Official Turf Feed https://turfgame.com News Archive Thu, 28 Mar 2024 18:48:00 +0000 en-US hourly 1 turfrssgenerator March https://turfgame.com/?feedid=988 Tue, 12 Mar 2024 13:36:59 +0000 https://rss.turfgame.com/988 Round winners – February 2024 (Round #164)

Congratulations to the winners Continue reading ]]> Round winners – February 2024 (Round #164)

Congratulations to the winners of round February 2024: gerald_flux.rc from Berlin became the second German to turf home a Gold, AJHB from Greater London added a Silver to his Bronze, and semaj65 from Skåne turfed home his first Bronze.Well done mates!


Upcoming events

If you are organizing an open event, don't forget to write to insider@turfgame.com a couple of months in advance to get the information about your event into the news letter :)


LuleåIce24 Saturday 16th of March

The event will take place on/near the ice track around Luleå. You are
allowed to use ice skates, skis, kick-sled or walk/run. More information
and registration HERE. There is still winter up north in Sweden!


Scottish Turf Open – Saturday June 1st

The Scottish Turf Open Championships is BACK in Edinburgh at the start of June for its second year! Come along and we promise you will love it! Everyone is very welcome! More information closer to the date.


24h Event 7th of June in Luleå June

This is the third time a 24 h Event is organized. Read more HERE and apply, either in a team of 2 or 3 or by yourself. In June, it will never get dark in Luleå, so it will for sure be a very special Event.


Bonanza 2024 on the 14th of September in Enköping

More news will follow when we get closer to the date!


Nominations for Turf Awards 2023 is over (last day was February 29th) and Crew is busy going thru the nominations and setting up the vote. Everyone will be able to vote for their favorites later this spring :)


I recently moved a newly made zone in Umeå and it became ”hidden” for some turfers. This is a known bug that can be very, very annoying. The most ”famous” hidden zone is FarEast. No one is able to locate this zone in the Turf app without first searching for it. Even if you know where it is, it will not show itself unless you search for it.


FarEast is a very special zone, but the same affliction can occur when a zone is moved, usually soon after it was made. Not much is known about WHY this happens. It usually corrects itself with the next restart of the Turf servers, but until that happens it can be very frustrating since not all turfers always are affected by this.


Once this happened to a zone here in Uppsala. It was made in a very precarious location and moved within a day or two to a less dangerous spot. I went to take it with a friend and my friend could not for the life of it, see the zone in the Turf app. I could, and I was also able to take it. My friend was not, not even after cleaning the Turf app's cache, uninstalling/reinstalling the app. It became so frustrating my friend almost uninstalled Turf for good (overreacting a bit). A few months later, we both could take the zone without any problems.


So, if you happen to come across a zone that is ”hidden” to you or your friend/s, write an issue about it, preferable reported as a ”Non-critical app or server” issue. Do NOT report it as a "Zone issue". The more information about when and where this happens, the bigger the possibility this might get solved beyond ”wait for the Turf server to restart”, but until then...there is nothing wrong with the actual zone, nothing wrong with your phone, just another irritating Turf bug. Patience is required from you as a turfer and apart from the famous FarEast zone, all other ”hidden” zones I have heard of, have become unhidden in time.


Turf Picture of the Month

This months Turf Picture is of the zone Ruinenberg taken by DasHuhn. Turfers from three different countries had submitted pictures this time, very much appreciated. Keep those Turf pictures coming :) 

Ruinenberg (1)

If you have a Zone picture you want featured as Turf Picture of the Month, send it to insider@turfgame.com Please include your Turf nick for recognition!



Turfa lugnt/Safe turfing!

//Munin



...if you want to contribute to future Turf Insiders, send your story to insider@turfgame.com :) C'mon and share your big and small stories with the Turf world.

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February https://turfgame.com/?feedid=974 Tue, 12 Mar 2024 13:36:55 +0000 https://rss.turfgame.com/974 Round winners – January 2024 (Round #163)

Congratulations to the winners Continue reading ]]> Round winners – January 2024 (Round #163)

Congratulations to the winners of round January 2024: Jomii from Värmland braved the January cold and added a fourth gold to his medals, gerald_flux.rc turfed home a bit over one million points and secured a Silver with that, while turbosmith from Scotland came third and was awarded with his first Bronze. Well done mates!


Upcoming events

If you are organizing an open event, don't forget to write to insider@turfgame.com a couple of months in advance to get the information about your event into the news letter :)


VBWinterC24 Saturday 10th of February in Umeå, Sweden

The winter classic is back in Umeå and will be for both bike and foot on the same day. It will be cold, hopefully lots of snow and during the few hours of daylight at this time of the year.


LuleåIce24 Saturday 16th of March

The event will take place on/near the ice track around Luleå. You are allowed to use ice skates, skis, kick-sled or walk/run. More information and registration HERE. This will be the first ever Turf Event on ice. Back in 2015, a Turf Event on ice was planned in Västerås, but due to a warm winter, it was changed into a land Event. But they sure did produce a killer advertisement for their Event, LINK HERE. If you want some on ice action, head to Luleå in March :)

Scottish Turf Open – Saturday June 1st

The Scottish Turf Open Championships is BACK in Edinburgh at the start of June for its second year! Come along and we promise you will love it! Everyone is very welcome! More information closer to the date.


24h Event in Luleå 7th of June

The 24 h Event is a very special Event that goes on for 24 hours. It has been run twice before. The first ever took place in Umeå, back in July 2017 and you competed in teams of 3 turfers, taking turns being on the map 2 hours at the time. So each player turfed for 8 hours during the 24 hour Event. In June, it will never get dark in Luleå, so it will for sure be a very special Event.


Bonanza 2024 on the 14th of September in Enköping

More news will follow when we get closer to the date!


Turf Awards 2023

You can nominate turfers in four different categories until February 29th. Nominate HERE. When the nomination period is over, up to five nominees are selected in each category by Crew. During April, all turfers will have the chance to vote for a winner in each category. The winners will be revealed at the Bonanza banquet on September 14th. 


Voting for new Medals

The vote for the New Medal is over: Monumentalist won with a landslide and the work to create the new medal will begin soon. Monumentalist was “a series of medals for number of unique visited monument zones”. 


A reminder what a Monument zone is:

"A zone placed in the direct vicinity to or directly on a monument. A monument is a type of structure that was explicitly created to commemorate a person or event, or which has become important to a social group as a part of their remembrance of historic times or cultural heritage. The zone name should normally reflect the monument name. Only one zone per monument can have this attribute."


So, any old statue is not by default a Monument, any old building is not by default a Monument. It will take a little more than it being old, to make it a Monument.


Turf Crew has a new member: DXP2K, a new zone maker from Germany. Turf Insider asked him a few questions in order to get to know him better :)


1. What is your turfnick? Is there a story behind it, if so what?

    My nickname on Turf is DXP2K and there is actually no real story behind it. DxP is the short form of DxPepper, the name I use for online games on the XBOX. I don't even remember what motivated me to add "2K", it was too long ago.

2. How long have you been turfing and how did you found out about Turf?

    I've been turfing since the beginning of 2021. According to warded.se, I recorded my first session on February 26th, 2021. A colleague recommended Turf to me. After all, I am a gamer and a biker, so it just had to be right for me ;) Due to the COVID-19 measures in Germany...lockdown, ban on contact, etc. I had a lot of free time and now finally something to do. Alone, cycling with friends wasn't possible, but there was something to do.

3. What is the best thing about Turf? And the worst (if there is any)?

    Good question...Turf motivates me primarily through competition. It motivates me to go out and go for a ride even if I don't really feel like it. Just to score points if another player gets too close or I have another player within striking distance and can move up the top list. The bad thing about Turf, if you want to call it that... Turf is a time waster if you want to be at the top. When you have work and a family it is sometimes really difficult to find time for turfing. Unfortunately, Turf takes a backseat and that can really ruin the current round.

4. What made you want to become a zone maker?

    I am absolutely convinced of the concept of the game and the more I was able to look behind the scenes, the more I wanted to take part. Since Turf doesn't seem to have really arrived in Germany yet and is currently focused more on the hotspots around Hamburg, Berlin and Cologne/Bonn, it was clear to me that I had to be one of the ones to change that.

5. Which is your fave zone? Can be divided into a) the one you take most often b) the one you really felt "WOW" when taking

    The zone I go to most often is the S-Bahn station Friedrichsberg in Hamburg. I come by there often and it is well frequented. If things go well, you can come here several times a day. But the zone isn't anything special.

    The zone with the biggest WOW effect so far was definitely the “AlbormozFort” zone in San Marino / Italy. Currently the only zone in the dwarf state. The view over Emilia-Romagna is breathtaking from up there.

Italien_2023_030 (1)

The view in the picture is towards the east.

6. Anything else you'd like to tell the Turf World about yourself

    I founded the Discord server “Turfen in Deutschland” (Turf in Germany) about 3 years ago. It offers a German-speaking platform for turfers to be able to communicate comfortably. Ask questions, get answers or just show off your latest medal or the latest, most beautiful zone photo. Unfortunately, it is difficult to reach all the turfers in the country and invite them to join us. Many people are alone in their region and don't even notice it. That's why I'll take advantage of the opportunity, if it's okay. > If you would like to join us, you can find the invitation link in the German Section of the Turfforum. ;-)


Turf Picture of the Month

This months Turf Picture is of the zone YarmViaduct taken by Annie9jobs.

#YarmViaduct #turfgame (1)

If you have a Zone picture you want featured as Turf Picture of the Month, send it to insider@turfgame.com Please include your Turf nick for recognition!



Turfa lugnt/Safe turfing!

//Munin



...if you want to contribute to future Turf Insiders, send your story to insider@turfgame.com :) C'mon and share your big and small stories with the Turf world.

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Voting finished https://turfgame.com/?feedid=970 Sun, 04 Feb 2024 07:32:44 +0000 https://rss.turfgame.com/970

Monumentalist won with a landslide in the vote for the next medal!
This means the work t Continue reading ]]>

Monumentalist won with a landslide in the vote for the next medal!
This means the work to create the medal will begin next.

Thanks to all supporters who took part in the voting!

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January https://turfgame.com/?feedid=960 Tue, 30 Jan 2024 16:31:34 +0000 https://rss.turfgame.com/960 Round winners – December 2023 (Round #162)

Congratulations to the winne Continue reading ]]> Round winners – December 2023 (Round #162)

Congratulations to the winners of round December 2023: Király from Skåne decided to take one more Gold, gerald_flux.rc from Berlin added another Silver to his medal row and nicos from Berlin turfed home his first Bronze. Well done mates!


Upcoming events

If you are organizing an open event, don't forget to write to insider@turfgame.com a couple of months in advance to get the information about your event into the news letter :)


VBWinterC24 Saturday 10th of February in Umeå, Sweden

The winter classic is back in Umeå and will be for both bike and foot on the same day. It will be cold, hopefully lots of snow and during the few hours of daylight at this time of the year.


Bonanza 2024 in Enköping

I hope you have booked the14th of September 2024 for attending the next Bonanza in Enköping, Sweden. More news will follow when we get closer to the date!


Voting for new Medals

As a Supporter you have the chance to vote for the next new Medal in Turf. Five different medals have been suggested by Crew and you can vote HERE until the end of January 2024.


Turf Awards 2023

It's finally time to nominate the Turf achievements in 2023 that you consider the most spectacular, amazing or funny. You can nominate turfers in four different competition categories until February 29th. Nominate HERE. When the nomination period is over, up to five nominees are selected in each category by Crew. During April, all turfers will have the chance to vote for a winner in each category. The winners will be revealed at the Bonanza banquet on September 14th. Many thanks in advance for your contribution. Remember to start jotting down for yourself the spectacular achievements of 2024 so that you will remember them in a year when it is time to nominate for Turf Awards 2024!


Turfing in Extreme Cold –by Kygni

During the coldest night of my life, the night between 3rd and 4th of January 2024, I took a two hour long Turf trip after ice bathing and sauna. I started the trip at 02:53 from the center in Luleå, the zone 'Greysoul'. You see the view from the zone in the picture below.


Image (4)


I wanted to make a zone picture, but the phone had a few issues...

From there I wanted to bike straight home because I was very tired, but I also wanted to truly experience the extreme cold so I took a little detour on my way home. As most turfers know, having the phone on the bike is the most optimal, that way you can check the map whenever you need, instead of taking out your phone from your pocket, however in minus -35 degrees Celsius, even the most rugged phone will die on you within minutes.


I had to bike from memory and have the phone in my jacket and even then, the phone struggled to keep warm and alive. I passed two thermometers on the way and both said it was minus 35 degrees, however the official SMHI (red. Swedish weather forecast service) observation in Kallax said it went as low as -36.4C this night. A friend's thermometer showed as low as -37C, and I heard that locally it went as low as -38C. When I passed the train station, every train was cancelled because of the extreme cold. The Cold Record for Luleå is -41,0, recorded in 1999, so it was very close this night.


At the end of my Turf trip, I had a pain in my cheeks and had to use a flag around my face to prevent frostbites. I got to keep almost every zone the rest of the round since the warmest I noticed before the December round ended was the superwarm -23C. No one in Luleå will think -20C is cold for the rest of the winter.”


The coldest I myself have been out biking in, was back in the middle of the 90's when I lived in Umeå and wanted to go to the cinema on a cold Boxing Day, so off I went in a crisp -28C. This was way before Turf and way before any cell phone that would die on me. The other day we had a lovely -18C here in Uppsala and the phone survived 30 min outside on my bike's handlebars before it decided to give up in zone number 14, which luckily was only 100 meters from home.


Turf Insider at Turfwiki- by ojarnstr

Turfwiki is not only the place for all matters of knowledge of Turf, but also its history. I started a project a few years ago to add all Turf insider newsletters to the Turfwiki. This project is now almost complete with over 10 years’ worth of Turf insider newsletters. https://wiki.turfgame.com/en/wiki/Turf_insider


As always, I am hoping more people will join me in writing articles for Turfwiki. If nothing else, please at least write your own user article. Tell the rest of the Turf world, a little bit about yourselves and how you

Turf.


https://wiki.turfgame.com/en/wiki/User:YourTurfname (eng. wiki)

https://wiki.turfgame.com/sv/wiki/Anändare:DittTurfnamn (sv. wiki)


Funny thing if you do this, you can check all pages that are linked to your user article. If you have been an active turfer for many years… your name will probably come up in a few Turf insiders or other articles.


If you have questions about the wiki, please contact me by mail.

ojarnstr / ojarnstr@gmail.com”


There are a few issues of Turf Insider missing from the Turf Wiki, and ojarnstr would be very grateful for anyone finding the very early issues for him (October 2012 and earlier) and also three issues from 2015 (February, June and August). If you have any of these issues saved, please e-mail them to ojarnstr :)


Turf Picture of the Month

This months Turf Picture is of the zone SkellSquare taken by Marilium.

SkellSquare Maria Burlin

If you have a Zone picture you want featured as Turf Picture of the Month, send it to insider@turfgame.com Please include your Turf nick for recognition!


Turfa lugnt/Safe turfing!

//Munin



...if you want to contribute to future Turf Insiders, send your story to insider@turfgame.com :) C'mon and share your big and small stories with the Turf world.



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Medal vote for supporters https://turfgame.com/?feedid=952 Sun, 17 Dec 2023 20:58:29 +0000 https://rss.turfgame.com/952
The voting is now repaired. Please vote again if you have voted these previous days(17-19dec).

A Continue reading ]]>
The voting is now repaired. Please vote again if you have voted these previous days(17-19dec).

All supporters are now welcome to vote for the next medal in Turf.

Feel free to cast your vote HERE

https://turfgame.com/pages/page_vote.php


Only one medal will be picked, and the voting is closed at the end of January.


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December https://turfgame.com/?feedid=947 Tue, 12 Dec 2023 19:15:45 +0000 https://rss.turfgame.com/947 Round winners – November 2023 (Round #161)

Congratulations to the winners Continue reading ]]> Round winners – November 2023 (Round #161)

Congratulations to the winners of round November 2023: Veit from Hamburg is the first German turfer to take a Gold Medal, gerald_flux.rc from Berlin took his third Silver and DaHunter from Stockholm turfed home his second Bronze.Well done mates!


Our German Crew member JoasK interviewed Viet and here are the Q&A:

Q: Did you go for gold right from the beginning or did it happen by accident?
Gold was not planned. I first thought about Top 3 on November 10th when Gerald asked if I wanted to go for it. Top 3 still felt surreal, but from then on I was prepared to invest more than usual. I believed in gold after week 2.

Q: Did you have vacation so that you could concentrate on Turf?
No vacation, but I deliberately reduced my overflowing overtime quota on the first Monday because I wanted to create a cushion at the start of the round to keep me in the elite. In the end, 2 spontaneous floating holidays were added.

Q: What do you do for a living?
Airbus / Systems Engineer Climate. Normally, 3 days of attendance are mandatory - I worked almost exclusively from home in November because it was more flexible - I worked before, between and after Turf;) 

Q: How does it feel to be the first German Gold Winner?
It actually makes me proud - just being able to wear the leader shirt for 4 weeks was motivating. But the most important thing about Germany’s first gold was the interest, support and motivation of my German teammates - it was touching.

Q: What was the biggest challenge during the four weeks?
The biggest challenge was clearly the dark, cold, wet evening rounds in unknown regions around Hamburg where the zones already have to be experienced/pushed hard under normal circumstancesQ: What was your personal highlight during the last four weeks?
Berlin with the many zone highways and the meeting with the family of Das Huhn.

Q: You said you were a bit ambivalent about Turf. What do you mean by that?
True: I’m not an unreserved Turf fan. I like cycling, love multi-day tours or long day trips to beautiful regions. Turf dictates the tours a bit - regardless of the attractiveness, only depending on the zone density. As a result, you enslave yourself somewhat, forgo social rides, spend more time alone on the bike and, in the most extreme cases, plan your vacation accordingly. On the other hand, I cycled almost 1600 km this month (would have been limited to work routes without Turf), got to know nice people and many regions.


Hopefully we will see more German turfers in 2024! And not only fighting for the top 3 spots in the world.


Upcoming events

If you are organizing an open event, don't forget to write to insider@turfgame.com a couple of months in advance to get the information about your event into the news letter :)


Luleå W2023 Saturday 9th of December in Luleå, Sweden

A 3 hour event in the north of Sweden. This is for turfers who enjoy cold, darkness and a bit of snow.


Lusseturf Sunday 10th of December in Västerås, Sweden

For the eleventh year, Turf Västmanland is organising Lusseturf, an open Foot event famous for their lussebullar :) Please sign up HERE.


Nyårslöftet Monday 1st of January in Eslöv, Sweden

Organised by Turf Skåne for the 8th time as the first Turf Event of the year. Take the train to Eslöv, get off the train and you are in the Event area, it can not be easier to join a Turf Event! Read more about it HERE.


VBWinter24 Saturday 10th of February in Umeå, Sweden

The winter classic is back in Umeå and will be for both bike and foot on the same day. It will be cold, hopefully lots of snow and during the few hours of daylight at this time of the year. Umeå has already "some" snow, as can be seen here in the zone Ratatosk.

#Ratatosk #turfgame (9)

Closer to the Event date you can find more information HERE


Bonanza 2024 in Enköping

I hope you have booked the14th of September 2024 for attending the next Bonanza in Enköping, Sweden. More news will follow when we get closer to the date!


Advent Calendars 2023

Turf Skåne's Advent Calendar is up and running, HERE. The rules are simple:

  • The assignments do not have to be completed on the same day as they are announced in the calendar, but all assignments must be completed during the month of December.

  • The assignments can be carried out at the earliest on the same day that they are announced.

  • If several zones are to be taken during a mission, all zones must be taken during the same day.

  • You can complete the missions with takes, assists and/or revisits.
    When you have completed a mission, you send us the zone name(s) and tour nick (below). Form on the home page!

  • Board members cannot win prizes.

  • If you win a prize, you must collect it yourself in Skåne, we do not send any winnings. Two winners will get the book Lonely Planet Epic Bike Rides of Europe.


Planet Gary is also running a Turf Calander for all turfers out there, read more about it HERE. Planet Gary has an easy option and a challenging option for each day and there is no need to register or ask to take part. Just get on with it. Tasks should be completed on the same day but no worries if not, so if you have not heard about it until now, you can still join! Details will be posted on Planet Gary each evening for the following days task. The rules are many and quite fun to read, so head over to Planet Gary to read all of them :)


Voting for new Medals

The next medals will be decided by the Turf Community ie YOU! At the moment the different alternatives are being put together by Crew. Hopefully the vote will take place later in December, but as always life can get in the way. The developers are hopeful they can put together meaningful medals to vote for soon. But rest assure, voting for new medals will come sooner or later to a digital space close to you :)


Turf Picture of the Month

This months Turf Picture is of the zone Nappträdet taken by Jonteman.

#Nappträdet #turfgame~3

If you have a Zone picture you want featured as Turf Picture of the Month, send it toinsider@turfgame.com Please include your Turf nick for recognition! Deadline for next Turf insider is Saturday the 6th of January 2024.


Turfa lugnt/Safe turfing!

//Munin


...if you want to contribute to future Turf Insiders, send your story to insider@turfgame.com :) C'mon and share your big and small stories with the Turf world.

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Android 14 background turfing https://turfgame.com/?feedid=940 Wed, 22 Nov 2023 21:05:49 +0000 https://rss.turfgame.com/940 Due to changes in how Android handles apps in the background we have now released an app update.

After updating to the latest version of Turf you can n Continue reading ]]> Due to changes in how Android handles apps in the background we have now released an app update.

After updating to the latest version of Turf you can now set Location permissions to "Always" for the Turf app, which is required for the app to run as expected in the background.

To do this you can either reach the location permissions via the normal system settings. Or you can long press the app, go to the app settings and permissions.

//Turf dev

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November https://turfgame.com/?feedid=936 Wed, 22 Nov 2023 20:58:25 +0000 https://rss.turfgame.com/936 Round winners – October 2023 (Round #160)

Congratulations to the winners Continue reading ]]> Round winners – October 2023 (Round #160)

Congratulations to the winners of round October 2023: Björke from Östergötland took not only Gold, but also became the fith turfer to be awarded the Roundpointer 2M medal, gerald_flux.rc from Berlin added a Silver to his previous two Bronzes, and AJHB from Greater London turfed home a Bronze. Well done mates!


The Roundpointer medals that were released last round, requires you to take a zone to be awarded the medal. If you reach the Roundpointer level by pph, you will not automatically get the medal. You need to go out and actively take a zone. If you have not been awarded a Roundpointer medal due to this bug, write an issue and it can be manually awarded to you :) Note that only the 2 M Roundpointer will be awarded retroactive beyond round 159 when the medals were released. Any other Roundpointer level has to have been reached AFTER the medals were released at the beginning of October 2023.


Upcoming events

If you are organizing an open event, don't forget to write to insider@turfgame.com a couple of months in advance to get the information about your event into the news letter :)


Lusseturf Sunday 10th of December in Västerås

For the eleventh year, Turf Västmanland is organising Lusseturf, an open Foot event famous for their lussebullar :) Please sign up HERE.


Bonanza 2024 in Enköping

I hope you have booked the14th of September 2024 for attending the next Bonanza in Enköping, Sweden. More information will come closer to the Event.


When winning a Round of Turf in any of the official Turf countries, the price is your own zone. Many winners name it after themselves, in one way or another like Király001, SJ201601 and ZX201905 or RozalionPier, MBSecretPath, WsnurrsHage and KingeninHeart. The reason behind the location of a winner zone can be as simple as the winner lives or works near the zone and other times there is more thought behind both the name and the location.


Corazon – Corellian

"My first winner zone is up on a hill overlooking the city of Mariehamn and the Slemmern Bay. I wanted a zone there by the old wooden windmill simply because I love windmills and thought it was a really nice spot, deserving a zone. The zone name is Corazon, Cor-a-zon with a reference to my nick "Corellian" but also as in (spanish/mexican) "heart". To match the zone name the zone shape is a heart (for love and courage) with a crown (for loyalty), but it also looks like a strawberry. The zone is dedicated to my beloved and loyal berry-loving daughter, who loves Mexico. She decided on the zoneshape and spelling of the zonename."


ZurSieg and KemperWerth - JoasK

I have placed 2 of my 3 Winner Zones on a narrow, green strip between 2 rivers (Rhine and Sieg). This is where the Sieg ends and flows into the Rhine. The path there is very lovely, you walk across meadows and through old forest. At the end it doesn’t go any further. So you have to go back again. I like this place. It’s a bit of Lands’ End. I didn’t think much about the names. I chose them so that they fit the surroundings. It only occurred to me afterwards that it might be nice to choose the names so that you know who they’re from or when they were won.”


PreciousSons -féarglas

This is in a Commonwealth war graves cemetary, and a wee boy aged 4 that was killed on the local road where all our children run up and down is buried there. The community came out to line the street for his funeral procession. The zone is at the graves of two boys that died in their first 3 months, one even at 8 days old. When I passed there one night, I saw something flashing in the dark, it was a Happy Birthday 16 balloon. It struck me then, as my son had just turned 16. And I thought whether alive or dead, children we have had are precious. And that’s my reminder when I take that zone.”


Earlier this year, swine pest was discovred in the forest close to Fagersta in Sweden and a large nature area has been off limits in order to not spread the disease. Recently a new zone was put in this area, close to a local beach and a cluster of summer houses. This was promptly reported on Facebook by a local turfer and it resulted in a discussion about whose responsibility it is to make sure zones in off limit areas is not taken by turfers.


The main responsibility lies with the turfer to NOT take zones that are off limit for one reason or another. If it is illegal to enter the area where a zone is located, do not enter that area. Turf Crew, however, is no police and can not punish any turfer taking zones in off limits areas. Turf Crew is not all knowing, especially not about local regulations and events like a swing pest. The zone makers are from many different countries and are not up to date with everything that goes on in every Turf country. This is were local turfers are so important and Turf Crew would like their help via the issue system to learn about when a zone ends up in an off limit area.


Turf Crew are conscious situations like the swine pest will arise and we try to keep up to date where we can and please, notify us via the issue system. Once we are made aware of local restrictions, we will consider them and respond in a responsible way in keeping with the specific situation. Sadly there is no way to ”inactivate” a zone without deleting it, and zones are never deleted. It would mess up both medals and all statistics regarding that zone. Zones can be moved, but for zones in the swine pest area, this is not considered a viable solution. There are just too many zones affected. So, again it comes down to the responsibility of the turfer.


Once Turf Crew are made aware of a situation where an area is off limits, we will inform all active zone makers and try our best to make sure no new zones are made in the area while restrictions are in place. Together Turf Crew and the turfing community can make sure restricted areas are not turfed in.


Turf Clubs/Associations

Presentation of the association Turf Västmanland - uTurf (Sweden) by Optimus

"We have existed as an association for just over 6 years (the association was formed on 2017-05-17) and even before the association was formed we had started organizing events in Västerås, Sweden. Over the years, we have, in different years, had member meetings, closed member events and club championships. Under the association's auspices, open events have also been organized (for example the annual "Lusseturfen" around Lucia every year) and Bonanza 2018 and the upcoming Bonanza 2024 (Bonanza 2012 was before the association existed). We have produced and sold various T-shirts, buffs, etc. We have had an average of 63 members during these years. From the beginning, we were part of the Orienteering Association, but we didn't notice any benefits from that, so we are no longer part of it.


We have made a survey to see what the members think - and it can be easily summarized with: Events and the Monthly Meetings (which are sometimes called Turf Beer). We also asked what more we can do and there were requests to coordinate trips to other cities to explore new zones (but no one has organized that yet) and generally raise interest in Turf.


We also wanted to draw attention to Turfare who might have done something special. It can be almost anything that is a little out of the ordinary and the person you "nominate" does not have to be a member of the association. But the special thing must preferably have happened in Västmanland, Sweden or someone from Västmanland who did something extra for the entire Turf world. There we would need your help with nominations (and of course everyone can nominate, regardless of whether you are a member of the association or not). Email your nomination together with a motivation toadmin@uturf.se - THANK YOU in advance! There you can also ask questions to the association if you want. If you want to read more about us or become a member, you can do so atwww.uturf.se (right now the page is being updated, but hopefully more info will be there shortly)."


If you belong to a Turf Association that has not yet been featured in Turf Insider, write about it to insider@turfgame.com :)


December is not far away and a popular feature of the December round in the last few years, have been Turf advent calendars. Turf Skåne will be organising one this year and information will be posted on their home page closer to the start of December, HERE. Turf Insider has no information if the very popular Advent Calendar by turfers in Örebro will happen again this year, but we hope! 


Turf Picture of the Month

This months Turf Picture is of the zone JaktEfterZon taken by Fafng.

#JaktEfterZon #turfgame

If you have a Zone picture you want featured as Turf Picture of the Month, send it to insider@turfgame.com Please include your Turf nick for recognition!


Turfa lugnt/Safe turfing!

//Munin


...if you want to contribute to future Turf Insiders, send your story to insider@turfgame.com :) C'mon and share your big and small stories with the Turf world.

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October https://turfgame.com/?feedid=915 Sun, 08 Oct 2023 18:16:24 +0000 https://rss.turfgame.com/915 Round winners – September 2023 (round #159)

Congratulations to the winn Continue reading ]]> Round winners – September 2023 (round #159)

Congratulations to the winners of round September 2023: Gallant from Kalmar took his second Gold, pPilot from Scotland took his second silver and Pilgrim from Västra Götaland added a Bronze to his medal row. Well done mates!


Upcoming events

If you are organizing an open event, don't forget to write to insider@turfgame.com a couple of months in advance to get the information about your event into Turf Insider :)

Östgopen 7th of October in Linköping

Two events organised by Östergötland Turf Association. Read more about it HERE.


Events are fun and if you want to organize your own, write to events@turfgame.com and our amazing Event manager will help you :)


Bonanza 2024

We finally have a place and date for next year's Bonanza: 14th of September in Enköping, Sweden.

Västmanland and Uppsala, in cooperation, will host the next Bonanza in Enköping the 14thof September 2024.


The Banquet dinner will be held at “Kompassen”, Kaptensgatan 4 in Enköping.


For those of you already planning to go and know you will stay the night, here are some Turf-deals for accomodation:

At Kompassen you can stay on your own sheets and sleeping mat on the floor for 250 kr/night. A 4-person room costs 1295 kr/night, a double room 995 kr and a single room 795 kr, with breakfast included.

Book at +46 (0)171 15 33 90.


Use the code ”Turf” to get a discount at hotel Best Western at Kyrkogatan 7 in Enköping during the Bonanza weekend. Single rooms are 800 kr/night and double rooms 950 kr/night, with breakfast included.

+46 (0) 171 478080, reception@parkastoria.se


September was TURF Ultimate Region Fight month, and 12 regions were competing during the four weeks of the September round. Already after the first week Team Scotland and Team Västmanland were going head to head in the three categories. In the end it was the runner-ups from last year, Team Västmanland who turfed away as Region champs of 2023. Well done!


FrökenBok from Team Västmanland summarizes the Region battle in five words:

Sweat, fellowship, and great fun.” And then she continues with a longer story:


Now, it has been a few days since the Region Fight ended. We, Västmanland won, and that has been our goal every year. The two last fights have taught us that a one man show is not the way to win this fight. We needed to be clever, helpful, positive, and work as much as we could together. And so we did. We tried to be more organized than earlier years, and it was easier when we had a lot of team members with routine. We did not have a team leader. Instead, the whole team helped each other with different things. Some people guided others, some traveled away, and a lot of people asked if someone wanted to follow them to places nearby cities.


Week 1 and 2 were a bit sweaty because we needed to travel to a lot of (round) unique places to be able to beat Scotland, which was challenging. Week 3, we were a bit tired but still continued to find even more (round) unique zones. The last week was the calmest one, and there were more relaxing bicycle rides. It felt a bit strange, since we, the two years previous, have been fighting to the end.


I/we want to thank all the team members in Team Västmanland that made this competition a memorable experience. We have had a lot of fun together, we have seen beautiful nature and the sun has been shining almost every day. We also want to thank our competitors in the other teams, the people who organized the fight and Turfportalen , the other turfers in Västerås and our families who have been very supportive.”


So what happened to Team Scotland? The first open event in Scotland, UK happened. And it happened very well! ESOCWalter and kjtindall gives us their view on the 3-day long Turf weekend.


The Inaugural Scottish Open Event by ESOCWalter and kjtindall


Edinburgh was the centre of the Turf world for the weekend of 29 September to 1 October. This is because it was hosting the inaugural Scottish Open Event featuring the Scottish Turf Championships – what excitement! We had over 100 participants over the three days across a number of events (foot turfing, open championships and MTB Orienteering) including very welcome visitors from Scandinavia and England.


When we had the idea for the first ever Scottish Turf Open Champs event, we had a vision that it would be fun, welcoming to all and also action-packed! Since we had those Turfers that were travelling over from Sweden and elsewhere, we were keen to make the trip worth their while and showcase the best of Edinburgh. With our organising team having been to the last two Bonanzas, inspiration was taken from a few things we’d seen work really well there, such as the name stickers everyone had in Umeå, which we did as well and we all made some new friends because of it. And before we knew it we had Turf logos on bunting, stickers, pens, temporary tattoos - we also had Turf Scotland T-shirts and playing cards (featuring a different Scottish Turf zone on each card), so there was a lot on offer, plus there was a can of Scotland’s delicious best-selling soft drink, Irn Bru, in everyone’s welcome pack. And we got lots of great feedback on what we could do in future.


It was so cool to see everyone come together in Edinburgh for the events, and for the Turf map to light up with so many turfers grabbing unique zones and enjoying the events. There was a great feeling right through the weekend and people got right into the spirit of it, with the yellow and green dress code for Friday (Turf colours), blue/white/tartan theme for the Saturday night (Scottish colours), etc., as well as throwing themselves into the Crazy Closing event, chasing after one of our team dressed as Turfo, and tackling the weirdest zone shapes you have ever seen!

7681a513-3f78-47d9-aa34-055b8e20994a

We were so extremely grateful to everyone for making the effort to come to Edinburgh and you were all so well behaved that you would be welcome back any time (well most of you anyway!)


The results from the event can be seen here Turfgame.com but special congratulations to MarkkuEsoc who won the bike event and Fozzie who won the foot event on Saturday. Both events were very tight and very hard fought right to the end. It was also great to see juniors with fantastic performances from schnappi.jr in the bike and Mathsboy in the foot.

34832397-da91-49df-9758-429d3eae3bdd

From left to right: Fozzie (Gold-Foot), ZulaTheAlien:) (Silver-Foot), Pancosmic (Silver-Bike), MarkkuEsoc (Gold-Bike), Mathsboy (Best Junior-foot), schnappi,jr (Best Junior-bike), Hodge (Bronze-bike). SpeedyGonsales came third in the Foot event but was not present at the Saturday night event dinner where this photo was taken. 


Of course, the last day of the event was yellow dot Sunday and it was amazing to see so many people hoovering up unique zones in Edinburgh and we even had a Swedish King for a while – we let magnusn borrow our Scottish crown for a while :) Now the question is whether it will happen again next year. The answer is, of course it will, but only on the condition that you all come back and bring some more turfers to make Edinburgh the turf capital of the world once again!


A big thanks to the Scots for a very well put together Turf weekend! The only thing missing was an Event T-shirt ;)


A new medal serie was released at the round start on October 1st: The Roundpointer. 11 new medals awarded based on your points during the round. So far 759 turfers have been awarded the first medal in the serie: Roundpointer 10k. Many more will follow, I am sure! This was the second part of the medal happening. Next up will be a vote for supporters only, about what new medal will be introduced. Stay tuned!


Turf Picture of the Month

This month's Turf Picture is of the zone OntIBaken taken by Miawita. Thanks to everyone who sent in your Turf pictures, keep 'em coming :) 

#OntIBaken #turfgame (4)

If you have a Zone picture you want featured as Turf Picture of the Month, send it to insider@turfgame.com Please include your Turf nick for recognition!


Turfa lugnt/Safe turfing!

//Munin

...if you want to contribute to future Turf Insiders, send your story to insider@turfgame.com :) C'mon and share your big and small stories with the Turf world.

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Autumn medals - Part 2 https://turfgame.com/?feedid=911 Sun, 01 Oct 2023 08:33:07 +0000 https://rss.turfgame.com/911

The second step is going live!

At the start of the October round(#160) we wil Continue reading ]]>

The second step is going live!

At the start of the October round(#160) we will activate a brand new medal series called Roundpointer.

The Series is based on a Scottish community request and awards medals based on amount of points you gather during a round.

The medals are not retroactively handed out. However as an homage to outstanding efforts, users who have reached the 2M level will be awarded retroactively if they wish.

Hope you enjoy it!


The upcoming step will be a vote for supporters on which medal will be next. We are currently finalizing the voting system.

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September https://turfgame.com/?feedid=902 Sun, 01 Oct 2023 08:09:42 +0000 https://rss.turfgame.com/902 Round winners – August 2023 (round #158)

C Continue reading ]]> Round winners – August 2023 (round #158)

Congratulations to the winners of round August 2023: Király took another the Gold, DasHuhn from Berlin who turfed home a Silver is for sure the youngest Round Silver medal winner ever and Drylaw from Scotland added a fourth Bronze to his medal row. Well done mates!


Upcoming events

If you are organizing an open event, don't forget to write to insider@turfgame.com a couple of months in advance to get the information about your event into Turf Insider :)


Brunnsviken – 10th of September in Stockholm

Turf08 is arranging its annual autumn event in and around Brunnsviken in Stockholm. This year the event will contain water zones, for those turfers who like to swim or use a water vehicle. Electrical vehicles are not allowed!


Scottish Turf Open Championships, 30th of September
Excitement is building towards the first ever Scottish Turf Open Championships weekend, running from 29 September to 1 October. There are over 50 entries at this stage, with almost half of these being Swedish Turfers and two heading over from Åland. Everyone is welcome and we have an action-packed schedule of four Turf events plus social elements for you to enjoy, together with exciting Turf Scotland merchandise.


Details here: ScottishTurf Open Event weekend 2023|Edinburgh Southern Orienteering Club(esoc.org.uk) which includes a link to the official entry form!


Östgopen 7th of October in Linköping

Two events organised by Östergötland Turf Association. Read more about it HERE.


Events are fun and if you want to organize your own, write to events@turfgame.com and our amazing Event manager will help you :)


Bonanza 2024 will take place after summer, in the autumn. No exact date is set yet and neither is it absolutely decided where it will be held, but you won't have to wait much longer. By the latest in next Turf Insider we will be able to give you more information about where and when to head for the next Bonanza :) 


Scottish turfer kjtindall wants to invite you especially to visit his five top five tourist zones while you are in Edinburgh:

Excitement is building for the first Scottish Turf Open in September! We look forward to welcoming all turfers to Edinburgh to experience how tough it is to turf here with no cycle paths, so many hills (Edinburgh is built on seven of them!) and with how far apart the zones are compared to Sweden. We will, of course, have yellow dot Sunday the day after the event and what better way to scoop up some +50 bonuses than to explore!


With that in mind, here’s my top 5 tourist zones (in no particular order) to take in central Edinburgh and there are plenty in between these ones.

  1. HillGate - at the top of the Royal Mile, this lets you see the entrance to our Castle and gives you great views from up top!

  2. ArthursSeat - one for the foot turfers. Holyrood Park is a beautiful park with a few zones. Climb up an extinct volcano for this one.

  3. CaltonHill - a bit of a climb but worth it for the vista of Edinburgh to Fife and beyond

  4. JamesIVJousts - wander through the busy Grassmarket, stop for a beer in one of the many pubs and take this zone. Next to where the King used to stable his horses and used to practice jousting!

  5. HarryPotter - the zone is next to the cafe where JK Rowling (allegedly, anyway) wrote the first Harry Potter book!

Happy Turfing in Edinburgh, Turf mates!”


And this is how kjtindall's #1 zone might look like:

23112c91-aab3-4b4a-8cd8-fb15469620c7

Photo credit: Aibo


September is TURF Ultimate Region Fight month, an annual team competion arranged by MaXi between different Turf Regions. This year 12 regions are competing during the four weeks of the September round. You can follow the excitment at Turfportalen where you will also find the rules. The rules are slightly different this year compared to previous years, let the best team win!


DasHuhn, Silver medal winner of Round August 2023, is the youngest turfer to win a Silver medal. Accordingly to Sven_R, the father of DasHuhn, there's been no stopping this young turfer since he took part in the Bonanza in Umeå earlier this year. I am sure we will see much more of him in the future! DasHuhn is also the first German turfer to win a Silver medal. Who will be the first German to turf home a Gold medal? 


Extensions of existing medal series was released in August. Hopefully we will see something new arriving soon, but as always it will depend on the time and effort of volunteers. So be patient.


Turf Picture of the Month

This month's Turf Picture is of the zone Ingbokällorna taken by mpmoke. Thanks to everyone who sent in your Turf pictures, keep 'em coming :) The diversity in pictures submitted reflects the diversity of Turf and that is lovely. 

Ingbokällorna

If you have a Zone picture you want featured as Turf Picture of the Month, send it toinsider@turfgame.com Please include your Turf nick for recognition!


Turfa lugnt/Safe turfing!

//Munin

...if you want to contribute to future Turf Insiders, send your story to insider@turfgame.com :) C'mon and share your big and small stories with the Turf world.

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Medal overhaul https://turfgame.com/?feedid=894 Tue, 15 Aug 2023 16:16:08 +0000 https://rss.turfgame.com/894

The first step is now live!

We have just released an automatic update with an me Continue reading ]]>

The first step is now live!

We have just released an automatic update with an medal overhaul. (no neeed to update your apps)

This first package includes:

-design update of all assist and crowdy medals to finally match the current logotype.

-2 new take medals (take-250000, take-500000)

-3 new greed medals (greed-400, greed-500, greed-1000)

-3 new assist medals (assist-15000, assist-20000, assist-25000)

-1 new crowdy medal (crowdy-233)

-2 new unique medals (unique-20000, unique-30000)


Just like last time, none of the new medals in these series will be retroactively handed out. However, all medals except greedy and crowdy will be handed out the next time you take a zone(or assist etc)


We hope you enjoy this first step of the medal focused autumn. Next step will come adjacent to the Scottish open event in September.

/Turf dev

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August https://turfgame.com/?feedid=892 Sun, 13 Aug 2023 09:41:00 +0000 https://rss.turfgame.com/892 Round winners – July 2023 (round #157)

Congratulations to the winners o Continue reading ]]> Round winners – July 2023 (round #157)

Congratulations to the winners of round July 2023: Tempest from Stockholm took the Gold by taking almost only unique zones (he took only one zone twice), schnappi.jr turfed home a Silver only 12 years old (youngest Round Silver medal winner ever, me thinks) and ChilliFarmer from North West England turfed home his first Bronze. Well done mates!


Upcoming events

If you are organizing an open event, don't forget to write to insider@turfgame.com a couple of months in advance to get the information about your event into Turf Insider :)


Skåne Open in Malmö, 26th of August

On Saturday, August 26th, Turf Skåne will once again hold the Skåne Open. You choose which heat or which heats you want to participate in. The event is open to both foot and wheel classes, which means that all participants receive an event medal. More info HERE.


Scottish Turf Open Championships, 30th of September

Excitement is building for the first Scottish Turf Open in September! The Edinburgh turfers look forward to welcoming all turfers to Edinburgh to experience how tough it is to turf here with no cycle paths, so many hills (Edinburgh is built on seven of them!) and with how far apart the zones are compared to Sweden.


All are welcome in Edinburgh for the first ever open event in Scotland with both a Foot and a Bike Heat. The events are hosted by Edinburgh Southern Orienteering Club with foot and cycle events (90 minutes each) on Saturday 30th July. There are lots of fun things planned for the last weekend of September by the Edinburgh turfers, so get yourself organized and show up! More info HERE


Events are fun and if you want to organize your own, write to events@turfgame.com and our amazing Event manager will help you :)


At the very end of the July 2023 round, the first Open Event outside of Sweden took place in Åbo, Finland on a sunny Saturday. It was a great success with 83 turfers participating in the 2 hour long By Foot event in central Åbo.


ABOA Turf open – from plans to reality by the ABOA event organizers

Our initial thoughts about wanting to organize an event in Turku started in 2019 and we had a small, closed event to figure out how things worked. Before we then had a chance to make any solid plans, covid happened. That meant that the chance of getting turfers from Sweden and maybe even from further away was basically zero, so we had to postpone.


In Autumn 2022 we had our first meeting to gather our thoughts, set a date for the event and delegate tasks. Most of the work was done during Spring 2023, and it turned out to be much easier than we initially thought. Thanks to Turf Event Admin, Munin and Turf Östergötland for advice and tips! Also thanks to all participants from near and far! We are happy that so many turfers wanted to visit our beautiful city. We wanted to have the first ever open event outside Sweden - and we did it! :) The weather also turned out very nice, in spite of forecasts earlier in the week promising rain.

ABOA 2023 group photo 

 All in all, 83 turfers took part in the event. Half an hour before the start of the event, most of the participants joined in taking the ABOA2023 zone at the meeting place, resulting in a Crowdy 55-medal for many of the turfers present. The medals awarded at the luncheon afterwards are: Gold to Movemania, Silver to féarglas, and Bronze to Kygni.

Vinnarna ABOA 2023

We are happy that the event was quite successful and will probably have a go at it again at some point in the future, but for now we would like to pass on the Finnish baton. How about an event in Mariehamn or Helsinki next year? We wish Scotland all the best for their upcoming event in September.”


As one of the participants at the ABOA 2023, I can only say ”Well done!”. It was well organized and everyone felt very welcome. Turfers from three countries battled it out for 2 hours in a sunny Åbo and the late lunch afterwards was thouroughly enjoyable with the down to earth meatballs and potatoes to eat in a very cozy place in central Åbo. I promised when I first visited Åbo and met with TortugaVeloz and heard about the plan for an Open event, that I would show up, and I did and it was well worth waiting for :)


Heavy medals on the way

We are currently working on overhauling some of the medals in Turf. This includes some minor design updates on 2 medals and the extension of five existing medal series. The extension medals will see the light of day later this week...


Further on we plan to release new medals during the autumn. Supporters will get to vote between different alternatives online during the later process. Stay tuned!


Bug information

We have unfortunately experienced some problems with zones that seem to not have been taken after a takeover lately. However the zones do get taken and registered on the servers. We do not have a complete fix for this right now.


Several issues on the subject of ”zone I took still belongs to previous owner in the app” have been reported and now you can all rest easily knowing the take will be registered to you and Crew is aware of the problem and trying out different solutions to the problem. So don't worry, all those unique zones you are visiting while on holidays, will be counted towards your total unique score :)


We are halfway through summer of 2023 and summer for most of us means a break from our normal turfing habits. Either you turf more (like this round's winner Tempest and runner-up schnappi.jr) or you turf less like Crew member kjtindall who contributed this short story:


"Holidays might mean more turfing for some people and less for others. For me, this year it has been less (and here comes relegation!). But sometimes when you are away, you can get a special zone, a unique and a new region with just one take. And here it is, the Victoria Terminus Railway station in Mumbai - the single zone I managed in a week working in India - but what a zone!"

IMG_1101 (1)

Holidays for me, usually means a chance to go somewhere and visit as many unique zones as possible. 35 turfers managed to take 1000 or more unique zones during the July round. Tempest visited a whopping 6547 unique zones all over Sweden, while runner up Király visited roughly half that many unique zones with most of them in Berlin where his goal was to take all zones and leave no yellow zones glaring on the map. However, some were untakable and issues have been made, so maybe next time ;)


And finally, a first heads-up to start thinking about who you would like to nominate for Turf Awards 2023, more than half of 2023 has already gone by. 


Turf Picture of the Month

This month's Turf Picture is of the zone OldTjikko taken by Raggmunken. Thanks to everyone who sent in your Turf pictures, keep 'em coming :)

Oldtjikko

If you have a Zone picture you want featured as Turf Picture of the Month, send it to insider@turfgame.com  Please include your Turf nick for recognition!


Turfa lugnt/Safe turfing!

//Munin

...if you want to contribute to future Turf Insiders, send your story to insider@turfgame.com :) C'mon and share your big and small stories with the Turf world.

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Scottish Open Event weekend 2023 https://turfgame.com/?feedid=887 Wed, 02 Aug 2023 06:47:40 +0000 https://rss.turfgame.com/887 UPDATE: Entry form is found here:

Continue reading ]]> UPDATE: Entry form is found here:

https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSdWrt2LatozWKTNaETDAxpoc_v9nKWxSq9SwgcBfd49kRfqRg/viewform?usp=send_form


The Scottish Event Weekend has just been announced. Make sure to visit this first ever open event in Scotland 29sep - 1oct

The arrangers have planned a full weekend and assure that you will feel welcomed if you travel from far away.


Read more at:

www.esoc.org.uk/scottish-turf-open-event-weekend-2023



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Medals https://turfgame.com/?feedid=883 Tue, 18 Jul 2023 17:02:07 +0000 https://rss.turfgame.com/883

We are currently doing some focused work on medals. Overhaul, extentions, and even new medals.

Su Continue reading ]]>

We are currently doing some focused work on medals. Overhaul, extentions, and even new medals.

Supporters will get to vote on different alternatives online after the overhaul-bit.

Stay tuned!

/Turf Crew

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Turf turns teenager! https://turfgame.com/?feedid=877 Mon, 10 Jul 2023 14:54:37 +0000 https://rss.turfgame.com/877
Today, 13 years ago, Hence was the first real player to take a zone!

The zone was Continue reading ]]>
Today, 13 years ago, Hence was the first real player to take a zone!

The zone was NackaZone in Stockholm, Sweden.

It has now been taken more than 10.000 times!


Check out more history at TurfWiki:History

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July https://turfgame.com/?feedid=874 Sat, 08 Jul 2023 13:15:45 +0000 https://rss.turfgame.com/874 Round winners – June 2023 (round #156)

Congratulations to the winners o Continue reading ]]> Round winners – June 2023 (round #156)

Congratulations to the winners of round June 2023: Király from Skåne added another Gold to his collection, recycling added a Silver to his row of medals and kurrep from Kalmar followed up his win from April, with a Bronze medal. Well done mates!


Upcoming events

If you are organizing an open event, don't forget to write to insider@turfgame.com a couple of months in advance to get the information about your event into Turf Insider :)


ABOA Turf in Turku, Finland 5th of August, 2023

The ABOA Event-group wants to remind everyone to sign up for ABOA Turf Open, the first open event outside Sweden, August 5th in Turku/Åbo, Finland. I have signed up, have you?

1200px-FB-event-logo

No extra T-shirts will be made, so if you want one, sign up HERE. The event is a foot event, no biking. The Åbo-turfers are looking forward to see you in Turku! Read more about the event HERE. Registrations dead lines are 14th (with t-shirt) and 22nd (with award ceremony lunch) of July.


Skåne Open in Malmö, 26th of August

On Saturday, August 26th, Turf Skåne will once again hold the Skåne Open. You choose which heat or which heats you want to participate in. The event is open to both foot and wheel classes, which means that all participants receive an event medal. 

SkåneOpen2023


Scottish Turf Open Championships, 30th of September
All are welcome in Edinburgh for the first ever open event in Scotland and also the first ever Scottish Turf Championships! The events are hosted by Edinburgh Southern Orienteering Club with foot and cycle events (90 minutes each) on Saturday 30th of September.

Image (5)

If you'd like to register to get more information then please email president@esoc.org.uk More info will be available soon! The Scottish turfers are looking forward to welcoming turfers from all over to their home turf. Let's go!


Events are fun and if you want to organize your own, write to events@turfgame.com and our amazing Event manager will help you :)


Turf Ultimate Region Fight, September 2023

During the September round, MaXi is once again organising the Turf Ultimate Region Fight. If you and turfers from your region wants to be part of this, please assign a region team leader/coordinator and e-mail MaXi at: maxi.triathlon@gmail.com for more information. The rules can be found HERE. C'mon, it is a fun challange at the beginning of the autumn! 


Summer is here and many turfers are going travelling to discover new places, new zones and maybe meeting new turfers for an Assist or two. I asked my fellow Crew members about that town or place that surprised them in a positive way when they came there turfing. For next Turf Insider, I would like to hear from YOU about a place you visited recently that surprised you in a positive way. Write to insider@turfgame.com and tell me (and the rest of the Turf world) about it!


JoasK: Frankfurt am Main, one of the most underestimated major German cities. Very diverse architecture with quite wonderful views from the other side of the Main and a really fantastic skyline. Ideal if you spend 3 - 4 hours to take the main zones in the center of the city.


Cissiliana: Prins Bertils stig between Tylösand and Halmstad supriced by beeing a bike path as well as walking path and served me rasberries along the way. I will return this summer with the zonemaker himself.


embeoo: The costal route (Strandvägen) in south Nynäshamn. Close to home, but an epiphany when I first turfed there. A very scenic route which I didn’t know about.


happyf: Gothenburg, not the ordinary flat biking. There's always an unexpected hill or stairs where you least expect it.


Fozzie: Milton Keynes. I had no prior knowledge or expectations of the town, but it turned out to be a cycling turfer's delight. Mostly flat with an extensive cycle path network that allows you to get pretty much anywhere without having to compete with cars. The town planners could have designed the place with Turf in mind. Plus there's B1, B2, B3, B4 - for anyone who wants to have a rant about "zones should be 200M apart"


Kingslayer: Fredericia, Denmark. Many unexpected beautiful and exciting views. The whole town is apparently based on an old military fort which is still influencing the layout.


kjtindall: There is a place south Fife coast called Culross with only 6 zones. It’s just a lovely little village for a nice walk round. And a few more zones just along the coast in Limekilns and Charlestown - more lovely coastal views.


As for myself, a very lovely surprise this year was Lidköping. It was so nice and flat, really really flat. My home town Uppsala is considered flat by many, but is hilly compared to Lidköping. The zones were also very nicely spaced on lovely walk/bike paths thruout the city. I also really enjoyed the views along the lake Vänern.


Turf Picture of the Month

This month's Turf Picture is of the zone BobbySands taken by Emlomaliv. Thanks to everyone who sent in your Turf pictures, keep 'em coming :)

BobbySands


If you have a Zone picture you want featured as Turf Picture of the Month, send it to insider@turfgame.com Please include your Turf nick for recognition!


Turfa lugnt/Safe turfing!

//Munin

...if you want to contribute to future Turf Insiders, send your story to insider@turfgame.com :) C'mon and share your big and small stories with the Turf world.



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June https://turfgame.com/?feedid=860 Sun, 11 Jun 2023 16:04:57 +0000 https://rss.turfgame.com/860 Round winners – May 2023 (round #155)

Congratulations to the winners of round May 2023: Jomii from Värmland turfed home his third G Continue reading ]]> Round winners – May 2023 (round #155)

Congratulations to the winners of round May 2023: Jomii from Värmland turfed home his third Gold, Fashven from Scotland added a third Silver to his medal row and Király from Skåne took his sixth Bronze. Well done mates!


