Duotone Magazin No.01 2019

W hen I started playing the piano at age 17 it wasn’t clear to me that I was already late to the game. Most of my musical peers started in their early teens or even earlier I took lessons for a few months, but had no particular aptitude and never fully committed. Then windsurfing took over my life. Just recently I bought a nice, new 7′6″ grand piano and started playing again, but the pressure – the desire to improve every week and the time commitment needed to do so given that I’m not particularly talented – was putting a strain on my marriage, so lessons are back on hold again. I’m almost always in the mood, but I have work to do, or chores, and there are frequently people in the house, so I don’t play the piano as much as I would like. That said, I manage an hour or two most days, though I mainly play for myself. In this age of Pandora, Spotify, mp3, inexpensive good- quality speakers and talented musicians pretty much everywhere, no one really wants to hear an amateur perform, so it’s generally best when I keep it to myself. I play randomly, Mendelssohn one moment, Scott Joplin the next. It’s relaxing and usually improves my mood, though some­ times I’m frustrated that I’m not better at it. I used to have melodies in my head being on the water for hours. To me the piano is a break from the mental work of design. It’s absorbing in a completely different way from designing kites or hydrofoils. It’s an opportunity to use the non-analytical part of the mind. It makes me think of Moravec’s Paradox, which, in a few words, says that the easy stuff is hard and the hard stuff is easy. Reasoning through design issues – my day job – is more logic associated, while piano is more related to motor-skills and auditory discernment. These are completely different types of activities, so doing one is a break from doing the other. As humans we are always at risk of imbalance in our lives. In this century, one of the paths to imbalance involves spending too much time in the artificial or enhanced reality of the computer world. Whether through Facebook or computer games or just email and text, we can be overly engaged with our smart phones and computers. Going kitesurfing or windsurfing or surf foiling, or sitting down and playing the piano, are all great ways to rebalance with, and be energized by, old-fashioned non-artificial, non- enhanced REAL reality. KEN WI NNER K I T E D ES I GNER Photo: Tracy Kraft “To me the piano is an opportunity to use the non-analytical part of the mind.” D uring my whole professional career, I’ve always been involved in several projects at the same time. Running three brands simultaneously on top of the already intense and demanding work life as a kite designer, it’s never easy to find the time for distraction. Sitting on a quiet peaceful beach doing nothing but relaxing would make me crazy. My head never stops computing, which is a great advantage to constantly solve problems or just to run the required operations that allow me to develop paragliders, industrial design, sailing equipment and software in parallel. However, the downside is that traditional forms of relaxation are not possible for me. But I found a fantastic way of forcing myself to focus on a single all- encompassing event. Driving in circles as fast as possible… I am very competitive and pedantic in my pursuit of performance perfection. All these constantly changing parameters around you; wear of the tires, grip level, weather, weight and balance of the car, competitors alongside you and the overall strategy result in a very demanding enviroment. I love to think about the setup variations prior to the start and to challenge my personal driving skills from race to race. The more I have to concentrate on doing only one thing, the more relaxed I am. On top of the mental relief, racing is highly exhausting physically. One hour behind the steering wheel on a sprint-race is way more arduous than the most extreme and challenging kite session, at least for me. One more additional positive aspect is that racing a car always requires a bunch of people working hand in hand to achieve one goal. Everybody involved is a car enthusiast, such as I am. You win or lose as a team, similar to business life, which can be very frustrating sometimes, yes. But only for a short moment, then you realize that motivation is building up with the members’ enthusiasm and team spirit is taking over again. To summarize; progression, optimisation, and reaching a goal is my personal source of power.   “The more I have to concentrate on doing only one thing, the more relaxed I am. On top of the mental relief, racing is highly exhausting physically.” RALF GRÖSE L K I T E D ES I GNER Photo: Goran Kuzmanovski T R U E T R U E S O U R C E S O F P O W E R 36 37