Turf insider September 2013

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Open Turf Event, an interview with a turfer and iPhone release!

Results of round 38

This round Örebro got its first gold medalist in Turf history! Loaf was the turfer who managed to win this round, doing so with just over 650 000 points and over 3 000 takeovers. A very nice achivement indeed! In second place, rewarded the silver medal came Thorre, once again showing that Jönköping still is a Turf force to be reconned with. Bronze medal ended up in another Turf metropol: Kalmar and oldtimer sune, who landed his second bronze medal. All medalists at a score over 500 000, well done and congratulations!

Results of the Open Turf Event in Jönköping!

The first big OTE was a rainy thing.. The sky opened and kept the competitors wet and cold throughout the event, weather gods and Turf gods doesnt always see eye to eye ;-) Anyway, the event was a thrilling one, many were the turfers who wanted to win! In the end the trophy went to Varginnan, first time a woman win an event like this which is impressve indeed! In second place, Mr Turf himself Thunell showed the world that he's a force to be reconned with in the upcoming OTE:s and Bonanzas, in third place came Mangadang. All in all a very succesful event with 37 participators. A big thanks go out to the Jönköping OTE crew!

iPhone now to be released in September 29th!

The iPhone version of Turf is getting really close now! In fact we have a launch date now, so be sure you tell all your Apple friends about your favourite Android app! :-) It will be very interesting to see the further development of the iPhone app, and of course fun to welcome the new Apple turfers!

An interview with a turfer

It came to my attention that the turfer LeiLar was doing a somewhat special Turf trip and I just had to talk to him about it and here's the result:

Name: Leif Larsson Age: 70 Home city: Umeå

- How did You came to the conclusion that You wanted to go on a Turf summer tour on your bike?

Well, it wasn't planned as a Turf tour actually. I've been thinking about a trip like this for a couple of years but it just never materialized. It wasn't until some months of turfing had hardened my butt and legs that I dared undertake it.

- Did You have a goal set for your trip before You started and if so, did You achieve it?

I had no specific goal for my trip other than to reach my destination and perhaps to get 500 unique zones (I had a bit more than 400 unique zones when I started my trip) as well as the Decacity medal. I achieved both. In addition I get the Neutralizer medal (which I never thought I would get at all). I arrived at Hedemora in the early evening on the first day of the July session. There were 23 zones there and they were all yellow! So I got that medal easily - much more difficult to get somewhere to sleep that night but I finally managed to get a bed!

- What kind of bike did You use and did You have any problems during the trip?

I used my 10-year-old 7-speed Skeppshult that my wife gave me on my 60th birthday. The only major problem I had was on the road from Bollnäs down to Åmot. The road surface was just terrible for about 30 km and three spokes on my rear wheel just broke. And in addition to that I heard a strange noise which I finally located the origin of: my Schwalbe tyre had a small hole on the side and out popped the tube in a small very tight ball. Luckily I had some duct tape so I could fix this temporarily.

- Which regions and cities did You visit during your trip?

Well, my wife did not want me to go south along the coast. Instead she offered to take me up to Ã…sele so I could ride along the Sverigeleden instead. That made the journey 160 km longer. My itinerary was: Åsele - Ramsele - Sundsvall - Hassela - Delsbo - Bollnäs - Falun - Hedemora - Sala - Uppsala - Stockholm.

- How many unique zones did You visit?

I really don't know but I would guess that I took about one hundred unique zones.

- Any favourite Turf city or town that You want to tell us about?

Sundsvall was very nice for two reasons: it was very hilly so the ride proved to be quite varied and all the turfers were on holiday so I had the town all by myself (almost :)

- Can You give a couple of examples of very interesting and/or beautiful zones that You visited?

The view from the zone half way up the slalom piste in Hassela was marvellous. Hadn't it been for the heavy rain that kept pouring down all the way down to Delsbo, that day would have been just glorious.

- During your trip, did anything out of the ordinary happen?

Well, the road from south of Bollnäs down to Åmot was an experience out of the ordinary. The bulldozers had just been roughing up the road so it was VERY difficult to ride there. Finally I saw tarmac again and rejoiced! For about 200 metres anyway! Then the road was bumpy and rough again. For another 20 km!! That was when - as I've already mentioned - three spokes collapsed and the tire was punctured. But half-way down this dirt road I saw a well at the side of the road! With an attached ladle!! (No, I don't carry any water with me)

One more out of the ordinary things that happened, not during the trip but two weeks before it: I got a heart attack! My wife rushed me to hospital and an incredible two hours later I had some metal tubes in the veins around my heart! Awesome operation! Thanks, doctors! Luckily this did not stop me from going.

- How did You spend your nights during your trip? Camping, hotel or what?

As I did not carry a tent (I just had to be able to charge my Nexus 4 and 7 every night! :) I just could not spend the night just anywhere. So I slept in camp site cabins, youth hostels, hotels and friends' homes. (Thank you, Jörgen and thank you, Eva!!)

- How long was your little expedition in time and distance?

The trip took me nine days (the longest day trip was 180 km) and the distance was about 1100 km (excluding my local hunts for unique zones in various cities).

- How did You find Turf and how long have You been turfing?

I read about it on a geocaching site but it wasn't until I bought my Nexus 7 that I started turfing. According to Warded I've been a Turf member since: 2013-01-26 00:37:51

- What's the best part(s) of the game in your opinion?

I get my daily exercise (I probably wouldn't have left my chair in front of the computer hadn't it been for the quest for zones. In addition I get to know my home town (and other places) much better! I also meet a lot of other turfers when I'm out and they are REALLY nice people (Speedmaster100 and Lastbilen, just to mention two of them)!

- What kind of game feature would You like to see in the future?

It would be very nice if the lady could tell me that the zone I'm standing in is "taken for another 7 minutes". Apart from that the game is just fabulous! Many, many thanks to the creators of this game!!

And finally many thanks to Urbangeeks for his Turf KML Creator - turf.urbangeeks.org That helped me A LOT and also minimized my costs. An invaluable tool when on foreign turfs.

A big thanks to LeiLar for sharing this amazing Turf story! :-)

Turf wiki, Facebook and Instagram

Visit the Turf Wiki wiki.turfgame.com and learn more about Turf or share your knowledge! The English part has just started. All thoughts, facts and questions are welcome. Feel free to write about your favorite zone, explain the best zones in your region, how fairy works or whatever.

New to Turf? Do you have Facebook? Like Turf's page at Facebook and get our updates directly to your newsfeed www.facebook.com/Turfthegame

You can now find Turfcrew at Instagram! We share many things about both developing and turfing :-)

Our third party developers continue their work with cool features, for example we now have a brand new and exciting Turf Leauge! Work your way up through the divisions and try to make it to the elite bunch of insane turfers and stay there :-) Sounds interesting? Check out TurfLeague

Have You found a bug or issue when turfing? You can report your issue at issues.turfgame.com A big thanks to TBIT for developing and maintaining this great tool!


As always, I will remind us all to go check out our forum forum.turfgame.com and our stats avaiable at warded.se/turf! And of course the brand new Turf Wiki wiki.turfgame.com :-)

Happy turfing and don't forget to make a small detour for that extra zone!

Blabert, Sweden