Upcoming events

If you are organizing an open event, don't forget to write to insider@turfgame.com a couple of months in advance to get the information about your event into Turf Insider :)


Turf Event at Eurocon 2023 in Uppsala, Sweden 10th of June

The goal is to spread Turf and offer an undemanding sight-seeing of Uppsala by foot during 45 min. Join our small SF-themed event at 12.30 pm in central Uppsala! The winner will get a trophy made by BirgittaS. The meeting place is outside the Universitetshuset in Uppsala where EUROCON 2023 is being held. The organizers will be there from 12 pm to explain Turf and after the Event the prize ceremony will take place there as well.


Luleå2023 in Luleå, Sweden 10th of June

The event Luleå2023 will be a three-hour event consisting of three different types of turfing: Bike, walk/run, and swim. The zones made for biking will be on roads easily accessible by bike, the zones for running will be in forests on paths difficult to bike on, and the zones for swimming will be in the water. After the big event, there will be a smaller event called NorrlandClassic 1, which will be the first in (hopefully) a series of events in small and big towns in northern Sweden. Read more about itHERE.


VbMidniteC23 in Umeå, Sweden 17th of June

Midnight Classic is back in Umeå and it is the only 2-hour event that takes place during two days, starting at 11 pm and finishing at 1 am. You will find information about the eventHERE.


Gbg Open in Göteborg, Sweden 1st of July

Turf Göteborg will host the 10th in a row Gbg Open in Göteborg this year. Information about the event will be foundHERE closer to the event.


ABOA Turf in Turku, Finland 5th of August, 2023

It is now time to register for the ABOA Turf Open! ABOA Turf Open will be held in Turku, Finland, on 5th of August. Read more about the eventHERE and registerHERE. Registrations dead lines are 14th (with t-shirt) and 22nd (with award ceremony lunch) of July. We hope to see many of you in Turku!


And as it was not enough with one open event outside of Sweden this year, the Scottish turfers have announced there will be a Scottish Open Championship, with two classes!


SCOTTISH TURF OPEN CHAMPIONSHIPS 30th of September

All are welcome in Edinburgh for the first ever open event in Scotland and also the first ever Scottish Turf Championships!



Hosted by Edinburgh Southern Orienteering Club, we look forward to seeing lots of happy Turfers in our beautiful capital city, with foot and cycle events (90 minutes each) on Saturday 30th September. We are planning fun Turf activities for you too for the Sunday and want to make sure that everyone has an amazing time. You don't need to bring a kilt but please do feel free if you want to! If you'd like to register to get more information then please email president@esoc.org.uk More info will be available soon!


Events are fun and if you want to organize your own, write to events@turfgame.com and our amazing Event manager will help you :)


No one can have missed the Bonanza that took place in Umeå during last round. Here is the report from the Bonanza Crew Umeå:


Thanks for joining us for the Bonanza in Umeå!




What a Bonanza! 311 Participants from five* countries joined forces in Umeå to summon the sun and have a great time and take a lot of zones. Umeå is normally a very busy Turf city, but this was all time high! And what a party we had all weekend – with 1 marriage proposal (congratulations to Cykeltalibarn1 and Bxtrom!), 1 snowman, a lot of grilled hamburgers, one mystery turfer and an impressive sing-along lead by Turf08.


We started the party already on Friday evening at Eljest, one of our sponsors and local café/bars on the island The Island (yes, it is really called ön Ön).


The two heats with a total of 753 zones resulted in 12691 takeovers. Stockholm completely dominated the foot heat. Raundonvirsis, known for being a tremendous runner, took her second Bonanza gold medal with 2424p and could row back home on her new standup paddleboard. With a silver medal and 2250p, rabbit_rail ensured that he now has all colours of the Bonanza medal. In third place came eddyueue, the turfer who won the first every Turf round in July 2010. In the Bike heat local champion MrDinco (1791p) collected the gold medal and – allegedly to his wife’s horror – a bike sponsored by CM Cykel & Fritid. He was closely followed by magnusn (1773p) and recycling (1768p).


The only hiccup was a technical glitch that deprived us of the crowdy record (we know that we were over 200). Later in the evening during the pre-drink crowdy, a zone needed some tweaking, but none of the Zonemakers could do it. Drassen came to the rescue and for the first time ever (!?) relocated and expanded a zone.


During the banquet local turfer and assist fanatic, Scrotum entertained us with his jokes and thoughts on turfing. After the dinner Turf Awards 2022 were presented and the winners greeted. Turf Västerbotten also presented a special award “star of Västerbotten '' which was given to LeiLar (silver, for being such a great and friendly turf nestor) and SurUlla (gold, for putting up with LeiLar).



We in Turf Västerbotten are grateful for all volunteers and sponsors that made this Bonanza such a success. We are also blushing heavily after all your love and thanks that we have received in the chat, in emails and on social media.


Finally, some words about the experience of organizing the world championship in Turf. It requires some thorough planning, that’s for sure. We have been about 11 people in the planning group, the last year working with small and large tasks in different constellations, in addition to our fantastic volunteers at the event. We believe that our strength has been the diversity in our group. Not only for sharing the workload but also for making use of our extended network and for coming up with a variety of ideas (someone visualized a huge screen on the event area, another insisted on building a snowman). We would recommend any Turf association to consider hosting the Bonanza (and to be honest, we are tempted to do so again ourselves) – it was great fun!


PS. Who was the mystery turfer then? Well, those of you who were there already knows, the rest will have to guess:


Photo: WombaWomba


*Five, someone will ask. Yes, apart from Finland, Germany, Scotland and Sweden, two freshly recruited tourists from the Netherlands decided on the spot to participate.


What did the winners think? Of course we asked them:

  1. From your experience of the Bonanza, what was the most memorable?

  2. What zone in Umeå did you enjoy the most?

  3. What would be your best advice for someone considering taking part in a Bonanza for the first time?


Raudonvirsis:

  1. The nice weather, the fantastic atmosphere and generally pleasant conversations. It was such a nice community!

  2. I thought the zone at the giant clothespin was nice. Fun monument and nice surroundings.

  3. It depends on why you participate. If you only want to have a good time, you just need to prepare your best mood. If you aim for a top position, you probably need to train a little at least. Enduring the last part of the heat is a key to success, that's where it's decided.


Thanks for a trebonanza!


MrDinco:

  1. Most memorable during the Bonanza for me was when I realized I had an opportunity to win gold, with about 25 minutes left. I think it was pure adrenaline and willpower that pushed the bike forward.

  2. The Eksjön zone above the campus suited me strategically, as a starting point it gave several different options for choosing a route with many zones that could be taken quickly to keep up the pph.

  3. It is a great opportunity to have fun and meet other turfers. Check your bike and equipment so that everything is working as it should if your goal is to place as good as possible.


Lastly, I would like to express a big thank you to Turf Västerbotten for the amazingly good and well-planned event management, non-profit forces that drive the business and development forward in the sport that allot us turf players like the most.

Thanks! //UncleFester and WombaWomba for Turf Västerbotten


Turf Picture of the Month

This month's Turf Picture is of the zone RamhällsGruva taken by mpmoke. Thanks to everyone who sent in your Turf pictures, keep 'em coming :)


If you have a Zone picture you want featured as Turf Picture of the Month, send it to insider@turfgame.comPlease include your Turf nick for recognition!


Turfa lugnt/Safe turfing!

//Munin

...if you want to contribute to future Turf Insiders, send your story to insider@turfgame.com :) C'mon and share your big and small stories with the Turf world.

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iPhone map fix https://turfgame.com/?feedid=850 Fri, 26 May 2023 07:09:27 +0000 https://rss.turfgame.com/850 There seem to be a problem with the maps on iphone since a few days.

UPDATE: Make sure to update your turf-app to fix the problem.



Continue reading ]]>
There seem to be a problem with the maps on iphone since a few days.

UPDATE: Make sure to update your turf-app to fix the problem.



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May https://turfgame.com/?feedid=845 Fri, 19 May 2023 11:10:55 +0000 https://rss.turfgame.com/845 Round winners – April 2023 (Round #154)

Congratulations to the winners of Continue reading ]]> Round winners – April 2023 (Round #154)

Congratulations to the winners of round April 2023: kurrep from Kalmar turfed home his first Gold, Drylaw13 from Scotland added a third Silver to his medal row and gerald_flus.rc from Berlin took his second Bronze. Well done mates!


Upcoming events

If you are organizing an open event, don't forget to write to insider@turfgame.com a couple of months in advance to get the information about your event into Turf Insider :)


Bonanza 2023 in Umeå

We are fast closing in on the Turf event of the year: Bonanza 2023 in Umeå, the most northerly Bonanza ever! This year's Bonanza is organized by Turf Västerbotten on the 20th of May with events in two classes, a Bonanza banquet and lots of other fun activites. Sign up for the Bonanza 2023 can be found HERE. See you in Umeå in May! :)Bonanza2023 


Turf Event at Eurocon 2023 in Uppsala, Sweden 10th of June

Is it possible to tempt book-loving SF-nerds with Turf? We are sure going to try with a small open Turf Event in Uppsala in co-operation with the European SF-congress "Konflikt". The goal is to spread Turf and offer an undemanding sight-seeing of Uppsala by foot during 45 min. Join our small SF-themed event at 12.30 pm in central Uppsala! The winner will get a trophy made by BirgittaS. The meeting place is outside the Universitetshuset in Uppsala where EUROCON 2023 is being held. The organizers will be there from 12 pm to explain Turf and after the Event the prize ceremony will take place there as well. 


Luleå2023 in Luleå, Sweden 10th of June

The event Luleå2023 will be a three-hour event consisting of three different types of turfing: Bike, walk/run, and swim. The zones made for biking will be on roads easily accessible by bike, the zones for running will be in forests on paths difficult to bike on, and the zones for swimming will be in the water. After the big event, there will be a smaller event called NorrlandClassic 1, which will be the first in (hopefully) a series of events in small and big towns in northern Sweden. Read more about it HERE.


VbMidniteC23 in Umeå, Sweden 17th of June

Midnight Classic is back in Umeå and it is the only 2-hour event that takes place during two days, starting at 11 pm and finishing at 1 am. It really makes the most of the bright summer nights this far north in Sweden. Turf Västerbotten are currently very busy with the Bonanza, so very little information is available, but I am sure it will follow, so keep an eye open HERE.


Gbg Open in Göteborg, Sweden 1st of July

Turf Göteborg will host the 10th in a row Gbg Open in Göteborg this year. Information about the event will be found HERE closer to the event.


ABOA Turf in Turku, Finland 5th of August, 2023

Have you made travel plans for the first Open Event outside of Sweden yet, I have :)

The Turku turfers have been planning an event for many years, and it has finally come to fruition. How about visiting Finland this summer? Read more about it HERE.


Turf Awards 2022

The voting for Turf Awards 2022 is closed and the results will be announced during the Bonanza banquet and later on turfgame.com.


Turf Clubs/Associations

A new section in Turf Insider for Club News and Club introductions. We have many Turf Associations around the Turf world. This is a space where they can get their news heard. Write to insider@turfgame.com if you have any Club news you want to see here :)


Knoblauch from Turf Östergötland has written about the association she belongs to.


TurfÖstergötlandLogga

Turf Östergötland started in 2019 and currently has 50 members. On the first Tuesday or Wednesday of the new round, we have a get-together in a pub, switching between Linköping and Norrköping. All turfers are invited to hang out, talk about Turf and have a good time.


We have also arranged various events, including Östgöta Open, an annual open event where everyone are welcome to participate. Next time will be on October 7th; stay tuned for more info on our website (in Swedish), 
https://www.turfostergotland.se.


There are other activities as well, including taking hard to reach zones together – for example, paddling to a zone in the river Stångån in an inflatable canoe, followed by a nice fika. All upcoming activities, other information and updates will also be posted on our website.”


Making Turf Work!
Nothing much in the world works smoothly without the efforts of a group of volunteers. And Turf is no exception to that. The group of unpaid volunteers that keep Turf running are known as the ‘Turf Crew’ (you sometimes see turfers in black tops with a gold ‘C’ on them in the app). 
Crew do everything from keeping the IT lights on to setting zones to managing issues, dealing with abuse and much else in between, all of it in their spare time. We thought it could be helpful to cover a few topics that Turf Crew get asked about regularly or are important to keep everyone on the same page and set aside a few myths!


Zone Setting/Making – focus is given on countries where there is lots of activity, mainly Scandanavia and the UK, although World zones are set where there are likely to be lots of Turfers, for example in New York City. We don’t set zones for anyone’s specific holiday destination to keep their 5-zones-a-day streak, so please don’t ask! 


Zones in the UK – we hear a lot about differences between the number of zones and zone density and zone allocation in the UK vs Sweden. To be clear, both the UK and Sweden have zone quotas and get a limited number of zones in each period. There will always be differences between places in terms of number of zones or pph or zone density or numbers of turfers – this is all part of the enriching experience of Turf! Zones quotas are primarily based on number of inhabitants in a certain area, not on active turfers.


Suggestions – we see a lot of frustration because new zone suggestions have been made and not acted on – we aren’t automatically notified of new suggestions! Rest assured that Turf Crew can see these when they make zones but there are lots and lots of suggestions (some better than others!) and there are limits on how many zones are made. Zone suggestions are anonymous and s
ometimes zones are created years after a suggestion was made. When suggesting a zone, make it a good size (25x25 m is the ideal zone size), not on car roads or private property and somewhere you think other turfers would like to go – it is more likely to be accepted that way. You might also want to add some thoughts on the Turf Forum (forum.turfgame.com/index) in the appropriate place.


How to turf – we see complaints about things like e-bikes and car turfing. Neither is against the rules although we appreciate that different turfers have different views on these topics. We would normally try to set zones that can’t be easily taken by car (so called ”car-turfing”) but this isn’t possible for every zone. Armpitting is OK too but sometimes not that easy and again different people have different views on it! 
Turfing is part of everyday life for many of us and like everyday life, we need to be kind and courteous to others – for example respecting laws of the roads and private property. Turf Crew don’t generally enforce these laws, that is a matter for local authorities and we encourage everyone to turf in a safe and legal manner.


Issues – if there's something wrong with a zone, especially the location, Turf has an issue system where any turfer can report what is wrong with it and suggest a solution (issues.turfgame.com). The issue page is slow, so please please please be patient when submitting an issue, or there will be 2 or more reports made.  

Issues can also be about things that are wrong with the application in any number of categories. Some issues are easy to fix, others nearly impossible. Some issues are out of the hands of Crew and has more to do with your phone and its mechanics. All issues are reviewed by Turf Crew members as soon as they have time. After zone making, issues are the thing zone makers in Crew spend the most time on.


Abuse – we’ve recently seen quite a few cases of ‘Abuse’. This is, for example, where rules are broken or people are perhaps offensive in the chat or where they have set a username that is generally offensive. Reports of abuse can be made to abuse@turfgame.com and they will be picked up by a Crew member and acted on. We’ve even seen recent cases where members of Turf Crew have themselves received abuse when trying to manage abuse reports – emotions do run high sometimes but this is really not acceptable and is somewhat disappointing!


There are various sanctions that Turf Crew can apply for abuse – from deleting parts of the chat (happens a lot when school children get access to the game for the first time), to having a word with the offending turfer to being temporaroly or permanently banned from the chat function of the Turf app. A common form of abuse is ‘gps-spoofing’ where people ‘turf by computer’ and take zones without actually being in the zone – where is the fun in that?! This will almost certainly be a ban and account deletion.


The number of abuse incidents remains very small in relation to the number of turfers, let’s please try to keep it this way and respect all other turfers even if their objectives conflict with yours sometimes! Just a few of the things that keep Turf Crew occupied every round. Happy turfing!


And finally a greeting from some Minnesotan turfers. They took part of local celebration that the ”30 days of biking” challange was done for 2023. Say hello to kelih, WBLSynapser and MNswedie from Minneasota!

MinnesotanTurfersCrowdyAptil2023

A few words from kelie about the picture:

Many Minnesota, U.S.A Turf Game players also participate in an international challenge called 30 Days of Biking (https://30daysofbiking.com/). 30 Days of Biking is a pledge to ride your bike every day in April and share your adventures online with the hashtag #30daysofbiking. The 30 Days of Biking challenge began in Minnesota, so many bike riders here participate.

Three Turfers attended a Minneapolis group ride on May 1 to celebrate the end of the challenge, and we split off the main group to take a few crowdy zones along the Mississippi River before catching up with the group again.

Turf Game and 30 Days of Biking go well together! If you have never tried the 30 Days of Biking challenge before, why not join us in April 2024?”


The zone with the three happy turfers is the 35W Bridge Memorial. The 13 pillars represent the 13 people who died when the bridge collapsed into the Mississippi River on August 1, 2007, and the names of the survivors are etched into the wall.


Turf Picture of the Month

This month's Turf Picture is of the zone PohjoisLautta taken by RogerThat990. Thanks to everyone who sent in your Turf pictures, keep 'em coming :) 

PohjoisLautta

For next Turf Insider we would like to see pictures relating to the Bonanza-feeling of "togetherness". The pictures does not have to be from the Bonanza, so this is as usual open to all turfers :) If you have a Zone picture you want featured as Turf Picture of the Month, send it to insider@turfgame.com Please include your Turf nick for recognition!


Turfa lugnt/Safe turfing!

//Munin with a lot of help from kjtindall


...if you want to contribute to future Turf Insiders, send your story to insider@turfgame.com :) C'mon and share your big and small stories with the Turf world.

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Bonanza getting close! https://turfgame.com/?feedid=840 Sun, 30 Apr 2023 21:12:31 +0000 https://rss.turfgame.com/840 Over 200 participants so far in the northernmost turf bonanza ever!

Don't miss out! Read more and sign up at:

Continue reading ]]> Over 200 participants so far in the northernmost turf bonanza ever!

Don't miss out! Read more and sign up at:

Turf Västerbotten

Turfvasterbotten.se

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April https://turfgame.com/?feedid=821 Mon, 10 Apr 2023 16:14:30 +0000 https://rss.turfgame.com/821 Round winners – March 2023 (Round #153)

Congratulations to the winners of Continue reading ]]> Round winners – March 2023 (Round #153)

Congratulations to the winners of round March 2023: retsirK from Skåne had the time of his life going for Gold, Jomii from Värmland decided he needed another Silver and skäggfar from Västmanland took his first Bronze. Well done mates!


Upcoming events

If you are organizing an open event, don't forget to write to insider@turfgame.com a couple of months in advance to get the information about your event into the news letter :)


Bonanza 2023 in Umeå

The Bonanza in Umeå is happening soon, have you signed up, booked where to stay and arranged how to get there? The main event of the Turf World is organized by Turf Västerbotten on the 20th of May with events in two classes, a Bonanza banquet and lots of other fun activities. Sign up for the Bonanza 2023 can be found HERE. See you in Umeå in May! :)


Apart from the Bonanza, there are two more Events in the North of Sweden coming up. June is the best time of the year up there in my personal opinion (lived up there for the first 30+ years of my life), so if you have not been, go!


Luleå2023 in Luleå, Sweden 10th of June

More information will come closer to the date.


VbMidniteC23 in Umeå, Sweden 17th of June

Midnight Classic is back in Umeå and it is the only 2-hour event that takes place during two days, starting at 11 pm and finishing at 1 am. It really makes the most of the bright summer nights this far north in Sweden. Turf Västerbotten are currenlty very busy with the Bonanza, so very little information is available, but I am sure it will come, so keep an eye open HERE.


Gbg Open in Göteborg, Sweden 1st of July

Turf Göteborg will host the 10th in a row Gbg Open in Göteborg this year. Information about the event will be found HERE closer to the event.


ABOA Turf in Turku, Finland 5th of August, 2023

The Turku turfers have been planning an event for many years, and it has finally come to fruitation. How about visiting Finland this summer? I sure will! 

The oldest and boldest city of Finland, Turku (Åbo) invites all turfers to join the world's first Turf open event outside Sweden. It's a 2 hour foot event in the city centre around our beautiful river Aura. Turku is a city of seven hills and in the event you can conquer many of them. Turku is easy to reach from Sweden so we hope to see also many Swedish turfers in Turku! More info: https://aboaturf.webnode.fi/

Sincerely, Xtrmrunner”

ABOA Event bild

I am sure the Turku turfers would love to see turfers from all over the Turf world at there Event, so be there! :)


Turf Awards 2022 – Time to vote!

Turf Awards is awarded to turfers who have made significant or particularly attentive achievements during the previous year or have been involved in an especially noted or spectacular zone takeover.


Crew couldn't help themselves, so they played a little April Fools day joke with the nominations, hope it gave you a chuckle and no hard feelings. 30 people voted and here is the results the category Turfer of the Year where ALL the nominations were FAKE. 

April Fools Turfer of the Year

The real nominations for 2022 are now up and you can vote HERE. Vote for someone you know or someone you think did something heroic, extra-ordinary or just plain crazy! It is all a part of Turf :)


Turf Clubs/Associations

A new section in Turf Insider for Club News and Club introductions. We have many Turf Associations around the Turf world. This is a space where they can get their news heard. Write to insider@turfgame.com if you have any Club news you want to see here :)

* Turf Skånes club championship takes place Saturday 13 May, read more here. We also want to remind about our monthly Turf meets (Turfträffar) which take place Thursdays after round starts. In April we meet in Malmö and in May in Helsingborg - see full calendar here. Turfträffar are open for all, you don't need to be member of the club :)

Turf__Goteborg

Turf Göteborg has been around for quite a few years and has regular monthly get-togethers and a few well organized events under their belt. Here is an introduction to the Club by happyf:

We started in 2014 and had 60 members last year, mostly in the Gothenburg area. One of our activities is hosting an open event, GBG Open. On July 1st we will host it for the 10th time in a row.


We also have our club championship for our members, normally in the fall. Since we are situated in a large region, Västra Götaland, a lot of zones are hard to reach without a car, so we organize excursions where we join up and turf our way to some remote zones. One year we visited Hindens rev, and last year we pointed the compass towards Västra Götaland's summit zone Galtåsen and after that a zone in a large bog, Komossen. Of course there are more zones taken during our trip.


The first Wednesday after each round start, we meet up in Gothenburg to discuss turf and whatever. The last couple of years we have been at Evas Paley in Gothenburg, close to the zone NonViolence. So if you are in the area then, please join us. We start at 18 o'clock. A couple of Sundays each summer, we meet in the large park Slottsskogen. Last year, and hopefully this year as well, we had mini-events then. We will post exact dates later on. 


Check the Turf Göteborg Facebook page or read more about us (in swedish) on our web page, https://www.turfgoteborg.se/


Spring supposedly sprung here in Uppsala earlier in March and then we were hit with lots of snow. I had time for one longer Turf ride with my summer bike, hopefully it will be able to come out soon again :) Although very few things are as beautiful as sunshine, blue skies and snow, but I am ready for some green leaves on the trees and an evening bike ride without needing extra lights. 


Turf Picture of the Month

This months Turf Picture is of the zone TollarpFlower taken by modernangel. Most contributions this month were of snow, blue skies and sunshine. Turf Insider choose this month to focus on what is coming, and what has already come in certain parts of the Turf world.

#TollarpFlower #turfgame (1)

If you have a Zone picture you want featured as Turf Picture of the Month, send it to insider@turfgame.com Please include your Turf nick for recognition! 


Did you know...

...the issue reporting system is VERY slow. It is enough to press once when submitting an issue and then have patience, count to 500 ;) Many times the same issue gets reported 3-5 times because it feels like nothing is happening and the submitt button is pressed again and again and again... It IS happening, just very slow. Patience my dear! Thank you :) 


Happy Easter! 

Turfa lugnt/Safe turfing!

//Munin


...if you want to contribute to future Turf Insiders, send your story to insider@turfgame.com :) C'mon and share your big and small stories with the Turf world.



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Turf Awards 2022 - time to vote! https://turfgame.com/?feedid=818 Sun, 02 Apr 2023 06:37:26 +0000 https://rss.turfgame.com/818 Yesterday Crew played an April Fools joke with the nominations for this year's Turf Awards, hope it gave you a few chuckles :)


Here are the real nomin Continue reading ]]>
Yesterday Crew played an April Fools joke with the nominations for this year's Turf Awards, hope it gave you a few chuckles :)


Here are the real nominations and you have until the end of April to vote for your favorite in each category, HERE :)

The winners will be announced at the Bonanza banquet in Umeå on May 20. See you there!

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April, April - Vote For Turf Awards 2022 https://turfgame.com/?feedid=816 Fri, 31 Mar 2023 22:23:39 +0000 https://rss.turfgame.com/816 The vote for Turf Awards 2022 is open! C'mon and vote for your favorite in four categoris Continue reading ]]> The vote for Turf Awards 2022 is open! C'mon and vote for your favorite in four categoris HERE :)

The winners will be announced at the Bonanza banquet in Umeå on May 20. See you there!

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March https://turfgame.com/?feedid=804 Fri, 10 Mar 2023 10:46:02 +0000 https://rss.turfgame.com/804 Round winners – February 2023 (Round #152)

Congratulations to the winners Continue reading ]]> Round winners – February 2023 (Round #152)

Congratulations to the winners of round February 2023: Kygni from Norrbotten (formerly of Uppsala) took his third Gold in lovely winter conditions, Király from Skåne added another Silver to his medal row and Marcus_P from Hamburg turfed home his second Bronze. Well done mates!


Upcoming events

If you are organizing an open event, don't forget to write to insider@turfgame.com a couple of months in advance to get the information about your event into the news letter :)


Foot Event in Stockholm on April 29th

Turf08 invites everyone to a Foot Event on April 29th "somewhere in the southern part of Stockholm". It will start at 1 pm and last for 2 hours. There will be "fika" and prizes. More information closer to the date can be found HERE, including where the event will take place!


Bonanza 2023 in Umeå on May 20th

The Bonanza, the main event of the Turf World is organized this year by Turf Västerbotten on the 20th of May with events in two classes, a Bonanza banquet and lots of other fun activities. Sign up for the Bonanza 2023 can be found HERE. So far just over 160 turfers are registred. See you in Umeå in May! :)


Turf Awards 2022

Turf Awards is awarded to turfers who have made significant or particularly attentive achievements during the previous year or have been involved in an especially noted or spectacular zone takeover.


Nominations for Turf Awards 2022 closed on February 28th. Voting will open up in April, stay tuned!


Turf Clubs/Associations

A new section in Turf Insider for Club News and Club introductions. We have many Turf Associations around the Turf world. This is a space where they can get their news heard. Write to insider@turfgame.com if you have any Club news you want to see here :)


Turf Göteborg would like to invite new and old turfers, local and tourist turfers to their monthly “fika”. Come and join other turfers in Göteborg at café Evas Paley (close to the zone NonViolence) 6 pm on the first Wednesday in the new round. For the March round the meet-up is on the 8th of March.


Turf Stockholm has been around since 2014. Mr_Noodle wrote a short introduction for Turf Insider.

The Turf association Turf08 Stockholms Län arranges events and Turf meetings in the Stockholm area. Currently the association has around 100 members. The association has arranged a number of Bonanza events, the latest one in 2019.


Both bicycle and walking events are held annually, often as open events and are free for everyone to join. And no event is held without some nice prizes to event winners and coffee, tea and fika to everyone. And there has been a number of barbecue meetings and shorter events over the years. The association is also a sponsor for prizes to Turf winners in Stockholm both for round winners and other turf events.

Next turf event is scheduled for April 29th, this time a walking event. So bring your mobile phone and a smile on your face and meet up in Stockholm. Our web site is http://nyheter.turf08.se


Turf 08 logga


During the last round, many turfers have enjoyed the vivid Northern Lights playing in the skies during evenings. From Kygni in Luleå biking along one evening going for Gold to canon in Nyköping just going for a few zones after dinner, February was a good month to see Northern Lights in large parts of Sweden. Photo below by canon.


Norrsken feb 2023 SvärtaKyrka 

If you are lucky, you might even come across a moose as Kygni did between two zones. 


Introduction to PaintHelper by praktikus

PaintHelper is a third party page where you can get help with ”painting the zones”, something very many turfers are addicted to. The turfer behind this page, praktikus, has been a turfer since 2014 and here is the story behind PaintHelper in his own words. Link to PaintHelper: painthelper.knzoon.se


In recent years, I have become obsessed with what many turfers call ”painting”. That is, based on the colors that appear on the page "Map of my unique zones" on warded.se. I then experienced that after a while it became difficult to get an overview of how I best optimize my turfing in order to, for example, increase the amount of red zones. Just over a year ago, I was on sick leave due to burnout syndrome and during my recovery it was a fitting therapy to put this page together. Also very educational and fun :)


What can it be used for?
As the name reveals, it is meant to help with painting the zones in Turf. Firstly, it is easy to filter the zones both by the number of takes and by Area/Municipality. Then you can, for example, search for all zones in your municipality that have between 7 and 10 takes to see which ones are closest to turning orange (a minimum of 11 takes). Another nice feature is that it shows untaken zones in the same map as taken zones. On warded you have to look at two different maps to see both taken and untaken.”


I have yet to try out PaintHelper, but if ”painting” zones fast and in the most optimal order is your goal, then this is the page for you!

Turf Picture of the Month

This months Turf Picture is of the zone BorenPier taken by Miawita.

Round 152 #BorenPier

If you have a Zone picture you want featured as Turf Picture of the Month, send it to insider@turfgame.com Please include your Turf nick for recognition!


Turfa lugnt/Safe turfing!

//Munin


...if you want to contribute to future Turf Insiders, send your story to insider@turfgame.com :) C'mon and share your big and small stories with the Turf world.

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February https://turfgame.com/?feedid=790 Mon, 13 Feb 2023 20:37:41 +0000 https://rss.turfgame.com/790 Round winners – January 2023 (Round #151)

Co Continue reading ]]> Round winners – January 2023 (Round #151)

Congratulations to the winners of round January 2023: Björke from Östergötland took his fourth Gold, Fashven from Scotland doubled up on his Silvers and féarglas added a second Bronze to her medal suite. Well done mates!


Upcoming events

If you are organizing an open event, don't forget to write to insider@turfgame.com a couple of months in advance to get the information about your event into the news letter :)


Västerbotten Winter Classic 2023

If you like snow and cold, head to Umeå for their Winter Classic in the middle of February. Turf Västerbotten will organize their annual Winter Classic event on Saturday the 18th . More information can be found at Turf Västerbottens home page HERE.


Bonanza 2023 in Umeå

The main event of the Turf World is organized by Turf Västerbotten on the 20th of May with events in two classes, a Bonanza banquet and lots of other fun activities, I am sure. Sign up for the Bonanza 2023 can be found HERE. See you in Umeå in May! :)


Turf Awards 2022

Turf Awards is awarded to turfers who have made significant or particularly attentive achievements during the previous year or have been involved in an especially noted or spectacular zone takeover.

Received_1374811900012263

Nominations for Turf Awards 2022 are now open, HERE. The nomination period will close on February 28th. I know you all have that special turfer you want to acknowledge a little extra.


Past Events

Turf Insider likes to report about events that took place anywhere in the Turf world, so please write to insider@turfgame.com.

Here is a summation about the 10th Lusseturf that took place in Västerås in December by HERBAJANNE for Turf Västmandland.

Lusseturf2022_1 

"Congratulations Podde to first place in Lusseturf 2022! A total of 70 players took part in the event. The special zone, which only the zoner knew, was "Stjärngosse" and it was taken first by AEM! Congratulations!


The event had 200 zones when it started and 20 zones went live during the event. This was a first for an open event with this many participants.  The first zone created during the event was "VarDuHere", it was first taken by Gurra98. Another of the new zones was "YouFoundMe" where ami68 seemed to be running across Norrleden to be first...don't forget to stay safe during Events! ami68 also took that "LastZone" (which was the last of the extra 20) first, it was at 12:21, and kept it THE REST OF THE EVENT (until 1:00 PM).


Coffee, mulled wine and Turf-"lusse" buns were served, and hats and buffs were also available for purchase.


Do you want to be involved in organizing LusseTurf 2023? Please register your interest already now at kontakt@uturf.se and we will keep the tradition alive."


I am lucky to live less than one hour by car from Västerås, so Lusseturf has become a nice annual "Christmas" tradition for me. This year new shoes gave me blisters after just two Event zones, so I limped back to the fclub house and spent the rest of the event trying to take the Event zone located over the club house. 


Turf Clubs/Associations

A new section in Turf Insider for Club News and Club introductions is introduced here. We have many Turf Associations around the Turf world. This is a space where they can get their news heard. Write to insider@turfgame.com if you have any Club news you want to see here :)


Turf Skåne has been around since 2016 and here is a short introduction by Kingslayer to this most southern Turf Association in Sweden:

New-Logo-Small-1

Turf Skåne is a Turf club in the southernmost region of Sweden. We were founded in 2016 and currently have 50+ members.


We consider ourselves quite innovative; in 2017 we created ”En Skånsk Klassiker” which is an event of sorts that run for a full calendar year and by completing groups of Turf achievements you can win physical medals and a cup. This event is more about experiencing than competing. And participation is free for everyone! In 2018 we hosted a Turfathlon event.


On an annual basis we have a club championship, and Open event in Malmö, and a closed event every New years day. In summertime we normally organize one or several picnics with a short foot event.


On the social side we have Turf get-togethers each Thursday after a new round starts, and in summertime we sometimes gather for some BBQ. With the exception of the yearly club championship which is for members only, all our activities are open for any Turfer, member or not, Skåning or not.


On our web page (in Swedish) you will find a blog, tips for new and not-so-new turfers, all our events and get-togethers listed and some Turfy statistics: turfskane.com


Trip To Holland in January

Turf Insider is always happy when turfers write in with their stories. This time it is FeTaTo from Scotland with the story about her Trip to Holland in January, enjoy and be inspired! 


"Why Holland in January

After a relatively quiet turf round in December except for the two Advent Calendars to get me out (thanks Skåne and Örebro) I needed some adventure/exploring. UK train strikes were frustrating home possibilities and Holland popped up as a challenge idea. Insufficient turfers there for a country medal but a good rail network meant that I could challenge myself to the Netherlands Explorer medal alongside unique zones.


Booked flight to Amsterdam. Downloaded NS (train) app. Printed out map of Dutch train routes and the 12 regions then, with the help of turf app, I planned a provisional route. Walking boots on my feet and backpack on my back I set off for the airport by bus (it was a train strike day). 10 days later I had walked over 290km (about half with my luggage), cycled for around 22hr, 13hr train travel, and turfed in 20 towns/cities but I had my Netherland Explorer medal and 561 unique zones (30% of the current zones).


I really should have planned further in advance as there was not time to apply for a NS Flex card which would have given me 40% off off-peak train travel and allowed me to use OV-fiet (bike) from stations.The card costs 5.60 euro/month but can be cancelled after 1 month. Buying tickets through the app and scanning at the gates worked smoothly - except the first time when the attendant suggested that perhaps my phone screen was too small!


Train travel. Most routes in Holland have at least half hourly services even on Sundays! I could stop off as many times as I wanted on a route and stopped aiming for particular trains but just took the zones that I wanted then back to the station.


Noord-Holland is the only active turfing region. Most of my Amsterdam zones were retaken promptly. I had a bike one day and in typical FeTaTo I set out towards the suburbs - I love seeing a cross-section of communities and cycling is often easier outside city centres. This also gave me an opportunity to get some grip on cycling in Holland. 


My travel route was predominantly clockwise from Amsterdam. Most towns have just a few spread out zones. Almere, my first stop outside Amsterdam, was probably the bottom - I only took 6 zones and rarely had 2 zones blocked at any one time. Groningen was quite compact - my hotel mentioned that I probably wouldn't need to borrow their bike in the morning if I went for a walk that evening . True. I covered most of the zones during the evening walk plus to and from the station though most of my walking was done in the dark


Kampen is well worth a turfing visit. After all 70 zones (35 winner zones) I didn’t feel that I had exercised. The bike was stuck in first gear but, having walked marathon distances on the previous two days, my legs enjoyed the slow gentle ride and I was enjoyed looking around. Perhaps the presence of so many winner zones made the route so nice but where are those turfers now? Hardly any of the zones were taken off me.


Zeeland region is a bit out the way and only has 57 zones. The nearest train accessible place with zones was Goes but I still don’t know how to pronounce that - confused the train manager when I asked about it. Flat, flat and flat. That day it rained all day and I became rather wet each of the 4 times that I was out of trains. And why did I get out at Rotterdam Zuid station that day. It was obviously not the main station - a wet FeTaTo on a cold and windy station raised above the surrounding city with good views in the dark. Not what I wanted which was to be able to change into warm dry clothes. Luckily there were frequent trains so I was soon on my way again. When dry again I set out to walk around Rotterdam. The bridges are very memorable in the dark (best seen in the dark?) though zones felt spread out.


Rotterdam and The Hague both have Donkey Republic bikes available to hire. I have found these very useful in places around Sweden and Denmark and again here. An advantage of these bikes is that they can be collected and dropped off at many places. In Rotterdam the weather forecast was for strong winds so I set off walking but I changed to bike when I realised that there was little wind - though I then visited zones further away rather than focus on central ones.


Holland has 3 times the population of Scotland living in an area just over half its size. It is flat with good transport networks and bikes galore. Why are there so few turfers? I didn’t do a huge amount of cycling in Holland but in many ways I found it easier to cycle turf than even Sweden and both Sweden and Holland were more pleasant to cycle turf than Danish cities. Bike definitely usually felt like King in Holland. However, I am more likely to go back to Denmark and will definitely be back in Sweden - zone density is so much better for a uniques raider. Zone distribution and the fact that cycling is transport rather than exercise (gyms are everywhere) could be contributing to the low take-up of turfing. I found it interesting to note that the most recent 5 takes in south Holland had often been by Swedes.


Many of the zones are off the paths. I took to saying to myself ‘here we go again into the brambles’ a few times. Twice I found myself standing arm out right at the edge of water as the zone was just in the water. I occasionally got waterways wrong but not as often as I expected. For a country where most zones are not visited very regularly I found very few zones to raise issues on.


My ‘Wow I wasn’t expecting that’ zone in Holland was Oostwatertor on my walk towards the coast from The Hague. I had set off on a rather long but varied FTT route and it was getting dark as I walked along a track though trees behind the sand-dunes.

 IMG_3030D 

 Suddenly the view in the photo appeared. I kept walking to the coast and a Donkey Republic bike took me back into The Hague.


I had only set myself a target of 500 (of the 1800) zones for the trip due to spread out nature of the zones and that I would likely be walking many of the zones. I did reach my target but it was hard work with all the luggage carrying. I have described here just a few of my observations and experiences. A thoroughly enjoyable adventure and explore - my main reason for turfing. And no ice or snow though a few windy (lots of discarded broken umbrellas) and wet days towards the end of my trip. Overall the weather treated me very well for the time of year."


Turf Picture of the Month

This month's Turf Picture is of the zone CommonsPeni taken by UrukHek. In January 6 turfers from 3 different continents sent in their pictures, thank you! Keep 'em coming :)

CommonsPeni

This picture was chosen by Turf Insider for it's "Turf feeling" among many great pictures. 

If you have a Zone picture you want featured as Turf Picture of the Month, send it toinsider@turfgame.com  Please include your Turf nick for recognition!


Turfa lugnt/Safe turfing!

//Munin


...if you want to contribute to future Turf Insiders, send your story to insider@turfgame.com :) C'mon and share your big and small stories with the Turf world.

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Turf awards - Time to nominate 2022 https://turfgame.com/?feedid=789 Fri, 10 Feb 2023 06:40:21 +0000 https://rss.turfgame.com/789

It is now time to nominate Tu Continue reading ]]>

It is now time to nominate Turfers who you think should be awarded the Turf Awards 2022 for their performances this year!


Use this form to nominate!

https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLScK4Vo_7KpIw7OA0_zxwVagyyWwPg_brudBfMaYU1E_02LxUw/viewform?usp=sf_link

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January https://turfgame.com/?feedid=776 Sat, 07 Jan 2023 20:55:19 +0000 https://rss.turfgame.com/776 Round winners – December 2022 (Round #150)

Congratulations to the winners Continue reading ]]> Round winners – December 2022 (Round #150)

Congratulations to the winners of round December 2022 (#150): Király from Skåne turfed home his 18th Gold Medal, micke0708 from Blekinge added a Silver to his Bronze and gerald_flux.rc from Berlin secured his first Bronze. Well done mates!


Andrimon have decided to restyle the naming of the rounds in Turf. From this Turf Insider, you will notice the monthly mail is named "Turf Round News" with the just finished round designated "December 2022" followed by the number #150. The idea is that December 2022 will be easier to remember than Round #150. Both ways will continue to be used to talk about Rounds in turf, but more emphasis will be on the December 2022 nomenclature.


Upcoming events

Winter is upon us and very few major events are taking place. A few local events will happen in conjuncture with other club activities, for example in Linköping this March for members only in Turf Östergötland.


Västerbotten Winter Classic 2023

In the middle of February, Saturday the 18th Turf Västerbotten will organize their annual Winter Classic event. This is a chance to spend two hours by foot or by bike experiencing the conditions in Northern Sweden for turfers during winter. Lots of snow and temperatures well below 0. More information will soon be found at Turf Västerbottens home page HERE.


If nothing else you can check out one of LeiLar's fave zones, NothingFancy. Earlier this winter it was covered in a huge snow heap, but thanks to the local kids and their parents, the snow heap was dug out, creating a perfect way to take the zone from within the heap!


#NothingFancy #turfgame


If you are organizing an open event, don't forget to write to insider@turfgame.com a couple of months in advance to get the information about your event into the news letter :)


Bonanza 2023 in Umeå

The main event of the Turf World is organized by Turf Västerbotten on the 20th of May with events in two classes, a Bonanza banquet and lots of other fun activities, I am sure. Sign up for the Bonanza 2023 can be found HERE. See you in Umeå in May! :)


Turf Awards 2022

Turf Awards is awarded to turfers who have made significant or particularly attentive achievements during the previous year or have been involved in an especially noted or spectacular zone takeover.


Nominations for Turf Awards 2022 are now open, HERE. The nomination period will close on February 28th. I know you all have that special turfer you want to acknowledge a little extra.


Voting will take place during April. Turf Awards are handed over to the winners by Turf Crew at the Bonanza banquet in Umeå May 20th, 2023.


Turf Awards will be awarded in the following categories:


Category

Nomination criteria

Best Turf achievement of the year 2022


Awarded to the Turfer who, for example, got the most gold medals, monthly medals, has taken the most zones, unique zones, regions or equivalent in 2022.

Turf Star of the Year 2022

Awarded to the Turfer who started turfing as a newbie in 2022 and has made fast progress during the year.

Turfer of the Year 2022

An open category to nominate a Turfer that exceled in an exemplary way without any connections to an individual Turf performance. This award can be given for anything, for example: efforts to spread Turf, marketing, organizing Turf events or a Turfer who has helped and supported others in a special way.

Most Spectacular Zone Takeover of the Year 2022

Awarded to the Turfer, who has completed one of the most notable or spectacular zone takes in 2022.


Berlins youngest turfer

Turf Insider was approached by our German Crew member with a story about Berlin's youngest turfer, DasHuhn2013. Here is some facts about him in his own words:


Hi, my name is Theo aka “DasHuhn2013” from the south of Berlin. I am a “Junior Turfer” [9 years] and I have been a turfer since June 2022. My favourite hobbies are swimming, cycling (road-MTB-Indoor) and of course hunting zones.


I love Turf, because it’s outdoors, its active, and I’m seeing parts of Berlin I’ve never seen before. I already collected some medals for my virtual showcase, entered Rank 35 and my goal for 2023 is the medal “Darkest ninja”, Rank 40 and visiting as many new zones as possible.


In the last round I made the 6th place in Germany and I went out in any weather, even when it was -13 degrees cold. Friends always ask me if it’s like Pokémon Go? And I say No! I’m obsessed and delighted (!!) to take zones and not interested in catching imaginary animals on Pokemon Go. :-)


Happy New Year and Thank you Turf Crew! #TurfOn, Theo”

I am sure if you are visiting Berlin you will see zones belonging to DasHuhn2013 and his dad Sven_R.


At the end of the year, I asked my fellow Crew members what Turf Year 2022 meant for them in one word (or a few). Here is a picture of their answers:

_TurfYear2022

December 2022 was the second anniversary for the UK “explosion” and many UK turfers are celebrating two years as turfers these days. If you have missed the Blog by UK turfer PlanetGary, this is his post when looking back on that very first day in 2020 when he took his first zones, HERE.


Turf Picture of the Month

This month's Turf Picture is of the zone Tångstrand taken by allinug.

Tångstrand - Turf Picture of the Month Jan 2023

If you have a Zone picture you want featured as Turf Picture of the Month, send it to insider@turfgame.com

Please include your Turf nick for recognition!


Did you know...

...that in the very first round of Turf, #1 in August 2010, 8 people took zones

...the winner of round #1, eddyueue had 87798 points and rumour has it he went with his inlines all over Stockholm to collect those points.

...eddyueue did not get to place a Winner zone until his third win in round #4. His Winner zone EyeSeeYou are located in region Stockholm.


Turfa lugnt/Safe turfing!

//Munin


...if you want to contribute to future Turf Insiders, send your story to insider@turfgame.com :) C'mon and share your big and small stories with the Turf world.

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BONANZA 2023 https://turfgame.com/?feedid=772 Tue, 27 Dec 2022 07:46:42 +0000 https://rss.turfgame.com/772 Keep an eye out - details for "the Ultimate Region Fight - Bonanza edition" will soon be released" at Continue reading ]]> Keep an eye out - details for "the Ultimate Region Fight - Bonanza edition" will soon be released" at Turf Västerbotten- Bonanza


You have not missed that the Bonanza 2023 will take place in Umeå, Västerbotten, Sweden on Saturday the 20th of May, 2023, have  you? It will be organized by Turf Västerbotten and here's a post-Christmas offer from them:

"Surely that special Christmas present was missing? Here's the solution! Book your participation in Bonanza 2023 now! The perfect Turf gift for yourself or someone else! Read all about it HERE. See you in Umeå! Team Turf Västerbotten"

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December https://turfgame.com/?feedid=765 Sat, 17 Dec 2022 11:46:15 +0000 https://rss.turfgame.com/765 Round winners

Congratulations to the winners of round 14 Continue reading ]]> Round winners

Congratulations to the winners of round 149: KRALJICA from Skåne turfed home her fourth Gold Medal, Björke from Östergötland mirrored KRALJICA by securing his fourth Silver medal and rocadero from Västmanland celebrated one million points with a Bronze medal. Well done mates!


Upcoming events

On the 10th of December you can head up to the dark Northern Sweden for LuleXmasBike in Luleå. It will take place during the few light hours of the day at this time of the year. The event has two heats. The Foot Event is set up at a private event which means you have to sign up in advance and be added to the event. Answer these questions here before the event.


On Sunday the 11th of December, Lusseturf will take place for the 10th time in Västerås. It will be held at the same place as previous years, the zone Orientalen. 

Five turfers have been there all the previous years: BirgittaS, HogSquare, Hylaeus, JimVoi and SunYour. Hopefully you'll be able to meet them all this year too :)


Bonanza 2023 in Umeå

Turf Västerbotten is in the thick of planning the Bonanza 2023. It will be held on the 20th of May with events in two classes, a Bonanza banquet and lots of other fun activites, I am sure. The Bonanza page is up and running and more information will be added as the organizers are getting organized. HERE.


Turf Advent Calenders

We are fast approaching Christmas and the Turf Advent Calendars are up and running. Good luck everyone taking part in one or more of them.

The Bonanza team in Umeå has a Bonanza calender on their page, go and have a look here. Behind each door there is a zone with a little poem to let you see some of what is awaiting at the Bonanza next year.


Turf Awards 2022

Turf Awards is awarded to turfers who have made significant or particularly attentive achievements during the previous year or have been involved in an especially noted or spectacular zone takeover. Candidates are nominated by all turfers who also can participate in the final voting round to appoint the winners. Turf Awards is handed over to the winners by Turf Crew at the Bonanza banquet inUmeå May 20, 2023. Turf Awards will be awarded in the following categories:


Category

Nomination criteria

Best Turf achievement of the year 2022


Awarded to the Turfer who, for example, got the most gold medals, monthly medals, has taken the most zones, unique zones, regions or equivalent in 2022.

Turf Star of the Year 2022

Awarded to the Turfer who started turfing as a newbie in 2022 and has made fast progress during the year.

Turfer of the Year 2022

An open category to nominate a Turfer that exceled in an exemplary way without any connections to an individual Turf performance. This award can be given for anything, for example: efforts to spread Turf, marketing, organizing Turf events or a Turfer who has helped and supported others in a special way.

Most Spectacular Zone Takeover of the Year 2022

Awarded to the Turfer, who has completed one of the most notable or spectacular zone takes in 2022.


Nomination procedure

From January 15, all turfers have the opportunity to submit proposals on

who should be nominated for the Turf Award 2022 in the different categories. A Google form for proposing candidates will be found in next Turf Insider and also in other channels.


Voting procedure and announcement of winners

In March 2022, Turf Crew nominates a maximum of five candidates in each category. During April all turfers will be given the opportunity to vote for which of the nominees who should be awarded the Turf Award in each category.

The voting score determines who will be the winner of the Turf Award 2022 in each category. During the Bonanza Banquet in Umeå on May 20, 2023 the winners will be announced.

Cissiliana

Event manager/Turf Crew


So c'mon and think about who you would like to nominate for Turf Award 2022!


Mulled Wine In Hamburg

Marcus_P from Hamburg wants to invite everyone to come and have a mulled wine with him in Hamburg. From his post in Turfgame (deutsch) on Facebook: 

"We wanna meet over mulled wine. We meet on 15.12.22 at 17:00 at the Zurfzone Reeperbahn in Hamburg. After that it's on to the St Pauli Christmas Market. I would be happy if many come over. Turf on,"

Let's hope many turfers will heed his call and meet up for some mulled wine :)


Zone take from ambulance

Turfer Kaktus-Mats from Uppsala had a serious accident during a closed event to celebrate Team Uppsala's three region wins during 2020-2022 on the 26th of November. Here is his own tale of the one positive aspect of the accident:


"To celebrate Uppsala's win in the Turf Ultimate Region Fight, an event was organized on November 26 in Uppsala with a subsequent dinner. Everything went well during the event until three in the afternoon when I headed into the City Forest (Stadsskogen) in search of zones. The first one was blocked but the second one was available to take. On the way to the third, I met a cyclist and we passed each other on the wide path. 

Then I don't remember anything more until I was helped up from the path after a magnificent fall. There was an ambulance ride to the emergency room on the path through Stadsskogen and on the way the Tigerwoods zone was passed and apparently I had forgotten to turn off the Turf app because to my surprise I heard "taking zone - zone taken". 

In other words, I managed to take the zone from inside the ambulance. My strangest zone take ever. Thanks to the helmet, I survived with only a concussion, scrapes and bruises and was allowed to go home after a 24-hour observation at the hospital."


Remember to be careful out there and adjust speed and choice of track with regards to current weather conditions! 


Turf Picture of the Month

This month's Turf Picture is of the zone BishopZone taken by ojarnstr.

BishopZone

If you have a Zone picture you want featured as Turf Picture of the Month, send it to insider@turfgame.com  Please include your Turf nick for recognition!


Did you know...

...that FeTaTo has taken 22925 unique zones

...DaHunter is on second place for unique zones with 22919 unique zones.

...there are 113280 zones to take

...4859 zones have never been taken, yet!


Turfa lugnt/Safe turfing!

//Munin


...if you want to contribute to future Turf Insiders, send your story to insider@turfgame.com :) C'mon and share your big and small stories with the Turf world.

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November https://turfgame.com/?feedid=756 Sun, 13 Nov 2022 11:21:56 +0000 https://rss.turfgame.com/756 Round winners

Congratulations to the winners of rContinue reading ]]> Round winners

Congratulations to the winners of round 148:féarglasfrom Scotland added another Gold Medal to her medal suite while smashing the old points record, Király from Skåne had to make do with a Silver medel and MrJokerit from Göteborg biked home the Bronze medal. Well done mates!


In last Turf Insider it was wrongfully stated that Gallant was from Skåne, he belongs on the east side of Sweden, in beautiful, flat Kalmar :)


Upcoming events:

On the 10th of December you can head up to the dark Northern Sweden for LuleXmasBike in Luleå. It will take place during the few light hours of the day at this time of the year.


The same December weekend, but on Sunday the 11th, Lusseturf will take place for the 10th time in Västerås. Don't miss out on the best “julTurf-fika”! It will be held at the same place as previous years, the zone Orientalen. Keep an eye out for more information on Turfs homepage and on Facebook!


Bonanza 2023 in Umeå

Turf Västerbotten is in the thick of planning the Bonanza 2023. It will be held on the 20th of May with events in two classes, a Bonanza banquet and lots of other fun activites, I am sure. The Bonanza page is up and running and more information will be added as the organizers are getting organized. HERE.


Turf Advent Calendars

Next round, which takes place during December, will have at least two Turf Advent Calendars running.


Turf Skåne is organizing an advent calendar that begins on the 1st of December with a Turf-related task to perform every day. It will all be up and running by December 1st on Turf Skåne's homepage, HERE. The Calendar is only in Swedish and you don't need to sign up for it. Every day after completing the task, you fill out a form and at the end of the calendar, a small prize will be raffled out among those that got all daily challenges correct.


The second Advent calendar running is organized by Örebro Turfers and will be running from first of Advent to just before Christmas. The Calendar is still under construction, so more information will follow both in social media and on Örebro Turfers home page, HERE. For this calendar you will have to pre-register in order to take part in it with a chance to win.


In Västerås they had a special event on the 10th of October, when MrAce's winner zone from round 146 went live. Over 25 turfers came to be among the first ones to take the zone by the water. Coffee, buns and cookies was offered and fun was had under a blue sky.

#mrAce15 #turfgame (2)


Winter has arrived in the north of Sweden, and I would in other parts of the Turf world as well. Days are getting shorter and more of us are turfing in the dark. Don't forget lights on your bike and use reflective bands or clothing on yourself. In the dark you are very invisible without the extra lights or reflective gear. Be safe, be seen! 


Turf-Glögg in Uppsala for the 9th time

On the 24th of November the annual Turf-glögg takes place in Uppsala in the zone WaterWorld. It will start at 6 pm and for about one hour there will be several different kinds of glögg, ginger bread cookies, Santa-mallows ("skumtomtar" in Swedish) and cold turfers present. Everyone is welcome, but bring warm clothes since this zone has been dubbed “coldest zone in Uppsala” by the participants of the previous 8 times this evernt has taken place :)


Did you know...

