Turf insider Augusti 2018

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Turf insider September 2018 »

Round winners

The winner of round 97 hails from Dalarna: congrats Caisesiume to your first Gold medal! Bet you would have thought twice about going for gold during a five week long round if you knew how hot is was going to be ;) Runner up was Király from Skåne, putting a fourth silver in his medal row. Snickaren, also from Dalarna, ended up with his first bronze. Well done mates!

And finally a huge well done to everyone who has been out there in the July heat turfing, good on ya! I have heard that water zones have been extra popular this round ;)

Turf Meetings

In Jämtland the turfers meet once a month for Swedish fika. In 2017 they teamed up for European Cycling Challange and team ”Turf Östersund” won the Östersund county prize for best team. The prize money, 3000 sek, has supplied the turfers with free fika at their favorite café during five months. The money has now run out, but they are still happy to meet :)

Bilden saknas ladda gärna upp om du har

In Karlstad the trufers also meet, although not with any regularity yet. Maybe the newly selected president Vintentina, who has taken over after Maqqan, will ensure monthly get together? Coming up soon is the yearly ”Turf chess” with BBQ, the event zones created like a giant chess board with zones 3x3 m and really close together. Accordingly to the organizers it is also very fun to watch because of the closeness of the zones to each other, the short block time and the GPS-signals interfering with each other.

In September they will also arrange Turf Open Hammarö, a open Turf event were you will recieve the Eventor medal. More information can be found in this Facebook event (Swedish).

Bilden saknas ladda gärna upp om du har

Train station zones

Train stations were introduced as a new attribute earlier this year and in May a new medal involving this zone type was released, Trainer. It seems simple: take one train station zone per day (Assist valid, UTC time calculation). Any train station. For commuters, this was no hard task during Monday to Friday, whereas others found it more strenuous since their closest train station might be several km away from their normal daily Turf route. To date 202 turfers have managed to stay on course for this medal, some had to restart the 30 days once or twice. At the statistics page https://warded.se/turf/ there is a ”Trainer Medal progress” link you can access after you signed in, it helps you keep track of the days left!

Many train station zones (and non-train station zones) can be taken from moving trains, and there are many turfers who try to practice ”armhåleturf” (armpit-turf) on their daily train commute or when travelling by train. The idea is to time it so that the avatar is in the zone and then you block the GPS-signal by hiding the phone in your armpit. The avatar stays in the zone even though you (on the train) moves on and the zone can be taken. It's a challenge to try to take a zone that you usually only swish by for a few seconds. I've commuted Uppsala-Stockholm daily for 1,5 years and on occasion tried ”to armpit” zones. However, I found it very aggravating, since my phone is of the kind that doesn't favor armpit turfing. Therefore I ended up reading instead and at best I took the train station zones where the commuter train stopped in the zone (KnivstaCity, TammsTågbro, HäggStation and Sollstation). However, there are several turfers who commute and "armpit turf" daily and manage to take the really difficult zones where the train is passing by in high speed. It is an art to succeed in mastering ”armpit turfing” as there are many factors involved to successfully capturing the zone. It depends on the speed of the train, the size of the zone, atmospheric disturbance, phone model, telephone operator, etc. Some claim that it also depends on tailwind, sun in the back and homesickness :) All kudos to them, and their phones!

My fave train station zones is NorrStation in Norrköping. It is not only a beautiful building dating back to 1866, but also a hostel where you can stay on the second floor of the station house. From some of the rooms it is possible to take the zone, although I did not stay in one of those. I did take the zone from the kitchen a couple of times :)

Upcoming Turf Events

After an unusual hot summer, where turfers have traveled far for those unique zones, it is now time to focus on some cool events. First out is Turf 24 in Kalmar, 25th to 26th of August (http://kalmarturf.se/). One week later, on the 1st of Sep, Turf Skåne is organizing a Turfathlon. And for those culturally interested turfers, Turf Örebro is running their KulTurf for the second time on the 22nd of September.

Three Quick Ones

Today we continue with three commuting turfers who get to tell us about their fave train station zone (and more).

Turf nick: omnivore

Favorite train station zone?

• Sollstation. It is convenient to take from my usual seat on the commuter train.

Which personal goal are you most satisfied with?

• I've made the zone Smedjan purple (in Warded, i.e. 51 takes or more) from a moving commuter train, I have never been standing still physically in the zone.

Most memorable zone you have taken. Why?

• LautaBridge in Helsinki. It was very late on a summer evening. It is very beautiful by the water, with a view of the sea and the summer sky.

Turf-nick: SunYour

Favorite train station zone?

• CentralZone. I take it several times a day and it is my home zone (job zone) when I'm in Stockholm.

Which medal was hardest to take?

• Probably the Gold in round 20. I probably had the flu one of the weeks. And back then it was a much further between the zones than now.

Most memorable zone you have taken. Why?

• GryllePier. On the pier in Gryllefjord on Senja in northern Norway. In 2016 we made a 16-day excursion to Northern Sweden via Kiruna, Treriksröset and then on towards the Norwegian coast and then headed south south through Lofoten. Due to really bad weather, we squeezed in two days in Tromsø before moving on to Andøya and Lofoten. Two fantastic days, but without the bad weather really passing. It rained horizontally with squalls. The umbrella was of little help and almost blew to pieces, but the zone was finally taken. The subsequent boat trip was probably the hardest of my life while at the same time, the fiercest and longest roller coaster I ever been on, all categories. I'd love to go there again, on a day with a bit calmer weather :D

Turf-nick: xelryz

Favorite train station zone?

• Ursviksbron. It's hard to take. To catch zones in the flight, so-called ”armpitturf”, is a way for me to entertain myself during train journeys.

An accessory (not bike) you used to take a zone?

• I took the Stekenjokk zone with snowmobile in March, it was an outstanding place to visit that time of year.

Most memorable zone you have taken. Why?

• KilaueaCrater clearly! We saw an active volcano and after ”Zone Taken”, we rode our bikes from the crater and followed the lava flow down to the sea. A memory for life.

Turfa lungt/Safe turfing!

Munin