Simone Mondino. The images were of a freeride contest held in Osilnica, Slovenia. Simone has a brilliant eye and the photo that you’re looking at is my favorite. There’s something truly magical about all that lush forestry in mountains. I quickly learned where Osilnica was located and was quite surprised I had previously been near it – here is my story.
In 1986, I was backpacking through Europe and found myself in what is now the former Yugoslavia. I happened to be traveling through a city called 
Ljubljana. I didn’t have my skateboard with me back then. Little did I know that Osilnica was only 90 minutes south. It was an opportunity to ride that I never knew existed. The event is now in its fifth year and it is organized by two passionate Slovenian longboarders: Mihael Zadravec and Nadim Burkan.
I decided to see how much more I could connect with this photo. I emailed Simone to get his perspective on the event. “It’s an incredible dangerous race – no paws down!” he wrote. “Osilnica is like another world because you’re completely inside nature. Now, there is a mini-market and a great hotel with a swimming pool, but nothing more because you’re in the heart of their mountain. If you have problems during the freeride, it’s particularly dangerous.” Simone added that there were opportunities to see brown bears in the forests, and he raved about a special drink called Slivo. “I think that Slovenia is incredible,” he wrote, “very cool beer, an awesome landscape and the Slovenians are very friendly. It’s a great place to organize a longboard tour that is completely into the wild. It was my first time in Slovenia but I’m sure I’ll be back this summer for the next Knk because the atmosphere was wonderful!”
Simone’s passionate email stoked the hell out of me and I decided to contact Mihael, one the event organizers. He wrote me back and explained that he and Nadim organized the KnK Longboard Camp on the Bear’s Guts track. “The event actually started in 2009 as a small meet-up for 18 stoked friends and has grown to become a family holiday for almost 400 skaters from around the world. We can’t wait to meet our friends again and skate the hell out of the Bear’s Guts with them.”
So there you have it. This is not just a photo of an event; it’s an opportunity to be part of an event that you would enjoy! Thankfully, you’ve got a few months to plan. The KnK Longboard camp, Red Bull No Paws Down and Cult Single Set Survivors all take place in late July and early August. UNKNOWN OPPORTUNITIES VS FUTURE CONNECTIONS
-Michael Brooke