...you can find a free, hopefully working, bicycle pump at gratisluft.se? For now it has only information about pumps in Sweden, but there is a feature to add a pump if you think one is missing. Today the site is only in Swedish. 


Turf Picture of the Month

This months Turf Picture is of the zone Uimaranta taken by FilleFilur.

Uimaranta

If you have a Zone picture you want featured as Turf Picture of the Month, send it to insider@turfgame.com Please include your Turf nick for recognition!


And finally a green heart from Berlin, welcoming all turfers to Berlin anytime :) #turflove


IMG_2204 (1)


Turfa lugnt/Safe turfing!

//Munin


...if you want to contribute to future Turf Insiders, send your story to insider@turfgame.com :) C'mon and share your big and small stories with the Turf world.

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October https://turfgame.com/?feedid=735 Mon, 10 Oct 2022 09:05:54 +0000 https://rss.turfgame.com/735 Round winners

Congratulations to the winners of round 147: Gallant from Kalmar added a Gold Medal to his previous Bronze, Vargen12 fro Continue reading ]]> Round winners

Congratulations to the winners of round 147: Gallant from Kalmar added a Gold Medal to his previous Bronze, Vargen12 from Uppsala secured a Silver medel while helping Team Uppsala win the Ultimate Region Fight 2022 and Oberoff from Stockholm took home the Bronze medal, the same placement his team Stockholm North ended up in the Ultimate Region Fight 2022. Well done mates!


Upcoming events:

On the 10th of December you can head up to the dark Northern Sweden for LuleXmasBike in Luleå. It will take place during the few light hours of the day at this time of the year. There will be a closed by foot event and a public by bike event, followed by smaller 1 vs 1 events. Read more HERE.


And don't forget to make plans for the Bonanza 2023, it will take place in Umeå on the 20th of May.


A well-planned event gives the participants memories for life. Heard at the monthly Turf dinner in Uppsala: "The Event in Malmö this September was such a fantastic and friendly event. The zones in the by foot event were in such a nice environment where you could see for several kms!"


Turf Ultimate Region Fight 2022

During September, 10 region teams + the out of competion Turfmix team were busy competing in three categories; points, takes and round uniques. I was part of the Uppsala team and it started off not too crazy, but the last couple of weeks of the round turned into eating, sleeping, working and turfing on repeat. It was a fierce battle to the very last Saturday between Team Uppsala and Team Västmanland. Below the results you can read a summary from the team leaders of Uppsala and Västmanland.

Resultat-Regionskamp-2022

Västmanland's Team through Frökenbok:

“A little over a day has passed since the tough fight in the regional battle ended. Västmanland gave everything we could until late Saturday afternoon week four when we realized that we had lost the exciting region battle against Uppsala. Congratulations Uppsala on the win, it was a day of fighting!


Our journey began early in the summer when we quickly got a team together. Västmanland needed to get a team together that was the biggest compared to other regions and of course we were happy about the interest. However, a large number of participants is a difficulty precisely when it comes to being able to win the fight as many have to perform high results, which turned out to be difficult as those at the top on some days cycled crazy hard to raise the average of both uniques, points and takes .

Several team leaders helped with planning trips, loops, pep talk and driving members together on trips. Many fantastic members of the team volunteered for guided tours in other locations. A spontaneous idea also came from a team member to loop in Köping during the final phase of the competition. Many team members came from different cities and turfed round and round together (Ed. Hamster wheeling).

There were several fantastic trips with the Team to Åland, Hallstahammar, Köping, Eskilstuna, Surahammar, Arboga, Kungsör and Enköping. Beautiful environment, a great community and a joy to see new Turf areas.

Despite problems with bicycles, illnesses and sometimes lack of time when many also have jobs, family life and other responsibilities, we continued to fight until the end. Personal records have been achieved, the team spirit has been fantastic, encouragement in our 24/7 chat that even in frustrating moments has given team members strength to fight on. We have had challenges and we have given each other energy to endure more than we ever thought we could.


In the beginning we turfed more solo, but after each week there has been more and more turfing together and looping. With regards to looping, Uppsala inspired us when one Sunday morning they showed us the power in points and takes a loop with many participants can have. (Ed. You're welcome!)

This fight has been tough, fun, challenging and exciting. We have tested our limits and gained many great memories that we carry with us going forward. The community in Västmanland has given us great joy to keep on biking all the time.

We want to thank everyone in team Västmanland who biked hour in and hour out every day, but also loved ones who put up with our extreme cycling and once again our team would like to congratulate Uppsala for the win. We look forward to getting revenge next year.”


Uppsala Team through dixern

“Then we can finally relax! And of course celebrate the win.

Here in Uppsala, regional battles are really a team activity with regular meetings and frequent discussions from start to finish. Even though we started gathering a team already in July, we barely got a group together in time. Even before the fight started we knew of a bunch of non-Turf related trips and other limitations that would make it difficult to reach the top, despite that we decided to join anyway, but maybe with less demands on ourselves. The team consisted of turf players from across the region (Uppsala, Enköping, Knivsta, Tierp and Bålsta). Some had competed before, others were brand new in our lineup.

The round started and the team got going, and already in the first afternoon the desire in the team to be at the top was noticeable. We were absolutely sure that our forte would be round uniques, which also showed in joint excursions and ventures around Uppland. Turns out we were wrong. We knew that points were difficult to excel in, since the zones in Uppsala give few take points and we have realized in previous struggles that we do not have the basis to win that category. But after week one, we saw that Västmanland, which also does not have high take points for their zones, could do well in this category. Then we can too! So we were wrong about this too.

Towards the end of week two when Västmanland showed up with a big group of turfers in Mariehamn, we realized that winning round unique zones would be difficult, instead we have to bike even more and go for more takes and more points. We quickly changed our strategy and caught up again and again. Then we just continued on that line, simply more biking! We've had people on the map from just after 4 in the morning until 1 (sometimes later) at night, almost every day for four weeks.

Our effort has been marred by small accidents and a number of tire punctures, but nothing more serious fortunately. And then we've had conference trips, exercise runs and families who think we're a little crazy and this could limit us. But you can take zones even when you're at a conference, and if you drop meeting time targets on races, there's always the option of taking a detour for some unique zones. And the families simply get to help with everything that isn't Turf. The regional battle comes first...then everything else.

We want to thank all the team members who fought so hard. All who gradually revised and raised their goals. All Uppsala's non-competing Turf players who helped with tips and accepted a crazy high activity on the Turf map. We also want to thank all the other teams, and especially Västmanland, you have given us a real match during recent weeks. And of course a big thank you to MaXi who organizes it all!

//dixern and Vargen12”


Not everyone has been busy with Region battle during September, Turf Insider got a mail from Borgåtippan about a special place to visit in Finland:

“If you ever travel to the Pallas-Yllästunturi National Park in Northern Finland be sure to do some turfing. I visited both places this September and I must say the views were amazing! You can take the cable car up to the top of Ylläs, but we did it the other way around. Hiking all the way to the top and then down by cable car. It's not an easy walk but very doable. At Pallastunturi we actually missed the turf zone on the top of the other ridge, but if you're into downhill skiing you'll reach it easier I think. It was a very windy day so we were focusing more on climbing down the mountain slope than looking at our phones. Back on the ground we took the turf zone at Orava Avenue not far from the hotel. I always thought Turfgames is an excellent way to explore a new area and so it proved to be once again.”


Turf meet-up in Berlin, Germany

Regular Meet-Ups are being organized in Berlin. The second meet-up happend this month on Wednesday. The Meet-up was advertised in the Forum in the German section. It was a great success accordingly to one of the participants.


Turf Picture of the Month

This months Turf Picuter is of the zone CampAsh taken by aldo.

#CampAsh #turfgame

If you have a Zone picture you want featured as Turf Picture of the Month, send it to insider@turfgame.comPlease include your Turf nick for recognition!


Turfa lugnt/Safe turfing!

//Munin


...if you want to contribute to future Turf Insiders, send your story to insider@turfgame.com:) C'mon and share your big and small stories with the Turf world.

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September https://turfgame.com/?feedid=713 Sun, 11 Sep 2022 07:16:25 +0000 https://rss.turfgame.com/713 Round winners

Congratulations to the winners of round 146: grimric from S Continue reading ]]> Round winners

Congratulations to the winners of round 146: grimric from Skåne went straight for Gold without passing Silver and Bronze, Drylaw13 from Scotland added a third Silver to his collection and Jomii from Värmland was awarded his first Bronze, hopefully not a letdown after two pervious Gold medals. Well done mates!


Upcoming events:

Skåne Open in Malmö on the 10th of September. Information in Swedish HERE.

ÖstgOpen takes place in Linköping the second weekend of October. There will be a by foot and a by bike event. In the evening it will be a drop-in dinner at one of the local restaurants. Information in Swedish HERE.


Turf Ultimate Region Fight 2022

This year’s Region Fight has begun! This is the third year MaXi is organizing this multi-region fight in September. 11 regions are battling it out during four weeks in three categories (points, takes and round unique zones). Turfportalen is the place to keep an eye out for how the Region Fight is going, HERE. Let the most dedicated region win! And remember to have FUN!


A little reminder about issues

We want you to write issues when something is amiss with the game, most issues are about zones (misspelled, lacking attribute, wrong location). The zone makers are responsible for looking at the issues and correcting those that are deemed to need correction.


Since some months ago we now have many non-Swedish speaking zone makers, so it would be great if issues are NOT written in Swedish. However, it is always better to write an issue in Swedish than not at all! 


Secondly, be PATIENT when submitting an issue, the issue web interface is very slooooow in uploading your issue. In extreme cases, up to 4-5 copies of the same issue will be submitted. Maybe not a big deal, but we need to close each one.


It is also possible to subscribe to issues in your area of interest, so that you can stay informed about issues that other turfers submit about zones that you care a little extra about. It will also give you a chance to comment on the issue and offer your point of view :)


Turf Picture of the Month

Mainly submissions from Scotland this month, so no surprise one of them are featured.

StillArt

This month's Turf Picture is taken greasedweasel. 

If you have a Zone picture you want featured as Turf Picture of the Month, send it to insider@turfgame.comPlease include your Turf nick for recognition!


Turf Hero of the Month

In August turfer allinug spent a whole day walking around Lunsen forest as part of the Uppsala flipper provided by frut.zundin. After about 20 kms walking and only about 2 kms from her bike, she smelled smoke. She was very tired, and for a split second she was hoping she was imagining the smell. But her inner moral compass told her to leave the path she was on, and go investigate.


It was lucky she did, she found an abandoned grill location where a small fire was going. It was a very dry forest and the moss on the rock next to the grill was quickly catching fire. She used a branch to bash out the flames and then called the fire brigade.

Brandbilar

With the help of the Turf map and UrbanGeeks Turf Map Tool she was able to lead the fire fighters straight to the burgeoning fire. She even got to ride in the fire truck!

BrandILunsen

Needless to say, allinug is a hero and we can thank her, the Uppflipper mission and Turf for averting a major forest fire in Lunsen this summer.


Turfa lugnt/Safe turfing!

//Munin


...if you want to contribute to future Turf Insiders, send your story to insider@turfgame.com :) C'mon and share your big and small stories with the Turf world.

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August https://turfgame.com/?feedid=698 Tue, 16 Aug 2022 20:23:59 +0000 https://rss.turfgame.com/698 Round winners

Congratulations to the winners of ro Continue reading ]]> Round winners

Congratulations to the winners of round 145: MrAce from Västmanland took his second gold with a new record of 15103 takes, Király from Skåne secured his 8th Silver by spending a lot of time in Germany and DaHunter from Stockholm celebrated 20000 unique zones with a Bronze medal (or was it the other way around?). Well done mates!


Upcoming events:

KulTurf in Örebro on the 27th of August (information in Swedish HERE)

Skåne Open in Malmö on the 10th of September (information in Swedish HERE).


Turf Ultimate Region Fight 2022

During the September round, MaXi is once again organizing the Turf Ultimate Region Fight. 13 Regions have signed up for the Region Fight this year and the team leaders have decided on the rules and are now busy filling up their teams. If your region is part of the Region Fight, join up! It is a fun way to really get to know the fellow turfers in your region, and often from other regions too. Turfportalen is the place to keep an eye out for how the Region Fight is going, HERE.


Turf on Jamboree 22 in Kristianstad by ollals

A Scout Jamboree is a big scout camp with lots of program and opportunities for the participating scouts. Jamborees are organized in many scout countries. Jamboree 22 took place outside Kristianstad in the southern part of Sweden with 11 000+ scouts and leaders participating.

IMG_1945

The idea was to introduce turf to younger scouts by arranging closed events and have an ordinary zone at the campsite. We organized 8 events of 60 minutes. In total we estimate to have had around 200+ turfers. In the lower age group, many chose to participate in couples or small patrols. We also had some more experienced turfers and for some of them it was their first event.

All who participated and took at least one zone got a scout+Turf badge to put on the scout shirt or their campfire blanket.

IMG_1980

Turf was very appreciated by the scouts and their leaders. I expect there will be more events in scout groups in the future. The creation of the event was a challenge as the camp area is a former military training field without updated maps. The camp area also had some quite long and high fences.

Given that few people normally live close to the camp the capacity of the mobile networks was too low. Only one operator had put up temporary extra capacity.

Having turfed for a long time we realized that there are some challenges in introducing turf to beginners. Download of the app was easy for the scouts, explaining to them how to use it took a little more time.


Changes in Turf Crew

Another UK zone maker has been given her black colours to wear when out turfing. You all probably know her name: féarglas. She began turfing during 2020 and found it a great ”me-time” activity. She has won the world several times and has now decided to give a little of her time back to fellow turfers in UK primarilary. She has also started enjoying travelling all over Sweden to take part of Events, so you might see her black-shirted avatar popping up at an Event near you :) And I am sure she will be up for taking a zone or two with you if you happen to find yourself in her home Turf town of Edinburgh.


There has also been a change over for the duties as Event General. MasterOfTurf has had this esteemed title for as long as I can remember. He has now decided to pass on the torch to Cissiliana. Both of them have written a few words for Turf Insider. We start with:


Some reflections from a outgoing event general

"With tense anticipation, I stand in a carefully selected starting position and wait for the Turf app to start counting down. For some reason, participating in events gets me so excited. Adrenaline rises in the body. Imagine how wonderful it would be to cycle for two hours and find event zones as quickly as possible. The popup message about 30 seconds left is visible in the app. I memorize one last time which alternative paths I have to choose depending on how the zones will be placed. A zone should appear at the trail junction I am standing at, but you never know. Yes … now the countdown starts 10, 9 ,8 ……after a few seconds all event zones appear. Wow! There is only 20 meters to the first zone.

The feeling of a good start in an Event is almost euphoric. Everything flows well for the first 10 minutes until a whole bunch of turfers approach from all directions. I zoom out the map and try to find a new area that looks good and where I will have a chance to pick zones without being blocked all the time.


What you have read up to now reflects my experiences when I start in an event.


For some reason, I always run into ”problems” that have to be solved during an event. Either I wander into a forest to get to the next zone as quickly as possible with the penalty of having to carry the bike for a bit, or a railway appears that has no transitions to the other side. The advantage of participating on ”home ground” is quite large but far from decisive. It takes pace, good strategic route choices and a bit of luck with the pph to get an advanced placement in an event. My biggest achievement in this context was when I managed to come 3rd at the Bonanza in Stockholm 2014. I had an incredible flow during the last 30 minutes and was able to collect a good number of zones and thus high pph. I still remember today how I managed to get ahead of such talented turfers as Westeras, morgam, SunYour and yeti. I still cherish the Bonanza Bronze medal. I think this event contributed to my great interest in Turf events.


Since then, I have had the task of event general in Turf Crew for nearly seven years. A very fun assignment that has given me a lot back. Not the least all contacts with turf players and event organizers over the years. Step by step, the event part of Turf has developed in terms of the number of completed events and layouts. School turf events have literally exploded in numbers thanks to Calmare1 who are doing a great job of spreading Turf within the school world. Ollals has started spreading turf in the scout world, so we can expect many scout events in the future. The number of larger open events has become more and more (apart from the pandemic period) and Bonanza has, in my eyes, developed over the past few years, both in terms of the event part and the banquet in the evening. If you haven't participated in a Bonanza before, go ahead and do it. Book in on May 20, 2023 when we'll see each other in Umeå!


Organizing a larger open event with many participants is a lot of fun, but requires quite a few people who can work as a team. In my eyes, it is therefore important that we can keep our Turf associations alive and that new ones are formed - preferably one in each region. An association has an easier time getting hold of sponsors and has an established administration with a bank account etc.


When I started as event general, I had a vision to get Turf events classified as a sport and to organize an official SM in Turf. It didn't really happen that way, but at least two Turf associations are currently affiliated with the Swedish Orienteering Association, where Turf events most closely belongs as a form of digital orienteering. I still hope we can take a few more steps towards this vision. It is very pleasing to see that the orienteering club ESOC in Edinburgh is so successful in spreading Turf and Turf events in Scotland. When will we see the first Bonanza outside of Sweden? I'll be the first turfer to sign up!


In conclusion, I would like to say a big thank you to Drassen and Simon for all their support over the past years. A huge thank you also to BirgittaS who has created so many nice TurfAward statuettes.


Last but not least, I would like to wish the new event general Cissiliana the best of luck in the future. I am now counting down… 10, 9, 8…. until Cissiliana takes over my role from August 1. You can reach her as usual at events@turfgame.se

With best Turf regards to you all!

Ulf Ericsson/MasterOfTurf Former event coordinator"


From Cissiliana Turf Insider got the following letter:

"Hi,

My name is Cissiliana and I am the new Event Manager. I have been turfing for four joyfull years. I live in Uppsala, Sweden and spend my summers in Skåne.


After many years of appriciated work, by MasterOfTurf, I am now taking over as Event Manager. So when you realize it is plenty of fun arranging events, you will contact me on event@turfgame.com.


The largest event is the yearly World Championship (The Bonanza). As the Event Manager, I will be the one who will choose between the applying cities. Well done Kalmar Turf-förening for having arranged a succesful Bonanza in Västervik this year. And good luck to Umeå on the 20th of May 2023. If you can't wait until May there are some open events coming up soon. Have a look in the app's calender. All participants in open events will get a digital medal ?More information about events can be found on turfgame.com.


Another yearly tradition besides The Bonanza is the Turf Awards. I will arrange the process for the nominations, voting and ceremony. Keep in mind which turfers you would like to nominate for 2022. Nominations starts at the beginning of 2023.


Happy turfing / Cissiliana”


Turf Picture of the Month

Only one submission for Turf Picture of the Month during July, I guess you all are too busy turfing in the lovely summer weather :)

This months Turf Picture is taken by allinug on her travels to secure the Finland Explorer.

Edvinstigen

If you have a Zone picture you want featured as Turf Picture of the Month, send it to insider@turfgame.com Please include your Turf nick for recognition!


Turfa lugnt/Safe turfing!

//Munin


...if you want to contribute to future Turf Insiders, send your story to insider@turfgame.com :) C'mon and share your big and small stories with the Turf world. 

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April https://turfgame.com/?feedid=638 Tue, 12 Apr 2022 20:15:23 +0000 https://rss.turfgame.com/638 Round winners

Congratulations to t Continue reading ]]> Round winners

Congratulations to the winners of round 141: féarglas from Scotland biked home her fourth Gold, grock from Norrbotten turfed home his second Silver and the carbon neutral bike abuser Drylaw13 from Scotland secured his first Bronze medal.

Well done mates!


1st Westhill Turf event - 16th of April

Come to North East Scotland AB32 for 2 hours of turfing fun! Meeting point prior to the start is Denman Park next to the tennis courts! Turfer Granmabigabee will be based there for emergency supplies, bike pump, battery charge, small 1st aid kit! Register at westhillturfevent@gmail.com Lots of zones created. Suitable for bike and foot and for all abilities. Lots of cycle paths!


Turf08 Open Event – 7th of May

Turf08 Stockholm hosts an open event on saturday 7th of May. The event takes place around Ulriksdal Castle in Solna and is open for everyone.
This is an event on foot so no bikes allowed this time. More information HERE.


Bonanza 2022 - 21st of May

Registration for Bonanza 2022 in Västervik is now open. There is an offer for discounted accommodation for the Bonanza weekend, read more about it HERE. So far over 250 turfers are coming to the Bonanza. Are you one of them?


Triathlon Event in Luleå - 11th of June AND a Midnight Event

There will be two Turf events in Luleå, Norrbotten on the 11th June this year. First during the day there will be a triathlon event where the participants will compete in three different categories; points, takes and unique zones. After the triathlon event there will be a Turf meeting at

O´learys and then the Midnight event will start at 11.30 pm on the 11th of June and finish at 1.30 am on the 12th of June. To read more and sign up for these events go HERE.


And don't forget about Göteborg Open on the 2nd of July :) Information in Swedish HERE.


Spring is supposedly upon us, even though I was biking both to and from work in falling snow just the other day. Some voices about what changes spring has brought for their Turf experience:


The great feeling of day breaking in the TOWNWATCHING zone with the absolutely magnificent vista of the Kingdom of Fife. And not turfing every bloody morning in the complete dark!”


Light evenings are so much easier than dark ones!”


It's a welcome break from clearing mud from mudguards, cleaning mountains of dirt from my bike every day, and especially welcome, the Wordsworth moments of 'golden daffodils'.

I wandered Lonely as a Cloud by William Wordsworth 1804

I wandered lonely as a cloud

That floats on high o'er vales and hills,

When all at once I saw a crowd,

A host, of golden daffodils;

Beside the lake, beneath the trees,

Fluttering and dancing in the breeze.”


It's a sense of many turfers waking up after winter hibernation. More activity, more points need to hold the same position in the league!”


Vote for Turf Awards 2022

In January and part of February turfers around the world got to nominate their fellow turfers in four different categories for Turf Awards 2022. Now it is time to vote for who you think is the most deserving turfer in each category. The voting is open April 1-30. The award ceremony will take place at the Bonanza Banquet in Västervik on the 21st of May. Vote HERE.


MNMagik in Minnesota has a sly way of promoting Turf:

I love to bike and play games! I started playing Turf last January and it is now my favorite game. I also play a bike tag game on Facebook (FB). Bike Tag is played when someone posts a photo of their bike in a specific location. Other people bike and replicate the picture and post under the comments. Then that person has an hour to bike to a new spot and take a picture to upload to FB.

I now play both games while biking. I often plan my Turf route based on where the bike tag is located. I use my Turf camera when taking the picture, so my bike tag photo has the Turf logo in the corner. Hopefully that will be a subtle way to recruit new players to the game of Turf.


Did you know...

...there are 1273 zones with the Monument attribute at the moment?

...the three oldest Monument zone is BrantingZone, HumleZone and KingsGarden, all created 2010-07-17.

...the most takes on a Monument zone is 53865 takes and the zone is Aseaströmmen.

...there are 59 Monument zones that are still ”virgin” ie never been taken.

...the newest is StarbInCelle, created 2022-04-05.


Turf Picture of the Month

Pictures are returning to Turf Insider, thanks to some real good instructions on how to insert them into the html-code of this e-mail.

Turf Insider got four submissions for this issues Turf Picture of the Month. And the featured picture is a ”springwinter” picture from Motala of the zone Dynudden taken by turfer Miawita. Round 141 #Dynudden

If you have a Zone picture you want featured as Turf Picture of the Month, send it to insider@turfgame.com


Turfa lugnt/Safe turfing!

//Munin


...if you want to contribute to future Turf Insiders, send your story to insider@turfgame.com :) C'mon and share your big and small stories with the Turf world.

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Vote for Turf Awards 2021 https://turfgame.com/?feedid=636 Sat, 02 Apr 2022 10:15:15 +0000 https://rss.turfgame.com/636

Now it´s time to vote for the turfers who has been nomi Continue reading ]]>

Now it´s time to vote for the turfers who has been nominated for the Turf Awards 2021! The voting is open April 1-30. The award ceremony will take place at the Bonanza Banquet in Västervik on May 21.

Link to voting form: https://goo.gl/forms/VAFenyDiz6W7LoPv2

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March https://turfgame.com/?feedid=632 Tue, 15 Mar 2022 12:18:55 +0000 https://rss.turfgame.com/632  Round winners

Congratulations to the winners of roun Continue reading ]]>  Round winners

Congratulations to the winners of round 140: Király from Skåne took another Gold, Cruachan from Scotland added a Silver to his Bronze, and micke0708 from Blekinge spruced up his fifth region win with a Bronze medal.

Well done mates!


Bonanza 2022

Registration for Bonanza 2022 in Västervik is now open. There is an offer for discounted accommodation for the Bonanza weekend, read more about it here. So far 190 turfers are coming to the Bonanza. Don't miss out on the Turf event of the year :)


At the Bonanza Banquet, Turf Awards 2022 will be presented. The nominations for Best Zone Take over is still open until 15th of March. I am sure you can come up with a funny take (you did it standing on your hands) or special take (take 5000 of your home zone) and nominate it after you've finished reading Turf Insider! Nominate here


Göteborg Open - 2nd of July in Gothenburg

In July, it's finally time for the ninth edition of Turf Gothenburg's open event. One Event with two classes competing at the same time. If  you want to compete by foot you have to make sure to register that in advance or you will be counted to belong to the bicycle class. Read more here.


Photo Contest - Help us out!
Turf Crew wants some help with updating the home page with new photos of turfers turfing. Send us your best photos of Turfers turfing! The competition is open for all turfers.


All contributions that are used to promote TurfTeams will get a gift card at a sports store. Send your contributions to info@turfteams.se and include your Turf-nick.

Rules:

-The photos must include at least one person turfing.
-Use high resolution photos to increase your chance.
-Maximum 3 submissions per person.
-The competition ends on 31 March.


Warthog from Västra Götaland wrote to Turf Insider with a short, but very positive message:

The 365 medal might be the best thing you´ve ever introduced. Being out there, every day, be it 5 zones, or 50 zones, but everyday in rain or snow or whatever. It’s done wonders with my stamina and health. Would not have happened but for the turf. Well done mates!


I can only agree, the Daily-5 is a very good reason to get out and about once per day. Keep up the good work, Warthog and thanks for your mail :)


Just a few days ago, at the very end of Round 140, those turfers that started the day the Daily-medal series was released last year, was awarded the Daily-180 medal. According to warded, 330 turfers took the medal at this first opportunity. Since then another 109 turfers have been awarded it and I am sure more will follow.


This is a story of the fight for the Daily medals from UrukHek in Minnesota:

Part of what makes Turf so much fun for me (after the main benefit of getting me outside) is that it can be played in so many different ways. A Turfer can go for points and get on the Toplist, can turf with friends, compete against other Regions, go for different Medals, or Turf in several other ways. When I started Turfing in December 2020 there were only three Zones near me; now there are several different short routes with at least 5 Zones near me and well over 300 Zones within a relatively easy biking distance. The addition of so many Zones near me made it an easy decision to try and see how far I could go in the Daily Medal series when it was announced in September 2021.


Achieving the Daily-30, -60, and -90 Medals went pretty smoothly. With COVID-induced "work from home" I was able to maintain a schedule that meshed well with the 6 hour difference between my local (Minnesota) time and GMT. About 60 days after Daily-90 I started checking Frut (ed. https://frut.zundin.se/2day.php) regularly to make sure I still had the streak going!


About 15 days before Daily-180 a thought crossed my mind that maybe I should try to take advantage of the 6 hour difference and be the first Turfer in the world to achieve the Medal (since I could do it at a relatively comfortable 6pm instead of midnight or 1am like in Sweden). Nice - another way to play Turf! I started scouting different routes and immediately found 5 Zones along a separated bike trail in Minneapolis that were only 0.8 miles apart. With a Region Crown on my head I thought I could get these 5 Zones in about 4 minutes and when I looked to see who had first achieved the Daily-90 I saw that 4 minutes could be competitive.


Unfortunately, life intervened and I would not be able to bike the 12 miles needed to get to the target (and then another 12 miles back) so I settled for 5 Zones much closer to my house. Capturing those 5 Zones would require traveling over 1.7 miles (even if I included a shortcut across a frozen lake) which would pretty much ensure I would not be the first worldwide. Oh well!


When the time came I was a little nervous and I think that must have affected my phone because I was two green bars away from taking the first Zone when my avatar jumped several hundred feet and would not come back! It finally did after about 45 seconds so I was able to continue with only a slight delay. I made good time capturing the remaining 4 Zones in just over 9 minutes. I knew I wouldn't be the first worldwide with that time. I kept refreshing the Warded Daily-180 page on my phone to see how I did but nothing was being displayed. After I got home, I realized I had miscalculated for the Daily-180 and was now the proud owner of the first Daily-179 Medal worldwide! :-)


For my next attempt, I selected 5 Zones that were also about 1.7 miles apart but along a nice flat bike path. A nice bonus of this route was that the 4th and 5th Zones are the most Taken Zones in Minnesota (MaetzoldField and Blowing). At the right time (and on the right day, this time!) I captured the first Zone (Applewood) and then furiously pedaled my fatbike along the trail as the sun went down behind me. TresTrees, Hwy7Bridge, and MaetzoldField were all captured smoothly and I grabbed the 5th Zone (Blowing) at 00:07:58 - nowhere near the times of recycling and Corellian (00:02:36!), but still among the first ten worldwide. As I rode home I managed to sneak a little färgning (ed. colouring of the zones in warded) in, too (because why not!).


I'm not sure I'll be able to achieve the Daily-365 medal because summer holidays will have me in places without Zones. I'll keep going for now though and with luck (and kind-hearted Zonemaker(s)!) maybe I'll be able to try to be first in the world in September! Whether I'm able or not, I'm glad to have such a fun, flexible, and variable game that fits in with my love of biking - thank you, Turf Crew!”


Turfing in winter can be quite a challange, but also very rewarding. It is something UrukHek again wants to tell us a little about:

Turfing in winter can be very fun! It can also be quite cold (as my toes will attest) but let's focus on the fun instead.


My favorite aspect of winter turfing is that I can change some of my routes. In spring/summer/fall, my route between the Minnehaha and GraysBay Zones follows city streets for 1 mile. In winter the distance is a little over 1/2 mile because I can go straight between these Zones across the frozen lake surface! Similar options let me explore between Minnehaha and JidanaJetty (1 mile in winter, 2 miles other times) or between CedarPoint, PointBeach, and CedarBeach (winter < 0.5 miles, 2.5 miles other times). Winter also makes it so much easier to Take Water Zones like PointSwim (which is directly between PointBeach and CedarBeach) or Zones on islets (like BugIsland). In warmer seasons I either have to swim or haul my kayak to Take such Zones, in winter I can fatbike the whole way!


I look forward to the longer Turf rides I can take in summer, but knowing that Turfing in winter is fun and different makes being outside year-round even more enjoyable.”


Another turfer in Minnesota finds she is paying more attention to details when she is biking.


MNmagik has the pen:

Biking has a way of forcing me to be in the moment. I have noticed more details of my surroundings due to biking.

While playing Turf I am out in the world, and I am hyper aware. I notice new buildings being constructed, everyday closer to being finished. Art murals being painted. I notice things like an eagle eating a fish, a fox staring at me, a mouse running across my path. The sun on my face and the brisk air in my lungs.


I have been taking five zones a day since September. Unfortunately, have not paid close attention to details of the different time zones. I live in Minnesota and twice now I have had to reset my start date for the daily five due to the time difference (I forgot about daylight savings). None of my friends or family understand my frustration when I did not get the medal on the 60 or 90 days. They say, “What is the big deal? Do you win a prize or something?” They do not get that it is a sense of personal pride to have the medal. Anyways I now have the 90 and fingers crossed I will have the 360 next year. Better late then never.”


Did you know...

...the Gold medal has been awarded 140 times to 75 different turfers. 

...the Silver medal has been awarded 140 times to 95 different turfers.

...the Bronze medal has only been awarded 139 times since Simpan, one of the creators of Turf, did not want to accept it for the very first round of Turf.


Top List World Placement Medals sorted by total number of medals (gold, silver, bronze):
1. :flag-se: Király 29 medals: 17 Gold (G), 7 Silver (S), 5 Bronze (B).
2. :flag-se: kingenin 10 medals: 6 G, 2 S, 2 B.
3. :flag-se: GW007 10 medals: 3 G, 4 S, 3 B.
4. :flag-se: Björke 9 medals: 3 G, 3 S, 3 B.
4. :flag-fi: M0112 9 medals: 3 G, 3 S, 3 B.
6. :gb: féarglas medals: 3 G, 4 S, 1 B.


Turf Picture of the Month

Pictures are returning to Turf Insider, thanks to some real good instructions on how to insert them into the html-code of this e-mail.

First out with Pricutre of the Month is mpmoke from Uppsala showing us what he found in a zone during Speedweekend 2022 25-26th of February.

If you have a Zone picture you want featured as Turf Picture of the Month, send it to insider@turfgame.com


Turfa lugnt/Safe turfing!

//Munin


...if you want to contribute to future Turf Insiders, send your story to insider@turfgame.com :) C'mon and share your big and small stories with the Turf world.

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Winter Classic 2022 in Umeå 2022-03-05 https://turfgame.com/?feedid=626 Wed, 23 Feb 2022 16:36:42 +0000 https://rss.turfgame.com/626 As the registrations for the supposed 24h Winter Classic were far too few, the Turf Västerbotten Association has chosen to quickly switch to a regular tradi Continue reading ]]> As the registrations for the supposed 24h Winter Classic were far too few, the Turf Västerbotten Association has chosen to quickly switch to a regular traditional Winter Classic Event. There will be two classes; bike and foot. In the foot event it will also be allowed to use skies and a "spark" (google it for a picture of this lovely winter vehicle). It is an open event, so no pre-registration is needed, but in order to help the organizers, please fill out this form if you plan to attend :)

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February https://turfgame.com/?feedid=621 Wed, 16 Feb 2022 21:52:56 +0000 https://rss.turfgame.com/621 Round winners

Congratulations to the Continue reading ]]> Round winners

Congratulations to the winners of round 139: Király from Skåne once again won Gold, Fashven from Scotland turfed home his first Silver with just over one million points, and Pike from Västerbotten secured his second Bronze by turfing in temperatures as low as -35C.

Well done mates!


Bonanza 2022

Registration for Bonanza 2022 in Västervik is now open :)There is an offer for discounted accommodation for the Bonanza weekend, read more about it here.


24 h WINTER Event in Umeå 5-6th of March 2022

It is not too late to sign up for the once in a life time Turf event: Umeå Turf association has combined their classical Winter event with the exclusive Event 24, only held twice before. Read about it and sign up here. Maybe with restrictions gone in Sweden, more turfers will sign up :)


Turf Awards 2021

It is time to nominate turfers for Turf Awards 2021. Nomination period is until the 28th of February. Voting for the nominees will take place on April 1-30.

Winners of the Turf Awards 2021 will be presented at the Bonanza Banquet on May 21st in Västervik.


Information in English:
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1efnwd756oCHmzcpM1F548b93NY7JWrlp/view?usp=sharing

Information in Swedish:
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1kdhRvszVbpfBo4NV8U-PMSQGJ9b4X0jW/view?usp=sharing

Link to nomination form / länk till nomineringsformulär:
https://forms.gle/FLCxmn5wfUMMdKzM6


On the 12th of January Marcus_P from Hamburg biked home the first German Staminatrix. He was happy to answer some questions about this for Turf Insider:

Q1: When did you discover Turf?

In spring 2021 I started.

Q2: How did you discover Turf?

A cycling friend posted something about #turfen. Then I took a closer look.

Q3: Where do you live?

I live in Hamburg, Germany.

Q4: Which one is your ”home zone”?

My home zone is „Eulespielen“

Q5: When did you take the Staminatrix?

I took the Staminatrix 12.01.2022

Q6: Did you do a lot of planning before you decided to take the Staminatrix?

Not really. I needed a day off, and dry weather. Because I mostly ride solo, a very early start was planned. At that time the city is still very empty, and you can get around quite fast. I had roughly put together the directions in which I wanted to ride.

Q7: Did you take it during one day or two?

I took it in one day. I started at 1 am and got home around 8 pm.

Q8: How many hours did it take you?

In total I was on the road biking for 17 h 43 min

Q9: How many kms did you bike?

It was 235.42km by bike.

Q10: What was hardest with taking this medal?

400 zones are 400 zones. You really have to bike a lot. In the end I miscalculated the zones and I had to bike more than I actually wanted .

Q11: Anything else you want to say about your Staminatrix-medal

With this medal, you should plan the route very well before you ride.


On the 18th of January, a turfer finally achieved rank 60, Turfalicious. Király from Skåne ranked up to level 60 in the zone Rings in Malmö. This was done in a bit over 5 years and 4 months. Congratulations!


On the 27th of January, turfer Provokatör took the 100 million take in Turf by taking the zone Domarkullen at 16.18.44 UTC time. He is now know as Mr.100miljoner. Congratulations!


A new Turf year means new (or old) Turf goals. Personally I am going for at least 5 zones per day (Daily-365 is the prize in September), 250 takes per week and at least 50 unique zones per month. These are the same goals I have had for the last few years ;) Here are some other turfers from around the world and their goals for 2022:


bythesea:
If Turf was just a numbers game, my goals for this round would be simple; take 5 a day, hit 7,500 takes, try to score 100,000, stay in League 7. Like many others, during the cold, dark month of February I will use Turf as motivation, to keep on taking the long way round to the shops and to take a walk while my son is in the sport centre (a lot).


I'm aiming to visit a couple of places in Scotland that I haven't turfed yet, bag some uniques, and see old familiar places through a new Turf lens - Kelso, Galashiels and Dundee are on my list, but I haven't made any firm plans yet, so I could pop up anywhere. Finally, as a foot turfer, I'd like to have a go at upgrading my Eager Beaver to a Weasel - I'm a pretty slow runner, but with some new zones locally filling some gaps, it should just be possible.


TortugaVeloz:

My goal this year is to take more unique zones. We have some far outside the city center, that will be a nice ride when the weather gets warmer.

Also, I found that I can take the train to other cities for walks. Some cities also have good city bikes to rent so I can get a bit further.


Marcus_P:

Well, I want to try some country medals. Two would be nice, three would be even better.

For a long time I’ve been interested in the Ranger Medal. But therefor I have to plan better with the implementation. (ed. You get the Ranger Medal when you take 25 National Park zones in one year)

Currently I want to get promoted to the Elite League. I’m working on it.


At the moment a silver or even a gold medal is out of question. There are not enough active turfers in Hamburg for that. Let's see what can be realized in 2022 :)


mrsbigabee10:

Being relatively new to turfing, one of my Turf goals for 2022 is to organise an event in N East Scotland. Watch this space! I love bringing people together and my personal goal for the year is achieving more of the assist badges, and of course a bigger unique badge. I love my country and turfing helps me explore it while bringing new people together!


KingCogg:

I started Turf in December 2020, after the famous féarglas article, with all but one lonely zone near me. Quite quickly, a Zone Maker spotted me and slowly but surely my local area was populated in yellow and had me zipping around picking them up as fast as they could lay them. Soon I was eying up the historic town of Colchester to the East of me where two other players enjoyed relative peace amongst their zones. Turf in the East of England feels like a different game to elsewhere in the UK. With few players around, it’s all about quantity, an average PPH above 1 being highly unusual! This has led to dawn raids at the start of rounds to get the yellow advantage.


A few Regional wins later, and some new friends along the way, my goals have changed. I’m currently trying to maintain the Daily 5 takes a day, which is fine for now - but I can only do so as my work in the travel industry has been devastated by Covid. As restrictions ease, my next focus will be getting Zones from all around the world!


Woody:

We have had active Turfers in Minnesota for over a year now. The number of regular participants is still small, so my primary goal will continue to be to attract more local Turfers. We have made an effort – some examples: kelih created marketing collateral, MNMagik organized an information table at an outdoor street festival, and I did a radio interview about Turf. I have a couple new ideas to try this year. More Turfers are out there – we just have to find them.


Soon, before winter wanes, I want to do a fat bike Turf ride with UrukHek across Lake Minnetonka, and along Minnehaha Creek. Once the snow melts, there are some medals I look forward to collecting this year. I have come close to capturing an Eager Ferret, but it still eludes me. I attained El Stamintore on a beautiful summer evening last summer with WIoutlander, so this year I look forward to a Staminatrix day.


Similarly, I gained a Restless medal and now need to stay awake for Insomnia. Some goals are more practical. MNFiberFairy, my wife, is an active Turfer too. Our cell phone batteries are nearing their end of life. We need new phones to maintain our turfing habit.


TurfTeams - new feature in Turf
We hereby like to announce the release of our latest concept in the Turf family: TurfTeams. Many of you have already read about TurfTeams, or seen the button in the app or the new medals. The idea is to bring a way of using Turf as a health and team building experience to the workplace. Corporations and organizations can use the service and offer their employees to play turf as a part of a health benefit programme or just for fun to have a common thing to talk about on coffee breaks.


The concept is simple: Divide into groups or offices or individuals and compete for 1-2 months. We will guide closely along the way and provide all the administration, information, stats and support needed.
We made a specific explanatory page for the concept here: https://turfteams.se (The page is in Swedish, email us for an English version.)


Photo Contest - Help us out!
What we found out in the process of making the TurfTeams web page is that we lack good photos of Turfers! This is totally unacceptable after more than 10 years of course, and we hope that you could help us out here.

Therefore:
Send us your best photos of Turfers turfing! The competition is open for all turfers.
All contributions that are used to promote TurfTeams will get a gift card at a sports store. Send your contributions to info@turfteams.se and include your Turf-nick.

Rules:
-The photos must include at least one person turfing.
-Use high resolution photos to increase your chance.
-Maximum 3 submissions per person.
-The competition ends on 31 March.


Did you know...

...a total of 337 Staminatrix medals have been awarded since it was introduced 2016-08-20.

Medal no. 1. First out to win the medal, TXL from Sweden, Skåne, Malmö 2016-09-03

Medal no. 16. First outside Sweden to take the medal, rozaliona from Finland, Åland, Mariehamn 2017-07-10

Medal no. 100 was taken by JENZA from Sweden, Stockholm, Stockholm 2019-04-10

Medal no. 200 were taken by M0112 from Finland. The medal was taken in Mariehamn on Åland but the turfer lives, in Pargas, Lounais-Suomi. 2020-06-13

Medal no. 235. First medal to Norway by Nicke1 from Østlandet, Oslo 2021-02-23

Medal no. 293. First outside the Nordic countries, féarglas from Great Britain, Scotland, City of Edinburgh 2021-04-04

Medal no. 300 were taken by cambla from Great Britain, Scotland, Aberdeen City 2022-01-12

Medal no. 337. First medal to Germany by Marcus_P from Hamburg, Hamburg

When will we see the first Staminatrix in other Turf countries?


Turfa lugnt/Safe turfing!

//Munin


...if you want to contribute to future Turf Insiders, send your story to insider@turfgame.com :) C'mon and share your big and small stories with the Turf world.

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February round sponsor https://turfgame.com/?feedid=619 Sat, 05 Feb 2022 11:01:06 +0000 https://rss.turfgame.com/619

We are proud to present Valostore.se as the sponsor for the february ro Continue reading ]]>

We are proud to present Valostore.se as the sponsor for the february round!
This is a cooperation that we have created ourselves since we own and love the Lumonite Compass R light.

During the february round all Turfers get a rare 20% off discount on all Lumonite products at Valostore.se.
Offer only works in Sweden this time, email contact@turfgame.com if you like to have this deal in other countries.

Discount code: turf20
Link: https://www.valostore.se/sv/c/brands/lumonite/?code=turf20
(discount is visible in cart when checking out)

Message from Valostore (In Swedish):
I samarbete med TURF vill vi på Lumonite nu passa på att ge er deltagare en exklusiv rabatt på vårt sortiment. Våra pannlampor är idag marknadsledande inom bland annat löpning, outdoor och cykling. Det som ligger bakom Lumonites framgång är just kvalité. Våra kompakta lampor är perfekt anpassade efter outdoor och vardagsbruk. Med en lätt vikt, otroligt ljus och en vattentäthet ner till 2m djup är det få andra lampor som kan mäta sig med dessa!

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100.000.000 https://turfgame.com/?feedid=616 Thu, 27 Jan 2022 18:56:24 +0000 https://rss.turfgame.com/616

Today we reached 100 million takeovers at 16:18:44 UTC time.

The user who made the ta Continue reading ]]>

Today we reached 100 million takeovers at 16:18:44 UTC time.

The user who made the takeover is called Provokatör, which means provoker in English. Maybe a fitting name to those who missed the takeover by less than a second :)

The zone of this historic event was Domarkullen in Sweden. A name that translates to judge hill.

Provokatör will recieve a prize by mail.


Here is a list of the users who just missed the takeover:

2022-01-27 16:18:27BurnsLikeHell
2022-01-27 16:18:27Mr__Noodle
2022-01-27 16:18:29Compress
2022-01-27 16:18:33kurreflax
2022-01-27 16:18:34lönnen
2022-01-27 16:18:35MasterOfTurf
2022-01-27 16:18:36Munin
2022-01-27 16:18:37Gusi
2022-01-27 16:18:37HappyF
2022-01-27 16:18:37Evil_B
2022-01-27 16:18:37KennyDroid
2022-01-27 16:18:38pancosmic
2022-01-27 16:18:38verum
2022-01-27 16:18:38takamine
2022-01-27 16:18:40Fozzie
2022-01-27 16:18:41Chairman
2022-01-27 16:18:41embeoo
2022-01-27 16:18:43Nybegynner
2022-01-27 16:18:44legal
2022-01-27 16:18:44Provokatör    <------
2022-01-27 16:18:46linnetti
2022-01-27 16:18:46Tompa_65
2022-01-27 16:18:46KingenMalmö
2022-01-27 16:18:47karmor
2022-01-27 16:18:49BarbieDoll
2022-01-27 16:18:49RunOlofRun
2022-01-27 16:18:50Pingen
2022-01-27 16:18:50Var.är.tiger
2022-01-27 16:18:50Flippr
2022-01-27 16:18:51grimric
2022-01-27 16:18:51missturfcam
2022-01-27 16:18:52Piezo
2022-01-27 16:18:53FickDemon
2022-01-27 16:18:53Frökenathena
2022-01-27 16:18:53xelryz
2022-01-27 16:18:53BlackRider
2022-01-27 16:18:55Congrassman
2022-01-27 16:18:55mattihp
2022-01-27 16:18:58Emlomaliv
2022-01-27 16:18:58Tveskägg
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Bonanza 2022 - 21st of May in Västervik, Sweden https://turfgame.com/?feedid=614 Mon, 24 Jan 2022 09:53:25 +0000 https://rss.turfgame.com/614

Invitation to Bonanza 2022  /  Inbjudan till Continue reading ]]>

Invitation to Bonanza 2022  /  Inbjudan till Turf Bonanza 2022

Swe: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1sUupZ5w0TAZPpGuL1vCeCNsk7HEl-HeU/view?usp=sharing

Eng: https://drive.google.com/file/d/13U2_pzatOVFhPSkvnVHdVfSyk-iM-PYI/view?usp=sharing

Anmälan / registration form: https://forms.gle/KLVQEUt8YUnxwwb79

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Turf awards 2021 - Time to nominate https://turfgame.com/?feedid=612 Tue, 18 Jan 2022 20:23:04 +0000 https://rss.turfgame.com/612

Time for nomination for Turf Awards 2021

Continue reading ]]>

Time for nomination for Turf Awards 2021

From January 10, you can nominate turfers that you think should be awarded the Turf Awards 2021.
The nomination period ends on February 28. Voting for the nominees will take place on April 1-30.

Winners of the Turf Awards 2021 will be presented at the Bonanza Banquet on May 21 in Västervik.


Information in English:
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1efnwd756oCHmzcpM1F548b93NY7JWrlp/view?usp=sharing

Information in Swedish:
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1kdhRvszVbpfBo4NV8U-PMSQGJ9b4X0jW/view?usp=sharing

Link to nomination form / länk till nomineringsformulär:
https://forms.gle/FLCxmn5wfUMMdKzM6

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January https://turfgame.com/?feedid=608 Fri, 07 Jan 2022 20:03:48 +0000 https://rss.turfgame.com/608 Round winners

Congratulations to the winners of round 138: féa Continue reading ]]> Round winners

Congratulations to the winners of round 138: féarglas from Scotland won her third back to back Gold medal, C3PO from Åland, Finland combined his first Silver with a Country and a Region medal. KRALJICA from Skåne, Sweden added a second Bronze to her medals.

Well done mates!


Bonanza 2022

Registration for Bonanza 2022 in Västervik will open up on January 24.There is an offer for discounted accommodation for the Bonanza weekend, read more about it here.


24 h WINTER Event in Umeå 5-6th of March 2022

It is not too late to sign up for a once in a life time Turf event: Umeå Turf association has combined their classical Winter event with the exclusive Event 24, only held twice before during summer time. Read about it and sign up here.


Turf Awards 2021

It is time to nominate turfers for Turf Awards 2021.

From January 10th, you can nominate turfers that you think should be awarded the Turf Awards 2021. The nomination period ends on February 28th. Voting for the nominees will take place on April 1-30. Winners of the Turf Awards 2021 will be presented at the Bonanza Banquet on May 21 in Västervik.

Information in English:

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1efnwd756oCHmzcpM1F548b93NY7JWrlp/view?usp=sharing

Information in Swedish:
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1kdhRvszVbpfBo4NV8U-PMSQGJ9b4X0jW/view?usp=sharing

Link to nomination form / länk till nomineringsformulär: https://forms.gle/FLCxmn5wfUMMdKzM6


I hope you all will participate and nominate your fellow turfers for big and small special moments that happened during 2021.


To sum up the Turf year 2021, I asked around a bit for Best of 2021 Turf Moments and here are some stories from Finland, Scotland and Sweden.


Bikingbookworm from Turku, Finland:

"The highlight of my otherwise quite boring Turf-year was a trip to Lapland in July, with beautiful views from several different zones. Among others I managed to take Finland's northernmost zone in Nuorgam, as well as (mainland) Finland's most westerly zone at the Three-Country Cairn. It felt like some sort of a bonus to have three zones from different countries next to each other and get two more regions in one go. And of course I couldn't resist taking a swim around the cairn :)"


FiFVO from Scotland, UK:
"My best 2021 turf moment was going out one evening about 11 pm when it was snowing. It was lovely walking through the drifting flakes, it was so quiet and I didn’t even need a torch to go round Linlithgow loch."



ESOCNora from Scotland, UK:
"I had a lovely walk with my partner in Craigellachie Nature Reserve outside Aviemore on holiday in October. Every time we spotted a good place for a zone, there was one there, like a trail of breadcrumbs. In the end, the summit zone motivated us to get all the way to the top, not long before dusk."

I’ve also had so much enjoyment out of meeting other Turfers, whether by chance for a few minutes or for a social. It’s made working from home and being absorbed in parenting a bit less lonely.


northstar from Greater London, UK:
"I started turfing in 2020 during one of the early lockdowns when it was always touch and go whether we'd scrape together enough players each round to award a London region winner. It has been great to see things come to life here again in ’21 with more locals now overturning old stats, tourists appearing, and new region winners. London is great for its mix of zones but my favourites are always those where you emerge from the streets onto the Thames and the air and light changes.

One highlight has been maintaining my league placement despite some pretty tough opposition!, but my fave 2021 Turfing moment was an evening spent in Greenwich watching the sun go down in the park before heading to the Borealis light/sound art installation at the Old Royal Naval College. We'd take turns to casually saunter a few metres over and take the GreenwichUNI zone, sit back to experience a London version of the Northern Lights, and then when the block time elapsed, repeat to swap it back."


canon from Östergötland, Sweden:

I am trying to take all zones in some municipalities in Sweden and Boxholm was trickier than I thought. In the town of Malexander I had to blow up the canoe and paddle to the zone Lövönbadvik while the thunder was approaching and it was getting windy. Everything went well, the zone taken and the canoe packed in to the car and the bike was unloaded for a bike ride to the water zone

..... Malexswim. On the way there, the thunder delivered some rain right over me and a heavy shower soaked me through and through. No point then to change into my swimsuit, so I threw myself into the lake with clothes and everything! Dripping wet but so heavenly happy that I after all took the last zone in Boxholm municipality :)”


Tålamodet from Stockholm, Sweden:

This summer I took the train shuttle to Nynäsham, biked 10 kilometers towards the Draget canal, but had to walk a few km in the woods, changed into a swimsuit, put valuables in a "swimming buoy" and swam across the canal. It was a maximum of three meters across but quite poor visibility. I was afraid of being hit by a boat during my swim, but made it. I next walked one km to the zone 24cm. At the zone, I realized I had forgotten to bring the water bottle across the canal so I was really thirsty. It was a glorious sunny day. Then the same way back. I had jumped over Vinsberget on the way and to get 100 percent Nynäshamn I cycled there and walked up the mountain.”


LeiLar from Umeå, Sweden has a loooong story about a lovely boat ride during summer:

A new zone ... At Holmögadd! There were probably many turfers who almost choked on their coffee that day. Especially those whose goal it is to take all zones in Umeå municipality. It is like a half-day excursion by motorboat or a full day by sailboat to get to the zone. No regular traffic to that island.

But Umeå turfer Pike has a friend who has a fast, open aluminum boat and he promised to drive us out to where the zone is, so one Sunday morning (new round start actually) we went out there: Pike's friend, Pike, Cykeltalibanen, mathet and me. The first bit out to Holmsund was really nice, good weather and calm waters. We felt like princes! My only disappointment was that we would not have time to get out and take the zone before the new round started. My goal is to eventually take all zones in Umeå municipality at least three (3) times.

When we left Holmsund and the protective beaches behind us, however, the situation in the boat became completely different. Heavy waves that really made up for an interesting boat trip. Sometimes the boat hung freely in the air, sometimes it landed with a strong thump on the water. It felt like the spine compressed at each landing. So it went on for about two hours, but in the end we were able to get ashore, our bodies fairly bruised, but alive.

We had expected a yellow zone but strangely enough, Bont still owned the zone even though it was a few minutes to one (new round starts at noon in Sweden). Bont and viðvarandi had previously gone out there and as the first turfers taken the zone. We stepped into the zone and got our first take. Happiness! And after a few minutes the zone turned wonderfully yellow and we could take it again. More happiness! After a much-needed coffee break, we were able to take the zone once more. Total happiness!

This was followed by a two-hour total body massage of the third degree before we were back on the mainland again. And after a week, the bruises on my left arm had almost disappeared. I had convulsively held on to the railing so as not to be thrown overboard. But what does one not do for a zone !?

So to date, seven turfers have taken this zone: Bont and viðvarandi - Pike, cykeltalibanen, mattet and I - and later also liggisten (translates into ”the recliner” - he has a recumbent bike) who got there in his own sailboat.

