Passionate about: snowboarding
Addicted to the slopes
“Last month in Austria I mastered buttering,” says Dinos Hadjinicola, his green eyes alight with intensity. Admittedly the Alps are famous for their dairy products, but this sort of buttering is as far from your morning toast as you can get: “You spin the board the whole time you’re heading down the slopes, it’s totally mad!”
Dinos is a snowboarder, an aficionado of a relatively new sport, which was developed in the States during the 1960s and 1970s. And though buttering may sound tame, snowboarding is often considered extreme.
Snowboarding is similar to skiing, though practitioners attach their feet to a board rather than two skis. Inspired by skateboarding, surfing and skiing, it originally went by the outlandish name of ‘snurfing’. Its growing popularity is reflected in its recognition as an official sport: the first World Cup was held in 1985, in Austria. The International Snowboard Association was founded in 1994 to provide contest regulations, and nowadays high-profile snowboarding events such as the Olympic Games, Winter X-Games, US Open, and other events are broadcast to a worldwide audience.
“As a snowboarder, you’re always pushing yourself,” says Dinos, who has been a fixture on the piste from his early teens.
“We moved back from the UK when I was five, and I went to the Junior School in Nicosia. Every winter I’d go on the ski trip to the Alps; I loved skiing. But when I was 13, snowboarding suddenly became the in thing to do, so I switched and never looked back.”
The American Academy in Larnaca was followed by Middlesex University in London, where Dinos studied graphic design. Then he decided to stay in London, working for Jack Morton Worldwide, an events company, during his twenties. But the addiction was already there, and weekends found him driving over three hours to reach the Snow Dome in Milton Keynes. “Rather like Milton Keynes, the Snow Dome is a big fridge, with indoor slopes, ski shops and so on.”
But recently, Dinos has moved back to Cyprus again. “London was great. At that age you want to be able to travel, and the UK is a great place from which to do that. There was loads of work. Loads of people. London was buzzing. I really enjoyed it. But I love Cyprus, and I always knew I’d end up here.”
Dinos came back from London to live by the sea in Larnaca. “I love the water. I’ve tried wakeboarding, which is based on snowboarding. But snowboarding is number one. There’s nothing like the sound of the board on fresh powder, the feeling of the sun on your face, the silence of the high Alps and the freedom. It’s like flying. Even when I’m putting on my bindings, the feeling is all ready there.”
But though passionate, Dinos is still very down to earth: “Snowboarding is an addiction, but you don’t need to go to extremes. I love Switzerland, which is renowned for its extreme sports. I’ve seen people snowboarding with kites, it’s insane. I wouldn’t try it! I won’t take unnecessary risks. I won’t try something just for the buzz. For me, it’s about my passion for the whole culture of the sport. At the end of the day you board into one of the open bars at the foot of the slopes. You’re exhausted, you’re buzzing and a shot of vodka goes down nicely.”
He’s so zealous, he has never missed a year. He has snowboarded across most of Europe: the Alps (in France, Italy and Austria), the Dolomites and even in Sweden. But Switzerland is his favourite. “It’s more intense there, the resorts, the people, but mostly the slopes; you can get a special pass and snowboard over the border into France, with Mont Blanc soaring above you the whole way.”
Last month was buttering in Austria and in December Dinos accompanied the Senior School on their annual ski trip to Verbier. He obviously plays hard, so where does work fit in?
‘Work hard, play hard’ seems to be his motto. “I moved back to Larnaca to start my own web design company, Web Theoria. In terms of function and design, the internet is moving very fast. Cyprus has reached a certain level of web design, and we need to start pushing the boundaries. There are a handful of designers here who are producing contemporary work, but generally, we need to give more.” With eight years of international expertise behind him, he’s sure to succeed.
It sounds like Dinos is a busy man, what with snowboarding and starting a major company. How does he unwind? “I’m an undercover geek,” he says, laughing. “That doesn’t sound cool though, does it? Do you have to quote me?”
He spends most of his time on his apple mac computer, multitasking between iTunes, the internet and designing . “I just flick about on my mac! I’m a very creative person. I love producing music, short animations and so on. It’s great!”
Dinos is modest and unassuming, a true gentleman – offering to pay for coffee, and always polite – who has a positive outlook on the world. He’s passionate about his work, passionate about Cyprus, passionate about snowboarding and most of all, passionate about life. And this weekend he’s looking forward to trying out the slopes of Troodos for the first time, now there’s finally some real snow.
If you’re up there, you won’t be able to miss him: Dinos is a man who’s passionate about everything he does.
