In Summer 1986 I was spending my summer holiday with my parents at the 'Plansee' lake in Austria. The only thing I found interesting to do was ride my bike on the narrow pathways around the lake and hills but pretty soon it became very dull. I was bored and consequently became boring for my parents as I kept complaining. One day, they suggested I take a windsurfing course. They thought, this would be quite fun and occupy me for a week or so. Although I said 'yes' I was not too enthusiastic about windsurfing - in fact, I knew nothing about it - except a few scenes from the movie 'the white shark'. My parents could never have imagined that this suggestion would lead to the most fundamental change in my life.
I was taught how to windsurf and really enjoyed it, eventually my parents brought me some windsurf equipment (God was it heavy!). After 2 years sailing I had outgrown the equipment and it was no longer suitable. This became apparent, when a friendly windsurfer lent me a board, that started planing early and went much faster than mine. Although the holidays were over I could not forget that incredible 'speed buzz'. My parents bought me a 'Klepper 320' and later the very famous (green) 'Klepper 272'. I became more and more fanatical about windsurfing and did my first jump in 1989 in the South of France.
Everything became more difficult when I left home and started studying in Ulm as there are no suitable lakes around there. I spent my holidays at Heilbronn/Germany with my parents. One very rainy and stormy day in 1991 it happened: I was so frustrated and could not believe or accept that this wind could pass off without being used for windsurfing. I knew that a skateboard could not provide enough control at high speed. So despite the nasty(??) weather I went to the scrap yard in our village and searched/hoped for inspiration. I didn't get inspired at all, but wet all over instead, however I was caught by the idea of 'land surfing', the seed had been sown and the rain helped to germinate it.
It took me some days in my father's workplace until I had the idea of the two-wheel-board. Also, it took several weeks until the idea finally materialized. Eventually I held a 2 wheel board with 12½ " wheels in my hand with the steering mechanism made of 4 glass fibre joints. I looked outside and found there was a good wind; my heart started pumping, time to see if all my efforts were for nothing. With adrenalin pumping I put the board and a 4.2m² sail into the car and rushed to the top of a long gentle hill in our village. I was completely amazed by the enormous speed - it felt just like a planing surfboard!! I secretly called this first board a 'SkateRoller'. 
Since then I have spent nearly a decade land-sailing on narrow farm-roads with my SkateRoller. Wherever I moved, I took my SkateRoller with me. Since that first ride in 1991 I knew how much fun it is to ride this board, even if there is not enough area to do jibes and other moves. When there was good wind, I went land-sailing and reveled in the speed and sail-power for hours. Less than 1 person/year cared about me and my sport.
The WindScooter was invented in winter 1998/1999, on a sleepless night I had to spend in my car in Karlsruhe/Germany. It is similar to the SkateRoller, but is much sturdier, if not indestructible. With incredible effort I realized the first prototype within 2 months. I tested it a few times, but did not find an area to feel the full potential of the board. I was too busy with my job and the Windscooter disappeared again. In Jan 2000 I decided to patent the board. I was frustrated about my job and needed some change in my life. In March, I moved to Ulm (again), not only because of a new job but also because of an excellent concrete area suitable for windscooting,(the real reason!)
Since then, the WindScooter has evolved quite a lot. Only a short time later, the first 'CableScooter' was built (it crashed in summer 2000 during a very hot video-session in Munich). In Autumn the same year I spent my holidays with 3 friends in Southern France (Windsurfers Paradise) and besides some Windscooter high speed trips along the beach we had our first contact with kiting. Eventually I bought a kite and discovered that it was a lot of fun to ride a CableScooter with a kite in my hands. Foot straps emerged in Jan 2001, mainly as a requirement for a kite-board and the 'KiteScooter' was born. At this time, Gerold a kite-enthusiast and friend changed my focus from windsurfing to Kiting. In June 2001 I built my first flex-deck Scooter just at the time we were experimenting with the off road potential.
In winter 2001/2002 there was a lot of work done behind the scenes. I redesigned the Scooter and the steering mechanism and created an effective and affordable production process. Weight dropped dramatically from about 10kg down to 4.8 kg (in March 2003) and there's still some potential for a further reduction. This low weight allows high jumps with a kite. Now the biggest future potential besides Kiteboarding is all terrain boarding (ATB). The low weight, robustness, maneuverability and high speed control of the latest models have made the dream of summer snowboarding finally come true...