The Holmögadd zone was created on 9/5 2021 and is unlikely to receive many visits from turfers. Although I would not be very surprised if ZoneBanger eventually announces that he colored it purple.”


Personally my fave Turf moment of 2021 is taking the World Heritage zone Hufeisen in Berlin and with that take finally recieving the German Explorer medal.


And finally ollals from Sweden shares his tale of how Turf helped him back after surgery. I don't think he is alone in using Turf as a useful tool in recovery after illness.


”I am presently in rehab after surgery. One part of the rehabilitation is to walk for 30 – 90 minutes every day. Turf makes this fun. The medal for taking at least five zones every day encourage you to do your walking each day and not miss a single day. Due to my illness, I started late with the Daily, but the 10 and 30 day-medal is taken and the 60 day medal is not far away. One of the many advantages with Turf is that you can move at your own speed, including when you walk very slowly. I certainly have to move slowly for a while.
I noticed that Turf has developed a version for companies. Maybe Turf is something for the rehabilitation at hospitals and a complement to walking indoors and using stand still bikes. I will promote Turf in my rehab group.”


Did you know...

...that during 2021 23,240 new zones were created in 39 countries.

...that zone #100.000 was created 2021-12-18 07:00:00. It was the zone Bergheimer in the municipality of Cologne in the region of North Rhine-Westphalia in Germany.


Turfa lugnt/Safe turfing!

//Munin


...if you want to contribute to future Turf Insiders, send your story to insider@turfgame.com :) C'mon and share your big and small stories with the Turf world.

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Support Musikhjälpen https://turfgame.com/?feedid=601 Sun, 19 Dec 2021 07:31:30 +0000 https://rss.turfgame.com/601 A lot of turners has tried the popular Kalender turf this year. (Turf advent calendar)

Now you can support their cause in the Swedish Musikhjälpen in Continue reading ]]> A lot of turners has tried the popular Kalender turf this year. (Turf advent calendar)

Now you can support their cause in the Swedish Musikhjälpen in their support against child labour!

Do good, do it HERE!

https://bossan.musikhjalpen.se/kalender-turf-2021

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December https://turfgame.com/?feedid=595 Tue, 14 Dec 2021 15:29:13 +0000 https://rss.turfgame.com/595 Round winners

Congratulations to the winners of round 137: Continue reading ]]> Round winners

Congratulations to the winners of round 137: féarglas from Scotland won her second Gold medal, Björke from Östergötland turfed home over one million points for his Silver and Fillefilur secured his first bronze after half a zillion R's (Region medals) and C's (Country medals) during the years.

Well done mates!


Bonanza 2022

Registration for Bonanza 2022 in Västervik will open on January 24th. You can already now secure your place at the Bonanza banquet and order one Bonanza T-shirt and one lovely Turf multiheadwear by buying a Bonanza VIP-ticket (540 SEK) as a Christmas present for a Turf friend or yourself. You find all info at www.kalmarturf.se. There is also an offer for discounted accomodation for the Bonanza weekend, read more about it here.


24 h WINTER Event in Umeå 5-6th of March 2022

Don't miss out on a once in a life time Turf event: Umeå Turf association has combined their classical Winter event with the exclusive Event 24, only held twice before. This will be the event to separate real winter hardened turfers from wishy-washy summer turfers. Read about it and sign up here.


Here's a report from the inaugural annual Aviemore Turf event from Emjbee: 

On the 20th/21st November the very first overnight turf event north of Edinburgh took place. Organised by Cambla it was set in and around the beautiful Aviemore. The first of the winter snow was on the mountains and there was a 'brisk chill' in the air. There was a bike event on the Saturday and then a more relaxed walking event on the Sunday around Glenmore forest park. It was my first ever Turf event, and despite having some technology failure (phone died) and signal problems at Glenmore, I loved every minute of it. There was a lovely prize-giving meal afterwards with many laughs, and a bonus prize of a wee bottle of beer or Prosecco for everyone who took part. Walnut came away with the first prize in the bike event and needless to say I got the wooden spoon! At least I can blame technology. Particular highlights for me were getting a crowdy-8 with all the lovely Turfers I met, as well as having turfing royalty féarglas as a room mate for the night.”


In Pargas there is a very special zone you have to make sure to take if you ever visit, at least accordingly to Ojarnst:

If you are turfing in Pargas you will have to deal with the fact, that there is a big hole in the center of the town: The limestone quarry is the biggest in northern Europe. There are of course many zones placed around the quarry, that gives you the chance to experience a bit of industrial history. There have been industrial level mining operations here for over a century now.


The new zone HundbananStep is one of them and it is placed on one of the old slag heap hills called Hundbanan, “the dog track” by the locals. This because the small side cars used to transport rocks at the beginning of the 20th century looked like dogs. Pictures here.


In order to take the zone you must climb the newly built exercise stairs to reach the top and the zone. The stairs has 470 steps, it is 180 meters long and the top is 50 meters above the sea level. Here you will have nice view over the limestone quarry and the surrounding area. 
At the top you will also find the art work “Kvinnan ur berget”, a dedication to the women who have worked in the quarry. Before the sorting of rocks was automated it was usually women who did the sorting by hand.


As this is a central zone it means it have be “lila” in warded so I have already been up the stairs many times… finding new muscles in my legs during the climbs.”


If you have not yet started to paint your zones ”lila”/”purple”, you need to log into warded and look up "Map of my unique zones", where zones are colour-coded accordingly to how many times you've taken them. Purple is the 'highest' colour, and a zone will become purple when you have taken it 51 times or more.


As we are closing in on the end of another Turf year, CanC from Turku, Finland sums up how Turf has changed her life in the last four years:

When I reflect back on 4 years ago, I am in awe of how my lifestyle has changed. I drove everywhere. Not to the local shops, and I have always been an avid hiker and walker, but I drove to places that would have been easily accessible by bus, and to places that I didn’t really need to go.


A friend had often spoken about Turf before I began in 2018. I started walking – 5-8 miles a day. Didn’t get me many points, though. A year before (ed. I downloaded Turf) I began the Walk-1000-Mile challenge, sponsored by Country Walking magazine. Adding Turf to my daily routine was added pleasure. I started dreaming of scoring higher on a bike. At the same time, my perspective on life evolved. I wanted to live more sustainably and I wanted to get more exercise. So, I sold my car. The same day I bought an e-bike. 


We (my husband Pecpec is also an avid player) are both physically much healthier – being 60+ means we need to remain mindful of staying active. Nature and outdoor exercise improve one’s mental health. Days are shortening quickly but Turf gets us out the door!”


Something that is getting turfers out on a daily basis is the new Daily-medal serie that was launced in September at the Bonanza. Just a few days ago it was time for the first Daily-90 medals: 417 turfers took it on that first day, and since then another 98 have added it to their medal collection. I am sure more will follow! DiProgen has made a web page that tracks those first turfers who battle for the Daily-365, RIP: Battle for the Daily. Don't forget to turn on the music!


If you are a Norweigian, American, Japanese, South Korean, Dutch or Danish turfer, I would love to hear some stories from the Turf World in your country as well :)


Did you know...

...that the turfer Aicar is the first turfer to take a C (Country medal) in three different countries? In June he took silver and a Swedish C, in September he took a C in Finland and in November he finished off with a Danish C. Congrats!

that the turfer with most R's (Region medals) is Fillefilur from Finland, he has 57, gilla has 49 and CSL and GW007 both have 47.

...that recycling has R's from 15 (!) different regions.


Turfa lugnt/Safe turfing!

//Munin


...if you want to contribute to future Turf Insiders, send your story to insider@turfgame.com :)

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November https://turfgame.com/?feedid=594 Mon, 06 Dec 2021 14:46:07 +0000 https://rss.turfgame.com/594 November month's Turf Insider - better late than never!


Round winn Continue reading ]]> November month's Turf Insider - better late than never!


Round winners

Congratulations to the winners of round 136: féarglas from Scotland biked thru the nights to get her first Gold medal while skäggfar from Västmanland averaged 170 zones per day to secure his first Silver and vindturf from Södermanland turfed home his first Bronze!

Well done mates!


féarglas has the word:

" I, féarglas, want to thank people for the lovely messages, good wishes and kind words I received on winning the Gold medal this round. I am completely bowled over. Turf is many positive things to me, but the people make it especially wonderful. At round end, a new zone appeared in Edinburgh City called FaoiDheireadh (Irish language) and I know I will smile every time I visit it. Go raibh maith agaibh."


Bonanza 2022

I hope you have made a date with the world's turfers in Västervik next year. This is where next year´s Bonanza will be held. Kalmar Turf association is the organizer together with local Västervik turfers. Welcome to Västervik on May 21st! See you there :) More information will follow closer to the event.


Scottish event 20/21 November

If you find yourself in Aviemore, Scotland on the the weekend of 20/21 November, there is a plan to have a competitive event on the Saturday followed by an early group dinner, with perhaps a foot event at Glenmore on the Sunday. Come along for a great weekend, email Cambla on turfNEscot@gmail.com for more details.


If you don't want to travel to Scotland, you might want to head north, to Umeå in Sweden, this March for a Winter Classic with a serious twist.


24 h WINTER Event in Umeå 5-6th of March 2022

Turf Västerbotten is inviting everyone to a very special event during the first weekend of March in 2022. Here is their invitation:


”Does it make sense to turf 24 hours in a row on your own or in a team with 3 participants where you take turns in two-hour sessions?

In 2017, Umeå was first in Turf history with a 24-hour team cycling event

In 2018, Kalmar Turfförening was the first in Turf history with an individual class in addition to teams. Both of these events took place during the summer with dry asphalt, green grass and warm weather.


Now we turn up the heat for this event a bit and will run it during winter, in March so put winter tires on your bike, buy some warm long john's, extra strong bicycle lights and head north. For Umeå is taking back the baton and will run this 24 hour event in full, so sign up for either the bicycle class or walking/running class.

Turf Västerbotten welcomes all interested turfers to this event and gives you the opportunity to win the unusual and coveted 24h-event medal. Only 74 turfers are proud owners of this medal.”


More information and instructions how to sign up for this event can be found on Turf Västerbotten's home page. So far all information is in Swedish, but here's hoping it will soon be available in English. And if not, there's always Google translate :D


In October the first ever Turf event took place in Germany, it was a private event organized by a local turfer named Morten and here is a report about it from another German turfer. I am sure more German events will follow.


First private Turf event in Hamburg by JoasK

”Small but nice, private and not yet public. But at least, a first beginning has been made. This Sunday (ed. 17th of October), a few German Turf enthusiasts were driven to Hamburg, where everything started at the end of last year. Germany is still an absolute Turf diaspora. In Hamburg, Lübeck, Berlin, Cologne and Bonn there are a handful of people who regularly go turfing, but so far not much is happening.


That's why it was even nicer that on Sunday 9 Turf maniacs actually met in Hamburg for the first Turf event in Germany. The whole thing was organized by Morten, who is only 14 years old. For months he has been on fire for this wonderful game and currently he even leads the German ranking list.


Nobody really knew how such a Turf event worked. But after the countdown had expired, it was quite quickly clear what was going on. For one hour the 9 turfers chased through the event zones of Hamburg. The time flew by. Of course the Turfers from Hamburg had a little home advantage and so it was not surprising that the first six places were won by them. Afterwards the 9 turfers took a few zones together, so that they all won the Crowdy-8-Medal: Yeah! The afternoon ended with coffee and cake. A public event next year in Hamburg, was of course also considered.”


Let's hope the German turfers will multiply and a public event can be held in Hamburg, or some other nice German city, during 2022. There has been Turf events happening in Scotland too this last round and here's a little story about one of those:


SeaTurtle’s event at Balerno

"It was great fun organising the latest turf event in Balerno, which is west of the city at the foot of the Pentland Hills, and good that lots of people turned up. People especially loved all the ‘rooty’ zones in the North of the village!!! Congratulations to ESOCWalter who scored most points on the day, while cycling with Dusty in a doggy backpack and taking the reservoir water zone more than once. ESOCKisaKat was top junior!"


Tandem’s Foot Diversiest

"Could I visit 30 unique zones a day, every day, for 5 weeks to achieve the Diversiest medal? That was my target and from day 1 I was ahead of schedule and achieved the medal half way through week 5. I walked an average of 30km a day and in the last hour of the round hit 400,000 points, double what I would normally reach in a round. It was good to visit new areas, like the Borders and Mid Lothian as my home county of East Lothian has just over 500 zones but my biggest surprise was the Edinburgh zones. Being a country lass I usually avoid the city but I was very pleasantly surprised by the number of green areas, parks and ponds and a fabulous network of cycle/walkways which allow you to get around but avoid the traffic.

I had a lot of encouragement from turfers I knew but also met new ones along the way. It was hard at times but the sense of achievement made it all worthwhile. A more restful 5 a day this round, I should manage that :)"


CSL on zone making

"Now that we can travel more widely, I've enjoyed turfing in new areas - the turf zones usually take you to unusual places. I was pleased to have the chance to visit Rochdale, in Lancashire, recently. This is one of the towns where I did my apprenticeship as a zonemaker, and it was interesting to see some of "my" zones at last! Creating zones is a slow business, and the zonemakers all do it in their spare time. I've noticed some comments on the UK chat recently from people who say they've made lots of suggestions but not seen any new zones in their area. There are only about 20 of us for the whole world, so please be patient! Coverage in the UK is patchy, and we try to make new zones in the places with most activity, but of course this is hard to judge."


I can only agree with CSL how fun and interesting it is to visit places where you have made the zones. I spent three weeks in Germany in September/October doing just this. It was great fun to travel by car and bike thru Germany, meeting local turfers and taking over 1100 unique zones. It also became very obvious that most German cities are severely under-zoned. Nowhere were we close to a Ferret or a Weasel (10 zones in 10 respectively 15 min), we didn't even make a Beaver (10 zones in 20 min) in Hamburg or Berlin where the zone density is better than in most other German cities. Perhaps part of the problem was we were turfing during day time with heavy traffic all around, but it also became obvious how far it is between the zones once you leave the city centre, and some of these cities are spread over a very large area. On the way home thru Sweden we stopped in Vaggeryd for unique zones and had no problem at all to take a Weasel on lovely bike paths and with almost no traffic in sight on a Sunday afternoon.


Did you know...

...that Scotland has 1,8 zones per 1000 inhabitant, but only 0,1 zones per km2? The same numbers for Stockholm is 2,4 zones per 1000 inhabitant and 0,9 zones per km2. And for London it is 0,3 zones per 1000 inhabitant and 1,8 zones per km2. Turf Crew considers every inhabitant a potential turfer and hope one day it will be so :)



Turfa lugnt/Safe turfing!

//Munin



...if you want to contribute to future Turf Insiders, send your story to insider@turfgame.com :) It can be small, big, funny, sad, but as long as it is Turf-related, it has a good chance of being featured in next Turf Insider!

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TurfTeams.se https://turfgame.com/?feedid=592 Mon, 29 Nov 2021 12:51:19 +0000 https://rss.turfgame.com/592 turfteams

Efter mycket hårt arbete är vi st Continue reading ]]> turfteams

Efter mycket hårt arbete är vi stolta att presentera TurfTeams.se

TurfTeams är en satsning på företagshälsa och är riktad helt mot företag, myndigheter och organisationer som har ett behov av att aktivera sig på ett roligt och hälsosamt sätt.
Alla vi turfare vet redan fördelarna med Turf när det gäller motivationen att röra på sig och glädjen man kan finna i detta.
Nu försöker vi nå ut till ett helt nytt segment, något som vi hoppas kunna gynna hela turf-sfären på sikt!

Läs mer på TurfTeams.se, vår specialgjorda sida som förklarar konceptet.

TurfTeams är en del i vanliga turf men företaget får tillgång till egna sidor med topplistor, statistik, medaljer, osv. Det går utmärkt att kombinera med det vanliga turfandet.

Jobbar du i en organisation med mer än 30 anställda och tycker att det låter intressant? vill ni testa något kul i vår?
-Gå in på TurfTeams.se och hör av er.


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Coming up! https://turfgame.com/?feedid=590 Fri, 26 Nov 2021 09:53:34 +0000 https://rss.turfgame.com/590 As you can see on the bottom of the page at Turfgame.com we are getting close to the insane number 100 million visited zones.

How should we celebrate?< Continue reading ]]> As you can see on the bottom of the page at Turfgame.com we are getting close to the insane number 100 million visited zones.

How should we celebrate?

Give us your best ideas on facebook or instagram!


INSTA: #turfgame and @turfcrew

Facebook: facebook.com/groups/turfgame and facebook.com/Turfthegame

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October https://turfgame.com/?feedid=567 Thu, 14 Oct 2021 15:45:43 +0000 https://rss.turfgame.com/567 Round winners

Scotland, Scotland and Scotland!! Congratulations to the winners of round 135: Artful from Edinburgh, Scotland was the r Continue reading ]]> Round winners

Scotland, Scotland and Scotland!! Congratulations to the winners of round 135: Artful from Edinburgh, Scotland was the round winner in September with 5.883 takes and 1.377.693 points. Really impressive! Just behind, with the Silver medal, we find pPilot and the Bronze medal goes to TSFeTaTo. Where do they come from? Region Scotland of course! In fourth place we find féarglas from Scotland and in fifth place Gallant from Kalmar.

Well done mates!

Turf Ultimate Region Fight 2021

During the September round many turfers fought in this region battle. Nine teams and a total of 404 turfers participated. Region Åland won the battle, followed by Scotland, Västmanland, Kalmar and Östergötland. Congrats to all the turfers in team Åland. You can pick up the trophy at the Bonanza banquet in Västervik on 21 May 2022. The turfer MaXi is the organizer of the Region Fight. Many thanks to him and to Linus Odenring who provides the results via turfportalen.se

Here are some comments that have been published on Facebook by the team leaders for Åland and Scotland.

Aicar - team leader for Team Åland: ”I am incredibly proud and impressed with the efforts of our team. Very many have overperformed (turfers who said before that you would drive in 80 - 100,000 points, but hava taken more than 200,000 points), everyone has been involved and contributed and above all we have had a team that consists of just over 30% more participants than the minimum number! One of the turfers who has been in the regional fight before has cycled a bit over 1000 km and he came in 10th place in the internal ranking! A big thank you to MaXi who arranged the competition, to all the hikers in Team Åland who performed incredibly well and above all had fun (I have heard many say: "This was very fun!") and to all participants in the opposing regions where I especially want highlight Kalmar and Scotland that we fought the most against during these 4 weeks of taking some extra points in each category!”

David Parker, Team Scotland: ”Congratulations to Åland and all of the teams and turfers in the Turf Ultimate Regional Fight 2021. Many thanks to MaXi for organising such a wonderful competition. It's been a lot of fun in Scotland and has brought many turfers together with a great all round effort! We've really enjoyed competing and watching the efforts of the other teams. Looking forward to many more happy Turf experiences!”

Most taken zone in September

During the region fight, there was clearly an increased Turf activity in the participating regions. In the winning region of Åland, the number of takes more than doubled compared with the summer months of June and July. In central Mariehamn on Åland, we also find the zone that was taken the most times in the world during September. The zone SteelHelp was taken 803 times in 28 days, which gives an average of 28.7 times / 24 hours or 1.2 times per hour!! Hard wear on that zone in other words.

The new Daily Medal

The new Daily Medal has attracted a lot of attention. The medal is awarded to those who make 5 takeovers every day for 10, 30, 60, 90, 180 and 365 days straight (UTC time). Right now we have 555 turfers who have received Daily 30 and 947 who got Daily 10. TXL from Skåne was the first turfer who got Daily 30 followed by aivar and recycling. Now it will be exciting to see who will be the first turfer to take the Daily 60 medal in November.A good tip on Day 60 is to wear the crown when the clock strikes 00.00 (UTC time), stand in one zone and have four more zones close by. On the other hand, it is not most important to take it first. The most important thing is to take at least five zones every day so you get your daily exercise!


Bonanza planning and other upcoming events

As you already know, next year’s Bonanza will be held in Västervik on May 21st. Kalmar Turf association will soon release information on how you can book discounted accommodation in hotels or in rented cabins at the giant campsite Västervik Resort, where the Bonanza banquet will be held. The information will be published on kalmarturf.se. Information will also be disseminated on Facebook.

Now the process also begins to designate where Bonanza 2023 will be carried out. Turf Crew will release an inquiry to all known associations shortly. Associations outside Sweden can register their interest in receiving the material in English by emailing events@turfgame.com

Are you waiting for an exciting and challenging event invitation to appear? Keep your eyes open during October! You will not think it's true when you see it!

Germany has received the first Round medal

Last Turf Insider we talked about Country medals. Now we want to draw attention to the fact that a turfer from Germany received his first Round medal. We congratulate Marcus_P from Hamburg who in round 134 won the Bronze medal with 1,037,687 points and 2,848 takes. Activity is increasing in Germany and in the Hamburg region there are approx. 30 active turfers. Turf has now attracted attention in a German podcast – EnJoyYourBike Podcast - which is available on YouTube (Podcast # 63).

Keep on turfing in October and don’t forget to take at least five zones every day and …… perhaps even that extra zone!


//MasterOfTurf

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September https://turfgame.com/?feedid=552 Fri, 10 Sep 2021 20:51:56 +0000 https://rss.turfgame.com/552 Round winnersContinue reading ]]> Round winners

Congratulations to the winners of round 134: Király from Skåne was too busy to beat the points and Takes record during a new record to attend the Bonanza 2021 and in the process he secured his 15th Gold medal. Grock from Norrbotten turfed home his first Silver and Marcus_P from Hamburg is the first German turfer to win a medal in Turf, congrats to the Bronze!

Well done mates!


Bonanza 2021

It was finally time for Bonanza on the 4th of September. It was held in Örebro and turfers from at least four countries came to fight over the event zones. In the foot event rabbit_rail from Stockholm ran home a Gold,19Ovechkin from Jönköping won Silver and Raudonvirsis from Stockholm won Bronze. A total of 167 tufers took at least one zone during the foot event.

In the bike event, magnusn from Stockholm biked home a Gold, SunYour from Västerås took Silver and ravinous from Stockholm nabbed the Bronze. A total of 128 turfers took at least one zone during the bike event. The complete results can be found HERE.

At the Bonanza banquet in the evening of the 4th of September, the Turf Awards for 2019 and 2020 were awarded. 7 turfers went home with 8 statues. féarglas from Scotland took home Turf Star of the year 2020 and Turfer of the year 2020, well deserved! florence and Entertainer from Stockholm won for Best Zone Take 2020 award and Bont from Västerbotten took home the Turf Performance of the year 2020. Congratulations! In January 2022 the nominations for Turf Awards 2021 will begin.


Bonanza 2022

Next year´s Bonanza will be held in Västervik. Kalmar Turf association is the organizer together with local Västervik turfers. Welcome to Västervik on May 21st! You can get a taste of what awaits via THIS teaser video.


Turf Ultimate Region Fight

During the September round, Turf Ultimate Region Fight is taking place. Last year it was Sverigekampen since only Swedish regions took part. This year also Scotland and Minnesota are battling it out. You can follow the battle at Turfportalen. The Region battle is organized by MaXi and a statue and challenge prize were handed out to last year's winners Uppsala at the Bonanza banquet. Which region will Uppsala hand over the perpetual trophy to next year?


Medal nerd sync in Scotland

Nerd sync of medals is something the average turfer gets into when it is already a little too late to sync more than 3 or 4 medals. In the beginning you are usually just too busy exploring the zones on the map and in some cases I've even heard beginners finding the seemingly never ending supply of new ranks and medals a nuisance.


So in order to maximize the number of medals you can take with one take, a newbie account needs to be set up. And if everything goes as plan, one take can generate in up to 9 medals with a little help from friends. Crackers (Artful) almost managed this last round in Scotland. Read his story HERE. The record before was 4 medals with one take.


Did you know...

...a total of 401 Country medals have been awarded in Turf to 154 different turfers. Nicke1 from Norway has the most, 30 and all are from Norway. Mo112 from Finland is second with 21 (all Finnish) and Király from Sweden has 18 (17 from Sweden and 1 from Denmark). 5 turfers have Country medals from two different countries: Király from Sweden, Nybegynner from Norway, TXL from Sweden, Pilgrim from Sweden and Ado from Sweden. All of them has at least one Country medal from Denmark.


Turfa lugnt/Safe turfing!

//Munin

...if you want to contribute to future Turf Insiders, send your story to insider@turfgame.com :)

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Winners of Turf Awards 2020 https://turfgame.com/?feedid=549 Wed, 08 Sep 2021 19:54:45 +0000 https://rss.turfgame.com/549 At the Bonanza banquet, MasterOfTurf revealed the winners of Turf Awards 2020. BirgittaS handed out the trophies. Tropies were awarded in four ca Continue reading ]]> At the Bonanza banquet, MasterOfTurf revealed the winners of Turf Awards 2020. BirgittaS handed out the trophies. Tropies were awarded in four categories. The Turf community was voting in March and here are the winners:

Best Turf performance 2020 

Bont was nominated for having an average of over 400 takes per day during an entire round having taken 11,249 takes. He won the gold medal in October. The average “saddle time” was 12 hours and 12 minutes/day.

Turf Star of the year 2020 

féarglas was nominated because she – from having never been turfing before – went straight into the top 10 on the world list in August and stayed there for the rest of the year. In November and December she received silver medals.

Turfer of the Year 2020 

féarglas was nominated for her fantastic efforts in radio and international television to spread Turf throught the UK and rest of the world. She clearly wanted to spread the joy of something she seems to love. She has been awarded the Heavy Expandator medal for her efforts.

Most spectacular take over 2020 

Entertainer and Florence was nominated for having taken the SweHeaps zone at Svenska Högarna, which required five days of paddling in Stockholm's outer archipelago. A truly impressive and inspiring TurfTour!

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New version released with new medal serie https://turfgame.com/?feedid=546 Mon, 06 Sep 2021 17:21:01 +0000 https://rss.turfgame.com/546 On the day of the Bonanza 2021, a new version of Turf was released featuring the new medal serie DAILY. The aim of Daily is to take at least 5 zones per day Continue reading ]]> On the day of the Bonanza 2021, a new version of Turf was released featuring the new medal serie DAILY. The aim of Daily is to take at least 5 zones per day (takes, assists or revisit are all supposed to work) for 10 days to get the first medal. The highest medal is rewarded to those turfers who remembers to take five zones per day for 365 days...go go go! 

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BONANZA 2022 https://turfgame.com/?feedid=545 Mon, 06 Sep 2021 17:09:11 +0000 https://rss.turfgame.com/545 At the Bonanza Banquet in Örebro it was announced that next year´s Bonanza will be held in Västervik. Kalmar Turf association is the organizer. Welcome to Continue reading ]]> At the Bonanza Banquet in Örebro it was announced that next year´s Bonanza will be held in Västervik. Kalmar Turf association is the organizer. Welcome to Västervik May 21st! You can get a taste of what awaits via THIS teaser video.

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Turfing across Sweden for charity https://turfgame.com/?feedid=536 Sun, 22 Aug 2021 20:11:11 +0000 https://rss.turfgame.com/536 Don't miss out on Hdaskydrone, who is currently cycling across Sweden on his electric bike for a good cau Continue reading ]]> Don't miss out on Hdaskydrone, who is currently cycling across Sweden on his electric bike for a good cause.

The route is 2.600km long and goes from Treriksröset to Smygehuk. He has currently made it 300km.

You may also support his good cause by donating to the Swedish Childhood Cancer Fund.

Kenneths insamling för Barncancerfonden www.facebook.com/donate/396391165116245

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Deadline to order Bonanza T-shirt https://turfgame.com/?feedid=527 Tue, 10 Aug 2021 20:08:11 +0000 https://rss.turfgame.com/527 If you want this year's Bonanza T-shirt, yo Continue reading ]]> If you want this year's Bonanza T-shirt, you have to order it before the 16th of August. And why not sign up for the Bonanza event itself and the banquet in the evening at the same time? Click HERE.

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August https://turfgame.com/?feedid=523 Fri, 06 Aug 2021 10:18:56 +0000 https://rss.turfgame.com/523

Round winners

Continue reading ]]>

Round winners

Congratulations to the winners of round 133: Xtrmrunner from Lounais-Suomi turfed home her first Gold, Oberoff from Stockholm secured his second Silver by biking 3384 kms during 242 hours and 32 min and Welshman from Lounais-Suomi had to make do with a bronze this time, it was another family members turn to Turf for Gold ;) 

Well done mates!


Bonanza 2021 - arranged by the association Örebro Turfers

Turf Crew together with Örebro Turfers invites every turfer to the most awaited Bonanza 2021.

On Saturday the 4th of September two open events will takes place in Örebro. Every turfer who participates will be awarded the Bonanza medal. First the Foot event, 10 am to noon, followed by the Bike Event, 1.30 pm to 3.30 pm. In the evening a Banquet will take place, starting at 6 pm.


Read more about the event, how to register and all things Bonanza 
HERE (Swedish) and HERE FOR ENGLISH.

And register for this fun World Cup event HERE.


Canoe Turf 2021

Kalmar Turf Association invites everyone to a Canoe Turf Event on the 14th of August. Invitation HERE (only in Swedish).


Two special adventures featuring female turfers took place in the last couple of rounds. Cissiliana från Uppsala decided to bike from Stockholm to Ängelholm during the round start in July and Anniña from Stockholm set out on her dream adventure together with Kygni from Uppsala. Here are their stories :)


Anniña and Kygni's Kebnekaise adventure

by Anniña with a little help from Kygni

”As usual when the two of us are leaving for a Turf Adventure, it was quite spontaneously booked and not so well planned.


We met up in Luleå where we then spent a day preparing and we also turfed a bit in Luleå. I can never resist a few extra unique zones!


The journey from Luleå to Keb Mountain Station by train, bus and foot was quite zoneless on June 29th. A few more zones along the nice trek between Nikkaluokta and Kebnekaise Mountain Station would be appreciated (hint to future zone makers in the area).


Once at Keb Mountain Station, we did not have the weather on our side but had to wait a few days before we could head to the top. So we had to spend time colouring KebStation (ed. in Warded the zones get different colours depending on how many times you have taken them). We managed to paint it red during our stay. While we waited for better weather we went on shorter trips, for example we visited TarfalaStugan which was the most complicated zone around Kebnekaise. It was almost impossible to get coverage there even though we had access to 4 different cell phone operators.


On the third day the weather was better and we started our journey up to the top. When we got over the first peak, we passed Kaffedalen and I (Anniña) managed to go through the snow/ice layer, so when we got up a bit on the very top of Kebnekaise, the energy started to run out, but then I, who had been disconnected from the outside world since we left Kiruna, received a message greeting me welcome to Norway so I could go into the Turf app and realize that we were very close to the first zone NyaToppStugan which unfortunately was far from the top cottage but taking the zone gave me new strength so the next hour up to the top which was mostly to wade through wet snow did not feel like a problem. It was great to stand in the Kebnekaise zone and look at the South top, our goal.


Once we reached Sydtoppen (ed. zone Kebnekaise), we realized that the hope of also being able to take KebNordtoppen had to be postponed to the future. It was with a mixture of horror and delight that we stood there at the top. We could not really rejoice that we had managed to climb it because now we had the whole long way back.


After replenishing our energy with food and water, we started the way back and it was pretty easy. But it was only when we were back at the KebStation zone that the euphoria to have done it came. It was an absolutely amazing experience. 
We had booked our tickets home for the 3rd of July so on the 2nd we mostly enjoyed the magnificent landscape and nature of the place until we started hiking back the following day.


Next time we might get a few more Turfers with us and manage to take us all the way to the northern peak to take zone KebNordtoppen. It was a fantastic turfing adventure that I hope many more will embark on.


Cissiliana's long distance bike ride adventure

by Cissiliana

It all started as a joke but when I added up the total distance I'd covered during various previous turf-rides, it actually felt doable and increasingly attractive. We (ed. she had a non-turfer along for the ride) started with my mother's midsummer lunch buffet in Järna outside Södertälje and then biked an average 88 km a day down to my family in the summer house outside Ängelholm in Skåne.


Since it was a long way to go (708 km) I could as well stop by in the well-renowned Turf city Kalmar which also gave us a rest day. Booking the hostels during the trip as well as stopping and swimming spontaneously gave a much-needed sense of freedom for this mother of three.


Many stops were taken at Turf zones since they often are placed in nice areas like the zone "Figeholm" in the town with the same name. I didn´t have big turfing ambitions for this trip, especially since my company doesn´t turf but many zones were exactly on our route :)


One thing I really wanted though was to visit the region "Blekinge". We touched Blekinge and took the closest zone which unfortunately happened to be the highest point of Blekinge (Rävabacken). After a suprisingly gentle ascent I was rewarded with the Icosaregion Star-medal. By that time Turf had gained a new member in "Alexiz".


I recommend you to try something similar; it was a pleasure for all senses and I am longing for my next trip. The nice weather helped of course and some light rain cooled us nicely in the warm temperatures but when we almost had reached our final destination we had to take shelter in a no-zone bus stop during a thunderstorm. I'm glad I did not have to use the spare inner tube I had with me and am now adding cable ties on my packing list as the package holder gave me some trouble.


Cissiliana´s 5 tips for longer biking tours

Leave the tent at home and cut down on the packing and grant yourself a good night's sleep in a hostel or hammock.

Hanging your wet swimwear on the bike while biking dries the clothes quickly.

Choose your route carefully, the road surface and slopes really affect your speed.

Bring cable ties.

The more breakfasts the better.


There you have it, two fantastic Turf adventures by some amazing turfers :)


Public Right of Access

Lately there has been an increase in Issues regarding zones in areas signed off as Private. I myself have had three such issues regarding zones in Sweden in the last few months. In two cases I wrote to the municipalities in question to ask if the ”Private” signs were legal. From one municipality the answer was a stern ”No. Those signs had to go.” and from the other the answer was the signs were legal, but you as a private person had the right to walk, jog, ride a horse and ski through the area marked off by the signs. The municipality quoted the Swedish Allemansrätt (Right of Public Access). Thanks to the Allemansrätt, it is very difficult to post signs restricting access to an area by foot. You have the right to walk just about anywhere in Sweden as long as you are in transit. And for sure, that is the case for us turfers, we are almost always on our way to ”just one more zone” :)


HERE you can read more about the Swedish Allemansrätt (Swedish) or IN ENGLISH HERE (pdf-file).


The right of access exists in other countries too, but to a lesser degree. As most zone makers are Swedish we are somewhat 'tainted' by the Swedish ease at which we can go everywhere, both in urban environments and in nature. We get quite a few issues about zones in ”Private areas” in non-Swedish countries, and a lot of those places would have been OK in Sweden. But we move them and try to stay away from similar places in the future :) 


In Sweden we don't move zones just because of the "Private Area"-sign because a) most likely you still have the right to walk there and b) it is possible it is an illegal sign, so please contact the municipality in question and ask before you write an issue. Of course, if the general feeling is that the zone is a disturbance for the people living there, the zone can be moved, but we don't move it just because of a sign. 


Did you know...

...in round 133 a new record was set for the number of Region medals awarded - 56.  The previous record was round 127 with 52 medals.



Turfa lugnt/Safe turfing!

//Munin


...if you want to contribute to future Turf Insiders, send your story to insider@turfgame.com :)


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July https://turfgame.com/?feedid=514 Tue, 13 Jul 2021 12:46:20 +0000 https://rss.turfgame.com/514 Round winners

Congratul Continue reading ]]> Round winners

Congratulations to the winners of round 132: Welshman from Lounais-Suomi biked home his fourth Gold, Aicar from Åland secured his first Silver féarglas from Scotland added a bronze to her collection. Well done mates!


Bonanza 2021 - arranged by The association Örebro Turfers

TurfCrew wants to make it clear that it is not Föreningen Turf Örebro that is the organizer of Bonanza 2021. It is the newly formed association Örebro Turfers who are responsible for the event. The e-mail adress for Örebro Turfers is orebroturfers@gmail.com

On Saturday the 4th of September two open events will takes place in Örebro. Every turfer who participates will be awarded the Bonanza medal. First a Foot event, 10 am to noon, followed by the Bike Event, 1.30 pm to 3.30 pm. In the evening a Banquet will take place, starting at 6 pm. If the Covid-restrictions for 4 people/table is still in effect come September, only about 100 people can attend.


Read more about the event, how to register and all things Bonanza HERE (Swedish) and HERE FOR ENGLISH.

And register for this fun World Cup event HERE.


Canoe Turf 2021

Kalmar Turf Association invites everyone to a Canoe Turf Event on the 14th of August. Invitation HERE (only in Swedish).

Last time Kalmar held a Canoe Event, it was highly appreciated. So if you have a few days to spare and an interest in a slightly different Turf Event, head towards Kalmar, a very flat and friendly Turf city in Sweden :)


And here I surrender the 'pen' to my summer guest writers, I hope you enjoy "The Chronicles of Turf – Scotland Edition".


TURF INSIDER JULY – guest edited by Turf Team Scotland

Hi Turfers, it’s a longer issue of Insider than usual because our guest editors and contributors this month are the enthusiastic bunch in Scotland. Hopefully their stories and experiences will spur everyone on to engage with turfing over the summer months.


A Drive for Uniques, and only Uniques: FeTaTo interviewed by féarglas


Uniques Only?! Where did it all begin? What gave you the idea?

It started in April when I challenged myself to visit all 381 zones within Stirling Council area. The potential sticking point was Ben Lui (a Munro) - would the path be clear of snow? The warm weather made it so, and I completed my challenge before the end of the round. With travel restrictions lifted, I decided to go for the Unique-1000 medal. A visit to Livingston yielded over 100 unique zones – and the medal. 


In May, having previously achieved 800 round uniques during the challenge in March, I set out with two goals - the Diversiest medal, and to only visit unique zones. A trip to Aberdeen, where I found myself close to the Greed-350 medal, and a ‘Cambla’ effect of trying to take zones faster than Cambla was taking them from me, meant that I well overshot my target, gaining both Diversiest and Greed-350 medals. Unable to visit my new grandchild in USA in June, I decided to keep going with a focus on uniques. Having been saturated with Dunblane/Stirling zones during the March challenge, and as someone who normally travels, I enjoyed the thought of exploring again even if it was Scotland and not the World. The new target was 50% of Scottish Uniques (4621 zones), but maybe Unique-5000 would be possible as well? I travelled North, South, East and West, and so it was on 2021-07-01 at 14.39, I achieved the Unique-5000 medal, the first and currently the only person to hold it in the UK.


Did you ever break the ‘unique only’ rule?

Initially, I broke it only for three reasons. The first was for Greed-350, where time was of the essence with Cambla turfing in the same area. The second was for the Eager Ferret medal, for which I returned to Loanhead. I wasn’t expecting to get it on my first attempt, and especially not when I found myself cycling through a flood up to 20 cm deep under the Loanhead bridge. The third was if I was near Edinburgh Park, where I liked to clear zones for Artful. I became less strict in June, but wouldn’t go out of my way for a non-unique.


What were the challenges of a ‘uniques only’ goal?

Uniques place offer different challenges, especially for someone who usually sets off with only a vague plan for the day’s activity. I started using more tools such as a topographical map, Naviki, and Maps.Me These helped me plan a little more and I used them for navigation on the day. I also noticed that around the 5-hour mark, my ability to navigate and my sense of direction decreased significantly and I would have to backtrack more often.


What did you learn about Turf and Scotland?

Sometimes you have to ‘dive in’ and wander to find a zone. Using my eyes instead of a map can often yield better results. The paths in the wood south of Forres made for interesting navigation as the mountain bike paths are not generally mapped. In Livingston, I gave up on map reading and just set off in roughly the correct direction and found paths. I have gotten to know better where the zone maker might have put zones. I have developed a much greater feel for town planning, how much this differs between areas and how it affects the access round the zones. And there is a lot of construction work going on!


What did you enjoy the most?

I loved not knowing what the day and the area would throw at me. Each day was its own experience.


Any unusual zones or surprise zones?

I never knew there was a Lourdes at Carfin. The Carfin Lourdes Grotto opened in 1922 and welcomes over 70,000 pilgrims each year from across the globe. There was a service in the zone at the time of my visit, and I had to persevere outside the wall until gps wobble gave it to me.


What’s next?

The UK Explorer medal. While only one zone is necessary, I am planning on taking at least 100 zones (where possible!) in each of the 12 regions in the UK. Of course, Scotland has already been achieved!


Thank you FeTaTo - and good luck with the UK Explorer ?


A Game for All Ages

One of the great things about Turf is that we all tackle it differently depending on our age, ability and preferred mode of transport. There are several generations of the same family playing and there are outstanding feats from some younger players. We have two reports about the activities of younger people this month – Cialar’s Staminatrix Medal in Stockholm and The Pentland Scouts Turf Event:


Staminatrix Medal for 12 year old Turfer in Stockholm

1) How long have you been turfing and how did you start?
I started Turf in February 2019. I started Turf because I was skiing with my family in Dalarna together with my grandparents who turf. My grandfather wanted me to take all the top zones for him. I did that once and then I started my own account and took the zones from him.


2) I hear it was your birthday and you changed your turf nick. How old were you and was their birthday cake?!
I changed my turf nick to Birthdaygirl! I turned 12 that day, April 17th. I did not get a real birthday cake but I got cupcakes when I took a break before the last 50 zones.


3) What was the plan to complete the 400 zones?

My plan was to take at least 150 zones the day before the event and then the rest during it. I did not think that I would be able to take them all at the same time. I only slept 5 hours that night. I started at 16.00 on Friday and took the last zone 15.51 the next day. But I made it!


4) Did you enjoy doing the Staminatrix?

I liked doing it but the last lap was very hard. I fell off my bike and hurt my knee and a rib.


5) Was it harder than you expected? Or easier? Or just as you expected?

It was as I expected but it took longer than I first thought.


6) Was it tiring doing all that cycling?

Yes, I was very tired from cycling and also tired of cycling so much. It was a week before I got up on my bike again.


7) Is it one of your proudest medals you have got? (And if not, which one is)

I am very proud of this medal but I am almost more proud of my El Staminatore because I took it by myself. Staminatrix was an event with a lot of people so this made it easier.


8) What was your favourite moment? And the funniest moment?

My favourite moment was when the medal turned up on my phone. I took about 100 screenshots. The funniest that day was probably when we tried to take a zone but there was a wedding ceremony in the zone. We were a bit angry that they did not turf.


Scotland’s Biggest Scout Turf Event

The largest Scout event (so far) took place with Pentland Scouts near Edinburgh. On Sunday 20th June, 80 scouts and 25 adults took part in this closed event. The scouts participated in 25 small patrols/teams. They enjoyed two hours of challenging turfing. A corona safe event – well distanced and outdoors! The competition included not only turf, but also a selfie competition.


Pictures on Facebook HERE and HERE(all pictures with the permission of the individuals and guardians)

Learn more about the competition at the link https://linktr.ee/brassmonkeyevent


Step by step, interest in Turf is expanding and becoming a part of the scout programme in Scotland. Groups can join in and create their own event for local scouts. Send an email to scoutevent@turfgame.com and ask for more details.

A special thanks to Chris Welch and his team for making this event possible.



Turfing Together, Scotland’s first adult turf event: Contributed by VikingB and others


With Turf gaining such momentum in Scotland, it felt like the next step was to hold an event, and on 7th June we held our first open Turf Event in Edinburgh. To try the format, and with the easing of COVID restrictions providing a chance to meet fellow turfers, three of us volunteered and set out to organise. I covered the zone set-up, Hodge on communications, drumming up participation and Kenny as our organiser in chief – or fall guy, should anything go wrong.


After receiving a log in for the event platform, I was ready and excited to start. It is a simple tool to use, even if the date field was a bit wonky, who starts with the year? Our first big snag hit us when we were told about an event embargo in certain parts of the city due to Sprint Championships in 2024. We had to plan zones outside of these areas, and the best bits had already been reserved. We decided on a strip of northeast Edinburgh, from Broughton through to Craigentinny – an area I knew well. I tried to put zones in interesting spots, so people could discover something new, like Bellfield Brewery or the old mill wheel from Bonnington Mill. Where that wasn’t possible, zones were in small lanes, cul-de-sacs and other dead ends. This prevented turfers having to stop in the middle of traffic to get a zone.


Kingslayer kindly looked over the event and gave some great advice about making some of the zones bigger to compensate for any poor GPS signals due to local buildings. We also received advice from others on what could go wrong, and we tried to be ready. Our biggest concern was the timing of the event. Why is it as adults we still get confused with time zones? Would it start on time, when we expected it, especially as we had twenty participants spread across the area? As we counted down to start time, Hodge, Kenny and I stood by checking and ready to do something if it didn’t work, but success and they were off!


Not all the participants were locals. Here is AroonTheToon’s story: “DangerTurfing! I'd like to draw attention to some hazards for any unwary turfers who happen to venture into the Edinburgh area. During an unplanned stop in the capital, I found myself accidentally acquiring a hire bike, enjoying leafy urban cycleways and waterways, and even claiming a zone on a tidal island. I felt compelled to extend my stay and, worst of all, was tracked and traced by the queen of turfers herself (féarglas), and invited to a fun Turf Event that culminated in an entertaining swarm of turfers capturing a crowdy 21 medal. Thank you to Turfmakers and Edinburgh Turfers for embodying the spirit of fraternity and exploration that Turf brings.


N.B. The event was so successful that Artful has organised another one on 22nd July in Livingston


Surf and Turf – Enjoying the Summer Holidays: Contributed by TheLovely and others


Earlier this year Cruachan and I set off for a week’s holiday in the Inner Hebrides on the islands of Coll and Tiree. It was sunny, relaxing and a break away from work but with no zones in either place, it was at times a little pointless! Holiday makers later in the season were more fortunate with Tiree now boasting 8 new zones. More recently I travelled 400 miles to Chester for a few days break. Taking the opportunity to turf in a new area I was astonished to be taking zones from RossEwan, who lives less than 10 miles from me in Scotland. It seems that many of us have been enjoying a break away from home turf…


Many turfers have been exploring areas of Scotland. Tandem should have been collecting some uniques in Copenhagen, but restrictions on international travel meant she ended up in the Scottish Highlands where she combined Munro bagging (a list of Scottish hills over 3,000 feet high) with collecting some very hard earned mountain zones. She says: “Ben Macdui and Cairngorm took all day but the fabulous views were a reward for the effort, and if I’m lucky I might keep them for the whole round.”


Also exploring the highlands and islands were Wintergreen and CSL visiting zones on MonadhCaoin (Mount Keen), BenLomond and BeinnHòb (Ben Hope), which are respectively the easternmost, southernmost and northernmost Munros. That just leaves the most westerly, LadharBheinn, which is quite remote. CSL and Wintergreen also travelled to Islay, the Hebridean island famed for its whiskies. Wintergreen says: “It was pleasantly breezy and midge-free. We took as many turf zones as we could, including a couple by distilleries. However, zones are few and far between, and we found that signal was often a problem, so had to leave some untaken. Islay is a beautiful island, and we enjoyed exploring. We're looking forward to more exploration as we increase our tally of unique zones in the weeks to come.”


SazlDazl comes from a non-touristy town that is lucky enough to 65 zones, so it never occurred to him that a busy place like Keswick would only have three! Especially when he needed points to avoid league relegation at the end of the month. He says: “Luckily I noticed the username of the only other Keswick turfer, ESOCWalter, also on holiday from Scotland. I contacted him to clear the zones to help, and he was ready and willing to assist. My plan was to nip up Cat Bells while the sun shone, then retake, but unfortunately I was distracted by an ice-cream van and missed the 11am zone restart cut-off. Oops!”


In June Jarv’s husband finally achieved his goal of visiting the Knepp rewilding project in West Sussex. For five days a treehouse was their home and whilst her husband was happily ensconced with a pair of binoculars, Jarv was able to get a little turfing in. She told us about her trip: “My first cycling excursion allowed me to take a few isolated countryside zones near Horsham (which I retained for the whole month). I then headed south to explore the bohemian Brighton and Hove and the less bohemian Worthing. Over two days I was able to take nearly all the zones available; lots of seaside and park zones enabled an excellent discovery tour of the area. Alas, the two zones on Brighton Pier were set to elude me as the bodyguard refused my bicycle. However, socks and shoes removed I waded through the waves to take one zone from below. A complete bonus was to find that I was wearing a golden crown! Excitement was short-lived as the resident king or queen soon regained their kingdom. However, it was nice holiday trophy to go with the tan.”


British Mountain Bike Orienteering Championships and Turfing: Contributed by TSFinreir


On the last weekend in June a band of Scottish turfers travelled North to the Moray for the four race British Mountain Bike Orienteering Championships, and of course to take some unique zones on route. MTBO takes place on special large-scale maps showing the rideability of all the paths and tracks with a point-to-point format, visiting the control points in a set numerical order, with no avatar or GPS to aid the navigation.


The weekend highlight was on Friday evening with the British middle distance champs in the glorious terrain of Anagach on the outskirts of Granton-on-Spey. There were opportunities to take a few Turfs in the town and forest too, and the odd crowdy achieved as a bonus! The highly detailed path network in Anagach and the complex moraine and marsh system made for some highly challenging route choice and navigation challenges from the off. Foot orienteers may underestimate the skill required to ride technical singletrack and navigate fluently at the same time, whilst maintaining a flow through speedy SI Air controls by planning ahead. All this at up to three times the speed of foot orienteering. Map Memory and quick assimilation of relevant map detail is key, as is simplification. The rooty, narrow singletrack through the bilberries and ridges put careful navigation and bike handling at a premium. A map flip half way around made the best of the complex terrain areas. Everyone wore wide smiles at the finish as they knew they had taken part in a very special race on a great map.


MTBO is well worth a try to add to the biking and navigation skills needed in Turf. There are Facebook groups for local organisations in Scotland Scottish Mountain Bike Orienteering | Facebook and Sweden MTBO Sverige https://www.facebook.com/groups/357934787713/


Turf Nicks 

We’d like to remind all turfers to be mindful and careful when choosing their turn nick. Names that seem amusing in the moment, might on reflection be distasteful, offensive, or unsuitable especially for younger members. If you think a Turf nick is unsuitable, you can e-mail abust@turfgame.com and you might soon see it changed to something a lot more amusing, the last few changes have been flower-inspired ;)


And a final note from AroonTheToon in Scotland, with a warning about turfing:

On a recent short break in the Stirling area with my non-turfing girlfriend, I thought I had cracked the art of 'blind/secret turfing' by having the app active whilst we toured various sights and cycle routes (hoping to pick up any zones that we 'happened' to pass through). However, it led to strange looks every time I paused due to a strange woman's voice coming from my pocket. :-O


Turfa lugnt!/Safe turfing!


//féarglas//TheLovely//Munin (editor)

...if you want to contribute to future Turf Insiders, send your story to insider@turfgame.com :)


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Bonanza 2021, Saturday the 4th of September in Örebro https://turfgame.com/?feedid=501 Tue, 22 Jun 2021 17:46:33 +0000 https://rss.turfgame.com/501

We all know the third time's the charm, so here we go!


Continue reading ]]>

We all know the third time's the charm, so here we go!


Despite many restrictions regarding Covid, the organizers feel quite confident that they can finally go through with Bonanza 2021 and thus get the chance to show off the beautiful city of Örebro.

On Saturday the 4th of September two open events will takes place in Örebro. Every turfer who participates will be awarded the Bonanza medal. First a Foot event, 10 am to noon, followed by the Bike Event, 1.30 pm to 3.30 pm. In the evening a Banquet will take place, starting at 6 pm. If the Covid-restrictions for 4 people/table is still in effect come September, only about 100 people can attend.

Read more about the event, how to register and all things Bonanza HERE (Swedish) and HERE FOR ENGLISH.

And register for this fun World Cup event HERE.


TurfCrew wants to make it clear that it is not Föreningen Turf Örebro that is the organizer of Bonanza 2021. It is the newly formed association Örebro Turfers who are responsible for the event.

If you have any questions, look up Bonanzan Örebro 2021 on Facebook or contact orebroturfers@gmail.com.


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Minor corrections from the new round https://turfgame.com/?feedid=497 Fri, 18 Jun 2021 13:53:48 +0000 https://rss.turfgame.com/497 About 20 crowdy medals were incorrectly handed out during the round reset. This is now corrected and users missing their previous crowdy medal may claim it v Continue reading ]]> About 20 crowdy medals were incorrectly handed out during the round reset. This is now corrected and users missing their previous crowdy medal may claim it via the issue system.

//Turf Crew

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June https://turfgame.com/?feedid=490 Tue, 15 Jun 2021 15:47:08 +0000 https://rss.turfgame.com/490 Round winners

Congratulations to the winners Continue reading ]]> Round winners

Congratulations to the winners of round 131: Welshman from Lounais-Suomi biked home his third Gold and set a new round record of 2.191,595 points, féarglas from Scotland added a fourth silver to her collection and Artful from Scotland turfed home his first while happily exploring new places. Well done mates!


Bonanza 2021

If you have not already booked the date, this year's Bonanza will be held in Örebro on Saturday the 4th of September. More information will be available at the end of June, so keep an eye on the home page :)


Midnight Classic for the 8th time in Umeå - 12th - 13th of June

This long-running event goes over two days, and yet is the normal 2 hour length. It starts at 11 pm on Saturday and finish at 1 am on Sunday. It takes advantage of the lovely light summer nights in Northern Sweden. If you don't know what to do this Saturday, head to Umeå :)

https://turfvasterbotten.files.wordpress.com/2021/05/inbjudan-till-midnight-classic-2021-1.pdf


Göteborg Open -3rd of July, also for the 8th time!

Another long-running event is set for the middle of the summer on the west coast of Sweden. Why not plan to spend 2 hours of your vacation this year competing by foot or by bike with other turfers?

https://www.turfgoteborg.se/2021/03/28/gbg-open-2021/


Both events are following the guidelines for a Corona safe get-together and there will, unfortunately, be very limited social time.


Thoughts from a new zone maker

Turf insider interviewed StarDust, one of the first zone makers in the last issue. This time one of our newest zone makers have answered some questions: inda7 is located in Umeå, Västerbotten.

When did you take your first zone?

18th of March 2014.

What part does Turf play in your life?

Turf is always included daily in some way and the activity varies according to the season, so everything between only taking the home zone and to holiday planning.

How did it happen, you becoming a zone maker?

I was asked if it could be something for me and I answered yes.

How was the training?

Very instructive and with a good set-up.

What was the biggest surprise during your 'zone maker training'?

That a small rectangle on a screen can get so much criticism ;)

Are you looking at zones differently today? If yes, in what way?

Yes, I have more of a "here there should have been a zone" in focus.

What is the most important aspect of making a good zone to you?

That the zone is placed in a place that many people want to visit.


All the new zone makers started out by helping out in the UK and Germany and then got a chance at some areas in Sweden. inda7 did very well with placing zones in my home area of Uppsala, two on my daily route to work - she read old posts in the Forum, so no unwarranted nudges from me ;) The zones she made during April in Uppsala are highly appreciated and visited, toting take points of 65, 80 and 95. So I can attest she is living up to her idea of the most important aspect of zone making: placing them in places many turfers visit!


Let's talk about Abuse – the high-lights

Some years ago, Turf Insider had an in-depth piece about abuse in Turf. Sometimes it is good to re-use old texts and remind the community about how not to behave.

Abuse is when turfers take advantage of the game in a negative way and break the few rules that exist. Since Turf Crew are not all-seeing, any turfer that discover a rule violation can write to abuse@turfgame.comDo not blame or question the behaviour of a specific turfer on social media or in other public forums, since it rarely comes with any good, but could be devastating if the accused was not doing anything wrong. Report your suspicion to the abuse-mail. Different actions can be taken by Turf Crew depending on the kind of abuse and in some cases an assessment has to be done with regards to how serious the violation is and if it is a repeat offence.


The most severe rule violation is ”gps spoofing” where the turfer is fooling the game to believe the gps of the phone (and the turfer) is in a specific zone while being somewhere else, usually at home by a computer. This is often done by newbies excited about trying their 'hacking' skills. This kind of abuse always result in the account being shut down/banned.


Unsuitable Turf nicks are changed by Turf Crew when brought to the attention of Turf Crew via the abuse-mail and the turfer is informed by e-mail about why the nick was inappropriate.


Another kind of abuse that can lead to repercussions are foul language in the chats in the Turf app. The first step is usually a short temporary chat-ban (the turfer can still use the app and take zones, but can no longer write in the chats). If a short temporary chat-ban is not enough to deter the turfer from abusing the chat privilegas, a longer chat-ban is put in place, sometimes lasting 'forever'. In really severe cases, the account can be shut down. Turf Crew can also ”clean” the different Turf chats by removing the foul language if it is deemed necessary. Again, Turf Crew is not all-seeing, so if your think your chats are in need of cleaning up, e-mail the abuse-mail.


Personal Turf goals

We can not all aim for the Gold medal in every round. At least I have never been tempted to spend most of my waking hours every day for four or five weeks on my bike. So I set other goals for myself and my every-day turfing. Because it is something I do every day. For me Turf is the best daily-exercize motivator, and I bike to and from work in all kinds of weather. About one hour in the morning and 30 min after work, since I am a morning person and after work I am hungry and want dinner :)


For quite some time I have been working towards 100.000 takes by going for at least 50 takes per day and last round I finally reached this goal, after 7 years, 2 months and 2 days making it an average of 38 takes per day since I started turfing. That does not sound so hard, does it? ;) I am lucky that I have plenty of zones on my way to and from work, and I also have several different routes I can take if the zones are blocked.


Another goal of mine is to take at least 50 unique zones every round, in average over the year. It is much easier to achieve this goal during summer when the weather is nice and you often go on 1-2 day trips to near-by towns. When I started out, one goal was to take a unique zone each session...this became hard already after a few weeks ;)


Staying put in League 5 has for a long time also been a round goal for me. It is becoming harder and harder. One year ago, scoring 25.000 points per week was more than enough to be 'safe' from being demoted to Leage 6. This is no longer the case, in more series in League 5, you will need at least 50.000 points per week to be sort-of safe. You can always be unlucky and end up in a series where everyone turfs like the devil and then it is what it is.


After periods of extended sick leave and inability to Turf, the goals have been lower. That is the beauty of Turf, we can set our own goals accordingly to our life situation and where we live, work and play.


Report issues in English, please!

Since the beginning of this year, we have international zone makers in Turf Crew and since it is the zone makers that attend to the zone issues, please try to write your issue in English, even if it is located in a non-English speaking country. Many of you already do, so keep up the good work!


Did you know...

...that during round 131 a total of 9491 new Turf accounts were created world wide? 4984 of these took at least one zone. The top six countries with newbies were Sweden (4750), The UK (101), Finland (60),  USA (27) and Norway and Denmark (both 16),


Turfa lugnt!/Safe turfing!



//Munin



...if you want to contribute to future Turf Insiders, send your story to insider@turfgame.com :)

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May https://turfgame.com/?feedid=473 Mon, 10 May 2021 10:00:56 +0000 https://rss.turfgame.com/473 Round Continue reading ]]> Round winners

Congratulations to the winners of round 130: Welshman from Lounais-Suomi biked home his second Gold, féarglas from Scotland celebrated Scotland's Region Battle win in March with another Silver medal and Király from Skåne took his fifth Bronze medal. Well done mates!


Voting for Turf Awards 2020 has now ended

In total, we received 966 votes divided on the four categories, Thanks to all 286 turfers who took part in the vote. The result will be announced at the Bonanza in Örebro on September 4. Registration for the Bonanza will open on the 20th of June, more information about how and where to register will follow!


Open Canoe Turf Event in Kalmar - August 14th

Kalmar Turf Association has organized popular canoe Turf events in 2015 and 2017. Now it´s time again. On August 14, an open event will be organized with requirment for registration in advance. We compete in pairs with one phone. Canoes and life jackets are available for rent for a low price. Invitation with registration form is available at www.kalmarturf.se Welcome!


What about those Minnesota turfers?

Some Swedish turfers have recently noticed increased activity in the big country to the west, and zones have also been added to the Twin Cities of Minneapolis and St Paul. Here's a short input from woody:

"Turf play was kick started here in late December with the appearance of the BBC article about féarglas . Through the cold, winter months the game slowly grew in both the number of players and zones. Now spring has arrived and we have completed four rounds with four different region winners: danmarstp, hotbike, woody, and magikmama. Other players in contention each round include MtkaHek, fluteswedie and kelih, and it is no surprise that they are also at the top of the region this round. At the beginning of the round magikmama told me her goal was to score 250,000 points. She surpassed that and finished near the top 100 in the world rankings. It has been fun to watch the number of zones grow, learn game play and explore new areas. In the coming months we will work to attract more new Turfers. I also hope to see our first Turf event."

I am sure we will hear and see more of these crazy American turfers in the future! 


The first zone maker?

Zone makers have been around Turf almost as long as the game app itself. Doh, since what would Turf be without the zones? Yeah, I know...however, in the beginning the developers themselves made the zones, and because they were the developers I don't want to call them zone makers as well. Then along came StarDust, possibly the oldest (in Turf years) still active zone maker in Turf Crew today. I thought it would be fun to hear from him, so I mailed him some questions and here are his answers:


So StarDust, you are one of the very first zone makers in Turf. Do you remember the first zone you made? Where is it located?

I don't remember the town, but it was part of a test to see that I understood the ZCT (Zone Creation Tool). Looking at urbangeeks map tool and narrowing down the timeline, I think it might have been Sollefteå. (ed. the ZCT has evolved into the ZE, Zone Editor, today, but both abbreviations are being used). 


How did it happen, you becoming a zone maker? Did you know Drassen or Sim, the developers of Turf?

Back in 2011 when I became a zone maker there weren't many official zone makers. As far as I can remember it was only Drassen and jossan that were making zones back then. I was just an avid turfer and was invited to a Google Talk chat (Google Talk became Hangouts later) where some other active players were chatting about everything. Back then Drassen was quite active in the chat so I just asked him if I could be a zone maker since I saw that there was a big lack of zones pretty much everywhere in Sweden except for Stockholm and perhaps Gothenburg (and interestingly enough also Västerås).

Fun fact, that chat still exists but now in Hangouts with some of the original turfers from the old chat.


Today we have a 'zone maker education' with a test, how were you introduced to zone making? Did the zone making tool look and work the same as today? Has the zone making tool undergone any changes, for better or worse?

When I started I got to build five zones or so that were inspected by Drassen, that was pretty much it. The ZCT was a lot more basic back then, the radius around the zones I remember was my idea, that made it a whole lot easier to make sure the distance between the zones were correct. Back then you put the tp and pph in manually and there was little or no automation in the points changing after each round. The zone maker had to decide how much the zone was worth according to the position. I really can't see that anything has actually gotten worse with the ZCT, SunYour did a great job evolving it into what it is today.


How has zone making changed over the years? I remember from our trip to Denmark a few years ago that the zones often was placed next to a bike path, not on it as we are used to today. When did this shift happen?

Interesting question! I think it was in 2012, Västerås was quite a ghost town until then but afterwards it exploded with turfers. People from there started complaining about lawns getting muddy, tire tracks from bikes where destroying the grass. I was reluctant to change this at first since we had a policy that the zones should blend into the surrounding, they were literally supposed to be placed on lawns and avoid streets and paths. Eventually I came to the conclusion that this was probably for the best and me and blabert had quite the work to be done, rebuilding zones. I think that for the "turf historian" there is a lot to read about that in the forum.


What has been the most rewarding part over the years with being a zone maker?

I love that I had the chance to contribute to the game, especially at such an early stage. I had the chance to build important and central zones, unlike today where zones already exist in such places. It has become much more difficult to build zones in established countries such as Sweden. It has also been a blast to see the game evolve from competing with two or three people in Uppsala to the hundreds that are active daily. There is so much happening around Turf with (pre-corona) meetups in restaurants and pubs, competitions and also activity in schools.


What is the most important aspect of making a good zone to you?

There are two types of zones, interesting ones and then there are filler zones. The latter is necessary but sometimes it's difficult to find a reason to build a zone in a particular place other than activity. I think striving to always make a zone interesting by just giving it some extra time looking at the map, street view and other things is the most important aspect.


What would you wish for that would make zone making easier?

I would love to see a way for turfers to write a short comment about their zone suggestion (ed. In the Turf app). I would also have loved to see a way to vote on suggestions and perhaps also comment on other turfers' suggestions.


Thank you StarDust for answering my questions and sharing some of the history of zone making with Turf insider!


Turf music by RikerBiker

A few weeks ago the turfer RikerBiker shared his latest Turf-song, ”My Turf and Territory (zone taken)” on Facebook in the group "Turf - Outdoor addiction". RikerBiker has been producing music since the late 1990s and has been a turfer since 2017. In his own words: 


”Turf is a concept in Hip Hop and Gangsta Rap culture for the area that various groups in mainly the black residential areas in American suburbs rule over. Since the basic concept in Turf is to take over and own as many zones as possible, this was the reason I chose to do a Hip Hop song this time. In 2019, I did an RnB song called "Knew we were meant to be" which is really about me and the love for Turf as such and the longing you feel before taking that zone that right now feels unattainable. I have also made the completely hilarious LusseTurf Anthem which is based on existing Christmas music which I put a new music loop on top of and created a completely new dubstep inspired song. This song is partly completely "crazy" but so is also the Lusseturf event so I thought it fit well.” 


You can find his Turf songs HERE. New Turf music is being produced as I write this, so I hope you will enjoy the tunes, old and new!


Announcement

Ollals have officially joined Turf Crew to support and promote Turf within the Scout community. In 2022 a Turf Scout event with over 1000 participants is planned in Sweden.


Pimp your Zone

Lately, at least two zones in Uppsala have been 'pimped' by turfers with flowers to brighten up the experience for other turfers. Mumsige and allinug have planted daffodils in BurgarDoft, located on a tiny strip of land between two industrial plots in the northern part of Uppsala. MrXzon has dedicated time, daffodil bulbs, seeds and water to brighten up his 'home zone' ”Tralala” in the southern parts of Uppsala. Here's hoping we'll see more of this around!



Turfa lugnt!/Safe turfing!


//Munin


...if you want to contribute to future Turf Insiders, send your story to insider@turfgame.com :)

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April https://turfgame.com/?feedid=459 Sat, 10 Apr 2021 15:10:10 +0000 https://rss.turfgame.com/459

Round winnersContinue reading ]]>

Round winners

Congratulations to the winners of round 129: Welshman from Lounais-Suomi biked home his first Gold, rumour has it he was just 'cruising along' the last week with a lead of over 100.000 points to cambla from Scotland who took home the Silver medal and Cruachan from Scotland who took the Bronze medal, all three turfed home more than one million points. Well done mates!


Turf Award 2021

It is time to vote for your favorites in Turf Award 2020. Voting is open until the end of April, but don't wait, click HERE and cast your vote in the four different categories. Turfers from four different countries are nominated and the winners will be announced at the Bonanza in September. Hopefully we will be able to meet and greet with the winners, and if that is not possible, we hope they will be showing up digitally :)

Open Event in Linköping 24th of April

Turf Östergötland welcomes everyone to its first open event ever 24 april 2021. The event will be covid-19 secured and the location is in Linköping. Turf Östergötland's goal is to host the Bonanza in the future, the event will be a good practice for the club and the non-local turfers will be familiar with the Bonanza area ;) Read more at turfostergotland.se


Region Battle: Scotland vs Skåne

In March Region Scotland was battling Region Skåne during four weeks, and the battle could be followed at Turfportalen. At first it looked like Skåne would win, but then it turned around and in the end Scotland won with a landslide, the Region battle ended with the score of 11-4 to the Scots. Very well done, mates!

I was checking the score at regular intervals during the battle, as I am sure the following turfers did ;) First out is Kingslayer with his account of the battle, from the point of view of Team Skåne:


And that’s the end of the first intergalactic turf challenge ever! Or at least that’s how it felt for us in Skåne. Despite a day with snow we started out good with a 2-1 win first week, we even won on takes which is unheard of! Second week we got to see what the Scottish turfers are made of when they crushed us 3-0. Third week we came back again after great team work the last hours before the Sunday week break which gave us 2-1 again. Down 4-5 before the last week. Last week we “just” needed win on takes and round unique to win the whole competition. 


The week started pretty good for us, we got a distinct lead on round unique and played even on takes up until the Horrible Saturday. The last 48 hours the Scots decided sleep is for the weak and kept turfing through the nights. We had one man - Tveskägg - who was determined to meet them head on in the darkness, but one man alone cannot stop a hord of Celtic warriors... The Scotts were unearthly in the end and beat us fair and square 11-4. Congrats to the fighting Scottish men and women who made this a memorable event for us. As usual we have gained personal bests, new medals and generally overachieved. And we have had fun at the same time. Just as a regional competition should be.”


CSL has written Team Scotland's account of the battle:

Well, that was a surprise! Never in our wildest dreams did we expect to beat Skåne. Week 1 brought Skåne 2 points to Scotland’s 1 point, and we thought that would be the shape of things to come. But then in Week 2, we had much better weather and won all 3 categories, making it Scotland 4, Skåne 2. In Week 3 we worked very hard, but we couldn’t quite match them, and the score moved to Scotland 5, Skåne 4.


The final week saw much debate about strategy – should we concentrate on takes and give up on round uniques? Opinions varied, and some continued to seek round uniques. The Easter weekend meant that more people were free, and some very effective hamster wheels were set up in several places, which worked very well. Although there were some exhausted Turfers on Sunday morning, they were still chasing round uniques, and overtook in this category in the very last minutes. Thanks to Skåne for being such formidable opponents!



Most of the people in Team Scotland didn’t know one another beforehand, but we’ve exchanged lots of chat and certainly feel as though we know one another now. The competition was exciting and fun, as Kingslayer promised us, and everyone seems to have enjoyed it, winning many medals, and most people moved up several ranks too. I asked some people from different parts of Scotland for comments, and here’s a selection:


BradC, Stirling: “Dunblane has been described as ‘the Västerås of Scotland’, in that it is a small area so over-stuffed with eager Turfers that PPH is meaningless; if you can hang on to a zone for a whole hour in Dunblane, it is a red letter day! This did mean that there was never a problem finding zones to take, and our newness to the sport meant that our zones still had high enough take points to allow us to punch above our weight. If only it wasn't so hilly. We were proud to boast several of the busiest zones in the world during the competition. The fourth-busiest zone, TheLostZone, only existed for three of those four weeks!”


andypatqos, Renfrewshire: “I walked 305 km over 65 hours, most of this with my dog, and some with my wife and kids too. Cyclists will have much bigger figures I guess but for various reasons, mainly the dog, regular cycling doesn’t work for me. Being broadly restricted to Renfrewshire meant some limitations. Met several new Turfers on the way - this year has been the first in 7 that I’ve ever been blocked by someone other than CSL!”


Jarv, East Lothian: “Our area was managed by a small team of walkers and cyclists including an additional non-team Scotland member who cleared zones frantically. Initially the plan was to ‘take some zones and then take some more’. However, strategy evolved significantly over the month. WhatsApp was used heavily to arrange zone clearances, routes and hamster wheels, to share photos and to provide massive encouragement. As time went on, Turfing hours increased significantly. Medals, including World bronze medal for our very own Cruachan, accumulated at an ever-increasing rate, and were celebrated by all. All in all, the team survived the month largely unscathed and are looking forward to the next time!”


Finreir, Scottish Borders: “The Covid restrictions on travel hampered Borders Turfers, and the rules on essential and allowed travel into other areas were assessed and utilised continuously. We soon ran out of easy uniques. Team efforts were centred on the Tweed valley around Peebles, and the Border Abbey towns of Melrose, Kelso and Jedburgh were also raided regularly. Zones were hard won on the steep heights of Glentress and Cademuir forests and wheels performed on the flatter valley floor at Peebles, with great team work achieved.”


tunahunter, East Dunbartonshire: “In areas, like ours, where Turf is less well-established, the contest encouraged us to broaden our horizons. Each of us explored new areas (often in darkness), either first thing in the morning or last thing at night. We connected with nearby Turfers, discussing teamwork and strategy. And thanks to the advice and support of more experienced Turfers in Team Scotland, we really honed our Turfing skills, culminating in a triangular hamster wheel around our town in the final week. It was a great experience to play our part in Team Scotland’s victory. One of the keys to our success was the camaraderie in the team. There were WhatsApp chats full of encouragement, determination, and help with solving problems like how to get to specific zones or where to get best GPS signal!”


klepto7up, Aberdeen: “The Turf match was a wonderful journey where I discovered great places, made new friends and discovered the camaraderie, support and team spirit in the Scottish team was phenomenal.”


CaleZONEian, South Lanarkshire: “Taking part was a great experience and it allowed us to meet new Turfers (virtually and in person). We had to work together to defeat a more experienced and established team. Turf is very popular on the east coast but less so on the west so we didn't have the numbers playing in our area but we did work together and support each other. I cycled over 1600 km during the contest and more than doubled my points target for the round.”


Hodge, Midlothian: “We had a very keen band of local Turfers. We generally kept most areas in Team Scotland hands through the month, no mean feat when you consider distance between the main areas. As the month progressed we also had a lot of other visitors, seeking round uniques. This has left our TP position down for April with adjusted PPH too, with a number of zones now at +6/110, particularly around Penicuik (where we had 3 very active town residents), something which will no doubt settle down as we take it slightly more gently than during the competition.”


Personally I quite miss sitting down at 9 pm to plan my evening trip round zones held by non-Team Scotland Turfers. I saw quite a lot of wildlife on these forays too. Roll on September!”


There you have it, the winners of this March battle is ready to take on the Turf World again in September. Will they manage a double win, just like Uppsala did last year? First a win in a one-on-one Region battle (check!) and then a second win in the Multi Region battle we all hope MaXi will arrange again this year.


What is very clear, is that both teams had lots of fun, got to know each other better and turfed like crazy! Here's hoping we will see teams from more countries signing up for the Multi Region battle in September.


Turfa lugnt!/Safe turfing!


//Munin


...if you want to contribute to future Turf Insiders, send your story to insider@turfgame.com :)

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Open Event in Linköping 24th of April 2021 https://turfgame.com/?feedid=457 Wed, 07 Apr 2021 17:47:11 +0000 https://rss.turfgame.com/457 Turf Östergötland welcome everyone to its first open event ever 24 april 2021.

The event will be covid-19 secured and the location is in Link Continue reading ]]> Turf Östergötland welcome everyone to its first open event ever 24 april 2021.

The event will be covid-19 secured and the location is in Linköping.

Our goal is to host the Bonanza in the future, the event will be a good practice for us and you will be familiar with a Bonanza area

Read more on turfostergotland.se

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Vote for Turf Award 2020 https://turfgame.com/?feedid=452 Fri, 02 Apr 2021 07:52:19 +0000 https://rss.turfgame.com/452

< Continue reading ]]>





The finalists for Turf Award 2020 have been selected from all the nominations. Now it is up to the Turf community to cast their votes and decide who will win theprestigious awards. Vote here

The voting form is open April 1-30, 2021. You can only cast one vote per category.

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March https://turfgame.com/?feedid=442 Mon, 15 Mar 2021 15:39:20 +0000 https://rss.turfgame.com/442 Round winners Continue reading ]]> Round winners

Congratulations to the winners of round 128: Király from Skåne added one more Gold to his collection,Welshman from Lounais-Suomi turfed home his first silver andogirlSROC from North West England secured the her first bronze.Well done, mates! Seven turfers on Top Ten when this round ended, were not from Sweden, things are definitely changing! This for sure is proof that the Turf world is expanding and it makes me happy :)


Turf Award 2021

The nomination process is over for Turf Awards 2020and the nominations will be processed and at the end of March the voting for each Turf Award will open. When and how to vote will be posted on Turfs homepage.


Turf in Scouting

Turf Insider got an e-mail from the turfer responsible for introducing Turf in the Scouting world:


“My name is Olle Alsén with the turf nick ollals and I have Turfed for some five years and have been an active scout all my life. If you want to get in touch with me, please use the email scoutevent@turfgame.com. Turf is slowly becoming a part of Scouting in Sweden and the UK. Turf was planned as a program activity for the Swedish national summer Scout camp 2021. It will still happen, but the big camp is moved to 2022 due to Covid-19. If everything works well, we will have 1000 or more scouts turfing outside of Kristianstad during the camp next year. I tried to introduce Turf to worldwide scouting at the last World Scout Jamboree in 2019 in the US at the Summit Bechtel Reserve https://www.summitbsa.org/ but was not successful. It is a marvellous place. There are still 4 turf zones at the site which happens to be the biggest campsite owned by Boys Scouts of America with a capacity of 55 000 participants at the same time. I will keep trying to introduce it there through local leaders and staff. If anybody reading this is active as a leader at the camp or living nearby, please get in touch with me.


On a smaller scale turfing is becoming part of the local program in some Swedish scout groups. During 2021 some 10 leaders have asked for a log in so they can create private events for their groups. Again, Covid-19 has made some of them wait until the there is less risk of spreading the virus when instructing and when gathering the scouts before and after the event. I expect some of scout events will take place during late spring or summer. In Scotland, a bigger private event for teenagers is planned for May this year and they have support from the orienteering club active in turfing there. I also expect that some scout troops will have Turf as part of their summer camp. I know of some scout groups who have already had private events at camps organized by an experienced turfer, probably a teacher or a highly active turfer who have got the log-in from school events.


I have developed a support document for scout leaders who want to create an event and I am also prepared to support leaders who want to try Turf as a program activity in their unit. In addition to support scout leaders creating their own private events, I have produced and published in Scouting a program idea on how to use Turf zones to organize what we in Scouting often call “organization exercise”. You get several tasks to perform as a patrol within a limited time period. This is to foster teamwork and leadership. You will find a description in Swedish on this link https://aktivitetsbanken.se/sv/orientering-med-mobil-turf-enkel-version To support creating private events in Sweden I have slightly adapted the common instruction used for all events. Scout leaders can get it by asking me. I will make some small adaptions of the “Turf Quick Card Creating Events” for scouting to support non-Swedish speaking Scouts.”


Anyone can create their own private Turf event. Depending on the target group, there are different people helping you out with instructions and account. If you want to create an event for your birthday, after work or because you've turfed for 5 years, contactevents@turfgame.com. If you are a teacher and wants to use Turf as part of your PE class, contactskolevent@turfgame.com. And if you are active within the Scouting community, contact scoutevent@turfgame.com. It is lots of fun to create and hold your own event, so don't hesitate! It will also give you some insight into how it is to be a zone maker, since you will be creating the zones and naming them. Luckily you won't be handling any issues generated by the participants in your event ;)


Introducing our new Zone Makers

The UK (and German) expansion is continuing and now we have seven brand new zone makers to create the zones needed. Three got their 'Turf Crew' credentials at the end of 2020 and the other four at the beginning of 2021. You heard from the first three giving their view on 2020 in Turf Insider #126. This time I have asked our 'newbies' for their impressions after a few months as zone maker.


KråkanKrax from Åland:

I was happy when I received the request to train as a zone maker, which was both exciting and interesting but also time consuming. A big compliment to my mentor for his patience in helping me along the way and for my assessors/reviewers with "second opinion" and advice which has been a comfort during the training as they have long experience of how to think about where to lay zones. The biggest problem with zone making is not the placement of zones but the name many times and that street view often can be more than 10 years old.


Becoming a zone maker expands on how you look at Turf, it becomes so much more than just "hunting" zones as a turfer. You look at Turf and turfing with new eyes. I have found that I am more interested and curious about turfers where I have made zones than the turfers here at home right now :) I hope that one day I myself will have the opportunity to visit the places where I have placed zones, to see the locations of the zones and maybe meet local turfers and hear what they think. Thank you Turf Crew for letting me join.”


AnneliCH from Skåne:

After a month as a new zone maker, some initial thoughts and reflections have been laid to rest, but new ones appear all the time and that's how it should be, I think. It has been both fun and frustrating during the training. I managed to put some zones in tilted position (editors note: the zone maker tool allows two map positions, tilted and normal. We make zones in the normal view for better positioning of the zones). To come up with zone names that are not taken and not touch some of the buttons in the zone making tool have been a challenge. The fun part is to look for beautiful, famous and odd places, think and figure out names (red: we only have 13 characters to 'play' with and are restricted to letters and numbers) and be part of the Turf Crew "team". I am both proud and grateful that I have been trusted to become a zone maker”


Brellir from Västerbotten:

To be trained as a zone maker has given me an additional dimension of Turf and many nice and helpful colleagues in Turf Crew. Of course, there is a lot to learn both technically and mentally, but an incredibly fun challenge where I am constantly learning new things. Finding interesting, beautiful, different and sometimes just practical places for zones is challenging and sometimes time consuming, but also educational. I have used map and streetview so much in some places, it almost feels like I have been there in reality. Naming the zones can often take the longest time in the process of creating a new zone, and sometimes it is important to think outside the box.”

At the moment our newbies are busy making zones in UK and Germany, and I am sure you will spot them on the map in the cool black C(rew) shirts their Turf avatars can wear. That is if they have time to go turfing ;)


Region Battle: Scotland vs Skåne

In March Region Scotland is batteling Region Skåne during four weeks, so don't be surprised if the Top 100 will be filled with turfers from Scotland and Skåne :) I asked CSL, one of the Scottish players in the region battle to give Turf Insider his toughts before the battle:

When Skåne issued their challenge to us in September 2020, we didn’t know what was involved in a regional competition, and accepted with some trepidation.

In the weeks and months that followed, we found out more, with useful advice and encouragement from Kingslayer and Munin. Contacting people to raise our team was a challenge, and at first I feared the Scotland team would be mostly Edinburgh turfers, but finally it has a good spread of turfers from different areas, including 19 of the current top 20 on the Scotland toplist. Unfortunately the Covid-19 travel restrictions prohibit meeting up with others or travelling far outside our own local authority, so we can’t go and explore elsewhere with other turfers, which is a huge limitation. We can’t socialise either. It sounds a lot of fun – hope we can do this another time.

As predicted, the experience of organising the team has been like herding cats! After a slow start, I was deluged with emails and it was hard to keep on top of all the questions. Our team now has over a hundred members, and is a varied mix. There are established turfers (some of whom are very competitive), there are some new turfers (who are very enthusiastic), and everything in between. All are welcome, of course. There has been lots of discussion about strategy, with widely differing views. I have emphasised that the point is to enjoy the experience. We will see how it goes.

We will do our best, hoping to have lots of fun, and hoping for good weather (here at least) this round! Best wishes to the Skåne team, who I fully expect to soundly beat us. But there have been notable occasions in the past where Scotland has unexpectedly won against all the odds, so who knows?

- CSL”


You can follow the battle at Turfportalen. A Region Battle is a good way to get to know the turfers in your region. With a common goal, it will be easier to go turfing in bad weather and the Assist medals will be pouring in. I bet some of us will be checking up on the battle on a daily basis and maybe even sneak a peak at Turf-TV from the warmth of the couch.


Turfa lugnt!/Safe turfing!


//Munin


...if you want to contribute to future Turf Insiders, send your story to insider@turfgame.com :)

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February https://turfgame.com/?feedid=406 Fri, 12 Feb 2021 22:16:23 +0000 https://rss.turfgame.com/406 Round winners

Congratulations to the winners of ro Continue reading ]]> Round winners

Congratulations to the winners of round 127: KRALJICA from Skåne turfed home her third Gold, Björke from Östergötland turfed home his second Silver and floramcml added a Bronze to his Silver. All medal winners turfed home over 1 million points. Well done, mates! In addition, four turfers on Top Ten this round were not from Sweden, things are changing :)


Turf Bonanza 2021

I am sure many were as disappointed as me when the Turf Bonanza 2020 had to be cancelled last year. Turf Crew is pleased to announce that the newly formed association Örebro Turfers (not to be confused with Örebro Turfförening) will host the world championship in Turf - Turf Bonanza 2021. The event will be held on September 4, in Örebro Sweden. Save the date and book travel/accommodation right away. More information about this long awaited event will be released in springtime. Welcome to Örebro!


Turf Award 2021

Don't forget to nominate your favorites to Turf Awards 2021.Turf Award is awarded to turfers who have made significant or particularly attentive achievements during the previous year, or have been involved in an especially noted or spectacular zone takeover. Candidates are nominated by all turfers who also appoint the winners by voting. Turf Award is handed over to the winners by Turf Crew at the Bonanza banquet in Örebro September 4, 2021. Turf Award will be awarded in the following categories:

  • Best Turf achievement of the year 2020

Awarded to the Turfer who, for example, got the most gold medals, monthly medals, has taken the most zones, unique zones, regions or equivalent in 2020.

  • Turf Star of the Year 2020

Awarded to the Turfer who started turfing as a newbie in 2020 and has made the fastest progress during the year.

  • Turfer of the Year 2020

An open category to nominate a Turfer that exceled in an exemplary way without any connections to an individual Turf performance. This award can be given for anything, for example: efforts to spread Turf, marketing, organizing Turf events or a Turfer who has helped and supported others in a special way.

  • Most Spectacular Zone Takeover of the Year 2020

Awarded to the Turfer, who has completed one of the most notable or spectacular zone takes in 2020.


Nomination procedure

In February 2021, all turfers have the opportunity to submit proposals on who should be nominated for the Turf Award in the different categories. A nomination proposal must include nickname and a brief motivation based on nomination criteria above. Link to the Google forms for proposing candidates can be found here (open up January 26 and closes February 25 2021).


Voting procedure and announcement of winners

In March 2021, Turf Crew nominates a maximum of five candidates in each category. During April all turfers will be given the opportunity to vote for which of the nominees who should be awarded the Turf Award in each category. Link to voting form can be found here (open up April 1 and closes April 30 2021).


Turf Expansion in UK, Germany and the rest of the world

No one can have missed the huge expansion in the UK in the last few months. Turf is also starting to take off in Germany. This has resulted in huge amounts of new zones in these two countries. UK and Germany are official Turf countries, so a major focus lately by the zone makers has been to supply the newbies in these particularly these two countries with zones. Turf was also at the end of 2020 made available to download in over 50 countries it hadn't been available in before. New turfers have been popping up in these countries too, often far away from any zones. A new feature to help these turfers were introduced in the app: a message to the turfer if there were no zones within a couple of kilometers, to write to Turf Crew and ask for zones in their area. About 20 such requests have been made and acted upon. Some newbies have found the Forum and asked for zones there. It also became a bit of a sport among the zone makers to watch Turf-TV and spot newbies in zoneless areas and give them a zone or ten ;)


Because of the expansion, all hands on deck were required and because zone making is 100% volunteer work, several zone makers have focused on UK and Germany (and the rest of the world) instead of the Swedish zone allotment during December 2020 to February 2021. But rest assured, the zone allotments will be met, albeit later in 2021. Turf Crew has also been busy training seven new zone makers from three different countries, again with special focus on UK and Germany. The enthusiasm among our new zone makers is great to see! Soon we will let some of them loose in Sweden too, and you might already have seen some of them sporting the black C(rew) shirt in the app.


Turf in Social Media

Once upon a long time ago, Drassen (one of the founders of Turf), set up a Facebook group named Turf, with Turf Crew as moderators. It has now been renamed and sports the lovely name ”Turf – Outdoor Addiction”. This is as official as a Facebook group can be for the International Turf community. Any language is welcome for posts, but most are in Swedish since for almost 10 years, Turf has been predominately played in Sweden or by Swedes living abroad. New rules were introduced in December to some members chagrin, Turf Crew is still trying them out. With over 25 moderators, the group needs some basic rules to hold on to. There are loads of other Turf groups on Facebook; for countries, regions or special interests.


Turf also has other official accounts in other social media:

https://www.facebook.com/Turfthegame

https://instagram.com/turfcrew

https://twitter.com/turf_game

Some less active than others ;)


Suggesting Zones in the Forum

Suggesting zones in the Forum is one of the main roads to get the attention of a zone maker. The other being using the suggestion button (light bulb) in the Turf app to suggest good spots for new zones. But remember, these are only suggestions, and a great way to help zone makers not familiar with your area to find those extra special spots. The better you promote it, often by a post in the Forum, the more likely a zone maker will see it and act upon it. But zone makers are under no obligation whatsoever to make your zone suggestion become a reality. There is no general policy about zone making in non-Turf countries, it happens now and then when someone 'gets a feeling'.


Zone makers are like cats, difficult to tell them what to do and even though some are public about their 'job', others are not and this wish to be somewhat anonymous needs to be respected. It is never ok to contact a zone maker privately. Contact zone makers via public channels, such as the Turf Forum or the issue system. Zone makers get only the fancy black C(rew) shirt in the Turf app as thanks for the many hours of work they put in for the Turf community. It's not only about making those zones, you know. Turf Crew handles issues, organizes the Turf Award, act on abuse complaints, organizes school Events, look after the TurfWiki, warded and the Forum, and write the monthly Turf Insider ;)


Turf divides the world into Country (Sweden), Region (Västerbotten) and Area (Umeå). In Sweden, the Areas are our municipalities. In other countries the areas can be defined differently. The areas are 'discovered' when a zone is placed in the zone making tool, and for example in Northern Ireland, a new area is 'discovered' every second zone, so the algorithm defining the area still needs some work. 


The Turf Forum has now been equipped with subgroups for each Region in the Official Turf countries. For the best result when you post about your zone suggestions in the Forum, find the country and region, then write the town and area (”kommun” in Swedish) in the title of your post. In Sweden, we have for as long as I've been zone maker, had ”kommunansvar”/”municipality (area) responsibility” for zone making and we change every four months. We no longer have region responsibility in Sweden, if someone still remembers those old days. In other countries, due to much less activity, zone makers have had the same region for a longer time period, some even have entire countries(!). That is about to change, I've been told. With more zone makers, we can rotate responsibilities abroad as well as in Sweden. This will assure zones of every variety, since each zone maker has their own flair when it comes to making zones :)


So, to recap: apply for an account at Turf Forum, find your country section of interest, find the Zones section, find the Region you want to make a zone suggestion in and write a post asking nicely for zones in your specific area. The post should as a minimum have a title with town and area in it so that the zone maker responsible for that area can easily find it. If you suggest one zone or many, does not matter so much, but we like zone suggestions with a bit of local history. Pictures are nice, but difficult to upload in the forum, add a link instead if you can :)


A zone maker colleague of mine thinks the optimal zone suggestion contains: location (on a map or with coordinates, or a link to eg open street map. Personally, I want the name of the closest existing zone so I can easily look for it in the zone making tool), a nice motivation for the zone, a picture or historical map and please, please a local name suggestion of a maximum of 13 characters. Local names are often tied nicely to the location and are less likely to already exist somewhere else.


Digital Turf Meetings

For lots of turfers the monthly or even weekly Turf get-togethers such as Turf Fika, Turf Beer or Turf Brunch came to a more or less abrupt end with the Covid-19 pandemic last year. Instead some turfers are now gathering online, in digital meetings. In Uppsala and Västmanland the monthly get-together was digital in January. I asked two turfers to contribute with their take on digital meetings. Enjoy!


Safe board meetings during a pandemic by Ninetail, Umeå, Västerbotten

In order to have as broad a geographical representation as possible, the board of Turf Västerbotten consists of turfers from Umeå, Skellefteå and Öravan. This means that even before the pandemic struck, some of us either had to travel far or participate via cell phone or using other solutions. If you have participated in a meeting via cell phone, you know that it does not work perfectly. It became even more difficult when at the beginning of the pandemic we switched to keeping at least two chairs distance between all meeting participants - it simply became impossible to place the cell phone so that everyone could hear and be heard.


When firmer restrictions were imposed in Sweden, we realized that it was time to try to find a more sustainable solution. We chose Microsoft Teams, as the service offers both document storage and opportunity for digital meetings. The most recent board meetings have been completely digital and the technology has worked well. The degree of participation in the meetings has increased as no one needs to travel and you can participate even if you have symptoms. In fact, it has also become easier to work with common documents during meetings. One problem that remains to be solved is how to sign physical documents. For the time being, we have appointed members to check the minutes who live close to each other so that they can meet afterwards. Preparations are currently underway for the annual meeting. This will also be digital this year. Hopefully this means that even more turfers from all over the region have the opportunity to participate - our goal is to be an association for the whole region of Västerbotten. There is certainly much more you can do digitally as well, even if what we probably long for most is to be able to meet physically and eat or turf together.


Report from Digital Turf meeting in Uppsala by mpmoke

There has been few Turf meetings in Uppsala during 2020 due to the pandemic and it is sorely  missed. As a turfer, you want to meet up with your fellow turfers now and then over brunch, coffee or a beer, and dive into nerdy Turf talk, share zone shots, talk about purple coloring of the zones in warded, missions, celebrate region round winners, welcome new turfers and hang out with all the turfers! Many have had digital meetings with work, school, relatives and friends and why not do it with the whole Turf gang?! I myself am most used to Zoom and think it has worked best of the programs I have tried. To avoid people talking in each other's mouths and having some kind of control, a simple program was suggested where we would have a simple quiz game, someone would tell us about odd zone takes. The entire Turf meeting would be limited to about 1 hour. The invitation was made via our local Hangout and a post in the local Facebook group Turf Uppsala.


Wednesday 13 January came around and the start time was 19. 14 connected and with some there were several people, a total of 17 people. Then there were some who logged in quickly as well. I heard and saw everyone but some had trouble hearing some others, most likely due to settings or odd operating systems. I did a slide show from Turf meetings and Bonanza from as early as 2013. We identified turfers and were amazed that many have hung around for such a long time. Others were identified as former turfers. After about an hour and a half, the participants thought it was appropriate to round off this first digital Turf meeting in Uppsala.


Overall, I think it was a successful and pleasant Turf meeting. Well worth repeating. What you can think of is to try to test sound and image before the meeting, turn off the mic when you do not intend to talk to avoid drowning out those who talk, have an agenda for the meeting to steer up a little and get people started. We used Zoom, but it may be worth trying other programs as well. The main thing is that we met in some way and kept the geek going until we can meet for real again when the pandemic has blown over. 


Upcoming Region Battle in March

In March Region Scotland will battle Region Skåne during four weeks, so don't be surprised if the Top 100 will be filled with turfers from Scotland and Skåne :) The Region teams and battle can be followed on turfportalen.se. Read more here about the set up. May the best team win!


Turfa lugnt!/Safe turfing!


//Munin


...if you want to contribute to future Turf Insiders, send your story to insider@turfgame.com :)

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BONANZA 2021 https://turfgame.com/?feedid=404 Sun, 07 Feb 2021 19:21:16 +0000 https://rss.turfgame.com/404 Turf Crew is pleased to announce that the newly formed association Örebro Turfers (not to be confused with Örebro Turfförening) will host the unofficial w Continue reading ]]> Turf Crew is pleased to announce that the newly formed association Örebro Turfers (not to be confused with Örebro Turfförening) will host the unofficial world championship in Turf - Turf Bonanza 2021. The event will be held on September 4, in Örebro Sweden. Save the date and book travel/accommodation already now. More information about this long awaited event will be released in springtime. Welcome to Örebro!

Örebro Turfers in cooperation with Turf Crew


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Turf Awards 2020 https://turfgame.com/?feedid=395 Tue, 26 Jan 2021 15:05:14 +0000 https://rss.turfgame.com/395 Bild

Turf Award is awarded to turfers w Continue reading ]]> Bild

Turf Award is awarded to turfers who have made significant or particularly attentive achievements during the previous year, or have been involved in an especially noted or spectacular zone takeover.

Candidates are nominated by all turfers who also can participate in the final voting round to appoint the winners. Turf Award is handed over to the winners by Turf Crew at the Bonanza banquet in Örebro September 4, 2021. Turf Award will be awarded in the following categories:


  • Best Turf achievement of the year 2020

Awarded to the Turfer who, for example, got the most gold medals, monthly medals, has taken the most zones, unique zones, regions or equivalent in 2020.


  • Turf Star of the Year 2020

Awarded to the Turfer who started turfing as a newbie in 2020 and has made the fastest progress during the year.


  • Turfer of the Year 2020

An open category to nominate a Turfer that exceled in an exemplary way without any connections to an individual Turf performance. This award can be given for anything, for example: efforts to spread Turf, marketing, organizing Turf events or a Turfer who has helped and supported others in a special way.


  • Most Spectacular Zone Takeover of the Year 2020

Awarded to the Turfer, who has completed one of the most notable or spectacular zone takes in 2020.


Nomination procedure

In February 2021, all turfers have the opportunity to submit proposals on who should be nominated for the Turf Award in the different categories. A nomination proposal must include nickname and a brief motivation based on nomination criteria abowe. Link to the Google forms for proposing candidates can be found here (open up January 26 and closes February 25 2021): 

https://forms.gle/FLCxmn5wfUMMdKzM6


Voting procedure and announcement of winners

In March 2021, Turf Crew nominates a maximum of five candidates in each category. During April all turfers will be given the opportunity to vote for which of the nominees who should be awarded the Turf Award in each category. Link to voting form can be found here (open up April 1 and closes April 30 2021): 

https://goo.gl/forms/VAFenyDiz6W7LoPv2

The voting score determines who will be the winner of Turf Award. During the Bonanza Banquet in Örebro on September 4, 2021 the winners will be announced. If the prize winner is physically present they will have the opportunity to leave a short comment.


MasterOfTurf

Event coordinator

Turf Crew

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January https://turfgame.com/?feedid=380 Thu, 07 Jan 2021 15:03:37 +0000 https://rss.turfgame.com/380 Round winners

Congratulations to the winners of round 126: Jonte67 from Continue reading ]]> Round winners

Congratulations to the winners of round 126: Jonte67 from Skåne went straight for the Gold medal without stopping for a Silver or a Bronze, féarglas from Scotland biked home her second silver and Björke from Östergötland turfed home a thrid bronze to his collection. Well done, mates!


Turf Forum Issue

If you registered or used the Turf forum when it had a "white and blue" design in the beginning of January, you need to re-register or re-post. This is because we had to do a roll-back due to technical issues. Work is being done to upgrade the Forum, so bear with us on the somewhat bumpy road to a future Turf Forum :)


2020 Flashback

2020 has been a different year, largely due to the Covid-19 pandemic sweeping over the world. For most of us, life changed in big and small ways. I am myself very glad that I've had Turf to keep me busy when my other hobbies such as swing dancing, going to concerts and the cinema were cancelled. Turf has been a great way to keep healthy, both mentally and physically. When the pandemic hit in early March, I was very busy co-captaining the Region Uppsala team towards a win against Region Östergötland in my very first Region Battle. Especially turfers age 70+ felt that Turf was really what kept them going at the start of the pandemic, it gave them both a social dimension of at least being able to interact on the Turf map and in social media with others and the very necessary physical activity that kept them from feeling too isolated in their own homes. All in all, it has been a lot of focus on Turf this year in my life. Apart from the daily to-and-from-work Turf sessions, I have explored many small and not-so-small Swedish cities on day- and weekend trips with my turfing partner, our bikes and our cat :)


Covid-19 is the main reason Turf has literally EXPLODED in the UK during the later half of 2020, I don't think any active turfer this year has missed this. My fellow Crew member Kingslayer will tell us more about this in his contribution to this Turf insider. There has been time for outdoor adventures, as Shitty will tell in his contribution. As a result of the heavy increase of turfers in the UK, we have increased our zone maker group and three of the newbies together with three 'oldies' have supplied me with their positive highlight(s) of 2020. Enjoy!


Turf celebrated ten years in July 2020. This was celebrated with a special ”Cake day” medal and a new feature for supporters only, a party hat, if you took at least ten zones on July 10th, Turf's birthday. I think I am more fond of the party hat than the medal. The hat comes on most Fridays to celebrate the weekend is here :)


Finally Calmare1 will write about an often forgotten feature of Turf, but just as important: The school events, where PE teachers can use Turf as part of their gym classes. 2020 saw an increase in school events and the biggest school event ever was held in Stockholm in December. If you want to know more about how to use Turf as part of your PE curriculum contact skolevent@turfgame.com and Calmare1 will send you instructions and help you set up a special school Turf account :) 


The UK Explosion by Kingslayer
"I am CO (Country Organizer) for zone making in UK and was a year ago a lonely zone maker in a lonely Scotland, leading a quiet life. I did not have much to do, it was basically a handful of turfers in the whole of UK and that was it. Then came March and corona and many members of Edinburgh South Orienteering Club (ESOC) started turfing. Thanks to successful information campaigns from CSL, ESOCWalter and others in ESOC the Turf evangelium spread and more and more turfers appeared in the whole of Scotland.


All of a sudden I had to work hard to ensure everyone had a meaningful number of zones available. I spend many hours during the summer on creating Scotland zones and when things started to look good I figured I could finally get some rest. Then came féarglas. She quickly claimed a seat on top-10 World scoreboard and then followed up with silver medals in both November and December. This brought attention from media and after having appeared on national radio and TV-shows the whole UK map suddenly exploded with new turfers. All members of Turf crew worked hard to try to keep up with the needs from so many newbies but we quickly realised we needed more hands on deck so we “hired” a bunch of new zone makers (we all work voluntarily). Some of them have been trained now and the rest will be graduating in January. This means we will be better equipped with managing the demand. But zone making is a manual, relatively slow process, so we have a few pleas for you who are newbies in UK:


1. Be patient. We are not ignoring you, but we can’t do everything at once.

2. Use the Turf Forum to suggest zones in your vicinity. Please include actual suggestions, not just a general request to have zones in town xyz. This will speed things up. If you have registered on the forum but not been approved for a few days, please drop an email to issues@turfgame.com


3. If you have no or few zones in your vicinity, leave the Turfapp with the Turf avatar on (visible on the map). We scan the UK map several times per day and if we see turfers in need we try to help (again, as time allows).


4. Use the in app suggestion feature, but bare in mind zone makers get no notification when you make suggestions that way, nor can we see who made the suggestions. But they are useful for us. Combine this with a post in the Turf Forum for better success rate in getting your zone(s) approved :) If possible, include the name of the closest existing zone to your suggestion, that way we can search for it in the zone making tool. We can not search for suggestions, only already existing zones. For in detail information about the  magic of zone making, visit Zonemaking 2.0 :)


5. Report bad zones using the Issues link on turfgame.com. Zone issues are typically zones that can’t be taken, are dangerously placed or otherwise inappropriate. We are tremendously happy about the huge interest in Turf in so many places in the UK. We want to ensure you get a fun and rewarding way to exercise and see new places you didn’t know existed.


In Sweden, turfers often say “I would never have seen this without Turf!”. We hope to be able to give you the same experience. A huge thanks to féarglas for promoting Turf and showing that we can all do it! And of course everyone else in UK who has helped spreading the word! I know there are many of you out there who has helped. And finally thanks to all my colleagues in crew who has been working hard with UK the past month."


A Turf Story from 2020 by Shitty

"It will have to be the time me and my old time friend Mangadang went to Värmdö, an island in the inner Stockholm archipelago, looking for places to put future zones.
As a zonemaker you can't always get the information you want on google streetview and general surfing the web, sometimes you actually have to go there and see for yourself - so, time for some climbing ;)

We had an awesome day! Visiting a series of old forts, exploring, laughing - like the old days. A nice break from everything you don't wanna remember about 2020. And the result? The zone 'Klätterverket', something like ”climbingventure” in English. If you ever find yourself in the area, go have a look! It's a cool place, but please be careful!

Peace."


Turf Advent Calendar by Battigoal

"When asked by Munin to contribute to Turf Insider, I will tell you about my invention to brighten up December with a type of Turf Advent calendar where you had to perform small tasks that hid behind each hatch (one for each day). We have run it for a number of years in the Örebro region in different ways, but this year we got participants from all over Sweden and Åland. There were 100 participants from the start, and 75 of these made it through the entire calendar, which was really fun.


The idea was that it would suit everyone to participate. Another development with this year's Turf advent calendar was to use several social media channels, for example a messenger group where participants wrote stories about zone shots and sent pictures in the flow. I have only heard happy comments about the Calendar which of course is very pleasing. It was a bit of a job, at least a few hours a day when checking everyone's zone takes so they coincided with the day's task , but even that was just a pleasure. And in this pandemic era, this worked really well to organize. I also did a thing during the calendar which I thought I would never in my life do. Swim and take a water zone in mid-December and in Santa costume. This year's Turf Advent Calendar was carried out together with MiniHolger and Olleklunk."

Photo from Battigoal


Turfing in Edinburgh, 2020 by CSL

"I’ve been turfing since 2014, and telling people about Turf all the time, but only managed to persuade a few to take it up. There have never been many turfers in Scotland - just enough for me to keep winning the Region medal, but rarely enough in the UK to win the Country medal. Like most people, I had more time available in the spring of 2020 for walking and cycling around Edinburgh. Turfing seemed an ideal lockdown activity for people who like maps, so I sent an article to the editor of our orienteering club newsletter, hoping to persuade others to join in. One or two tried it. Then a strange thing happened – on several days in succession, new zones appeared in places where I had just been.


I now know that Kingslayer also had time on his hands, and was putting it to good use by creating more zones, but at the time it seemed very spooky, as though someone was stalking me! So I put another article in the next orienteering club newsletter, telling everyone about all the new zones. More people tried it, and our club president, ESOCWalter, became very enthusiastic. We organised a small competition within the club at the start of the August Turf round, and this monthly challenge has turned into a regular thing, with various club members going to enormous lengths to achieve high scores. ESOCWalter and I wrote articles for CompassSport (the UK orienteering magazine) and also SCORE, the Scottish Orienteering members’ magazine, which spread the word to other orienteers, and the UK Toplist started to grow.


Following media interest in féarglas’s exploits, the UK growth has recently exploded. The change in Turf through 2020 has been amazing – in January, there were 240 zones in Edinburgh, and 4 turfers. At the end of December, there were 885 zones and 210 turfers here! For me, it’s been quite strange suddenly having so many people around, stealing zones from me, but it’s been fun meeting some of the new turfers. The effect on our zones’ points has been dramatic too – occasionally we would have a few zones that were 170/2, but they were nearly all 185/1. The take points have gone down, and although the points per hour are much higher, you don’t keep zones for very long these days. Having so many new zones has been fun, taking us on expeditions to many parts of the city that we didn’t know.


We’re eagerly anticipating all the new opportunities for Turf tourism in other parts of Scotland, as soon as we can travel out of Edinburgh. But before that, we have the Skåne Turf Challenge to look forward to, in March. This is an inter-region competition in the usual Swedish format, but we’ve never done it before and need all the help we can get! Any Scottish turfer reading this who would like to know more should have a look at this article.

Another big change for me this year is that following persuasion from Kingslayer (and rigorous assessment), I’ve recently joined the Turf Crew as a zonemaker. It’s more difficult to set up good zones than many people realise, and I’m now enjoying virtual exploration of some UK places I haven’t ever visited. Hope the new UK turfers will like the results and continue with the game."


The year 2020 by MiniHolger

"The previous year has offered challenges of different forms, unfortunately this has affected how we turfers in 2020 have been able to meet, have events and practice this fantastic game together. Despite this, I want to highlight something that me happy and hopefully many more. The Swedish Region battle took place in September 2020 and was a fantastic "event" that allowed us to compete together in these times, but still on our own. I liked that you could always follow day by day how the position was, a good setup. I personally hope this is a recurring concept that many will take part in, I intend to do it anyway! I look forward to when we can once again hang out unhindered between Turfers and do what we are passionate about together, I do not want everyone's great ideas to create these unique events (Region battles, Turf Advent Calendar) to disappear either.

Turf is life!"


School event 2020 by Calmare1

"The year 2020 has been marked by Covid-19 and all the negative consequences of this, but every cloud has a silver lining. The year 2020 was also the year when all sports teachers around Sweden were looking for good outdoor activities to be able to carry out despite restrictions on Covid-19.


During 2020, the number of school Turf events mushroomed. We have now passed over 500 schools in Sweden that hold an account for the event tool. If we play with the idea that there is an average of at least 2 teachers per school, there are now over 1000 PE teachers in Sweden who can organize school events. If we then play with the idea that each teacher organizes a school event with a class of 30 students, we immediately have 30,000 potential new turfers. This with the presumption that each teacher only runs school events with one class. Feel free to repeat the calculation example with 3 teachers per school and two classes per teacher …….


During the year, I have had the privilege of lecturing on Turf and school events for no less than about 100 future PE teachers at Linnaeus University in Växjö and in Kalmar. All these students are now ready to take on the task of building their own courses and conducting events at their upcoming internships."


The world's largest school event by Calmare1

"I got a really big challenge on December 1st. At the beginning of November, I was contacted by a former classmate in Stockholm who needed help arranging a school event. Of course I said, when I thought it was about one or two "regular" events with at most a couple of classes. It turned out that they wanted a full-day activity for the whole school. Marina Läroverket is a high school in Danderyd with about 450 students. What a challenge!!!

In order for the event area not to cover half of Stockholm, we decided to divide the event into 4 different sub-events of 1.5 hours each, with about 100 participants in each event. Despite the prevailing pandemic, the result was that we registered a total of 321 participants on the same day. It was a breathtaking feeling to organize a school event in almost Bonanza size. And I was a little nervous before: Will everything work as it should? Have I managed to lay the zones so that they can be taken? How many zones have I blindly from Kalmar (editor's note: Calmare1 lives in Kalmar and was setting up the school event zones from home) managed to put in private gardens or on private piers in Djursholm? Fortunately, everything went well and the school was very happy with the event. It was probably not the last time we get to see Marina Läroverket in Danderyd arrange Turfevents of this caliber.


I look forward to a spring where school events will increase even more and even more of our children and young people around the country will have the opportunity to get acquainted with a fantastic game and an opportunity to exercise outdoors without the risk of spreading infection."


So, not everything about 2020 was doom and gloom. I am sure you have your own happy Turf moments to hold on to. And let's make new ones in 2021!


Turfa lugnt!/Safe turfing!


//Munin


...if you want to contribute to future Turf Insiders, send your story to insider@turfgame.com :)

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Forum outage https://turfgame.com/?feedid=378 Wed, 06 Jan 2021 11:06:16 +0000 https://rss.turfgame.com/378 If you registered or used the forum when it had a "white and blue" design during the last 4 days, you need to re-do it.

This is because we had to do a Continue reading ]]> If you registered or used the forum when it had a "white and blue" design during the last 4 days, you need to re-do it.

This is because we had to do a roll-back due to technical issues.

Thank you!

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Issue updating https://turfgame.com/?feedid=375 Mon, 04 Jan 2021 20:26:54 +0000 https://rss.turfgame.com/375 Continue reading ]]> NEW ZONES https://turfgame.com/?feedid=374 Wed, 23 Dec 2020 19:51:01 +0000 https://rss.turfgame.com/374 Continue reading ]]>

We are currently working hard to make new zones due to the lovely inflow of new users.

This means we beg for your patience since it could take a little longer than usual.

If you want to help the process you can:

  • Use the zone suggestion tool in the app. (menu button->lightbulb)
  • Log on to our forum and describe your suggested spots (https://forum.turfgame.com/viewforum.php?f=32)
  • Get community help in our facebook group (https://www.facebook.com/groups/turfgame)
  • Other than that, just sit tight and we will solve your zone situation asap!

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    BBC coverage https://turfgame.com/?feedid=373 Mon, 21 Dec 2020 20:12:45 +0000 https://rss.turfgame.com/373

    This weekend we saw a great inflow of Britons!

    -How come?, you may ask.
    Wel Continue reading ]]>

    This weekend we saw a great inflow of Britons!

    -How come?, you may ask.
    Well it's because of this outstanding BBC article by Angie Brown:

    "The Night-riding mom who cycles 10 hours a day"
    https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-scotland-edinburgh-east-fife-55350295


    If you are a British newcomer to Turf, please check out THIS thread for zone-related questions.

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    December https://turfgame.com/?feedid=372 Mon, 21 Dec 2020 19:54:28 +0000 https://rss.turfgame.com/372 Round winners

    Congratulations to the winners of ro Continue reading ]]> Round winners

    Congratulations to the winners of round 125: Király from Skåne secured his umpteenth Gold, féarglas from Scotland biked home her first silver and M0112 from Lounais-Suomi turfed home a third bronze to the collection. All medal winners turfed home way over 1 million points. Well done, mates!


    Lusseturf 2020

    Turf Västmanland is organizing Lusseturf for the 8th year. This time it will be different. No general assembly before the event, no coffee and buns afterwards. Even a different area for the event. But it will take place on the day of Lucia: Sunday the 13th of December.


    From the home of Turf Västmanland on Facebook:

    "Of course we must keep the tradition alive! But this year, like so much else, it will be a little different. The event is open to everyone and completely free! On Lucia Day itself, 13th of December, between 11.00-13.00 this year's event is taking place. The event area this time will be the area between Lugna Gatan on Finnslätten, Österleden and Tillbergaleden.


    And we urge you to keep your distance, no assembly will take place either before or after the event. We will just Turf. It also means that there is no toilet or serving. After the event, someone on the board of Turf Västmanland will present a small prize to the winner, and we hope that we can take a photo and post it online so that the competitors can enjoy seeing who won. But this contact will take place a while after the event, not immediately as it usually is.”


    Another longer ”event” is the Advent Calendar organized by Turf Örebro that begun on the First of Advent. Each day the participants get a task, for example ”Take two 170 tp zones” or ”Take 10 zones”. The daily task is e-mailed to the participants and also posted on the Facebook page of Turf Örebro. If you succeed with the task every day until the 22nd of December, you are part of the raffle of a USB bike light. Although I think most people participating, is not doing it for the prize, but for the fun of getting out and about with a daily mission to complete.


    Expansion in the UK

    I don't think anyone has missed the fact that a Scottish turfer named féarglas biked home a Silver medal this round. The activity in Scotland, but also in other regions of UK, is really taking off. I asked ESOCWalter and two other turfers in Scotland to answer some basic Turf-related questions for Turf Insider. I think most of you will smile in recognition to many of the answers and stories by the Scottish turfers :)


    First out is ESOCWalter himself:

    Your Turf-nick/alias and the story behind it:

    ESOCWalter is not really very imaginative, but I’ve stuck with it! A lot of the Edinburgh Turfers are members of Edinburgh Southern Orienteering Club and so have ESOC in our names. A lot of our club is mad for it, and we even have a Turf page on our website now! https://www.esoc.org.uk/category/turf

    What made you begin with Turf?

    CSL in our club got me involved. I was editing the ESOC newsletter for a few months, and CSL provided an article about Turf one month. I put that in but then forgot about it. Then he gave me a second article for the next edition, two months later, and I thought ok I will try it! And then I was hooked straight away. I love the fact that the concept of Turf is so simple – go to a zone and take it – but there’s so much to think about as well with the medals, the points, etc.

    Favorite Zone or zone you take most often

    My favourite zone is a new one very near my house, which I suggested and is called DustyZone, after my dog, Dusty, who is a cavapoo. She is a great dog, and she has visited the zone a number of times already with me.

    Which medal has so far been the hardest to take? Why?

    The hardest one I am currently working on is the Trainer! Especially as I started trying to visit a different train station every day, which took me all over Edinburgh. I have had some good adventures with this medal, taking the train out of Edinburgh and cycling home, doing dog walks, combining with orienteering challenges we have had on in the club at local parks, and most recently taking the IslandIsland medal – see answer 10 below. I am terrified I will miss a day and I’m currently on day 25, so the end is in sight!

    What is the best thing about Turf?

    The best thing about Turf is the interaction which it has generated between us in ESOC. We have a WhatsApp group with about 30 of us on it. The chat is non-stop – in a good way! People sharing tips about taking zones, posting pictures of their new medals, encouraging each other, and sharing photos of zones and adventures they’ve been on. With the travel restrictions in Scotland just now, we also get a chance to bump into our club members when we are out turfing, which is always great as well.

    What is the most frustrating thing about Turf?

    At the moment, the government travel restrictions are frustrating as we can’t travel far to get all the zones which now exist in Scotland. Bring on the vaccine! I am over Covid-19 and ready to get back to normal.

    A personal Turf goal you've achieved that you're most proud of

    Eager ferret medal! I tried it three nights in a row, getting faster each time, by getting better at where to take the zones. QuirkESOCs in our club managed to get this medal on foot in central Edinburgh, going in the opposite direction, and on a bike it’s better in the other direction. There are some tricky ones on the route, including HARRYPOTTER, and on the final attempt I had the ESOC Turfers watching me on Turf TV, so I felt the pressure. It was so cool to see the medal appear at the end, as I didn’t know how I was doing along the way.

    Something, besides a bike, you've used to take a zone (which zone?)

    As part of my Trainer medal quest, I have taken a couple of zones when on a train, and I have learned where it’s best to sit on a train (near the front, generally) in order to position best for the zones at the stations. Sometimes you need to run up or down the train to get into position, while it is in the station and before it moves off.

    A medal you would like to see in the future

    I would love to see harder versions of the Revisitor. This is a REAL challenge to get in Edinburgh, as all your zones can easily be taken before you even get home. I think there is a real skill to this one, in terms of picking your zones and the timing of it all. I would suggest they are called Revisitier and Revisitiest, and maybe they are for 100 zones and 200 zones over 5 days, so a step up from the 50 of the Revisitor.

    Most memorable zone you've taken. Why?

    IslandIsland is a new zone which (as the name suggests) is on an island, and it is in a loch at one of the local universities. This is a new zone that our zone-setter Kingslayer created recently, and it had not been visited before. I went out on a freezing day at the start of December, and wore my wetsuit and goggles. I had no idea how deep it would be, but it wasn’t too bad – only up to my chest, but very muddy and sludgy under the brown water, and very cold. But despite all of this it was good fun!

    ESOCWalter after taking IslandIsland


    Secondly we get to hear from MarkuuEsoc:

    Your Turf-nick/alias and the story behind it:

    My Turf-nick is ’MarkkuEsoc’ which is an amalgamation of my first name, my rally driving hero of yesteryear in Markku Alén and most of us ESOC members also incorporate the club initials into our Turf-nick!

    What made you begin with Turf?

    Our orienteering club president Walter can be very persuasive when he wants to be. Didn’t have any other option than to play!

    Favorite Zone or zone you take most often

    ’ArthursSeat’, a key Edinburgh landmark is an amazing zone to take because from there you can plan and see all the Edinburgh zones you’d like to take if only you had unlimited time! I take ’AdamCathzone’ most frequently as it is close by to home, named after my 2 children. It changes hands on average about 4 times a day so is probably the most frequently taken zone in Scotland at present.

    BILD

    Which medal has so far been the hardest to take? Why?

    The children have been the driving force behind me obtaining the night ninja badge, they were only too delighted about the prospect of going for a wander in the middle of the night – but less so for me! Now they have their own Turf accounts they are badgering me to help them do it too - arggh!

    What is the best thing about Turf?

    A great excuse to get out of the house and get fitter!

    What is the most frustrating thing about Turf?

    Getting to a zone and then not being able to take it due to GPS. We have ’RiskyTurfing’ at the National Library of Scotland, but as I tend to Turf later on at night when the gates are locked and it is 50/50 if my GPS will allow me inside the zone border.

    A personal Turf goal you've achieved that you're most proud of

    I was delighted to be number 1 in the world league overnight at the start of the October 2020 round, might just be tempted to try for it again at some point....

    Something, besides a bike, you've used to take a zone (which zone?)

    Nothing out of the ordinary, maybe I should start carrying a selfie stick to help take the ’RiskyTurfing’ zone mentioned above.

    A medal you would like to see in the future

    A ‘Daily’ range of medals given for taking at least say 10 zones for a consecutive series of days, so ‘Daily-10’ would be achieved by getting 10 zones on 10 consecutive days, ‘Daily-50’ for 10 zones on 50 consecutive days and so on (This would encourage you to get out even on poor weather days and increase Turf loyalty)

    Zone collector medal range for gaining at least one of each of the 11 zone types (this could be very difficult dependent on where you live), so perhaps this would start from ‘Zone Collector 8’ and work up through ‘Zone Collector 9’, ‘Zone Collector 10’ and ‘Zone Collector 11’ medals.

    International Turfer – having taken zones in more than say 5 countries. This could be expanded to a 10 country and 15 country badges for example.

    Expand the Neutralizer range of medals, so for example it is similar to the ‘Diverse’ medals format where you earn a medal for taking say 100, 250, 500 neutral zones within a round.

    A League medal, given out on a hierarchical basis for the highest league level achieved during your Turf life, maybe starting at League 5 (for Turfers who at some point reached League 5). Then you’d have League 4, League 3, League 2, League One and finally Elite for any Turfer who has managed to get into the Elite league at any point.

    Most memorable zone you've taken. Why?

    ‘BerwickLaw’ in North Berwick, for the fabulous view of the Bass Rock and out to sea.


    MarkuuEsoc with his very helpful kids


    And finally, after winning her silver medal, féarglas took the time to answer the same questions :)


    Your Turf-nick/alias and the story behind it:

    People often think I’m Scottish and I have lived here for 20+ years now, but I am Irish. My Turf-nick is féarglas, (pronounced fair-gloss) which is Gaeilge, the Irish language, and translates to ‘green grass/turf’ in English. And isn’t that what we are after in Turf? Change all those red zones green.

    PS: Often people leave out the fada (ie. the line) over the e, which makes the word ‘fearglas' (pronounced far-gloss) meaning ‘green man’. Which of course I am not.

    What made you begin with Turf?

    I started Turf in round 122, August 2020, after reading an article written by CSL in my orienteering club (ESOC) newsletter. CSL has been turfing for many years, our turf guru. The club president, ESOCWalter, who has a reputation for banging on about things ?, went on and on and on and on until we started using Turf!! I couldn’t find the app at first, but once I worked out the different country apple-ids, I was hooked.


    We had a club competition on the first day of round 122 in August, which I won with 17,567 points. I smile now at how I bumbled around zones for the first time in areas I didn’t know, on a borrowed bike with no lights (after 17+ years of not cycling), getting lost frequently and down to 1% battery. A junior in the club, aged 10 years old was neck and neck with me until 10.30 pm when luckily, it was too late for them and they had to go home before the midnight finish. We’ve come a long way since August, with many great Turfers in the club and winning points totals for the subsequent first day of the round competition of 32,353 / 43,392 /37,825 and now ESOCWoody - 46,152.

    Favorite Zone or zone you take most often

    A favorite zone is always a tough question, as everyone has a few. I like KIRKGATE, as it is a pretty setting with a view of Currie Kirk, and the ride to it along the Water of Leith, a pathway which runs along the river through forest, is always a pleasant nature experience and very restorative after hours of city & concrete.

    Which medal has so far been the hardest to take? Why?

    The hardest medal to take so far has been the ‘Dark Ninja’. This isn’t because it is done at night time, which is my preferred time for going out, I just couldn’t work out which time zone the 2 am - 3 am referred to. To cover all bases of UTC, GMT, BST, UTC+1 etc., I tried every hour from midnight (local time) to 3 am. Nothing, no medal. I then asked CSL, the local guru, who explained it was 2 - 3 am local time but re-visits don’t count. And sods law - the only re-visits I had done were local time 2 – 3 am, the only hour that mattered.

    What is the best thing about Turf?

    The best thing about TURF is there is something in it for everyone, regardless of character, age or fitness. For me as a working Mum/parent, Turf has re-claimed a part of me lost to other commitments, and provides my space in a busy family. I love the mental challenge especially, the physical exercise, discovering new places both local and further afield, learning about places I thought I knew and piecing together the jigsaw of places I know individually. I enjoy sharing it with others, and seeing them get their own enjoyment from it.

    What is the most frustrating thing about Turf?

    There are a few things that frustrate me with TURF, like the vague often inaccurate map without contours, but the most frustrating thing for me is its complete and absolute reliance on GPS, which I find varies hugely in reliability and accuracy. I spend too much time dancing and circling around zones trying to coax the green avatar in to the zone, determined to not leave without taking it. When it does register eventually, I often freeze like a statue, not daring to move or breathe in case I hear the dreaded ‘Leaving Zone’. My common reply, to my inanimate phone - ‘I am not leaving the zone!’ It makes me laugh though when it battles itself with ’taking zone’ ‘leaving zone’ ’taking zone’ as the signal settles, as it reminds me of Father Dougal with the Christmas Tree lights. (Father Ted, ‘A Christmassy Ted’ aired December 1996, and repeated every year since as it is so great!!).

    A personal Turf goal you have achieved that you’re most proud of

    Winning the silver medal in round 125 with 1.4 million points, both achievements I thought that were beyond me. And to be the first person outside of the Nordic Countries to win a medal, or exceed 1million points, is further reward. We have a great community of Turfers here in Scotland and the UK, and I think I have done us all proud, putting us on the World Turf map. I was bowled over and warmed by the both the messages of encouragement and congratulations from home and abroad. (To Oberoff - a special thank you?)

    It was certainly a challenging 35 days, trying to fit Turf in around other commitments (which is why I often turf evenings/nights), playing the head game, battling the demons and to just keep going day after day with the motto of ’no days or nights off’. I did miss one night when I had bailed out of a day ride (after 70 km though) when I got very cold in poor weather, and intended going out later but I was ordered to sleep instead by my family ?. I met CSL the next day who said he was very surprised to wake and find he still owned his zones! There was also one overnight turf session which took longer than expected and being late home, everyone was late for school & work, but delighted children getting a lie-in ?

    Something, besides a bike, you've used to take a zone (which zone?)

    I once used a stunt scooter to take zones, starting with SAUGHTONROSES, which is next to the skate park. Oh boy, never again. The little wheels are not well suited to uneven pavements/kerbs, and pushing with one leg while trying to remain balanced was very hard work. At least it wasn’t on the skateboard, or the final zone would definitely have been ACHEINMYTUMMY, the local A&E.

    A medal you would like to see in the future

    This would have to be a medal for reaching 1 million points in a round, and more medals as you achieve even higher points again.

    Most memorable zone you've taken. Why?

    My most memorable zone is nowhere special, but it has a special memory taking it. In round 123, my target was a top 5 finishing position. On the last day, I was in 5th, but went for a ride to ensure I didn’t lose it. It was a dreadful day here, a storm with wind, heavy rain and very cold - even the ducks weren’t out. It is up there with the most miserable rides ever! As I came close to home, I met my 8-year son, out in the storm. He had gone out to re-take the two ‘home’ zones so I could take them again. I was very moved by this, and we walked together to take the last zone.

    Photo of ESOCWalter and féarglas


    Thank you ESOCWalter, MarkkuEsoc and féarglas for answering my questions with interesting information and stories! I sure enjoyed reading their answers, I hope you did too :)


    Turfa lugnts/Safe turfing!

    //Munin  

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    Round-reset hickups https://turfgame.com/?feedid=371 Sun, 06 Dec 2020 18:20:50 +0000 https://rss.turfgame.com/371 Today, during the start of the new round, we know that a lot of you experienced some bad performance.
    This was due to a new server-setup which aims to inc Continue reading ]]>
    Today, during the start of the new round, we know that a lot of you experienced some bad performance.
    This was due to a new server-setup which aims to increase performance. However a bug in the new setup had unfortunately slipped in.
    We worked hard to find the bug and hope that you noticed the fix.
    Round starts are tough on our servers and hard to simulate in a test-environment. A Swedish fika is always a good backup plan on sundays.

    Lets aim for a smoother experience next time!

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    Eat, sleep, Turf, repeat https://turfgame.com/?feedid=370 Fri, 13 Nov 2020 16:20:32 +0000 https://rss.turfgame.com/370

    We encourage you to read the following blog post by October round winner Bont. It describes the huge effort it takes to win a round of turf these days. A Continue reading ]]>

    We encourage you to read the following blog post by October round winner Bont. It describes the huge effort it takes to win a round of turf these days. Amazing!


    https://turfvasterbotten.wordpress.com/2020/11/11/eat-sleep-turf-repeat-i-praktiken/

    (In swedish, use google translate)

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    November https://turfgame.com/?feedid=369 Fri, 13 Nov 2020 16:07:53 +0000 https://rss.turfgame.com/369 Round winners

    Congratulations to the winners of round 124: Bont from Västerbotten biked ho Continue reading ]]> Round winners

    Congratulations to the winners of round 124: Bont from Västerbotten biked home his fifth Gold, M0112 from Lounais-Suomi secured his third Silver by turfing home just over one million points, and finally the turfer formerly known as Oberoff, now Oktoberoff, added his first bronze to his medal row. Well done, mates!


    Turf and Covid-19

    Autumn is finally here in full force and with it an increase in Covid-19 infections. New restrictions have come into play all over Sweden and other European countries. This has put a stop to many monthly in-door and out-door Turf meetings for example both in Göteborg and Umeå. Uppsala had an outdoor Turf brunch in October with over 20 turfers in attendance at a picnic site in the City Forrest. Stricter recommendations are now in place in Uppsala, so there will be no Turf get together in November, not even outdoors. Hopefully we can meet for our annual 'Turf-glögg' at the zone WaterWorld in December. We gather, sample "glögg" (mulled and spiced wine, both with alcohol and without), munch on ginger bread cookies and freeze. The 45 minutes to one hour we stand under the water tower is without competition the coldest, windiest and wettest meeting of every year. But I would not miss it for all the Turf medals in the game if I have a say in the matter :)


    Luckily enough we can still Turf by ourselves or in small groups with our closest friends and family. Turf is the best hobby for these trying times. It will give us our daily exercise, takes us into the great outdoors and gives us exciting places to visit. What more can we ask for? It also supplies us with many hours of "theory Turf" in-doors, supported by third party statistics sites such as Warded, Frut and Lundkvist. And when all else fails, you can turn on "Turf-TV"; this is when you turn on the Turf Application only to follow ans watch other turfers take zones in the comfort of your own home. 


    Expansion in the UK

    Turf is starting to take off all over the British Islands. ESCOWalter and CSL from Scotland co-wrote a long article about Turf in CompassSport, Britain's National Orienteering Magazine, published in the October Number. Ever since, newbies have been popping up daily all over the UK, and this means lots of new zones on the British Islands. Often, however, there is just one newbie in a city and this can get boring fast, and not just for lack of zones. If you find yourself as the only turfer in your city, I suggest going for the Expandator medal: ”The Expandator belongs to the honorful ones who have put up at least 25 Turf posters.”. This could be a great way to get new turfers to your area. Design and print 25 posters (A4 format is usually enough) and put up at local advertisement boards and the like. Take a photo of each poster you put up and submit your Medal claim via the Issue system. And If that does not work, keep working hard on your family and friends to join. Turf is more fun together! Remember: The only thing worse than someone taking your zones, is no one taking your zones :) Welcome all newbies in the United Kingdom to Turf!


    Tip Of The Month

    If you have done all the different missions in your city or if your city doesn't have any missions on frut.zundin, you can do as Corellian in Mariehamn, decide on a phrase eg Merry Christmas and take zones in sequence that with their first letters making up the phrase for you to see on Today's Activity at frut.zundin. Corellian has named this particular way to take zones "to make a letter session" :)


    Turfa lugnt/Safe turfing!

    //Munin

    ]]>
    October https://turfgame.com/?feedid=368 Fri, 13 Nov 2020 16:07:50 +0000 https://rss.turfgame.com/368 Round winners

    Congratulations to the Continue reading ]]> Round winners

    Congratulations to the winners of round 123: M0112 from Åland turfed home his third Gold, recycling from Östergötland added another Silver to his collection and Gallant from Kalmar turfed home the Bronze.

    Well done mates!


    Turf events

    Very few open Turf events are being organized due to Covid-19. However, plenty of school events still takes place all over Sweden and other Turf countries. If you want information about how to use Turf as part of school gymnastics, contact skolevent@turfgame.com and you will be sent information about how to proceed. Last time I checked in with our school event coordinator over 500 gymnastics teachers had account for 'school Turf events'.


    A couple of open events have taken place during the last round, like KalmarDuo and SthlmBike20.

    "All events have not been canceled this year! On September 12, Kalmar Turfförening organized an open event for 27 participants from seven various Turf regions in Sweden. The set-up of the event this time was "Duo Turf" with 60 minutes of jogging, 30 minutes break followed by 90 minutes turfing on the bike. We used two different Turf areas in Kalmar city.

    A summary (in Swedish) with pictures from the event can be found here

    Sincerely,

    MasterOfTurf"

    Several Turf clubs around Sweden hold private mini-events for their members and if you are interested in setting up your own private event, send an e-mail to events@turfgame.com and you will get help in how to set it up :) I have done it myself several times and it is lots of fun.

    The Swedish multi-region battle

    During round 123, 11 Swedish regions took part in a multi-region battle. Teams from all over Sweden competed in three categories; points, takes and round unique zones. This was the largest multi-region battle in Turf's history to date. After the first week, Team Uppsala and Team Östergötland were tied for first place. It looked like Team Östergötland really wanted a rematch after their loss in March when Uppsala and Östergötland battled it out and Uppsala won. Team Uppsala was very surprised to be tied for first place after the first week, since their main goal was to have fun and go for round unique zones. Many of the team members were aiming for the Diversiest medal, 1000 round unique zones. In March, I was part of Team Uppsala and spent a lot of time biking. This time I decided to stay on the sideline of the multi-region battle since I had too much else going on. It was exciting, but also frustrating to be on the outside of the tough battle that ensured between Uppsala and Östergötland over four weeks.


    Both Team Uppsala and Team Östergötland consisted of a solid core from the previous region battle in March, with some new additions. This meant that each team knew it would be a tough four weeks from day one. I don't know about the tactics of Östergötland, but Team Uppsala's main tactic was to have fun :) Their main goal was to go for round unique zones, and boy did they! 19 turfers in team Uppsala took 1000+ round unique zones; 17 for the first time. Two turfers did a tiny 'nerd sync', with one take they were awarded two medals; Ghost Minute and Diversiest. Well done pandora and BadLoser! 


    As part of Team Uppsala's goal to have fun team members invited visiting turfers from other regions, including turfers from other teams in the region battle, to join them for takes and assists. Both when meeting up in other cities, like one Saturday in Gävle when two Uppsala turfers met up with turfers from Dalarna, and when turfers from Västmanland, Stockholm or Västerbotten visited region Uppsala.

    Bildfrån mpmoke

    Photo: mpmoke

    Photo: mpmoke


    Turfers from both Stockholm and Västerbotten took part in Uppsala's 'city lap' during week four. The 'city lap' consists of roughly 30 zones in central Uppsala and the turfers take the zones together in two groups, getting to the blocked zone at the very moment the zone can be taken again. This tactic frees up the rest of the city to turfers not in the team. Non-team turfers could also be seen taking part in the city lap, and during the region battle many, many Assist-medals were awarded to the Uppsala turfers. Photo is from the zone UpHallC.


    Photo: mpmoke


    Team Uppsala had team members from the three biggest cities in the region of Uppsala; Uppsala, Enköping and Bålsta. As part of the hunt for round unique zones, turfers visited each other and were guided by a local turfer in each city. Lunch and fika were also part of the visits, and several times turfers from Enköping came over to Uppsala to take part in the city laps during week three and four. On one occasion Dominion biked from Enköping to Uppsala, took a few laps and then biked home again. That is dedication (and a little bit crazy)! The secret to the city lap, is that the speed is never faster than the slowest turfer. Everyone should be able to take part; the more the merrier :) During the last weekend of the region battle, it was at times 6-7 turfers per group in the city lap. Since every team member knew the zones in the lap, it was easy to join, bike a lap or more, and then leave.


    Uppsala turfers were not the only ones during the region battle that showed hospitality to turfers from other regions. Stockholm turfer Oberoff guided Uppsala turfer Rymprak during the last weekend in parts of Stockholm and this was highly appreciated since Uppsala had to win round unique zones in order to have a chance of winning the whole thing.

    Photo:Rymprak

    Team Uppsala knew from the beginning that the points category was a lost cause, Östergötland gets so much more points for each zone, that it was never a goal for Uppsala to win this category. Round unique zones is a fun category and Team Uppsala had turfers out almost every day working on this category. Often turfers visited each other's cities and were guided by a local turfer to as many zones as possible. During the last week two old ladies from Uppsala visited one old lady in Enköping and spent the whole day turfing together with breaks for lunch and fika :)

    bildallinug

    Photo: allinug


    After three weeks, Uppsala was two points behind Östergötland in total points. Monday night tactic talk ended with a firm resolution to win Takes week 4 and also continue with Round unique zones in order to win this category week 4 and the total. Execution of this plan included more excursions for round unique zones, and a lot more city laps. During both Friday and Saturday the last week, a lap was also set up in a small neighbouring town to Uppsala, partly to avoid the shopping crowds of Saturday, but mainly because the resident turfer in Storvreta had booked the neighbourhood community hall to use as a hub. The last 48 hours of the region battle, Uppsala turfers biked home five Staminatrix medals. It was a tight battle over Takes with Östergötland until midnight between Saturday and Sunday when Team Östergötland gave up and Team Uppsala just kept biking.


    In a multi-region battle it is harder to keep track of the overall points and how to win than when two regions battle each other. Team Uppsala never had a chance to win the points, but managed to their own surprise to claim second place in this category. Points were awarded both for the placement for each week and for the total placement. 12 points for first place, 10 for second, 8 for third and so on. This made for interesting calculations. The battle was going to be decided by which team won Takes week 4. Both teams were going to get 32 points for their placements total score for each category. A tie in points between the two teams, would give the win to Uppsala since they had more team members. However, Team Västmanland helped Uppsala win by two points, since they climbed to second place for round unique zones week 4, surpassing Östergötland in the last 24 hours of the battle, thus making sure Uppsala would win by two points.


    Bildslutresultat


    I hope everyone who took part in the battle had fun and will continue to have fun in future battles, events and everyday turf sessions. On social media I have seen stories from many regions about turfers getting together and visiting other cities, nightly turf sessions and other fun stuff. Kalmar for example made a new 'buff' for every member of the team. Turf is so much more than just taking those zones every day. Team Uppsala did not expect to win this multi-region battle, but they did and had a whole lot of fun doing it. They also did a lot of biking and were at time very close to giving up, but the team spirit of having fun held to the very last take in front of Uppsala train station just before 12 on Sunday the 4th of October. 

    Photo: mpmoke


    Nerd sync: to take two or more medals with just one take. To my knowledge the highest 'nerd sync' is to take four medals with one zone. This can be done by combining Take-X, Unique-Y, maybe a Ninja and Aquaman. The Greed-medals are hard to use in a nerd sync, but it can be done. Certain medals can not be 'synced' like Ghost Minute and Aquaman. Another way to get a nerd sync is to rank up at the same time as getting one or more medals. Other kinds of nerd syncs have also been done; like taking unique turfer 5000 with unique zone 5000. If you haven't thought about nerd syncs yet, it's time to go and plan one :)


    Turfa lugnt/Safe turfing!

    //Munin



    ]]>
    Event fixes https://turfgame.com/?feedid=367 Sat, 26 Sep 2020 08:03:32 +0000 https://rss.turfgame.com/367

    Events have been getting increasingly popular over the last years.

    We are Continue reading ]]>

    Events have been getting increasingly popular over the last years.

    We are currently making a focused effort to remove remaining bugs that has occurs now and then during events.

    If you are an Android user keen on following the latest progress, make sure to use the latest Beta version on google play. (Search for turf and sign up as a beta tester)

    Iphone users will naturally also be affected by improvements.

    //Turf Crew

    ]]>
    No more zero PPH. https://turfgame.com/?feedid=366 Tue, 01 Sep 2020 13:24:35 +0000 https://rss.turfgame.com/366

    As from yesterday all zones with the value 0pph/250tp has been changed to 1pph/1 Continue reading ]]>

    As from yesterday all zones with the value 0pph/250tp has been changed to 1pph/185tp.

    This change affected roughly 10.000 zones and the reason is that we saw that the 0pph zones were hindering the attraction of users in new areas.

    //Turf Crew

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    Winners of Turf Award 2019 https://turfgame.com/?feedid=364 Thu, 06 Aug 2020 05:57:19 +0000 https://rss.turfgame.com/364

    Congratulations to the winners of Turf Award 2019!

    Kygni, HappyF, and Whiteb Continue reading ]]>

    Congratulations to the winners of Turf Award 2019!

    Kygni, HappyF, and Whitebike have all been selected by our great community!

    ]]>
    August https://turfgame.com/?feedid=365 Thu, 06 Aug 2020 05:57:17 +0000 https://rss.turfgame.com/365 Round winners

    Congratulations to the winners of round 121: Jajk from Värmland in Sweden for the Gold. Firr Continue reading ]]> Round winners

    Congratulations to the winners of round 121: Jajk from Värmland in Sweden for the Gold. Firren from Jönköping in Sweden for the Silver. GW007 from Kalmar in Sweden for the Bronze.

    Also worth mentioning are the next two runner-ups: M0112 from Lounais-Suomiin/Finland took fourth place and Aicar from Åland/Finland took fifth place. It´s only a matter of time until the Finns beat all Swedes and takes the top positions in the rounds!

    Well done to all the winners and all other turfers that fought for their different goals in to the very finish of the round.


    Turf events

    All major events are canceled due to the ongoing pandemic, but around the countries, some smaller, local events have been held. I myself have not been visiting any of them and do not have my own report but I have intercepted some rumors that I followed up on and searched for reports on different websites.


    Midnight Classic in Umeå

    The report on this annual event is available on Turf Västerbotten's website:

    The night between Saturday and Sunday 27-28 June, 47 turfers gathered for this year's edition of Midnight Classic in Umeå. The participants, who were divided into foot and bicycle class, came from Luleå, Piteå, Skellefteå, Öravan, Vännäs, Umeå, Täfteå and Uppsala. Among these were both turfers who participated in an event for the first time and experienced turfers with experience from both events and bonanzas. Fun! "

    Picknickevent Skrylle 2020

    On Turf Skåne's website, you can read about this event:

    The association's first picnic event was held in Skrylleskogen between Dalby and Södra Sandby on 11 July 2020 on a pleasant zone course laid by TXL and MXL. 19 participants took at least one zone in this 30-minute foot heat. Guest turfer JKJE from Gothenburg looked like a winner for a long time, but local turfer grimric found a sweet spot at the end and collected a powerful PPH and with one last take seconds before the event was over, he passed JKJE with 4 points.The battle for third place was just as hard where the Malmö turfer AnneliCH won with 3 points before Cissiliana from Uppsala who received a candy comfort prize. Four junior turfers also participated and all four got candy prizes because children need lots of sugar ;-)


    Turf 10 years

    Nobody can have missed that it was the 10th anniversary of Turf on July 10th, or?! If you took 10 zones during the day, you were rewarded with a nice cake medal. All supporters' could go into the wardrobe and find a party hat to wear and a party horn to put in their mouth. When you then took a zone, the arms of the avatar went up as usual, but now the party horn was also rolled out! This was really fun!

    Me and my turf partner qivasaa took a trip from Östervåla over Dalälven to Hedesunda and the 10th zone that was taken was BussCafé in Vinnersjö. In addition to the virtual cake medal, we had strawberry cake and coffee to celebrate Turf's 10 years.

    We were not alone in celebrating, there were posts from turfers in various different social media, hangouts and chats where they boasted with hats and cake medals. Turf Insider received an e-mail from Åland in which their celebration was described:

    "Hello!

    Some of Åland's turfers gathered in the Algrundet zone in Mariehamn at 6 pm on July 10th 2020 to celebrate Turf's 10 years, and coffee, bubbly drinks, strawberries, sushi, biscuits, cakes, beer, pizza etc. were consumed. The zone was taken a number of times during the meeting, and there was a lot of talk about turf. For obvious reasons, it was nice and warm weather and everyone enjoyed life.

    In the group photo we have standing from left: MrCoolWat, Hagan, M0112, Choko, Vontratt, LonelyRider, AnnaB.

    Seated from left: Autumnman, Tompaj, KråkanKrax, StellaMarita.

    Behind the camera stood Alvedon.

    Regards Alvedon, who was the one who convened the turf meeting "



    On social media, you can read about memories from various turfers from these 10 years. They describe how they started turfing, memorable zone takes and other fun that happened during the ten years that Turf has existed. The app developer company Andrimon, with Drassen and Simon, started everything up and they have gradually expanded and refined the whole concept. From a few isolated zones and turfers to today's almost countless zones and turfers scattered across the globe. If you want to know how the number of zones has changed, you can always go to UrbanGeek's page, and use the tool to scroll back in time and see the zone situation change over the years. It is a great development and a lot of work that lies behind the game development, zoning, corrections and administration of various kinds. Here, Turf Crew has a very big role to play all around. Then we have all third-party developers who have developed statistics pages, challenges and various different mapping tools that provide many different dimensions in Turf.

    By the way, did you know that the first official zone was "NackaZone" located east of Stockholm and it was taken by the second registered tour guide "hence". The first registered turfer was "felixfelox". More history can be found at: https://wiki.turfgame.com/en/wiki/History


    New open DuoTurf event in Kalmar

    The Kalmar Turf Association invites all Turfers to Kalmar Duo Turf 2020. On September 12, the event will be conducted in two heat, one for walking/jogging during 60 minutes and one for cycling during 90 minutes. The points from both heats are summed up. Read all about the event here.


    Sverigekampen 2020

    11 regions have signed up for the multi region battle Sverigekampen 2020, which will take place in September. These regions are now working to fill the teams with fighting turfers, setting up strategies and pep each other. It will be a tough match to win and which region will emerge victorious from the battle remains to be seen. More about it at: https://www.uturf.se/?p=56150


    Turf Awards

    The Turf Bonanza 2020 in Örebro had to be canceled due to the ongoing pandemic and thus there was no distribution of the famous Turf Awards. These are awarded to turfers who excelled in different categories. First, it was a nomination round. It was interesting to see who had excelled and in what way they had done it. Then it was voting that decided who won each category. It was very exciting to find out who had won the different categories. Until now, only a few Turf crew members have known about the result, but here it is now presented to you all!


    This year's turf performance 2019

    Turfer Kygni got 126 of 235 votes = 53,6 %

    Kygni was nominated for being the first and so far only turfer who has taken more than two million points during one round. The fact that he achieved this feat by taking multiple unique and spectacular water- and swamp zones makes this accomplishment much more impressive. He was cheered on by fans and spectators who were able to track his progress on "Turf-TV" during the last 24 hours of round 108.


    Star shot of the year 2019

    Turfer whitebike got 102 of 196 votes = 52,0 %

    whitebike was nominated for being a newcomer who has taken more than 3 million points and 17,000 zones in one year, allowing him to advance from from Novice Scout to rank 46 Turf Preacher in 2019.


    Turfer of the year 2019

    Turfer HappyF got 96 of 220 votes = 43,6 %

    HappyF was nominated for providing the excellent and constantly evolving statistics site https://turf.lundkvist.com/


    Zone take of the year 2019

    Turfer Kygni got 75 of 221 votes = 33,9 %

    Kygni was nominated for taking the difficult zone Kobbezon and for taking the zone Seglaren in December by swimming out only wearing underwear.


    Turf Crew congratulates the winners! The statuettes will be distributed at Bonanzan in Örebro in May 29, 2021. Don't miss it!


    Swecation/Staycation 2020

    Not going abroad for vacation for most people this year has lead to a bunch of medals for the Turfers. Several big value medals have been seen in the flow at turfgame.com: Sweden Explorer, 10000 unique zones, 100000 takes and so on. In the lead of taking unique turf zones is the one and only Snusmumriken who passed 16000 unique Turf zones in July!


    Challenges and new dimensions

    Skåne region has had this for a while, but now Västerbotten region has also launched a Turf Classic. See Västerbotten in a new way! Read more about this at: https://turfvasterbotten.wordpress.com/vasterbottens-turf-klassiker/


    If you are restless, you can always find new goals with turf by visiting Sunyour's page with all Missions https://frut.zundin.se/. There are currently 60 different Missions around Sweden and on Åland to take on. Some quirky ideas that have become a reality in the form of both possible and sometimes impossible assignments to tackle.

    If you have taken all the zones in your region, is it over then?! No, not at all! Then you make sure that you are registered at https://lundkvist.com/ and start hunting for zones, municipalities, regions in Sweden and the rest of the world! All logged on lundkvist.com!

    Inspiration

    When I sometimes lose my appetite for Turf and lie on the couch at home, I usually find inspiration from Turf-TV, reports in social media and gossip in the app chat (different regions can be listened to via UrbanGeeks Turftuner), different groups on Facebook, different Hangouts that you have managed to join. Many different subjects are discussed and you sometimes have to sift among the stories so as not to get tired.

    One of the most important channels for me is Instagram where I follow a few different Turfers, here I give some examples: Ventoux (phototurfing) who goes on adventures with his small-wheeled bike, 60-80 and sometimes up to 100 kilometers per day, with zone shots along the way and he documents his turf path with just enough pictures and good descriptive text. Snusmumriken (monost63) in Linköping is also always inspiring to follow with her tireless energy to bike and take zones, unique zones and with pictures of most of the zones! Canon (CanonTurf) in Nyköping has an ability to capture dawn, dusk and other beautiful things in our beautiful country. Tantorange (Dillpion) in Skellefteå is another diligent photographer of turf zones with a nice touch, you get the urge to go back to Skellefteå and the surrounding area and take zones. These were just a few examples, there are many more turfers to follow, search on Instagram for turf!

    What inspires you? Submit a note to Turf Insider and tell us! insider@turfgame.com


    Take care and see you out on the Turf scene!

    / mpmoke


    Proof read and edited by Munin, who was very happy to get a stand-in writer this time :)

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    Kalmar Duo 2020 https://turfgame.com/?feedid=363 Sun, 02 Aug 2020 18:21:55 +0000 https://rss.turfgame.com/363

    Ännu en ny typ av event i Kalmar! Genomförs på coronasäkert vis.

    Läs mer här: < Continue reading ]]>

    Ännu en ny typ av event i Kalmar! Genomförs på coronasäkert vis.

    Läs mer här: http://tiny.cc/40amsz

    ]]>
    Bonanza cancelled https://turfgame.com/?feedid=362 Sat, 18 Jul 2020 11:13:26 +0000 https://rss.turfgame.com/362 Unfortunately, due to the pandemic situation and the current recommendations of the Public Helth Authority, we must cancel this years´s Turf Bonanza in Öre Continue reading ]]> Unfortunately, due to the pandemic situation and the current recommendations of the Public Helth Authority, we must cancel this years´s Turf Bonanza in Örebro. We welcome all turfers to Bonanza 2021 in Örebro on May 29. Turf Örebro will refund payments made for T-shirts and the banquet. New registration for Bonanza 2021 will be released in the beginning of year 2021.

    Turf Crew and Bonanza Crew Örebro

    ]]>
    10 years https://turfgame.com/?feedid=361 Fri, 10 Jul 2020 18:22:13 +0000 https://rss.turfgame.com/361

    10 years ago, 2010-07-10 21:19:46 (UTC), the second registered user hence took the very firs Continue reading ]]>

    10 years ago, 2010-07-10 21:19:46 (UTC), the second registered user hence took the very first official zone in the game.

    The zone taken was NackaZone just east of Stockholm, marking the beginning of a decade of outdoor fun to come. 

    So Congratulations to the entire TURF community today!

    //Turf Crew

    ]]>
    July https://turfgame.com/?feedid=360 Fri, 10 Jul 2020 18:13:20 +0000 https://rss.turfgame.com/360 Round Winners

    Congrats to the winner of round Continue reading ]]> Round Winners

    Congrats to the winner of round 120: KRALJICA from Skåne won her second Gold, jösses_då from Västra Götaland won his second Silver and Kajari from Etelä-Suomi won his first Bronze.

    Well done mates!


    Turf Events, Region Battle and Meetings

    Bonanza 2020 is cancelled!

    Sad, but maybe not too surprising news about Bonanza 2020:

    Unfortunately, due to the Covid-19 pandemic and the current recommendations from the Swedish Public Health Authority, we must cancel this year´s Turf Bonanza in Örebro.

    We welcome all turfers to Bonanza 2021 in Örebro on May 29. Turf Örebro will refund payments made for T-shirts and the banquet. New registration for Bonanza 2021 will be released in the beginning of year 2021.

    Turf Crew and Bonanza Crew Örebro


    I think it was a very tough decision to make by the Bonanza Crew, and now we all should look forward to 2021: circle the date, book accommodation and find a pet sitter! And until then we can still Turf on :)


    The winners of Turf Awards 2020 will be announced in the next Turf Insider, since it would be cruel to have you wait until the Bonanza 2021 for the result.


    Don't forget to get ready for the multi-region battle in September. So far 11 regions are signed up, all Swedish regions. The last date to sign up is 31st of July with an e-mail to: maxi.triathlon@gmail.com


    If you want your public event featured in Turf Insider, write to: insider@turfgame.com preferably at least two months in advance and add a web page if possible. After the event it is always fun to read a paragraph about it (winners, weather, funny episodes) and remember that a picture is always worth more than a 1000 words.


    Vacation Time Turf

    During June I was on vacation with my partner and spent some time first in Dalarna and then in Örebro region. While in Dalarna a local turfer, snaggy1967, gave some very good suggestions in the Turf chat to local zones worth visiting. My favorite was Slogbodn with a fantastic view over the river Österdalälven, a perfect spot for morning coffee :)

    The day before mazn in Mora had contacted us in the Turf chat, asking about our plans in Mora and when we told his we were going to bike around 'hunting' for unique zones, he asked if we wanted a guide. We answered: ”Yes, please!” And then we spent almost 1,5 hour with a very friendly and talkative local turfer with lots of enthusiasm for the game. A few days later in Nora we had a nice chat with local turfer Battigoal who started when Nora had only 8 (!) zones, today the small town has over 70 easy-to-bike-to zones. One of them had the honor of being the 1000 round unique zone for me and TriggerHappy :) Our vacation goal was to take the Diversiest Medal and then relax...


    During summer many of us are travelling, going after unique zones. Those friendly meetings with local turfers are the icing on the cake to me, and a chance to listen to the experience of how it is to Turf in other areas. It is easy to think it is the same all over the map, but what is easy in one place, can be really hard somewhere else. Take the opportunity to meet your fellow turfers this summer, either if you are travelling and on 'new' Turf or if someone is visiting your backyard Turf.


    And...don't forget to turn on Turf and take some zones on the 10th of July, Turf's 10th birthday. There's a party hat for Supporters and a medal for anyone that takes at least ten zones on the 10th of July :)


    Turfa lugnt/Safe turfing!

    Munin

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    10 years coming up! https://turfgame.com/?feedid=358 Mon, 08 Jun 2020 20:28:46 +0000 https://rss.turfgame.com/358

    The first zone takeover ever was on July 10, 2010.

    Therefore, to celebrate you will ge Continue reading ]]>

    The first zone takeover ever was on July 10, 2010.

    Therefore, to celebrate you will get something unique if you take zones on July 10.

    And our beloved supporters will get something extra.

    Don't miss the chance, the opportunity comes only once every decade!

    ]]>
    Bug fix https://turfgame.com/?feedid=357 Thu, 04 Jun 2020 18:39:21 +0000 https://rss.turfgame.com/357 Continue reading ]]> May https://turfgame.com/?feedid=355 Sat, 30 May 2020 10:55:06 +0000 https://rss.turfgame.com/355 Round Winners

    Congrats to the winner of round 118: Király from Skåne wo Continue reading ]]> Round Winners

    Congrats to the winner of round 118: Király from Skåne won his 12th gold, M0112 from Åland added another silver medal to his collection and Mattet from Västerbotten biked home his first Bronze.

    Well done mates!


    Turf Events

    Since travelling is currently discouraged in Sweden, Events are mainly an affair for the local turfers. Events take place outdoors and social distancing is easier to accomplish, so few regional events have taken place. Turf Stockholm held an Open By Foot event named Judarn 20 with 54 participants in April. There was no gathering before the event and everyone was encouraged to bring their own snacks and keep their distance during the prize ceremony. 

    Bonanza 2020 moved!

    Due to the Corona pandemic, Bonanza 2020 has been moved to August 29. It will still be held in Örebro :)

    Registration is open! All info can be found here. The voting for Turf Awards 2019 has been concluded and the winners will be announced at the Bonanza banquet, which we all hope can be held in August.


    Upcoming potential Turf Events include GbgOpen2020 on the 6th of June. Turf Göteborg will decide this upcoming weekend if the event will take place or not and in which format. Keep yourself updated here. In Umeå VbMidnightC20 is scheduled to take place on the 27th of June, hopefully more information will soon be posted on Turf Västerbotten's homepage.

    If you want your public event featured in Turf Insider, write to: insider@turfgame.com preferably at least two months in advance and add a web page if possible. After the event it is always fun to read a paragraph about it (winners, weather, funny episodes) and remember that a picture is always worth more than a 1000 words.


    I personally think Turf is a perfect activity in these Covid-19 times. It takes you out of the house, makes you move and gives some social contact via the app with other people. Since it takes place outside, it is easy to keep your distance if you do happen to meet up with another turfer.


    In April many regular Turf get-togethers were cancelled, but in May and June turfers in different parts of Sweden have decided to move the monthly get-togethers outdoors, and not just to the outdoor area of the normal pub or restaurant, but to a barbecue spot in a nice forest or by a lake. This is a great compromise in keeping with the guide lines in social distancing and yet being able to see your fellow turfers. Remember to stay home if you are feeling the slightest bit ill!


    Turf Missions

    For those that get tired of taking the same zones over and over again back and forth to work, school or some other place, there's the Turf Missions, created and organised by SunYour. There are 56 different missions where zones should be taken in a certain order. Some cities have two missions and others only one. The city has to be big enough to have a mission, since a mission with only 20-50 zones is fairly pointless and you'd be able to finish it in one evening ;) Some cities have also been graced with the ”Flipper”, a mission where you are told to take all zones in a certain area of the city, before you can 'flip' onwards to the next area. All this can be found at: https://frut.zundin.se/mission_list.php


    Frut.zundin also has plenty of interesting statistics for those so inclined, like Round Unique, User Stats and Zone Stats. For those of you that enjoy "Theory Turf" (digging deep into the statistics of the game in the comfort of your own couch) more than real Turf, I am sure this site can help you waste many hours with a happy smile on your face :)


    Tip Of The Month

    Subscribe to issues in your home region (and any other region you have an interest in) at https://issues.turfgame.com/subscriptions

    This will keep you updated with changes in zones you know and love, and you can add your own two cents to issues other turfers have with these zones. You can also contribute yourself by reporting any not-so-well-placed zone, and more or less swift action will be taken depending on the issue with the zone!


    I leave you this time with a picture of my cat Serafina walking away from me in a recently visited zone in Ockelbo. Happy exploring!



    Turfa lugnt/Safe turfing!

    Munin

    ]]>
    Mishap https://turfgame.com/?feedid=354 Mon, 20 Apr 2020 10:02:40 +0000 https://rss.turfgame.com/354 Due to human error, Fairy was incorrectly activated on Sun 20.
    As you may or may not know, Fairy is the monthly process that changes the points (TP and PP Continue reading ]]>
    Due to human error, Fairy was incorrectly activated on Sun 20.
    As you may or may not know, Fairy is the monthly process that changes the points (TP and PPH) based on monthly activity etc. Fairy is normally activated every month just before the new round. The name 'Fairy' is a hint to the aim of the process, which is to make the game more fair. However, subjective and objective fairness is an ever ongoing discussion in a game like Turf:-)

    //Turf Crew

    ]]>
    April https://turfgame.com/?feedid=353 Mon, 20 Apr 2020 09:51:13 +0000 https://rss.turfgame.com/353 Round Winners

    Congrats to the winner of round 117: Király from Skåne to Continue reading ]]> Round Winners

    Congrats to the winner of round 117: Király from Skåne took 5728 zones to win his 11th gold, OlleKlunk from Örebro added a silver medal to his bronze from last round and recycling from Östergötland secured a bronze by taking 7107 zones.

    Well done mates!


    Turf Events

    If you want your public event featured in Turf Insider, write to: insider@turfgame.com preferably at least two months in advance and add a web page if possible. After the event it is always fun to read a paragraph about it (winners, weather, funny episodes) and remember that a picture is always worth more than a 1000 words.

    Bonanza 2020 moved!

    Due to the Corona pandemic, Bonanza 2020 has been moved to August 29.

    Registration is still open! All info can be found here. The voting for Turf Awards 2019 has been concluded and the winners will be announced at the Bonanza banquet, which we all hope can be held in August.

    First Finnish Event

    Turf Insider got an e-mail from TortugaVeloz:

    Greetings from Åbo / Turku

    In these hard times with the world fighting the Covid-19 virus we are lucky to have the Turf game giving us a motive to go out in the fresh air walking or biking. Regardless of social restrictions we were able to fulfill our first ever event, something we had been planning and talking about for months.

    Åbo Private” event was a closed event because we wanted to have it as a trial run to see how it worked and be able to correct eventual errors before we take on having an open event. Good thing we did as due to the Corona virus people were not able to travel to our town to participate. Still 19 of our local turfers participated in our event on Sunday March 29th. The weather was close to perfect and I have not seen so many of us out at the same time before. During the full 2h we were walking alone or in pairs happy to meet up with each other at some zone or another. The feedback was that we all enjoyed ourselves.

    And you can be sure that as soon as the world is back to normal we will start planning an open event in our town. So keep an eye open for news when things get better. From Sweden it is easy to take the ferry from Stockholm to Åbo. You can arrive in the morning and take the evening ferry back, if you do not want to spend a night in the former capital of Finland. Ready to take some new unique zones? See the culture. The event will be in the center of Åbo/Turku including several parks and walks by the river. I am told it could be the first ever event outside Sweden…

    Afterwards some of us gathered by the river just for a quick chat about the day and to take a group assist zone. You find us in the below picture, trying to keep the 1-2 m distance as recommended.

    Stay healthy, everyone. And keep Turfing!”


    In the picture: M0112, Spagetti, Babbo68, Riversong, ojernstr, Tempatti(half hidden), Kayaker, lazytraveller, TortugaVeloz, Redmountrider, Bikingbookworm. Picture taken by Jannispoika.


    I am sure many of us would love to visit Åbo for an Open Turf Event in the future :)


    Region Battle Uppsala - Östergötland

    During March Uppsala was battling with Östergötland in three classes: average points, average takes and average unique zones. It was a tough battle over five weeks and in the end, the best team won: Uppsala! :) There have been many hours on the bike, securing those precious takes. It was obvious early on that Team Uppsala would have no chance to win the average points class, since our zones were worth a lot less. Our strong side was lots of team members with plenty of never taken zones in both Uppsala, Bålsta and Enköping, so we did not have to go far to collect unique zones :) The battle was going to be about average takes...


    I asked recycling, team leader of Östergötland for his view of the region battle:

    Östergötland tried to take on Uppsala in a region battle during the March round.

    The first challenge was to try to match the size of the Uppsala team. I actually recruited the last few members while riding to the position where I intended to start the round.

    The second challenge turned out to be interpreting the rules of the battle. I failed miserably at one point. Apart from that the first week was pretty much as planned. Both teams averaged roughly 450 takes per Turfer and Östergötland was the winner of week 1.


    Halfway both teams did remarkable turn-overs and it became pretty obvious that the overall victory would go to the team with the highest number of takes over 5 weeks. So the fourth week became the big battle of takes. Östergötland raised the bar and the top 33 turfers took more than 20000 zones, but it turned out to be just 16 zones short of winning takes week 4. Less than half-a-zone per turfer over a whole week. Ouch, that hurt! The joint Uppsala effort was once again successful.


    Östergötland had tried to match that with a high-speed recipe that gave a peak of 62 takes by the same turfer within an hour. The team reached 10 Staminatrix and 3 new Staminatrix medals, but all-in-all Uppsala had an awesome team work that gathered lots of unique zones and takes and the overall victory was never really in jeopardy during the last week.

    Uppsala won the final victory, but we all feel like winners. The team work and united efforts have had many positive side-effects. I am really proud of the entire team and the efforts made by many turfers that usually don't get that many points.


    The last four turfers joining the Östergötland team took between 34k and 58k points in the February round. Together with four other turfers within the same range of points in February, they did really step up during the March round. These eight turfers took 351k points in February, but a massive 1978k points in March. One of them almost made a 12-fold increase in points between February and March. That is stepping up! Another of these eight initially refused to join the team but finally agreed with a side-note: "There won't be any 30k per week". And it wasn't. It turned out to be more like 66k per week and a Greed 200 medal...


    Many thanks and congratulations to the Uppsala team for an intense and exciting battle! And many thanks to the Östergötland team for all your efforts!

    These are strange times. Even during this morning's Turf round the Corona concerns of others were very obvious. Take care, observe distance, help out and show respect!

    recycling”


    Yes, it was a tense week 4 battle to the end on Sunday the 29th of March. After the Uppsala team's amazing turn around at the end of week 3, the Östergötland team was ready on Sunday week 4. Sunday week 3, the Uppsala team woke up to a 36 average takes difference after Team Östergötland had biked all thru Saturday evening and night until 2.30 am on Sunday. But we got up at 4.40 am and started laps, first in Västerås where four of us had gone for unique zones, and after breakfast the turfers in Uppsala, Enköping and Bålsta mustered and got on their bikes for laps and solo turfing. When the first Team Östergötland turfer woke up at 10 am, we were tied again for takes. At the end, Uppsala won that week with eight average takes, what a feeling and team spirit!


    I will let Rymprak speak for the Uppsala team:


    Reflections after the Turf battle

    In February I was asked if I wanted to join the Uppsala team and compete in a region battle against Östergötland. I usually turf relatively okay compared to other turfers in Uppsala, with an average of 100000 points per round. I said yes, and that I would turf on as usual and that it will be enough.

    Lesson #1: After 50 years, I realize that I am apparently a competitive person.


    Lesson #2: How wonderfully fun it is to be part of a team. Haven't been involved in team sports since I quit football at the age of 15. An extra wonderful memory is from the last hour of the raffling week 4. Partly in group and partly solo the Uppsala team was scattered over the cities (Uppsala, Enköping and Bålsta) and biked from zone to zone, cheering each other on and collecting zones all to the last second. The collective joy when we realized that we managed to win the average takes week 4, still makes me happy today. We have had early bird turfers, day turf, after-work turfers, evening turfers and night owls out day after day. Everyone contributed a little extra.


    Lesson #3: Achieving individual goals triggered me (and others) to set new goals along the way. After the first week, I revised my personal goal into taking 10,000 points on average per day. I have also taken a score of medals: unique zones, three Assist medals, the 12-hour restless medal, a Take medal, Diversiest medal and finished on the last Saturday to take my first Staminatrix.


    Some of this I might have done anyway, but far from it all during one round. It would never have happened if we hadn't done this together as a team. We have biked countless laps in central Uppsala, visited other places together, helped each other find good routes and showed each other smart roads within the three cities when we visited each other. We have cheered, encouraged and helped each other and been cheered on by the other non-competing turfers in many different ways all the way from start to finish. Some have biked in groups, others individually due to the need for social distancing in these Corona times. Some have been able to turf more due to changed working conditions, others less. I also managed to take a zone from the train when I passed Norrköping with assist from Kryos in Team Östergötland before it was advised against travelling :)


    And yes, it was a lovely lap of honor when 20+ teammates biked around central Uppsala during the last hour of the region battle and took the final zones together.

    And yes, I've taken three times as many points as I usually do!

    And yes, I have gotten several new Turf friends!

    And yes, it has been very nice to have a hobby that can be pursued now in these Corona times and clear the thoughts every day.

    And yes, this has been fun almost every zone take.

    And yes, it is nice that the competition is over and I and the other turfers can turf on as usual again without half the city's zones blocked by eager competitors.


    Thank you to all the Turfers, both everyone in Team Uppsala and everyone else who cheered us on and had a great understanding of our rampaging!”


    One of my own favorite memories from the region battle, is the coffee car trunk café Florenskan supplied the team in Uppsala with on Sunday week 4, to give everyone doing the lap in central Uppsala something hot to drink and some extra energy. Must've been the reason why Uppsala took home the average takes victory that Sunday ;)

    BILD


    There is a multi-region battle coming up in September (organised by MaXi, send your team region registration to: maxi.triathlon@gmail.com) and although at the moment I don't feel like joining, maybe by then I will have forgotten all the long hours on my bike, and only remember the good fun we had as a team.


    Turfa lugnt/Safe turfing!

    Munin

    ]]>
    Bonanza moved! https://turfgame.com/?feedid=352 Mon, 30 Mar 2020 18:30:42 +0000 https://rss.turfgame.com/352 Due to the Corona pandemic, Bonanza 2020 has been moved to August 29.

    Registration is still open!

    All info can be found here: < Continue reading ]]> Due to the Corona pandemic, Bonanza 2020 has been moved to August 29.

    Registration is still open!

    All info can be found herehttps://hem.turforebro.se/bonanza-2020/

    ]]>
    Sign up for Bonanza! https://turfgame.com/?feedid=351 Sun, 15 Mar 2020 20:21:51 +0000 https://rss.turfgame.com/351

    Bonanza is getting closer!


    Read about the event here:

    Continue reading ]]>

    Bonanza is getting closer!


    Read about the event here:

    https://hem.turforebro.se/bonanza-2020/

    Sign up here:

    https://tinyurl.com/bonanza2020


    ]]>
    March https://turfgame.com/?feedid=350 Sun, 15 Mar 2020 20:09:29 +0000 https://rss.turfgame.com/350 Round Winners

    Congrats to the winner of round 116: Király from Skåne wh Continue reading ]]> Round Winners

    Congrats to the winner of round 116: Király from Skåne who just keeps going like the Duracell bunny, GW007 from Kalmar added one more silver to his row of medals, Olleklunk from Örebro turfed home his first Bronze and first Region-medal.

    Well done mates!


    Turf Insider received a mail highlighting how MrAce, the winner of round 115, invited every turfer in Västerås for a FTT on his winner zone, MrAcePlace. MrAce himself was serving up ”fika” to all who braved the cold and the fierce winds. The ”unveiling” of winner zones together with your fellow turfers is a nice happening. The best yet that Turf Insider have reported about, is when the turfers in Mariehamn get together and celebrate in style with champagne!


    Turf Events

    If you want your public event featured in Turf Insider, write to: insider@turfgame.com preferably at least two months in advance and add a web page if possible. After the event it is always fun to read a paragraph about it (winners, weather, funny episodes) and remember that a picture is always worth more than a 1000 words.


    New open Duo Turf event in Kalmar

    The Kalmar Turf Association invites all Turfers to Kalmar Duo Turf 2020. On September 12, the event will be conducted in two heat, one for walking/jogging during 60 minutes and one for cycling during 90 minutes. The points from both heats are summed up. Read all about the event at www.kalmarturf.se


    Report from Winter Classic 2020

    The battle of swamps

    For a while it seemed like winter had abandoned Umeå, but just in time for Västerbotten Winter Classic the cold weather returned. On the leap-day of the year 2020 the Nydala lake was covered by a thick layer of ice and a thin layer of snow. More than 40 turfers from Gothenburg to Luleå competed by bike or on foot, conquering all the swamps in Västerbotten. Well, not literally, the theme for the event zones was places in Västerbotten with -träsk (swamp) in their name. Most unique swamps (94 in 94 takes) was collected by cotten who won gold in the cycle class. MaXi seized the runners' gold with 66 takes. MoiRune - who started approximately 20 minutes after everyone else - won the Juniors' gold with an amazing 65 takes! The achievement "Turfer travelling the furthest to the event" resulted in a large chunk of Västerbotten cheese for MrJokerit. The event was followed by an evening buffet.

    For photos and a longer summary in Swedish see: https://turfvasterbotten.wordpress.com/2020/03/02/traskkamp-i-winter-classic-2020/


    Turf Awards 2019

    Turf Award is awarded to turfers who have made significant or particularly attentive achievements during the previous year or have been involved in an especially noted or spectacular zone takeover.

    Voting form for Turf Award 2019 is now open!

    Five turfers have been nominated in each category and during the month of March you can vote for those who have been nominated for the Turf Awards 2019. Link to the voting form: https://goo.gl/forms/VAFenyDiz6W7LoPv2 The winner in each category will be announced by Turf Crew at the Bonanza banquet in Örebro on May 16, 2020.


    How Naviki and Turf got together

    Do you remember Naviki, the German navigation app? Turf zones were added to their Points Of Interests last year and Germany Explorer was a fact.

    A turfer who was involved in initiating the collaboration is Deppen. This is her story about how it came to happen:


    In 2018 and 2019 I biked about 700 km. I like to take unique zones and Naviki is a good help in planning the route. I use two older iPhones, both mounted on the handle bar of my bike. One is for Turf and one is for Naviki. When I started using Naviki, it bothered me to not see Turf zones as part of their Points of Interest. So I contacted Naviki and told them about Turf. After hearing nothing for about half a year, I got back to them and asked if they wanted to know more about Turf. I was told they had contacted Andrimon and the rest you know :)”


    Proves that one turfer can have a big impact on the game! So don't be shy to contact Andrimon with your ideas about expanding Turf.


    Region Battle Uppsala - Östergötland

    During March Uppsala is battling with Östergötland in three classes: average points, average takes and average unique zones. You can follow the teams and the battle at https://turfportalen.se/event/uppsalaostergotland2020 I am part of Team Uppsala and yesterday a member of our team wrote the following post to the rest of the team and I think it symbolizes very well what Turf and region battles are all about :)


    Dear Teammates. Here are some reflections from my first two days of the regional battle.

    First of all, I must say that I am insanely impressed with your efforts! I can't understand how you can gather as many points as you do. I am normally on foot and aim to take at least 1000 points a day, I'm happy if I take over 2000 points and proud if I happen to approach 3000 points.

    These two days I have biked. Collecting points is a lot more efficient, but what I realize is that there are obstacles out there I never reflected on earlier. During these two days I have carried my bike both up and down stairs, I have lifted it over a fallen tree and gotten stuck in mud. By foot it's kind of easier ... bu of course also a lot slower.

    I entered this battle as a real underdog. I had the second lowest ranking in the team. I had taken the least number of zones all together and I had taken almost the least points. And most of the zones I've taken are in a straight line to and from work and the gym. It doesn't necessarily have to be a drawback though, and I am curious to see if I can get even close to the points some of my Teammates get every month.

    Watching TurfTV has been something I have teased my mum, turf nick Mumsige, for. I have considered it pure madness to stare at avatars moving across a screen. But last night I found myself opening the Turf app several times and followed you (my team mates) on the screen. Slow entertainment indeed, but on the other hand, I dig watching bread rising in the oven!

    I have met many new people on my routes, common for all I have encountered is that you are incredibly nice! It feels great to be a part of the Uppsala gang! Thanks for letting me join :)

    So, tired but satisfied and deeply impressed is the summary of my first few days!

    See you in a zone somewhere soon!

    // dixern”


    The battle has just begun and it looks like it will be a close battle over the next five weeks. It will end at 11.59 am on Sunday the 5th of April. Let the best (Uppsala!) team win ;)

    MaXi from Dalarna is trying to put together a MEGA Region battle for September 2020. Dead line to register your region and a team captain is 1st of April. Contact MaXi at maxi.triathlon@gmail.com The idea is that the team captains will discuss the rules of the battle and how to compete.


    Turfa lugnt/Safe turfing!

    Munin

    ]]>
    Turf Awards, time to vote! https://turfgame.com/?feedid=349 Sun, 01 Mar 2020 19:14:28 +0000 https://rss.turfgame.com/349

    Vote for your favourite Continue reading ]]>

    Vote for your favourite candidate now!

    Do it HERE!

    ]]>
    February https://turfgame.com/?feedid=348 Fri, 07 Feb 2020 14:53:20 +0000 https://rss.turfgame.com/348 Round Winners

    Congrats to the winner of round 115: MrAce from Västmanland who to Continue reading ]]> Round Winners

    Congrats to the winner of round 115: MrAce from Västmanland who took his first Gold medal ever, ZonerX from Stockholm landed his second Silver and NPJem from Skåne could celebrate his first Bronze.

    Well done mates!


    Turf Events

    If you want your public event featured in Turf Insider, write to: insider@turfgame.com preferably at least two months in advance and add a web page if possible. After the event it is always fun to read a paragraph about it (winners, weather, funny episodes) and remember that a picture is always worth more than a 1000 words.


    Vb Winter Classic 2020

    Just a reminder to sign up for the Winter Classic event taking place in Umeå on the leap day this year. It is a classical event organized by Turf Västerbotten.

    More information regarding registration etc will be posted on Turf Västerbotten web page: turfvasterbotten.wordpress.com


    Turf Awards 2019

    Turf Award is awarded to turfers who have made significant or particularly attentive achievements during the previous year or have been involved in an especially noted or spectacular zone takeover. The nomination period has now ended and in March the nominations in each category will be revealed and every turfer can vote for their favorite. The winner in each category will be announced by Turf Crew at the Bonanza banquet in Örebro on May 16, 2020.


    Turf Clubs

    In the last few years Turf Clubs have been started. Optimus from uTurf (Turf Västmanland) wants to remind every old, new and future member of uTurf of the annual member meeting on the 11th of March at 6.30 pm. More info at www.uturf.se. You don't have to live and turf in Västmanland to become a member of uTurf. 

    I would like to hear from the Turf Clubs out there. How long have you been around? Regular meetings/events your club arranges. 


    FTT = First To Take

    What is more rewarding than being the first turfer to take a brand new zone or an old one in some far away corner of the Turf map? This is called FTT: First To Take. If you have registered at https://turf.lundkvist.com/, you can see all your FTTs from 1/1 2007 (that is as far back as lundkvist statistics go), and sometimes a few taken before this date. Most FTTs to date, according to Lundkvist, has MrJokerit, no doubt due to his escapade in Japan a few years ago. At lundkvist you can also check if there's any potential FTTs around when you are out and about. When looking at a region's all zones, you can sort them accordingly to how many times they've been taken. For example there's 13 zones in Jämtland waiting for a turfer to take FTT :) While there are none in Stockholm...


    I still remember my first FTT, back during my first year as a turfer. It was my own zone suggestion (SvängAv) and popped up on my way home from a weekly Lindy hop dance event. My second FTT was another zone suggestion of mine: DanskaStenen. Most of my FTTs I've collected while travelling outside of Sweden, there is less competition for zones then. At lundkvist, FTTs you take while assisting is listed. It is fun to get together and take a FTT together, I have experienced this twice in Uppsala. Both times it was Kygni that got the local turfers together for a FTT on his winner zones.


    Sometimes zone makers enjoy 'dumping' a new zone on top of an active turfer. This happened to pandora when she stopped in the Lunsen forest back in 2014 to photograph some forest motives. When she started to walk again, she heard 'taking zone' and was awarded with a FTT on the brand new zone Lunsenstigen. Once when I wanted to be nice to a Helsinki turfer and put a new zone on the bike path he was going on, he simply just biked thru it and didn't stop until the next zone! I was somewhat confused over his behavior, but it was explained to me when I visited Helsinki and met up with the local turfers. They told me the turfer was biking with the phone in his pocket, and didn't realize a new zone has been put in his way...he had heard 'taking zone', but disregarded it as an 'echo'. So much for my gift of a new zone!


    My zone maker colleague Wsnurr once had to explain for a couple of hitchhikers why he turned off the main road on to a small gravel road in order to be the first, and only, turfer to take the Slovakian zone Vlkonívec. Another time he took a cab for 30 min into nowhere in Bulgaria to walk over a rusty bridge over Donau to end up in a zone full of heavy underbrush. The things some turfers do for a FTT ;)


    My own last FTT happened last weekend in Uppsala. Me and TriggerHappy were on our way home after visiting some friends on Saturday evening. We had taken the zone at Järlåsa church and were half-way to Vänge, when a friendly fellow turfer told us to turn around since a brand new zone had popped up in Järlåsa. It was the zone Pucko close to the factory where the Pucko chocolate drink used to be produced, history of Pucko (in Swedish only). We hurried back and in the dark we got the year's first FTT. The following morning Hylaeus took this photo of the zone, our photo was all darkness.

    BILD


    Turf Crew launches Scout Turf!

    Several Scout Corps have recently conducted Turf events for their members and it has been a success. Therefore Olle Alsén (ollals) has been appointed as the person in charge of spreading Turf within the Scout organization. ollals will work towards increased activity in Sweden and other countries. Turf events will be a program point at the European Scout Jamboree in Poland this summer. Scouts who want to organize Turf events can contact ollals at scoutevent@turfgame.com Be prepared!


    Turfa lugnt/Safe turfing!

    Munin







    ]]>
    (SWE) Svensk orientering https://turfgame.com/?feedid=347 Wed, 22 Jan 2020 18:42:01 +0000 https://rss.turfgame.com/347 I början av februari håller Smålands Orienteringsförbund och SISU idrottsutbildarna Småland en kurs med namnet: DIGITAL ORIENTERING MED STÖD Continue reading ]]> I början av februari håller Smålands Orienteringsförbund och SISU idrottsutbildarna Småland en kurs med namnet: DIGITAL ORIENTERING MED STÖD AV TURF

    Kursen kommer att gå igenom appen samt verktyget för att skapa egna events.


    Intresse / frågor? Kontakta events@turfgame.com

    ]]>
    Turf awards 2019 https://turfgame.com/?feedid=346 Mon, 13 Jan 2020 20:10:18 +0000 https://rss.turfgame.com/346

    Nominate your candidates before February 1st.

    More information - see links below:

    Continue reading ]]>

    Nominate your candidates before February 1st.

    More information - see links below:

    Information på SVENSKA

    Information in ENGLISH

    ]]>
    January https://turfgame.com/?feedid=345 Sat, 11 Jan 2020 21:44:06 +0000 https://rss.turfgame.com/345 Round Winners

    Congrats to the winner of round 114: the Gold medal was award Continue reading ]]> Round Winners

    Congrats to the winner of round 114: the Gold medal was awarded Király from Skåne who took his 20th medal, MaXi from Dalarna added a Silver medal to his Bronze medal and M0112 from Lounais-Suomi added a second Bronze medal to his list.

    Well done mates!


    Turf Events

    If you want your public event featured in Turf Insider, write to: insider@turfgame.com preferably at least two months in advance and add a web page if possible. After the event it is always fun to read a paragraph about it (winners, weather, funny episodes) and remember that a picture is always worth more than a 1000 words.


    Vb Winter Classic 2020

    Just a reminder to sign up for the Winter Classic event taking place in Umeå on the leap day this year. It is a classical event organized by Turf Västerbotten.

    More information regarding registration etc will be posted on our webpage: turfvasterbotten.wordpress.com


    Turf Awards 2019

    Turf Awards are awarded to turfers who have made significant or particularly attentive achievements during the previous year or have been involved in an especially noted or spectacular zone takeover. Candidates for awarding the Turf Award are nominated by all turfers who also participate in the final voting to appoint the winners. Turf Award is handed over to the winners by Turf Crew at the Bonanza banquet in Örebro on May 16, 2020.


    Turfers can be nominated in four categories:

    Best Turf achievement of 2019Awarded to the Turfer who, for example, got the most gold medals, monthly medals, has taken the most zones, unique zones, regions or equivalent in 2019.

    Turf Star of 2019 - Awarded to the Turfer who started turfing as a newbie in 2019 and has made the fastest progress during the year.

    Turfer of the year 2019 - An open category to nominate a Turfer that excelled in an exemplary way without any connections to an individual Turf performance. This award can be given for anything, for example: efforts to spread Turf, marketing, organizing Turf events or a Turfer who has helped and supported others in a special way.

    Most Spectacular Zone Takeover of 2019 - Awarded to the Turfer, who has completed one of the most notable or spectacular zone takes in 2019.


    Nomination procedure

    From January 13 to January 31, you will have the opportunity to submit proposals on who should be nominated for a final vote round to be awarded the Turf Award 2019. Link to forms for proposing candidates can be found on turfgame.com and Facebook from January 13th.

     

    Trans-Siberia Turf train adventure

    Turfer allinug from Uppsala is a daring old lady who booked a trip with the Trans-Siberian railroad over New Year's. I asked her to contribute with some stories from her trip and a few pictures. Here is her story:

    The train slows down well before Ulan-Ude, the turning point for my train journey. I gather my luggage after nesting for four days among Russian families on their way to New Year's celebrations. I step off the train and head for the Ulan-Ude Turf zone.

    I never imagined I would discover new places in my hometown, when my sister-in-law introduced me to Turf. Even less, that a year later I would cut across railroad tracks in Siberia because there is a zone in that direction. Admittedly, I followed the flow of the other passengers, but then I stood there in a parking lot (Ulan-Ude) and was barely able to take myself back after taking the zone to the right side, where my hotel was located. It took an hour and some uniformed people to succeed (you just don't run around the station area willy nilly in Siberia).


    I began the journey in Moscow, and after taking all zones there at least once, I went with the train east for four straight days to Ulan-Ude, a day trip beyond Lake Baikal. On the way back I will stay for a few days in some cities. At the time of writing most recently in Novosibirsk, where I hope to see a glimpse of the Orthodox Christmas celebration and a little more than a glimpse of the zone. On my way east, the gps played a trick on me during the stop.

    Other zones were more easily captured, some even from inside the train. The train schedules are detailed and kept to the minute. I printed them out when I bought the tickets (directly on the Russian train company's website) and then it has been easy to plan my "excursions" on the slippery platforms. At the same time, it is interesting to study the beautiful station houses and the interesting railway routines: the locomotive is sometimes changed, new carriages are switched on, the ”provdonitskan/ -niken” (carriage host) steps off and chops ice from the chassis (Yekaterinburg) before checking passports and tickets. Then, new coal is poured under the samovar in the carriage to keep us passengers warm with fresh tea.


    When I return to Moscow, neutral zones await, some within walking distance of my accommodation. Most of them are of course located at places that I would nevertheless visit, eg. the so well-known, fabulous Vasily Church at Red Square (VasilyChurch). It became a bit difficult to take, as the area was suddenly blocked off and a more or less strict police guard was located at the barriers. However, a friendly guy let me through once - without having to explain everything about Turf, as sometimes is the case.

    One place I would have missed without "turf-guiding" is Luzhniki Stadium, located in a huge sports area on the Moscow River. Fun to get to totally unexpected places! And yes, I mix with other experiences too! From music and art to hiking on a sparkling beautiful Angaraf River yesterday. The adventure continues!”


    Turf Region Battle

    Dalarna was battling with region Örebro during December 2019 and the winning team of 29 Dala-turfers was spear-headed by MaXi, this rounds Silver medalist. I asked him for a few words about the battle:

    "Both regions recruited a team of turfers from their region in order to battle it out during December with regards to highest average take points per turfer. The points of the highest 80 % turfers in the team was counted. The region battle was divided into weeks so the region that won most weeks during December month wins. In the end Dalarna won over Örebro with 4 - 1. You can find the details at Turfportalen. Overall the region battle had a positive impact to help turfers get motivation to take some extra zones and we in Dalarna look forward to doing another one in 2020." 


    Diverse, Diversier, Diversiest

    New medals were released on the 8th of December, the Diverse-series where a turfer has to collect round unique zones.

    The medal was a result of a vote among the Turf community earlier during 2019. The first week, the Diverse-medal was awarded to turfers all over the map. To date only 8 turfers have been awarded the highest level, Diversiest. MaXi from Dalarna was the first turfer to visit enough round unique zones for this medal, he wants to thank OdKing and BigBang for help with both guiding him to new zones and getting a ride with his bike when no more unique zones could be found at home. Personally for me, the two higher medals will be Turf goals for the warmer and lighter parts of the Turf year. For now I am happy with the Diverse-medal :)


    Turfa lugnt/Safe turfing!

    Munin




    ]]>
    Turfer bike discount https://turfgame.com/?feedid=344 Sat, 07 Dec 2019 18:32:43 +0000 https://rss.turfgame.com/344

    We are currently partnering up with Cykellagret.s Continue reading ]]>

    We are currently partnering up with Cykellagret.se in order to give all turfers a 7% discount on new bikes. (no childrens bikes)

    To get your 7% discount, email prisredturfgame@cykellagret.se when you have decided on what to buy.

    This exclusive Turf deal lasts during December.

    ]]>
    December https://turfgame.com/?feedid=343 Sat, 07 Dec 2019 18:19:08 +0000 https://rss.turfgame.com/343 Round Winners

    Congrats to the winner of round 113: Király from Skåne wh Continue reading ]]> Round Winners

    Congrats to the winner of round 113: Király from Skåne who took his 19th medal, Oberoff from Stockholm wanted to see if a part-time dad could win a Region-medal and then he went and biked home a Silver medal. DoctorDave from Östergötland earned his first bronze medal.

    Well done mates!


    Turf Events

    LusseTurf

    Västerås annual Christmas event will take place Sunday the 8th of December and the event runs between 11.00-13.00. The venue opens at 10.15 am, and you are welcome to register at www.uturf.se but you can also register at the event.


    Vb Winter Classic 2020

    Turf Västerbotten wants to invite everyone to their yearly Winter event:

    "There is winter, and there is winter. Then there is Västerbotten Winter Classic 2020! If you want to experience a real winter event, then make sure to make use of the leap-day (29th of February 2020) and join this classical event in Umeå. The event is organized by Turf Västerbotten. We can offer a special prize for the turfer who travels the furthest to experience our popular winter event, and some affordable nice accommodation (but you need to be speedy). 

    More information regarding registration etc will be posted on our web page: turfvasterbotten.wordpress.com ."


    If you want your public event featured in Turf Insider, write to: insider@turfgame.com preferably at least two months in advance and add a web page if possible. After the event it is always fun to read a paragraph about it (winners, weather, funny episodes) and remember that a picture is always worth more than a 1000 words.


    Musikhjälpen and SteelFM

    December 9-15 is the Music Aid in Västerås and of course we will find something on Stora Torget. The theme of the Music Aid this year is ”Sex is not a weapon”, read more here. Turf Västmanland will ensure that there will be Crowdy takes (2 different attempts to get a Crowdy 144) as well as a digital collection box Turf för Musikhjälpen.


    In Åland, the radio channel Steel-FM is organizing a collection for the Food Bank in Åland. It started on December 2 and will run until the New Year.


    Turf Region Battle

    During the next round, Dalarna is battling with region Örebro and it can be followed here: https://turfportalen.se/event/kampdalarnaorebro2019

    The battle is between 29 turfers from Dalarna and 56 turfers from Örebro. The battle will finish on the 5th of January 2020. May the best team win!


    Medal Vote 2019

    During November turfers could vote for the next Turf medal from seven choices. The winning proposal was ”Amount of unique zones during one round”. Behind this mouthful is the idea to go for ”round unique zones”, a concept introduced by https://frut.zundin.se/unika.php. The zones taken does not have to be all time new unique zones to the turfer, but unique for the current round. The Medal workshop is busy designing and naming the new medal, so keep an eye out for it!



    BILD



    Let's talk about Abuse

    Sometimes turfers take advantage of the game in a negative way and break the few rules that exist. Since Turf Crew are not all-seeing, any turfer that discovers a rule violation can write to abuse@turfgame.com . Do not blame or question the behavior of a specific turfer in public, since it rarely results in anything good, but could be devastating if the accused was not doing anything wrong. Report your suspicion to the abuse-mail instead. Different actions can be taken by Turf Crew depending on the kind of abuse and in some cases an assessment has to be done with regards to how serious the violation is.


    The most common rule violation is ”gps spoofing” where the turfer is fooling the game to believe the gps of the phone is in a specific zone while being somewhere else, usually at home by a computer. This is often done by newbies excited about trying their 'hacking' skills. This kind of abuse always result in the account being shut down/banned.


    Another common abuse of a Turf account is one account with several turfers. This is usually done out of naivety about the rules. A warning by e-mail is often enough for the turfers involved to come to their senses and stop sharing one account. If a warning is not enough, the account is banned. Unsuitable Turf nicks are changed by Turf Crew when brought to the attention of Turf Crew via the abuse-mail and the turfer is informed by e-mail about why the nick was inappropriate.


    One turfer having two accounts is NOT abuse, nor is 'armpit turfing' (blocking the phone's gps signal by putting the phone in the armpit when you are in the zone), although many feel these are moral grey zones. Turfing by car is not against the rules either and hence is not abuse. If traffic rules are broken while turfing, it is a matter between the turfer and the police, not a matter for Turf Crew, just as a turfer who bikes or walks also has to obey the local traffic rules.


    Another kind of abuse that can lead to repercussions are foul language in the chats in the Turf app. The first step is usually a short temporary chat-ban (the turfer can still use the app and take zones, but can no longer write in the chats). If a short temporary chat-ban is not enough to deter the turfer from abusing the chat privileges, a longer chat-ban is put in place, sometimes lasting 'forever'. In really severe cases, the account can be shut down. Turf Crew can also ”clean” the different Turf chats by removing the foul language if it is deemed necessary.


    Tip of the month: The Turf Schnapps song

    Christmas time is upon us and warm drinks are a nice way to finish a turf session. If you are having a drink with friends this Swedish Turf schnapps song might be a fun way to break the ice.


    Turfzonen kommer (melody: Punschen kommer/Elvira Madigan, text by mpmoke)

    Zonen kommer, zonen kommer, ny och gul

    Zonen kommer, zonen kommer, ny och gul

    Skål för alla nya, skål för varje zon

    Inga sorger finnas mer när zon vi får!


    Turfa lugnt/Safe turfing!

    Munin

    ]]>
    Vote results https://turfgame.com/?feedid=342 Sat, 16 Nov 2019 08:50:26 +0000 https://rss.turfgame.com/342

    The results are in and it seems like most people voted for a medal that requires you Continue reading ]]>

    The results are in and it seems like most people voted for a medal that requires you to visit a certain amount of different (unique) zones during a round.


    ]]>
    Medal vote 2019 https://turfgame.com/?feedid=341 Sat, 02 Nov 2019 19:52:22 +0000 https://rss.turfgame.com/341

    Place your vote on which medal you think should be implemented next in Turf!

    Continue reading ]]>

    Place your vote on which medal you think should be implemented next in Turf!

    Do it here: https://forms.gle/sd4uJ1mBuzZo2Xgy6

    ]]>
    October https://turfgame.com/?feedid=339 Fri, 18 Oct 2019 14:34:50 +0000 https://rss.turfgame.com/339 Round Winners

    Congrats to the winner of round 111: M0112 from Åland, Fin Continue reading ]]> Round Winners

    Congrats to the winner of round 111: M0112 from Åland, Finland! His second gold, back to back with his first. floramcml from Örebro, Sweden turfed his way to a silver medal, his first. jösses...då from Västra Götaland, Sweden added a bronze to his silver.

    Well done mates!


    Turf Events

    The first event of the Autumn was held in Kalmar, it was a 6 hour Team Event. The Kalmar Turf Association has e-mailed insider@turfgame.com with a report from it:

    On September 14, the Kalmar Turf Association conducted a 6-hour team Turf event in Kalmar. A total of eleven 3-man teams lined up. Of these, two teams participated in the exercise class. Each participant completed four 30 min Turf sessions. All changes took place at the same place on given times at the event gathering place. It was a high tempo and it was fun to see participants coming in for a change and when they pat their teammate on the shoulder.

    Teams from Västerbotten, Stockholm, Västra Götaland, Skåne and Kalmar participated in the event.

    After six hours of hard work, we were able to conclude that Nybro Pro Team took home the victory closely followed (by just 3 points) by Kalmar Dream Team and #Team Skandal. The result of the event is available at www.kalmarturf.se

    In the evening, about 20 participants gathered for a joint dinner at the Stekhuset restaurant. Thank you to everyone who participated and contributed to a successful event. //Kalmar Turfförening 

    Photos: Snabelanna


    Turfers waiting for the next Turf session


    Winnerteam: Nybro Pro Team – NybroMotion, Whiskytoken och mikmik


    If you want your public event featured in Turf Insider, write to: insider@turfgame.com preferably at least two months in advance and add a web page if possible. After the event it is always fun to read a paragraph about it (winners, weather, funny episodes) and remember that a picture is always worth more than a 1000 words.

    Autumn also means back to school for a lot of children. In Sweden there are many School Events taking place every day as part of the school gymnastics. If you are a gymnastics teacher interested in creating a School Turf event for your students, contact our crew member in charge at skolevent@turfgame.com

    Tip of the month: Touch Protector App

    As we turf on into autumn, there will be rainy days. Rain on our cell phones can make for a hard time keeping our fave app on. Many are the times when a water drop hits the game's off button and you are asked if you want to turn off the app. When this happens for the 11th time during ten minutes, it is easy to give up and bike home in the rain. An app that has helped me during the years is the Touch Protector. It locks the screen, but keeps the Turf map active. Rain drops or anything else touching the screen when the Touch Protector is activated, will not have any effect. Perfect when turfing in the rain in your own hood, a little bit more complicated if you are out exploring and need to zoom in and out a lot.

    Denmark Explorer

    324 turfers have taken at least one zone in all of Denmark's five Turf regions. It's been rumoured that one turfer did it in 8 hours, it took me two weeks this September :) There are 3710 zones to choose between in 98 counties in Denmark. There are many lovely cities and towns to visit, my fave was Ribe on the west coast of Syddanmark. 


    The downside of turfing in Denmark, is that many zones requires some tweaking. I think I wrote over 50 issues during two weeks asking my fellow zone makers responsible for the Danish regions to ”please move from the grass to the nearby path to the south” or move away from a private area. The worst was a zone about 5 meters off a single track bike path in an area with weeds taller than me!

    We sure are spoiled in Sweden after years of issue writing that our zones for the most part are centered on bike paths or any other paths instead of in weed infested forests or on grass. It is easy to help correct these kind of zones, just visit Issues.turfgame.com and write a short note stating in which direction the zone should be moved to leave the grass and center on a path.


    Turfa lugnt/Safe turfing!

    Munin

    ]]>
    Bonanza 2020 https://turfgame.com/?feedid=338 Sat, 21 Sep 2019 19:02:03 +0000 https://rss.turfgame.com/338

    Save the date: Bonanza 2020, May 16 in Örebro

    Continue reading ]]>

    Save the date: Bonanza 2020, May 16 in Örebro

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    Team event in Kalmar https://turfgame.com/?feedid=335 Mon, 29 Jul 2019 10:50:30 +0000 https://rss.turfgame.com/335

    All info and registration form - www.kalmarturf.se Continue reading ]]>

    All info and registration form - www.kalmarturf.se

    ]]>
    Navigate with TURF https://turfgame.com/?feedid=334 Thu, 25 Jul 2019 20:05:23 +0000 https://rss.turfgame.com/334

    We are proud to present a new way to PLAN and NAVIGATE Turf routes!

    Thanks Continue reading ]]>

    We are proud to present a new way to PLAN and NAVIGATE Turf routes!

    Thanks to a cooperation with the app Naviki, Turf is now getting something that we hope will benefit all users!

    When using Naviki, you can easily choose what zones to visit and Naviki will find you the best route based on your preferences.

    You preview the route to see time, length, height, calories, etc. 

    AND when you are ready to go, Naviki will guide you through the entire route with voice and visual cues!

    Try it out! The basic functionality is free and very usable.

    ]]>
    Germany https://turfgame.com/?feedid=333 Thu, 25 Jul 2019 19:36:14 +0000 https://rss.turfgame.com/333

    With more than 1300 zones after todays release, Germany is now officially a TURF-c Continue reading ]]>

    With more than 1300 zones after todays release, Germany is now officially a TURF-country!

    Das ist sehr gut! Schönes abend!

    ]]>
    July https://turfgame.com/?feedid=332 Thu, 25 Jul 2019 19:29:21 +0000 https://rss.turfgame.com/332

    Round Winners

    Congr Continue reading ]]>

    Round Winners

    Congrats to the winner of round 108: Kygni from Uppsala, the first turfer to collect over 2 MILLION points during one round! Sleep, eat and take at least 57.000 points per day was the winning formula :) Ghost63_Ume from Umeå, Västerbotten came in about 900.000 point after Kygni and was awarded his first silver. plux from Eskilstuna, Södermanland added a bronze to his silver and gold.

    Well done mates!


    Our two million points winner wants to thank everyone who helped during the last five weeks. It has been many hours on the bike and in the end Kygni took 11757 zones.

    Thank you so much everyone for all the congratulations and the cheering on along the way to 2 million points. And thanks for all the help during the round both in the game and outside. The food and the extra batteries I have borrowed and especially the ”lap turfing” with TriggerHappy, Cissiliana and MrXzon. Thank you very much! Thanks also to those who helped me with guiding in Stockholm during the last 24 hours." Kygni, Uppsala


    And from morgam, another Uppsala turfer, comes a few words of Turf history to put Kygni's amazing achievement in perspective:

    A little Turf million points story for those of you who can't be bothered to go through warded themselves ;)

    Already in round 29, Mazarin was sniffing at the million points mark. And considering the zone density back then (have a look at https://turf.urbangeeks.org/ ), 913.069 was an impressive result. It took until round 47 before the Loaf broke the million points barrier.

    In round 87 the battle between canon and Király took place, and they both pushed over 1.5 million points. During round 99, for the first time, one million points was not enough for a medal. Now, the 2 million points mark has been breached. The battle for the silver and bronze medals became fierce in the last and one million points once again was not enough for a medal.

    When will two million points not be enough for a medal?”


    Summer Events

    Two events took place on the same day in June:

    GtbOpen2019, where MaXi won the bicycle heat with MrJokerit (2019 Bonanza winner) a close second and Blackwall came in third. In the foot heat, Räkan.S ran home a gold medal, followed by Flippr and JKJE. The participants and organizers all had a blast! Read more here (in Swedish only).


    Midnight Classic took place in Umeå amongst mosquitoes, a bright night and 44 turfers. In the bicycle heat, Superelak won the gold, Blodyx silver and Jorgenlxl bronze. In the foot heat the winner was Harijono, Ivern took silver and Ninetail bronze. Read more here (in Swedish only).


    At the very end of summer, Turf Örebro will organize their highly appreciated KulTurf. This year it will take place on Saturday the 31st of August. The aim is to visit as many different zones as possible. There will be a foot heat and a bicycle heat. In the evening dinner will be served in the well known "Svampen". Read more here (only in Swedish).


    If you want your public event featured in Turf Insider, write to: insider@turfgame.com preferably at least two months in advance and add a web page if possible. After the event it is always fun to read a paragraph about it (winners, weather, funny episodes) and remember that a picture is always worth more than a 1000 words.



    Turf Wiki 

    TurfWiki is an encyclopedia about Turf, provided and maintained by the community. It aims to provide information about anything related to Turf, as well as guiding new players to learn the basics when starting out for the first time, and deepening the knowledge for more experienced players.

    TurfWiki is going through a major overhaul since last year, with the goal and intention to revamp the design, improve navigation and how to search the content, provide simple yet extensive guides (mostly aimed towards new players). The aim is also to simplify the process of contribution.


    Assist

    With the release of version 2.1.1, the idea of Assist was introduced to Turf. It had been anticipated and asked for by the community for years. Assist allows several players to take a zone at the same time, giving the game a whole new dimension. What was earlier a mostly solitary game, the Assist feature now opened up for players to meet and play together. It also was a major improvement for travelling with your turfing partner and visiting new unique zones! Before Assist there was an endless discussion about who was going to take which zone, after Assist, everyone get every zone :)


    New medals (Assist and Crowdy) were introduced at the same time and a new Toplist at warded was created: # Assisted turfers; simply put how many different turfers a person have Assisted in taking a zone with. A new word, ”passist” was coined by xelryz from Uppsala and is often used in certain circles when talking about the 'hunt' for more Assists with unique turfers.


    With Assist in play, blocking another turfer is less of a problem. Many turfers feels it is an established etiquette to not block zones in front of another player if it is avoidable. This is, however, not a rule of the game. There are many reasons a player might not wait for fellow turfers (late for something, phone in pocket so are unaware of other players, don't know of the Assist feature or they might just not want to take an Assist). Blocking is still a game mechanism some players find exciting. It is not anyone's right to have other turfers wait for you to take an Assist, it is an extra feature of the game and turfers can choose to take the zone instead of holding off to give someone the chance of an Assist.


    However, many enjoy meeting up and taking a zone or more together. Almost all in-app-chat channels are full of players asking others to meet up for an Assist or two. So if you find yourself in close proximity to another player (1-2 zones, sometimes more if it's an unique turfer you want to take a passist with), send the other turfer a message, asking if you can take the zone (always good to specify which zone!) together. Hopefully the other player is as keen as you are about meeting up, and you will find yourself in a zone taking an Assist.


    When assisting it is good to keep an out to make sure the other player/s get the Assist. The red dots in your take column is a good help if there's only 2 or 3 of you trying for an Assist. Zooming in on the zone to see if everyone makes it into the zone can be helpful. The last option is to shout out to each other if you happen to leave the zone, and then everyone can turn off their GPS (thus cancelling the takeover of the zone) and you can then try again. Turning off the GPS is easiest done by pressing for about one second on the yellow Turf dude in the bottom left corner of the app window.


    So go out there and meet up with a fellow turfer (newbie, oldie, traveller or local you have never met) this summer and collect those Assist together. Or organize a picnic with fellow turfers in a zone and send the picture to insider@turfgame.com :)

    Turfa lugnt/Safe turfing!

    Munin




    ]]>
    Bonanza 2020 https://turfgame.com/?feedid=331 Sun, 19 May 2019 18:48:08 +0000 https://rss.turfgame.com/331 Continue reading ]]>

    The location of the next Bonanza was revealed during this years bonanza banquet.
    Check out this video to learn the location!

    https://www.youtube.com/embed/hxEVVUXlsJc

    ]]>
    Turf award winners 2018 https://turfgame.com/?feedid=330 Sun, 19 May 2019 18:39:52 +0000 https://rss.turfgame.com/330

    Årets zontagning - Florence & Entertainer

    Årets stjärnskott - Ghost63_Ume

    År Continue reading ]]>

    Årets zontagning - Florence & Entertainer

    Årets stjärnskott - Ghost63_Ume

    Årets turfare - SunYour

    Årets turfprestation - Király

    ]]>
    #PLURFA https://turfgame.com/?feedid=329 Sun, 19 May 2019 08:13:54 +0000 https://rss.turfgame.com/329

    Let's do something good together!
    We are now starting the hashtag #PLURFA which means:

    Continue reading ]]>

    Let's do something good together!
    We are now starting the hashtag #PLURFA which means:

    Plocka skräp + Turfa  (pick up trash + turf)

    The mission is to clean up IN and NEAR zones. Simple as that.

    Help spreading word by taking a photo of yourself with the in-app camera.
    And don't forget to use the hashtag #PLURFA.

    ]]>
    May https://turfgame.com/?feedid=327 Sun, 19 May 2019 07:47:04 +0000 https://rss.turfgame.com/327

    Round Winners

    Congr Continue reading ]]>

    Round Winners

    Congrats to the winner of round 106: Bont from Umeå, Västerbotten! For the fourth time he collected over one million points to win the Gold medal. jösses_då from Västra Götaland came second and was awarded his first Silver medal. tilverturf from Uppsala biked his way to his first bronze medal.

    Well done mates!


    Bonanza 2019 - 18th of May in Stockholm

    Welcome to the capital of Sweden and compete by foot or bike in the lovely royal Djurgården area! The registration period has ended, but you are welcome to come and socialize. This is a great opportunity to meet and greet fellow turfers from everywhere. The competitions end with a festive dinner party, the Bonanza Banquet. All information about all of this and more can be found at:http://nyheter.turf08.se

    Turf Crew will hand over the Turf Awards to the winners during the Bonanza Banquet in Stockholm on May 18, 2019.

    If you want your public event featured in Turf Insider, write to: insider@turfgame.com preferably at least two months in advance and add a web page if possible. After the event it is always fun to read a paragraph about it (winners, weather, funny episodes) and remember that a picture is always worth more than a 1000 words.


    A new Turf Association is born

    On Saturday 4th of May the turfers of Västerbotten formed a new Turf Association, Turf Västerbotten. Over 20 turfers attended the meeting and discussed future plans together. Read more about Sweden's newest Turf ”club” at www.turfvasterbotten.wordpress.com. In June, Midnight Classic will be organized for the sixth time in Umeå, read all about it here. Don't miss to go north for this special event which takes place over two days, from 11 pm on Saturday to 1 am on Sunday. As the organizers put it: "The sun goes down 22.5010.50 pm on the 8th of June and it goes up at 2.23 am on the 9th of June. If the weather is good, it won't get dark at all."


    Summer Turf Adventure

    A young turfer, 18 in June, from Uppsala is planning a summer Turf adventure extra-ordinaire: to bike (and turf) from his home in Uppsala, Sweden to his grandma's summer cottage in Rovaniemi, Finland during July. He has a solid plan (read more in his own words here), but is lacking travel mates. He'd like someone to bike with most of the way. If you have some time off in July, take the oppertunity to join Kygni in his summer adventure :) Contact him privately here: kygni610@gmail.com or add him on Discord (username: Kygni#6840). Kygni will be at the Bonanza in Stockholm and would love to talk to other turfers interested in joining his adventure. 


    For those of us who don't have time or energy to bike from Uppsala to Rovaniemi this summer, there are smaller adventures to look forward to. Maybe it's time to take all the zones in your county or region. Find someone to assist turf with during the lovely summer evenings and upgrade your Assist Medal. Make a zone ”fetlila” on your warded-map. (”Fetlila”/"Fat purple" is an expression coined by Praktikus some years ago and refers to when a turfer has more than 1000 takes on a zone, as can be seen at warded) Organize a picnic with fellow turfers in a zone and send the picture to insider@turfgame.com or just enjoy your daily Turf session by foot, bike or any other way you like! 


    Turf Meetings

    Turf Insider have recieved two mails about Turf Meetings. First from the turfers of Turku, Finland:


    Greetings from Turku, Finland.

    A group of Turfers met up in the sunshine in the park Kuppis/Kupittaa in Åbo/Turku. Just in time to take some group turfs before the end of the round, and some in the new round.

    We are happy that our group is steadily growing. Wishing everyone a happy Turf-summer.

    Chappe05, Chiara_YH, BikingBookworm, lazytraveller, TortugaVeloz, DuVetVemm, Petter69, mpip67, Tempatti, ojarnstr, Mtat65, Redmountrider and Kayaker”


    The second mail came from Turf Göteborg:

    Turf Göteborg (a local group for turfers in and around Gothenburg) organised a field trip for its members last Saturday. We where 18 members that joined toghether and drove the two hours to the spit (rev in swedish hence the zonename) in Vänern to take the zone HindensRev (https://turfgame.com/map/HindensRev). The zone is situated at the tip of the spit, almost 4 km walk from the parking lot. The walk is easy, mostly gravel and no climbing. After taking the zone, we drove to a nearby beach (which by a weird coincidence had a zone :) ) for a picnic, with grilled hot dogs and cookies and coffee.

    After a couple of hours on the beach we drove back to Gothenburg. In the evening some of us joined up with some turfers from Örebro whom had "invaded" Gothenburg that weekend for an evening full of turf stories and a lot of laughs.

    This was clearly a day in the essence of Turf, Outdoor addiction and socialising! Thank you Turf for making this possible.”


    Hope to see as many turfers as possible at the Bonanza and if you can not join in person, watch Turf-TV :)


    Turfa lugnt/Safe turfing!

    Munin

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    Bonanza problems https://turfgame.com/?feedid=328 Sat, 18 May 2019 09:23:06 +0000 https://rss.turfgame.com/328

    Under dagen har 2 tyvärr typer av problem visat sig:

    1. Lagg/eftersläpning/fördröjning
    Detta skall nu vara löst!

    Continue reading ]]>

    Under dagen har 2 tyvärr typer av problem visat sig:

    1. Lagg/eftersläpning/fördröjning
    Detta skall nu vara löst!

    2. Frysningar/krascher (Android)
    Detta beror på en otursam uppdatering av google de senaste dagarna.
    Om du upplever detta, testa följande:

    1. Avinstallera Turf

    2. Ladda ned följande APK och installera på din telefon:
    https://www.apkmonk.com/download-app/se.turfwars.android/4_se.turfwars.android_2018-02-12.apk/


    3. EFTER eventet, avinstallera Turf igen och installera den senaste versionen från Play store

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    TURF Battle Royale https://turfgame.com/?feedid=326 Mon, 01 Apr 2019 06:41:43 +0000 https://rss.turfgame.com/326 Update: This feature was just an april fools joke, sorry!

    Thats right, the incredibly popular game mode, Battle Royale, is coming to your favourite out Continue reading ]]> Update: This feature was just an april fools joke, sorry!

    Thats right, the incredibly popular game mode, Battle Royale, is coming to your favourite outdoor app.

    A battle royale game is a game genre that blends the survival, exploration and scavenging elements of a survival game with last-woman/man-standing gameplay.

    Battle royale games are played between a large number of individual players, pairs of two players or a number of small squads (typically of 3-5 players). In each match, the goal is to be the last player or team standing by eliminating all other opponents. A match starts by placing the player-characters into a large map space, typically by having all players skydive from a large aircraft within a brief time limit.

    The game mode will be available soon so be prepared!

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    Version 2.1.0 released https://turfgame.com/?feedid=325 Mon, 18 Mar 2019 19:22:08 +0000 https://rss.turfgame.com/325 We are proud to finally release a function that many users have asked for over the years!

    - New feature: Groups, supporters can now create their ver Continue reading ]]> We are proud to finally release a function that many users have asked for over the years!

    - New feature: Groups, supporters can now create their very own group! (Supporter only)

    - Two zone types: Castle/Fort and Ruins

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    Coming up https://turfgame.com/?feedid=324 Wed, 13 Mar 2019 19:32:34 +0000 https://rss.turfgame.com/324 In a few days we will release the long awaited "custom toplist" function. You will be able to invite others to a custom group where you can follow each other Continue reading ]]> In a few days we will release the long awaited "custom toplist" function. You will be able to invite others to a custom group where you can follow each others score.

    The feature will be Supporter only and with this release we will also increase the supporter fee slightly.

    Thank you for supporting the development of your favourite anti-relaxation-app :-)

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    Turfo clones https://turfgame.com/?feedid=323 Wed, 13 Mar 2019 18:40:21 +0000 https://rss.turfgame.com/323 Continue reading ]]> March https://turfgame.com/?feedid=322 Wed, 13 Mar 2019 18:39:22 +0000 https://rss.turfgame.com/322

    Round Winners

    The winner of round Continue reading ]]>

    Round Winners

    The winner of round 104 did not need one million points to win. Congrats to TXL from Skåne to a second gold! AnneliCH from Skåne got her first silver. sim_en from Gävleborg held out and ended up with his first bronze. Four of the top five turfers this round hailed from Skåne, there must've been slightly less snow and a bit warmer there compared to other places. Well done mates!

    Bonanza 2019 - 18th of May in Stockholm

    Come to the capital of Sweden and compete by foot or bike in the lovely royal Djurgården area. This is a great opportunity to meet and greet fellow turfers from everywhere. The competitions end with a festive dinner party, the Bonanza Banquet. All information about all of this and more can be found at: http://nyheter.turf08.se The registration period ends April 10th.


    If you want your public event featured in Turf Insider, write to: insider@turfgame.com preferably at least two months in advance and add a web page if possible. After the event it is always fun to read a paragraph about it (winners, weather, funny episodes) and remember that a picture is always worth more than a 1000 words.


    Turf Awards

    Turf Awards are awarded to turfers who have made significant or particularly attentive achievements during the previous year or have been involved in an especially noted or spectacular zone takeover.


    The original 57 nominations were reduced to five nominations in four classes by Turf Crew during February. It is now in the hands of the nominated fellow turfers to vote for their favorite in each category.


    Link to the voting form can be found here (closes March 31, 2019): https://goo.gl/forms/VAFenyDiz6W7LoPv2

    A mistake was made when vetting the nominations in the category ”Turf Star of the Year 2018”. The basic criteria that the turfer had to begin during 2018 was investigated for all nominated in this category. However, a communication error between members of Crew led to the false nomination of MaXi. He made a remarkable 2018, but he did not start his Turf account in 2018. So his nomination will be scratched. If you have voted for him, you can write to events@turfgame.com and cast your vote on one of the other four nominated in this category. Turf Crew is very sorry for the mistake!


    The Turf Awards will be handed over to the winners by Turf Crew during the Bonanza Banquet in Stockholm on May 18, 2019.


    Why keeping your Avatar visible is a good thing

    On Wednesday the 27th of February, kamikatze posted in Turf Göteborg that she was worried about fellow turfer jodoff. She had been watching Turf-TV and observed how jodoff had been very still in a known dangerous part of the woods in Eastern Gothenburg. He did not answer when she tried to contact him in the Turf Chat and it was getting late. A turfer living in the area, reported that a helicopter was circling in the area. When his Avatar disappear, the discussion went to trying to inform the police about his position. Calls were made and luckily jodoff had been found when kamikatze talked to the police. Later jodoff commented in the Facebook-thread, saying he was very touched by how many cared for him although he did not know of it until he was safe at home.


    If you feel that it is scary to have your Avatar on all the time because people might be watching, this is a time when it could have made the difference between life and death. The Turf Community cares!


    So what happened to jodoff? Well, Turf Insider asked a few questions :)


    What made you start with Turf? When did you start?

    I saw in GP (local newspaper in Gothenburg), it was a small "technology box" that the magazine sometimes has. This was in April 2015. Seemed interesting. It has made me move and move. What hangs in the closet began to feel bigger after a while. The stairs began to feel easier.


    What is the background to your Turf nick?

    My nick name is a mixture of part of my first name and a part of my surname on ”the spin side” (red: the mother's side) of the family at an earlier stage of history.


    What is the best thing about Turf?

    The best thing about Turf is undoubtedly that I have seen many nice nature areas I did not know existed, especially in Gothenburg.


    You became famous in Turf Gothenburg the other day when kamikatze became worried about you when your avatar stood still very long in the forest. What happened? Do you want to tell Turf Insider?

    Short story: I dropped the phone I turf with in the forest but luckily I had one more with me that made it possible to contact someone outside the forest.


    Long story: I was at "RidingaLake" and was going to take it. The turf app and I were however of different opinions. The sun started to stand very low and I knew it was a bit of a walk back to civilization. I thought it was best to go back home via "LongPower". When I was a bit on the way, I met two girls who knew the area. I asked them how to get out of the forest. Follow the "yellow track" they said. I tried to keep up with them, but fafter a couple of hundred meters I could not find the turf phone. It was gone, so I turned and tried to call it. At that moment I couldn't think of an easier way. I did not think that the Turf app was in my other phone as well.


    It had become so dark that I understood that help was needed. I found an area in the forest that was a little more open and called 112 who linked me to the police. He wanted to know which phone number I called from. I rarely use that phone and definitely doesn't call it, so I could not give him a number. He was supposed to contact 112 and then call me. At the next contact with the police they had engaged a dog patrol and sent up a helicopter. It took a while for the helicopter to get close to me, so I could lit my phone and start waving. There were not good enough conditions for the helicopter to land close to me, but it remained near until the dog patrol made contact with me.

    The rest was just transportation out of the forest with the shanks's pony and quad bikes.


    Did you know that many turfers got involved in your fate?

    No, not while it was going on. When I got home I dared to use the Turf phone because I could charge it. Then I discovered an email from Mani that I replied to that I was well and at home. She passed it on and it calmed down on Facebook. It feels very nice that you have friends that you do not know. Social media are effective and community services work when you once ask for help. Once I was found by a dog patrol, it was about a two km walk. Then "taxi" went home to the door. I was never worried out there in the wilderness. Afterwards I understood that others had been very worried for me.


    What will be your next Turf adventure?

    Trying to take all zones in Gothenburg. It is probably a multi-year project.


    What personal goal are you most satisfied with?

    One goal that I am very happy I have done is "Around the whole of Hisingen". Some try to take on the whole world, I am content with that little one.


    Most memorable zone you have taken and why

    A zone I remember especially is "Gärdsåskulle" Not really taking the zone, but when I am going down the road there are three guys with MBT leading the bikes up in order to properly be on the bikes down.


    If you have a Turf meeting extraordinary, write to me at insider@turfgame.com :)


    Next time I will delve into the art of writing an Issue. When to do it, how to do it and why we do it :)


    We have reached ten billion points taken all together since the beginning of the game now, yay to us! 


    Turfa lugnt/Safe turfing!

    Munin



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    Omröstning för Turf Award - Vote for the Turf award https://turfgame.com/?feedid=321 Fri, 01 Mar 2019 20:10:04 +0000 https://rss.turfgame.com/321

    Omröstningen pågår t.o.m. 31 mars 2019. The vote will end on March 31, 2019.

    < Continue reading ]]>

    Omröstningen pågår t.o.m. 31 mars 2019. The vote will end on March 31, 2019.

    Rösta här/Vote here: https://goo.gl/forms/VAFenyDiz6W7LoPv2

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    Turf science https://turfgame.com/?feedid=320 Fri, 22 Feb 2019 18:47:59 +0000 https://rss.turfgame.com/320 If you like to get more scientific perspective on the game we highly recommend this article that recently got published.

    Continue reading ]]> If you like to get more scientific perspective on the game we highly recommend this article that recently got published.

    Get it HERE


    Abstract:

    How does a mobile game become a sport related community with its own cultural expressions and norms? This explorative article examines Turf, a mobile game where the players use the GPS function to navigate both a digital map and the physical landscape. By locating digital zones in the landscape, similar to the sport ori- enteering, the player gains points. Around the game various social activities, relations and norms have evolved. The purpose of this article is to empirically explore the phenomenon and its develop- ment and to discuss how cultural connections are created and es- tablished. We depart from the assumption that the digital game does not exclude a relation with the physical environment; instead there is an interaction between the digital and physical landscape that create new meanings and relations. Since the introduction in 2010, the game has created its own set of language, patterns of movement, objects and norms. Further, as the game is constantly evolving, so is the players’ use of Turf, which is a prerequisite for the survival of cultural phenomena.

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    February https://turfgame.com/?feedid=319 Sat, 16 Feb 2019 13:52:17 +0000 https://rss.turfgame.com/319 Round Winners

    Continue reading ]]> Round Winners

    The winner of round 103 slid in at just over one million points: congrats Björke from Norrköping, this was his third gold! At second place came viðvarandi from Umeå, his first silver. He is missing a gold for his medal serie, will it come during 2019? At third place came Király, a well known name when it comes to the top 3 placements. He announced in the Sweden chat that he needed two more bronze. This was one, one more to go. Biking during winter demands more both from the turfer and the bike. Well done mates!

    Bonanza 2019

    The annual Bonanza event will be held in Stockholm on May 18th. Compete by foot or bike in the lovely royal Djurgården area in the center of Stockholm. This is a great opportunity to meet and greet fellow turfers from everywhere. The competitions ends with a festive dinner party.


    For those that want to sleep over close to the event area where also the Banquette will be held, there is a special discount for turfers at the STF Gärdet Hotell and Hostel. There is also a Bonanza T-shirt to be ordered. And a banquet to sign up for. Information about all of this and more can be found at: http://nyheter.turf08.se The registration period is between February 5th and April 10th.


    If you want your public event featured in Turf Insider, write to: insider@turfgame.com preferably at least two months in advance and add a web page if possible. After the event it is always fun to read a paragraph about it (winners, weather, funny episodes) and remember that a picture is always worth more than a 1000 words.



    Turf Awards

    Turf Awards are awarded to turfers who have made significant or particularly attentive achievements during the previous year or have been involved in an especially noted or spectacular zone takeover.



    During January Turf Crew received 57 nominations in the four different classes. During February five nominations in each class will be selected and the Turf community can vote on their favorite in each class from 1st of March. The Turf Awards are then handed over to the winners by Turf Crew during the Bonanza banquet in Stockholm on May 18, 2019.



    Link to the voting form can be found here (opens March 1 and closes March 31, 2019): https://goo.gl/forms/VAFenyDiz6W7LoPv2


    Turf Connection

    Once upon a time in Uppsala there was a new turfer named allinug. She started out slow by taking the home zones in Håga, found her way to TURF Uppsala (on Facebook) and posted a picture or two from the Turf-camera. A long-time turfer named Mumsige commented on the pictures allinug had posted. Mumsige tried to connect the on-line name with potential new turfer in Uppsala. Then alllinug reached out to Mumsige on Facebook and asked if Mumsige remembered her from over 35 years back(!): Mumsige and allinug used to have kids at the same kindergarten in Uppsala, and Mumsige's youngest daughter has the same first name as allinug, since it was a good enough name when the government started to ask for a name for her daughter. After a few weeks communicating on Facebook, the two finally met at a Turfbrunch and I do not think it was the last time!



    If you have an extraordinary Turf meeting, write to me at insider@turfgame.com :)

    Turfa lugnt/Safe turfing!

    Munin

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    Bonanza 2019 https://turfgame.com/?feedid=316 Sun, 03 Feb 2019 21:14:21 +0000 https://rss.turfgame.com/316 Continue reading ]]>

    All you need to know here: http://nyheter.turf08.se/bonanza-2019-uppdatering/

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    January https://turfgame.com/?feedid=315 Sun, 03 Feb 2019 18:38:14 +0000 https://rss.turfgame.com/315 Round WinnersContinue reading ]]> Round Winners

    The winner of round 102 was securing a second place during the first three weeks of the round, then the turfer in first position changed his strategy and Bont could bike his way past and win his third gold! Will there be another winner zone at the lake Nydala in Umeå? recycling from Linköping got enough points for his first silver medal and GW007 from Kalmar could add another bronze to his row of medals. Well done mates!

    Bonanza 2019

    The annual Bonanza event will be held in Stockholm on May 18th. Compete by foot or bike in the lovely royal Djurgården area in the center of Stockholm. This is a great opportunity to meet and greet fellow turfers from everywhere. The competitions ends with a festive dinner party.


    The registration period is between February 5th and April 10th. All the information you need is available at: http://nyheter.turf08.se
    If you want your public event featured in Turf Insider, write to: insider@turfgame.com preferably at least two months in advance and add a web page if possible. After the event it is always fun to read a paragraph about it (winners, weather, funny episodes) and remember that a picture is always worth more than a 1000 words.

    En skånsk klassiker

    Turf Skåne is arranging ”En Skånsk Klassiker” for the third year in a row. En Skånsk Klassiker is a turf event and adventure that runs for a full calendar year in the Öresund region and you decide when you want to complete the various turf achievements. Participation is free, each completed achievement will give you a real medal, and should you complete all four achievements in one calendar year you will win a real cup. Read more here (in Swedish) where you also sign up for this exciting turf event.

    Turf Awards

    Turf Award is awarded to turfers who have made significant or particularly attentive achievements during the previous year or have been involved in an especially noted or spectacular zone takeover. Candidates for awarding the Turf Award are nominated by all turfers who also participate in the final voting to appoint the winners. Turf Award is handed over to the winners by Turf Crew during the Bonanza banquet in Stockholm on May 18, 2019.



    Nomination procedure: In January 2019, all turfers will be given the opportunity to make suggestions on which ones should be nominated for the Turf Award in the different categories. A nomination proposal must include nickname and a brief motivation based on the nomination criteria. Link to forms for proposing candidates can be found here (starts January 1 and closes January 31, 2019): https://goo.gl/forms/SqlcrBUDWQeIBPMM2

    Voting procedure and announcement of winners: In February 2019, Turf Crew nominates a maximum of five candidates in each category. During March, all turfers will be given the opportunity to vote for which of the nominees who should be awarded the Turf Award in each category. Link to voting form can be found here (starts March 1 and closes March 31, 2019): https://goo.gl/forms/VAFenyDiz6W7LoPv2

    The voting score determines who will be the winner of Turf Award. Under the Bonanza banquet, the winners are announced. If the prize winner is physically present they will have the opportunity to leave a short comment. //Turf Crew


    An interview with a developer

    To start off the new year, I thought it would be interesting to run an old interview (with updated answers) with one of the developers of Turf.

    Name Andreas (Drassen) Age 35 City Linköping

    First obvious question: How did you guys come up with the idea of Turf and how did it all start?

    Back in 2005-2006, before the smartphone-boom, we had an idea about triangulating phone signals to get a position. And then use that position to make some sort of king of the hill game. Later on when the technology took a huge leap forward and it was time to start the process.

    When you first came up with the idea for the game, how did that idea look?

    Not at all like today. We tried some concepts that differed a lot from what we can see today. One idea was to divide the entire world into a grid of zones, so that zones were everywhere. A very interesting process that has given us a lot of guidance when new problems has arisen. Here is an old concept image that i just found btw: old image

    Did you expect that lots of people would use Turf as an exercise tool?

    No. The most insane thing I've heard was that one person lost 28 kilos in 2 months of turfing. Would be nice if developing the game had the same effect on us developers :-)

    Could you even imagine that turfers after a couple of years would grind up to 5000 zones in a round in order to win? And once even 10000 zones?

    Definitely not. But we started to see the potential of the game quite early after the first release, when Eddyueue roamed the streets at night using inlines.

    What's the most rewarding thing about developing Turf?

    Seeing users actually want to play your game was an unbelievable kick in the beginning. Nowadays it’s pretty awesome to hear stories from users playing the game. Solving issues and making the community happy is also quite awesome.

    How much time do you spend on developing?

    Nowadays the job on my behalf is more organizing, marketing and planning. Also, having kids tend to reduce time available:-) (For those of you who didn’t already know, Turf is made by volunteers on spare time.)

    If you look into the past, what feature and/or bug fix etc was your favorite?

    Making the game cope with much bigger amounts of users is something i believe has been of huge importance to the game. I can’t take any credit, but it was sure needed when new users flooded the game. A few years ago we had problems with the takeover-process, with takeovers taking several minutes. That one was also nice to leave behind us.

    If you look into the future, what is the most exciting new thing to come?

    We currently haven't decided on the next big step. Might include the community here in the coming months.

    How do you think Turf will continue to grow and evolve over the next couple of years?

    We still aim towards making the concept of Turf time-proof. Even if android and iOS cease to exist, we believe that the specific zones and the Turf-gameplay can continue onto other platforms. Adapting to the long promised AR-glasses and such will be very interesting indeed.

    What's your best turf memory?

    Seeing someone we didn’t know take the first zone ever via the app. Quite a feeling.

    What's your favorite in-game medal?

    Order of Aquamen.

    What's your favorite zone?

    Skinnarzone. A must-take if you ever go to Stockholm.

    How has your view of Turf changed over the years?

    In the beginning we had to do everything ourselves since there was no-one else. It was extremely fun and challenging but rather introvert. Nowadays the huge community makes the game more alive but it also makes the whole thing harder to grasp and lots of different inputs on how to proceed forward. Since our goal is to make the game time proof, we try to make sure to handle everything on a reasonable level of effort for those involved.

    Did you expect that lots of people would use Turf as a tool to explore the world, both near and far away?

    Yes and no. We had ideas to make the game more of just unique zone-taking to mark your conquests on a map, but decided on a more interacting gameplay where taking from each other was the key component.

    Best Turf moment of 2018

    Interactions with different people who want to promote the game and create possible new opportunities. And attending the bonanza in Västerås.

    Thank you Drassen!

    Crew's Best of 2018

    Some members of Crew have shared their ”Best of 2018”, things that keep them going with Turf and with their job as volunteers to keep Turf the awesome app it is!

    Maqqan:This year, Turf has been left behind. My new life as a dad to a beautiful daughter have taken over. From her birth in March I have had an average of 10 zones per round, that say a lot. No more quest for round medals or such. I only participated in one event this year, Turf Open Hammarö. My choise of best turfing memory of 2018 can be found in the forest in the event area were we decided it was time for a break after taking 5 zones. Do I have to say that we didn't reach top 10 this event? Best regards, turfing dad”

    HappyF:For me the best of Turf 2018 was by far that I found love again. I and and the fellow turfer Gusi become a couple in the beginning of the year and have spent a lot of time turfing since then. Thanks to assist, our trips have been even more enjoyable. Together we have travelled through parts of Europe, Israel and of course a lot in Sweden. We have also participated in some events.”

    Kingslayer: ”As a zonemaker I am used to getting requests for this or that zone placement in the forum which of course is nice. But we rarely get feedback on zones we have planted ourselves. I did however notice a post on facebook where the turfer AiNeko in Perstorp expressed her gratitude for the zone HinniksZon which I recently created. She did not know who the zonemaker was, but the placement and surrounding meant something special to her. It is moments like that which makes it fun to expand the Turf gameboard.”

    Calmare1: ”The big breakthrough for school turf events. Now over 100 event accounts, approx. 250 schools and just over 500 sports teachers who let the students turf in school time.” (Calmare1 is co-ordinating the school turf events)

    MasterOfTurf: ”The best turf memory of 2018 was when Turf08 said yes to arrange Bonanza 2019 in Stockholm on May 19th. We are now looking forward to a new Turf party with another new record regarding the number of participants.”

    Mani: ”The 24 h event in Kalmar was a real high light. I participated in the individual class. Kalmar is a fantastic city to turf in and their events are always well-organized. The inspiration from other turfers I meet in one reason why I continue with Turf.”

    LesFleursDumal: ”I've used Turf with my pupils at school several times – just the ordinary zones in Helsingør – and they thought it was good fun – they appreciated that they could actually learn something new aobut their home town. I then took some of them to Paris for an exchange with French pupils and they asked me if there were any zones in Paris as well – so they took some zones in Paris and tried to explain the game to the French pupils.”

    PaltN: ”One of my favorite moments of 2018 was the first local Turf meeting where I got to meet the local players in my area. It was truly awesome!”

    Shitty: I've moved! Physically it was a long time ago but now finally also in Turf! It took 2.5 years to accumulate more takes on my new home zone "Alléplan" than my old home zone "Ullerzone". So now even if you ask warded, I am a Tyresö dude! Another milestone during the year has of course been my fatherhood, the first take with the pram was both strange and powerful. Unfortunately, the child's Muggle mother is a bad influence and I cannot yet present a Turf nick for the offspring...;)

    I hope 2019 will offer some more time to both active turfing and building new zones - cool places and stupid names, I hope I have contributed to at least some fun experiences for people out there! See you in the app, at the Bonanza or in a zone!”

    And that sums up 2018 quite well I think. I hope all of you turfers out there have your own ”Best of 2018” moments that will keep you going. For me it has been great fun to shoulder the task of writing Turf Insider every month. Several times during 2018 I have met with turfers who did not know I was the one penning Turf Insider and they told me how much they enjoy reading my words, that felt good. My aim during 2019 is to hopeully, with the help of the community, add more stories from events, Turf meetings, and personal highs. Give me something to write about by sending your story to insider@turfgame.com

    Turfa lugnt/Safe turfing!

    Munin



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    TURF Award nomination https://turfgame.com/?feedid=314 Tue, 01 Jan 2019 08:22:29 +0000 https://rss.turfgame.com/314

    Read more and nominate your candidates before Jan 31

    Continue reading ]]>

    Read more and nominate your candidates before Jan 31

    PÅ SVENSKA

    IN ENGLISH

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    New web map provider https://turfgame.com/?feedid=313 Fri, 14 Dec 2018 21:27:40 +0000 https://rss.turfgame.com/313 As you may have noticed we have recently changed away from google maps here on the web site.

    The reason is googles new pricing policy which we cannot a Continue reading ]]> As you may have noticed we have recently changed away from google maps here on the web site.

    The reason is googles new pricing policy which we cannot afford with todays amount of map loads.

    So instead of removing the map, we are moving to an alternative tileset provider. The tiles may change whenever we find something better. The factors we look for are cost, detail and looks.

    We like to stress that this only concerns the web map for now. Google has not revealed any plans to raise the prices for the apps.

    /Turf Crew

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    Musikhjälpen 2018 https://turfgame.com/?feedid=312 Sun, 09 Dec 2018 18:25:20 +0000 https://rss.turfgame.com/312

    Stöd Musikhjälpen genom att Continue reading ]]>

    Stöd Musikhjälpen genom att ta zoner!

    I år hjälper vi Turfare Musikhjälpen med att göra världen till en bättre plats.
    Årets tema är: Alla har rätt att funka olika

    Klicka HÄR för mer information om hur DU bidrar

    ]]>
    December https://turfgame.com/?feedid=311 Sun, 09 Dec 2018 18:10:48 +0000 https://rss.turfgame.com/311

    Round Winners

    Continue reading ]]>

    Round Winners

    The winner of round 101 is now the turfer with the most Gold medals: congratulations to Király from Malmö, Skåne! He won with just over one million points and I was ”lucky” to take two zones from him when I visited Malmö during this round, and then I lost more than ten zones to him. C’est la vie! OdKing from Dalarna also turfed home a little over one million points for his first silver medal. Leifons from Stockholm biked enough to secure his first Bronze Medal. Well done mates!


    Turf Events

    Lusseturf will take place in Västerås for the sixth time on Sunday the 9th of December. It is an event by foot and a new thing this year is a team competition. Read more and sign up at: http://www.uturf.se/?p=55612.


    If you want your public event featured in Turf Insider, write to: insider@turfgame.com preferable at least two months in advance and add a web page if possible. After the event it is always fun to read a paragraph about it (winners, weather, funny episodes) and remember that a picture is always worth more than a 1000 words.


    Turf Meetings

    Turf Insider has received a greeting from the turfers in Turku/Finland:


    Greetings from Lounais-Suomi in Finland. Our team is growing in Turku (Åbo) and neighborhood. For a long time some of us have been talking about trying to get the local turfers together to get to know each other. It turned out to be harder than we thought as all of us are not reading the chat. But to get started we had our first meeting on Sunday November 25th. We met at the Market Square and took TurkuCity zone as a group. After that we walked up the hill to the Art Museum and took TurkuArt zone as well. Unfortunately one had to leave out from the second zone. It was a short meeting but really nice to get to know each other better and we will definitely have another one later on.
    With more planning and hopefully get in touch with more Turfers to join up.

    Wishing everyone a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year.
    Keep turfing.

    Petter69, TortugaVeloz, MarkkaLM, Lazytraveller, ojarnstr, Kayaker and Redmountrider”

    In Northern Sweden the lakes now have skateable ice on them. Something ZoneBanger from Umeå took advantage of the other day when he put on the long distance ice skates and skated around the Nydala lake, visiting 15 zones, among them Bont’s two winner zones. This made me a little bit jealous since we don’t have a similar lake with as many zones in Uppsala.




    If you have a meeting, event or something fun you want to share with the community, write to insider@turfgame.com


    Turf Christmas Fun

    In the last edition of Turf Insider, KråkanKrax told the story about a Turf dinner in Mariehamn and how Tompaj had put together a Turf Quiz for their after dinner entertainment. He has redesigned the questions a little and the quiz is available at: https://play.kahoot.it/#/k/4f1 (only in Swedish though).


    Inspired by Tompaj’s quiz, five Uppsala-turfers put together a "Piece-by-piece" (Bit-för-bit) with Turf-related categories at the Saturday’s Turf brunch. We hope you enjoy it!//Munin, TriggerHappy, SaffieSiri, Hylaeus and HogSquare. (both English and Swedish version)





    Three Quick Ones

    Three random turfers who have answered the quick questions :)


    Turf nick: PaltN

    What made you begin with Turf?

    An acquaintance told me about the game a couple of years ago, and I absolutely loved the idea. It wasn't until this spring I started playing due to me lacking a decent phone to play with. No turning back now!

    Which personal goal are you most satisfied with?

    Fighting in the first days of a round to score a temporary top 10 position in my home region. Ended up at 7th position before I had to surrender. I never knew pain before that moment. As a side note I'm also really proud over how far the TurfWiki project has come. It's wonderful to be part of an awesome team and see all contribution from the community come together.

    Which medal was the toughest to take?

    Greed-75. It was a good challenge and the moment I got it was very rewarding.

    Turf-nick: Kygni

    What made you begin with Turf?

    A friend from Enköping mentioned it during Easter holiday in 2015

    Favorite Zone

    Kygni99, my winner zone.

    Most memorable zone you have taken.

    Seglaren. I swam to it in September 15, 2017. Cold cold water. I was there with my school class. The zone was situated in the old place, far far away from land, and I was told by the gym teacher to get out of the water, in the end I got 30 seconds to take the zone and I made it!

    Turf-nick: Vortex

    What is the most frustrating with Turf?

    The start of a new round. There is always some kind of problem, I've probably never had a round start that has gone without a hitch.

    A medal you would like to see in the future

    The Sphinx Medal when you take x number of monument zones and/or world heritage zones. May be several levels to it.

    Most memorable zone you have taken.

    VictoriaFalls. A spectacular and cool zone!


    Turfa lugnt/Safe turfing!

    Munin





    ]]>
    Some love https://turfgame.com/?feedid=310 Fri, 23 Nov 2018 15:09:56 +0000 https://rss.turfgame.com/310 Cancer is a horrible and terrible disease.
    During 2018, the Umeå Turfer Vozne among many other people was diagnosed with cancer, thyroid cancer.
    Afte Continue reading ]]>
    Cancer is a horrible and terrible disease.
    During 2018, the Umeå Turfer Vozne among many other people was diagnosed with cancer, thyroid cancer.
    After two operations during summer 2018 and a treatment with radioactive
    Iodine in October it looks as she won the fight against her cancer. During
    October, Vozne’s partner Bont fought and managed to win the Gold medal for
    round 100. In honor for his love and her fight against the cancer the shape
    of the winner zone will be a butterfly, symbolising the efforts made
    worldwide to treat thyroid diseases. When the winner zone lights up November 25
    Vozne and Bont will explain the shape and inform about the possibility to
    contribute to the rehabilitation of those trying to recover from cancer.

    Contribution can be made by Swish to 900 2064 or through
    www.cancerrehabfonden.se

    ]]>
    November https://turfgame.com/?feedid=309 Fri, 23 Nov 2018 15:07:28 +0000 https://rss.turfgame.com/309

    Round winners

    Continue reading ]]>

    Round winners

    The winner of round 100 claims his second Gold: congratulations to Bont från Umeå, Västerbotten! He also managed to complete his 50th (!) Staminatrix during his winning round. Too bad there ain't a medal for such an achievement. ZonerX from Stockholm turfed home a little over 1 million points for his first silver medal. GW007 from Kalmar had to make do with a Bronze medal, but maybe that was the goal since it is his first bronze. Well done mates!


    Turf Wiki

    At https://wiki.turfgame.com/en/wiki/Main_Page you can read about many aspects of Turf. As of October 31 2018, TurfWiki is going through a major overhaul supervised mainly by PaltN and Kartmannen. This will hopefully improve the general tidiness and readability of the articles. The task is estimated to carry over into 2019.


    Turf Meetings

    KråkanKrax from Åland is sharing a story about a Turf dinner they recently had in Mariehamn:

    We are a small group of 4-6 people (from the beginning KråkanKrax, Yoth and Tompaj, later we included our partners UtiVårHage, Aspirin and Griffonlady) who enjoy each others company. We decided to meet at Tompaj and Aspirin on a Saturday night to eat and drink champagne to celebrate all the medals and successes that had been bestowed upon us in recent months. The evening was a success with lots of ideas and laughter while we ate well and ”bubbled”.

    BILD

    We were also challenged to a "turf game quiz" where we had to answer all possible and impossible questions about Turf, show our knowledge about the game and other turfers in the "world". It was a much appreciated initiative from the hosts :) Late at night or early in the morning we (KråkanKrax, UtiVårHage and Yoth) biked home, of course via "some" zones. One of us did not get home right away even though we separated from him at his stop. He rambled about for another 2 hours on the bike all the way down town and you all know who, right? ;)


    If you have your own Turf Meeting story you would like to have featured in Turf Insider, please write about it to: insider@turfgame.com My aim is to have at least one Turf Meeting story each month. You can write in Swedish or in English, a few sentences are enough (if you write too much, I will edit it). A picture is always fun too. It can be both about monthly organized meetings or small encounters while turfing.


    Holy Zones and the Ghost Minute Medal

    There are today 3135 Holy Zones (HZ) to visit in Turf.A HZ should be entirely or mostly placed in a “Holy” area; the area around a church, mosque, synagogue or similar buildings originally built for a “Holy” purpose. The zone can also be placed just outside the compounds, but then there must be good visual contact with the building so the turfer can get a “Holy experience”.
    Also graveyards without “Holy” buildings are considered as “Holy”.


    Accordingly to www.lundkvist.com the turfer PinkCat has visited the most HZ, to date 708. Of all the attributes, Holy is the most common, maybe because holy places are easily identified for zone makers when placing new zones. HZ are often well worth visiting too. Crew members recommend Hallgrímur in Iceland and IshaveZone. I am also very fond of my closest HZ, VakChurch, where I took Ghost Minute.

    BILD

    Ghost Minute is awarded to those turfers who dare to take a Holy Zone between 00:00 and 00:01. To date 2199 turfers have taken this scary medal. Most plan quite carefully how to take it, but there are instances when taking it comes as a pleasant surprise. This happend to Rydenskan when she was going home from a night out with some turfer friends. Her phone was giving her some gps trouble, so after restarting the phone and getting assist on MosqueZone, she and her company were very surprised when the Ghost Minute medal showed up. Someone who planned carefully how to take Ghost Minute was edjur. This is edjur's story:

    Most turfers taking the Ghost-medal plan it with some care, my planning was a bit extreme. A few of us turfers in Uppsala sometimes to medal combinations where we combine several medals in one take. In August 2015, I wanted to combine Ghost with Insomnia, El Staminatore and Take-15000. Some months planning and 23 hours of careful turfing to take excatly 199 zones without missing any hour was culminating with this one last take of the holy zone EriksMountain. It would be my 15000th take in total and 200th within the last 24 hours, it would be the last hour of Insomnia and it needed to be taken between midnight and one minute past. I was very nervous until the ”zone taken” came with all four medals following. It was with a great sense of achievement I rode my bike home that night.”


    Turf Events

    Next month, Lusseturf will take place in Västerås for the 6th time on Sunday the 9th of December. It is an event by foot and a new thing this year is a team competition. Read more and sign up at: http://www.uturf.se/?p=55612

    If you want your public event featured in Turf Insider, write to  insider@turfgame.com Best is to write at least two months in advance and add a webpage if possible. After the event it is always fun to read a paragraph about it (winners, weather, funny episodes) and a picture is worth more than a 1000 words.

    Three Quick Ones

    Three random turfers who have answered the quick questions :)


    Turf nick: Munin

    Favorite Zone

    BlåFågelholk. The blue bird house in the zone makes me smile every time I take the zone. And the forest path from TriggerHappys is fun to bike :)

    What is the most frustrating with Turf?

    When the technology does not work, either my own phone or the game servers.

    Which medal was the toughest to take?

    The Staminatrix medal, it was so boring to bike around the same 40 zones in Uppsala for about 9 hours, yet it is somewhat fun to have done it.

    Turf-nick: Game-Over

    What made you begin with Turf?

    My daughter challenged me

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

    Rubber boat, to take Munksjön

    A medal you would like to see in the future

    Adventure Medal

    Turf-nick: SaffieSiri

    What made you begin with Turf?

    A training mate introduced me, he talked so much about it. The next day I downloaded the app and was stuck!

    Most memorable zone you have taken.

    Skördaren and all the other zones in the area affected by the forest fire in Västmanland back in 2014.

    Which personal goal are you most satisfied with?

    I finished ”Kors och Tvärs” (ed. Turf Mission at frut.zundin.se) today! :)


    Turfa lungt/Safe turfing!

    Munin



    ]]>
    Lusseturf https://turfgame.com/?feedid=308 Wed, 24 Oct 2018 19:08:07 +0000 https://rss.turfgame.com/308

    It´s that time of the year again, Saint Lucia´s day is approaching.
    Turf Västmanlan Continue reading ]]>

    It´s that time of the year again, Saint Lucia´s day is approaching.
    Turf Västmanland invites all turfers for a foot event, Lusseturf, in Västerås, Sunday the 9:th of December. The same place as every year, Orientalen. Easy to find, it´s next to the zone “Orientalen”. The organizers appreciates any attempt to dress up as a "luciatåg", and is compulsory if you and your fellow turfers want to compete as a team (luica, tärna, stjärngosse och tomte). Sign up at uturf.se, the 2:nd of December at the latest. The organizers reserves the right to cancel the team competition.

    We hope that it will be lots of snow and lots of fun. More info, in swedish, at www.uturf.se.

    ]]>
    October https://turfgame.com/?feedid=307 Wed, 24 Oct 2018 19:06:49 +0000 https://rss.turfgame.com/307

    Round winners

    < Continue reading ]]>

    Round winners

    The winner of round 99 hails from my own home region Uppsala: Kygni, he is the fourth member of the exclusive sub-20 age group of Turf World winners :) He announced his intent the first day of round 99 to Uppsala turfers, and he kept biking all the way, taking greed-350 during the last weekend. Lejfis from Örebro grabbed his first silver with a will of steel and constant smile accordingly to fellow turfers in his region. MaXi, another young one, from Dalarna won his first bronze in fierce competition with runner-up snickaren. Something tells me MaXi will be back for more of the valuable medals in the future. Well done mates!


    Winner Zones

    After winning Gold in the World or in any of the official Turf countries (Sweden, Finland, Norway, Denmark, Great Britain, The Netherlands and Korea), the winner gets to place a zone, a Winner Zone, in that country. It is common that the zone has the form of a crown or something that defines the turfer who won (simpson has winner zones in the form of cats or the first letter of the turfer). The country list has to have at least 30 turfers on it, for a Country-medal to be awarded and a winner zone to be allocated.



    To date 367 winner zones (WZ) have been placed in official Turf countries. The top three cities to visit if you collect WZ are: Oslo (43), Mariehamn (40) and Kampen (32). In Sweden, Kalmar is leading with 13 WZ followed by Linköping (11) and Malmö (11). At http://lundkvist.com/ (site is only in Swedish) statistics over who has taken most WZ can be found and at this time it is the man behind the site, HappyF, that has most WZ under his belt (144). Two of his favorite winner zones to visit are ElCamino in the Botanical Garden in Gothenburg and WsnurrsHage in the Botanical Hage in Oslo. Do we see a common denominator here? ;)



    Many turfers have celebrated their Winner Zones not only by being the first to take it, but also with ”bubbles” together with friends. KråkanKrax is sharing a picture of Tompaj and Yoth when they celebrated her WZ KråkansSång. They took it together, again showing the beauty of Assist :)



    Turf In Finland and Finland Explorer

    Finland is divided into seven regions in Turf. The majority of Finnish turfers can be found in Mariehamn (Åland), Helsinki (Etelä-Suomi) and Turku (Lounais-Suomi). 56 turfers have visited all regions of Finland and are proud holders of Finland Explorer. kingenin and MasterOfTurf were the first to take this medal way back in 2013 (before most of us knew of Turf).



    Åland is the Finnish region with most active turfers. They speak Swedish, have a high degree of autonomy from Finland in governing itself and consists of a large number of islands with amazing scenery. The turfers in Mariehamn are very hospitable, something I experienced myself when rozaliona invited me over for coffee one evening. They don't have a Turf club or organized Turf get-togethers yet, but plenty of spontaneous meetings and acitivties.



    During last year's Steel FM Help (local radio station sending live on the city square and collecing money for charity), the turfers in Mariehamn donated under the name ”Turf Åland” and had daily Crowdy-takes in a special zone on the sqaure. Thanks to one of the local radio hosts, the Crowdy-size grew every day, culminating in the International record of 52 Assist on New Year's Eve (not counting the Swedish record of 177 at the Bonanza in Jönköping 2017).



    A Turf Meeting Story from rozaliona

    This is a picture from Lilla Homen, the central beach in Mariehamn, and beyond the row of birds lies the zone "HolmenBeach". From that, I personally have a very nice memory of the first turf tourist I met. I had paddled all the way there and picked up the phone to start the app. To my surprise, I saw a turf figure on the beach and when I looked up, I saw a man wading into the water, further and further out, until he began swimming with one arm up in the air. He looked up on the phone from time to time and I did not have the audacity to go and block the zone for him (there was no assist back then... which would've been nice), so I waited until he took the zone. This was my first meeting with the Stockholm turfer LBz :)”

    bild



    For anyone living in or near Stockholm (Sweden) it is easy to take the ferry over to both Mariehamn in Åland and to Helsinki. I have done both, and had my bike with me both times. Mariehamn in August is lovely, and by bike it is a perfect place to visit for a couple of days. I am sure it is fantastic by foot too, but it will take you more than a couple of days to visit all the zones. In Helsinki, I and two other Swedish turfers met up with local turfer Fillefilur for a 3,5 hour private turf tour (long live Assist!). He took us out of the city centre towards the northeast and then back to the ferry. One of the cooler zones we visited was Mamutsauna at the end of a very desolate pier; the zone is next to a metal sculpture of mammoths and a people's sauna open for everyone.



    The remaining five regions in Finland are easiest to take by car, but trains and buses are another option, although then it is more difficult to bring your own bike. However, most Finnish cities do not have so many zones since there are few/none local turfers. Any ideas how to increase Turf's popularity in Finland is highly appreciated by TurfCrew :)



    My personal favorites among Finnish cities are Kupoio, Oulo and Rovaniemi. All three cities are relatively flat and the number of zones are under 1 zone/biked km (in Kuopio it was almost as many zones per km biked as home in Uppsala!). The zone RanuaKirkko in Lappi is extra special to me, since that was where me and my partner took the Finland Explorer medal in August.



    For Finnish turfers there is a page in Finnish at https://turfgame.fi and don't forget the Finland Section in the Turf Forum. If you have zone suggestions you "burn" a little bit extra for, please start a new topic in the Zones section for Finland to get the attention of the Finnish zone makers, so they can pick up on your desire for a new zone :)


    Three Quick Ones

    This month we look east at three Finnish turfers who have answered the quick questions :)


    Turf nick: Fillefilur

    What is the most frustrating thing with Turf?

    When the Avatar does not want to go into the zone, even though you're in the middle of it in real life, or when the Avatar jumps out of the zone in the middle of the take.

    Which personal goal are you most satisfied with?

    Finland Explorer. I travel very little with work and when I go on holiday, it is rare to travel in my home country.

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

    Umbrella, the zone was out in water due to high water levels and I had no swim gear with me. Could walk out a bit but it was not enough, so I put the phone in a bag that I stuck on the umbrella, which I then stretched out.


    Turf-nick: KråkanKrax

    Favorite Zone

    SleepingBoats. I can go out in my morning robe and take the zone on the other side of the road when I go to the mailbox to pick up the morning newspaper.

    Which medal was the toughest to take?

    The first time I took bronze. SJ took silver and he was going as the X2000 speed train from Kiruna.

    Most memorable zone you have taken. Why?

    The church in Finström (StMikaels) when I took Greed-300 and had the clock against me. I needed more zones and had "everything" in the center of the city.


    Turf-nick: TortugaVeloz

    What made you begin with Turf?

    It was via a friend. Turf got me out instead of sitting at home

    Favorite Zone

    FöriZone, free ferry over Aura river 

    A medal you would like to see in the future

    Silver and Bronze in Finland, we in Turku have no chance of winning gold in Finland.


    Turfa lungt/Safe turfing!

    Munin



    ]]>
    School events https://turfgame.com/?feedid=306 Thu, 04 Oct 2018 18:23:36 +0000 https://rss.turfgame.com/306 Events during gym class (physical education) are currently huge in Nordic schools. (almost 10/day)

    If you are looking to make your own school event:

    Continue reading ]]>
    Events during gym class (physical education) are currently huge in Nordic schools. (almost 10/day)

    If you are looking to make your own school event:

    contact skolevent@turfgame.com

    ]]>
    Web frontpage map https://turfgame.com/?feedid=305 Wed, 03 Oct 2018 19:21:11 +0000 https://rss.turfgame.com/305 The mini map on the web front page will be inactivated temporarily due to googles new pricing policy. No sweat, just managing the projects use of funds.

    < Continue reading ]]>
    The mini map on the web front page will be inactivated temporarily due to googles new pricing policy. No sweat, just managing the projects use of funds.

    Thank you for supporting Turf!

    ]]>
    September https://turfgame.com/?feedid=304 Wed, 03 Oct 2018 19:17:54 +0000 https://rss.turfgame.com/304 Round winners

    The winner of round 98 is a well-known name when talking gold medals: Continue reading ]]> Round winners

    The winner of round 98 is a well-known name when talking gold medals: Király from Skåne! Will he go for one more gold (#7) in order to beat kingenin's record of six gold medals for which he now is tied? Future rounds will tell! Runner up this round was Toubkal from region Jönköping, securing his third silver. Simpson from Värmland added another bronze medal to his resume. Well done mates!


    Turf Meetings

    Holidays makes for some interesting turf meetings. During this round's vacation in Finland, me and my partner in crime ended up talking to two local Turku-turfers on a bridge for over 50 min. We were only going for a short evening bike ride to take the winner zone ojarnstrZone. Now we got to take it at least two times each, introduce the idea of ”round unique zone takes” (omgångsunika in Swedish, see http://frut.zundin.se/unika.php) to the Turku turfers. Then we realized it had gotten so dark we needed our bike lights, which was still in the car by the hostel! *oups*


    Turf Missions 

    at http://frut.zundin.se/mission_help.php


    SunYour is behind Turf Missions, a special way to turf. Instead of just going for any old zone, you take them in a special order. You can take one or two every day and other zones in-between or go for as many as possible in one go. Each to their own!


    The very beginning of Turf Missions was a competition organised by Velocipedrytta on the anniversiary of the huge forest fire in Västmanland. It was called ”Ring Of Fire” and the turfers had one week to take all six zones in the area affected by the fire. The idea of "missions" has been around for years, look for old threads at Turf forum if you are interested. Not all cities have Missions, but new ones are coming every now and then when the time allows for it. There are a lot of other aspects to frut.zundin's page too, go look for yourself!


    The Missions come in two major 'flavours': ~100 central zones in alphabetical order and an inward/outward spiral containing most zones in that city. You start the mission by taking the first zone stated on the mission page and then off you go! Here is one story of how such a mission was done :)


    Mission: 24 laps around Uppsala

    On May 30 pandora and BadLoser started the challenge. They decided to do it together with Assist, which made it all the more difficult as sometimes one jumps out of the zone at the moment the other takes the it. Then they had to wait 23 minutes before the other could take it and they could continue on their way. Coverage was another problem. One zone, Juvelvingar, lies in a wooded area where there often are such problems. There they spent about 1 hour with aggressive mosquitoes before both managed to get the zone. 


    After a few days they got to know that two other Uppsala turfers competed with them for the gold and silver position! They had planned to make a break in the mission during summer, but now they changed their mind. They decided to go for gold and silver, and becausepandora and BadLoser are retirees they had a ”small” advantage: they could turf hard all day when the others were at work :)


    When the laps became shorter, it became harder not to block yourself for the next lap. In addition, the risk of other turfers blocking zones increased when approaching the center of Uppsala. They finished in HerbertZone on June 14, after in total about 800 kms on their bikes. They had been out turfing 14 out of 16 days for 5-8 hours a day. All done in 25-30 degrees heat, well done!


    Turf Events

    Two events of a somewhat special character have taken place during this round.


    On 25-26 August, Kalmar Turf Association organized a 24-hour Event in Kalmar. There were 11 brave Turf fighters in the individual class and 24 turfers in the team competition. The participants came from seven different turf regions from Västerbotten to Skåne. It was the first time this type of event was conducted with an individual competition class. The first 24-hour event took place last year in Umeå where teams of three turfers competed with each other. On Sunday at 11.30, all tired but happy turfers gathered for the award ceremony at Kalmar Sports Hall. Everyone also got the worthwhile event 24-hour medal. Well done everyone!


    Results can be found at www.kalmarturf.se

    Video clips from the event can be found at http://www.ustream.tv/channel/HXPzQSrGKbr



    As that was not enough fun, on the first of September Turf Skåne hosted the first open Turf event in Sweden's southernsmost region - Turfathlon and Malmö Championship. The two events had three classes which Turfers could participate in: Turfathlon with a water heat, a foot heat and a bike (wheel) heat, and Malmö Championship with foot or bike heats. The unique water heat opened the competition and 25 valiant Turfathletes "swaded" the zones in the waters outside the wast Ribersborgs beach in Malmö. This caused a lot of amusement and interest from on-looking turf mugglers, and the turfers themselves seemed equally amused. The water heat was then followed by the foot and bike heats. At the end of the day three champions had collected more points than all the other competitors:


    Turfathlon Champion 2018: Ramsey11, Malmö
    Malmö Foot Champion 2018: yeti, Stockholm
    Malmö Wheel Champion 2018: ChristerL, Landskrona



    In all 64 unique turfers took zones in all three heats. Full results can be found here (in Swedish): http://www.turfskane.se/eventskalender/varaevent/tmc2018/


    Bonanza 2019 News

    Turf08 will organize Bonanza 2019 on on Saturday, May 18th. Write it down, remember it and more info will come next year :) The event area will cover North Djurgården and surrounding area. Read more at http://nyheter.turf08.se/bonanza-2019-uppdatering/


    Three Quick Ones

    Back to three random turfers who have answered the quick questions :)


    Turf nick: HappyF

    Favorite zone

    Kodammsbron. I take it almost everyday when I bike to my job. Nice view over Säveån.

    Which personal goal are you most satisfied with?

    5000 unique zones also became 100% in Gothenburg.

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

    Inflatable canoe.


    Turf-nick: TriggerHappy

    What made you begin with Turf?

    A colleague were often outside on the lawy and looked at his phone in breaks, so I asked what he was doing. When he told me about Turf, I thought it would fit my sister and mother, but then I got hooked too!

    Which medal was the toughest to take?

    My gold medal, had to keep turfing for five weeks. Since of course, I chose a five-week round!

    Which personal goal are you most satisfied with?

    Korea Explorer, to be the first to take it together with Munin. We planned it on the QT for one year before we went there.


    Turf-nick: makrillen75

    Which medal was the toughest to take?

    My Region medal.

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

    The Elba-ferry to get to the zone Elba in Västmanland.

    Most memorable zone you have taken. Why?

    Priapos, bird island surrounded by swamp land.



    Turfa lungt/Safe turfing!

    Munin


    ]]>
    App updates https://turfgame.com/?feedid=303 Mon, 27 Aug 2018 19:40:33 +0000 https://rss.turfgame.com/303 We hope you haven't missed out on the in zone photo function. Perfect when sharing photos!

    Another very recent update is:Continue reading ]]> We hope you haven't missed out on the in zone photo function. Perfect when sharing photos!

    Another very recent update is:

    The possibility to see other turfers takeover progression!

    Perfect to see if you will take the zone before others or not. Even works with a whole crowd of turfers!

    //Turf crew



    ]]>
    50M taken https://turfgame.com/?feedid=302 Thu, 23 Aug 2018 20:54:32 +0000 https://rss.turfgame.com/302 The first zone in TURF was taken 2010-07-10 21:19:46 UTC.

    And about 8 years later, at 2018-08-23 17:40:51 UTC boki marked an extraordinary event by tak Continue reading ]]> The first zone in TURF was taken 2010-07-10 21:19:46 UTC.

    And about 8 years later, at 2018-08-23 17:40:51 UTC boki marked an extraordinary event by taking zone number 50.000.000!

    The zone taken was TrainSpot.


    Congratulations to boki, and all of you!

    ]]>
    Photo contest winner https://turfgame.com/?feedid=301 Mon, 20 Aug 2018 15:24:25 +0000 https://rss.turfgame.com/301

    Behold the winning contribution to the photo contest!

    @annaveronicafe posted this image on Continue reading ]]>

    Behold the winning contribution to the photo contest!

    @annaveronicafe posted this image on instagram using the hashtag #turfgame.

    "The photo is maybe not your typical on-the-way-to-work zone but it sure does vibrate of warm summer!"

    Thank you all for participating!

    Don't be afraid to suggest other contests at contact@turfgame.com


    ]]>
    Turfo finders list https://turfgame.com/?feedid=300 Sat, 18 Aug 2018 06:30:09 +0000 https://rss.turfgame.com/300 Continue reading ]]> 50 million https://turfgame.com/?feedid=299 Fri, 17 Aug 2018 20:54:39 +0000 https://rss.turfgame.com/299 Continue reading ]]> Turfo found https://turfgame.com/?feedid=298 Wed, 15 Aug 2018 20:14:33 +0000 https://rss.turfgame.com/298 Turfo was found in BäckeCentrum by NinaW, he has therefore moved to hide in another zone.

    Continue reading ]]>
    Turfo was found in BäckeCentrum by NinaW, he has therefore moved to hide in another zone.

    ]]>
    August https://turfgame.com/?feedid=297 Wed, 15 Aug 2018 20:12:42 +0000 https://rss.turfgame.com/297 Round winners

    Continue reading ]]> 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 :)




    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). 





    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

    ]]>
    Photo contest https://turfgame.com/?feedid=296 Tue, 07 Aug 2018 19:52:04 +0000 https://rss.turfgame.com/296

    New version out with a new photo feature popping up when you enter a zone!

    Let's celebrate Continue reading ]]>

    New version out with a new photo feature popping up when you enter a zone!

    Let's celebrate with a contest:

    Take your most summery photo in a zone with the new feature. Then share it on instagram or twitter and tag it with #turfgame.

    (@turfcrew on instagram, @turf_game on twitter)

    Contest ends 15/8 and the winner photo will be displayed on turfgame.com

    ]]>
    July https://turfgame.com/?feedid=293 Wed, 04 Jul 2018 21:40:00 +0000 https://rss.turfgame.com/293

    Round winners 

    The winner of round 96 took a solid grip of the lead from day Continue reading ]]>

    Round winners 

    The winner of round 96 took a solid grip of the lead from day one, 414 zones taken over 13 hours of biking. He averaged 298 zones per day during the round's four weeks. Congratulations MrJokerit from Gothenburg to his second Gold!

    MysMulle from Stockholm spent the first couple of days of the round in Uppsala, chasing unique zones and becoming the fifth to be awared with the medal Unique 7500. He then coninued to take just over one million points, another 360ish uniques zones and with that he secured a silver medal over Ita from Skåne. Ita is the first woman from Skåne to win a round medal of any value and her compatriots are very proud over her (read more here: http://www.turfskane.se/Nyheter/nyskanskmedaljorochforstamedaljos/ Obs! Only in Swedish). Congratulations to both of you for a well turfed round :)


    Turf Meetings

    Many turfers are social creatures and since Assist was introduced last year, it has become common to see turfers join up to take one zone or many. For the second year in a row, turfers in the Uppsala region met up on the 6th of June (Sweden's National Day) to bike and turf along the old railroad track between Uppsala and Enköping. This year ten turfers started in Uppsala and six in Enköping. The two groups met up halfway in Örsundsbro to have a Swedish fika in the zone Krämarn.


    Water zones

    Summer means going swimming for a lot of us. Luckily there are water zones so that we can keep on turfing while swimming. Water zones can be taken both during summer and winter, but only a take between May and October will result in the medal Order of Aquamen. At www.lundkvist.com one can compare registered users in different categories of zones, one being water zones.

    Two Uppsala turfers have taken 28 % of all water zones. That is more than twice as many as any one else at www.lundkvist.com :) Their favorite water zone take during winter time is Alstern in Värmland: ”When we walked far out on the snow covered ice, it felt as if we were on the mountain in winter when the weather is at its best.” explains Hylaeus. The best water zone take during ”summer” was Badbrottet, a zone they visited in September. ”It was chilly in the air, but the water was still bathable. It was beautiful and magical, a bit away from the beaten track in Sala.” says Hylaeus. The worst water zone was Kolsnäsdopp in Sunne: ”The bay was so shallow, that had it not been raining, we would not have become wet!”.

    Water zones can have funny shapes, like Falukorven in Falun. It is shaped as a sausage (kind of like the letter U). JKJE is one of many turfers who has taken Falukorven. It was a few years ago when he was travelling through Falun, seeing how it was a fun symbol for the city and its famous sausage. There is also Badankan in Örebro, shaped like a duck.

    Water zones also make turfers use their imagination in the area of ”helping devices” in order to secure a take; canoes, radio controlled boats, inflatable mattresses or just a lunch box to keep the cell phone dry :)

    So, how many water zones will you take this summer? And how? :) 


    Three Quick Ones

    Today we continue with three turfers I talked to at the Bonanza in Västerås.

    Turf nick: Karuin

    What made you begin with Turf?

    My mother.

    Which personal goal are you most satisfied with?

    My Regional Medal.

    Most memorable zone you have taken. Why?

    PrästensBadkar. I was the first one to take it.

    Turf-nick: virre67

    Favorite Zone

    Every unique one.

    What is most frustrating with Turf?

    When Game-Over takes ”the closest turf way home”

    Which personal goal are you most satisfied with?

    Denmark Explorer.

    Turf-nick: Wsnurr

    What made you begin with Turf?

    Bombina in a segment on the TV-show ”Landet Runt”

    Which medal was hardest to take?

    Norway Country Medal.

    Most memorable zone you have taken. Why?

    IvanovoRock, in Bulgaria, a World Heritage Zone. I flew down, rented a car, walked over a super-rusty bridge, took a cab for 30 km and was left on a parking lot and then had to walk to the zone.


    Turfa lungt/Safe turfing!

    Munin

    ]]>
    Clarification regarding Trainer medal https://turfgame.com/?feedid=292 Thu, 21 Jun 2018 20:12:35 +0000 https://rss.turfgame.com/292 When going for the Trainer medal, please be adviced that it is one take per day in UTC time.

    However, we are aware that this information was not commun Continue reading ]]> When going for the Trainer medal, please be adviced that it is one take per day in UTC time.

    However, we are aware that this information was not communicated before 27th of May. So if your 30 days quest for Train station zones begun before the 27th of May you will be awarded the medal even if you took the zones with your country's local time zone in mind. 

    Please make an issue if you want to claim the medal: https://issues.turfgame.com/report/11

    //Turf Crew

    ]]>
    KulTurf https://turfgame.com/?feedid=291 Fri, 15 Jun 2018 19:02:00 +0000 https://rss.turfgame.com/291

    Kulturf är ett unikt event i kulturens tecken där ni under två timmar får möjligheten att til Continue reading ]]>

    Kulturf är ett unikt event i kulturens tecken där ni under två timmar får möjligheten att till fots eller på cykel utforska staden Örebros guldkorn och sevärdheter.

    I detta event är det inte den totala poängen som är det viktigaste utan det är antalet unika zoner som premieras.

    Efter avslutat event så erbjuds ni möjlighet att avrunda dagen med en middag högst uppe i stadens mest kända landmärke Svampen.

    För mer information och anmälan se https://hem.turforebro.se/kulturf-2018/

    ]]>
    T&MC 2018 https://turfgame.com/?feedid=287 Fri, 15 Jun 2018 19:01:00 +0000 https://rss.turfgame.com/287

    The association Turf Skåne is arranging the first ever public turf event in Skåne on Se Continue reading ]]>

    The association Turf Skåne is arranging the first ever public turf event in Skåne on September first – Turfathlon and Malmö Championship.

    We are going for the full shebang with several options the valiant turfer can choose between


    1. Turfathlon: three heats of which the first is water, second foot and the last wheel

    or

    2. Malmö Championship Foot: 45 minutes foot event (open)

    or

    3. Malmö Championship Wheel: 90 minutes bike, rollerblades, skateboards etc (open)


    There will be medals and cups for the glorious winners! Read more here with link to pre-registration (in Swedish)

    Hope to see you in Malmö first of September!

    ]]>
    Kalmar 24h https://turfgame.com/?feedid=284 Fri, 15 Jun 2018 19:00:00 +0000 https://rss.turfgame.com/284

    All information at www.kalmarturf.se

    Continue reading ]]>

    All information at www.kalmarturf.se

    ]]>
    GDPR https://turfgame.com/?feedid=289 Fri, 25 May 2018 18:24:50 +0000 https://rss.turfgame.com/289

    Yes yes, we have also done our homework in these times of GDPR.

    One of the parts is to Continue reading ]]>

    Yes yes, we have also done our homework in these times of GDPR.

    One of the parts is to allow every user to see what information we have stored about him/her.

    By logging in here on Turfgame.com you can go to the settings page (icon up in the right top corner). There you can easily request your data. Processing takes a while, but you will get everything we store about you in order to make the game work.

    Best regards Turf Crew

    ]]>
    Göteborg Turf Open 2018 https://turfgame.com/?feedid=271 Sun, 20 May 2018 19:01:18 +0000 https://rss.turfgame.com/271 Nu är datum och tid för årets öppna event spikat.

    Eventet går av stapeln 2/6 med start 13:00.

    Mer information om plats och annat kommer på Continue reading ]]> Nu är datum och tid för årets öppna event spikat.

    Eventet går av stapeln 2/6 med start 13:00.

    Mer information om plats och annat kommer på Turf Göteborgs hemsida när det är klart, men boka datumet redan nu.

    ]]>
    Next BONANZA announced https://turfgame.com/?feedid=288 Sun, 20 May 2018 19:00:01 +0000 https://rss.turfgame.com/288 Continue reading ]]> ]]> Trainer https://turfgame.com/?feedid=286 Sun, 20 May 2018 07:52:27 +0000 https://rss.turfgame.com/286 We released a few new medals yesterday.

    Unfortunately the train attribute in the app seems to be invisible, we will fix that in the next version.

    Continue reading ]]> We released a few new medals yesterday.

    Unfortunately the train attribute in the app seems to be invisible, we will fix that in the next version.

    However assist are valid when taking the Trainer medal.

    ]]>
    April https://turfgame.com/?feedid=282 Fri, 27 Apr 2018 17:41:26 +0000 https://rss.turfgame.com/282 Round winners 

    Congratulation simpson to a third Gold Medal! Th Continue reading ]]>
    Round winners Congratulation simpson to a third Gold Medal! This round it required 1 012 254 points (5608 takes). At second place we find Superelak who took enough points for a second silver medal with 784 482 points (4478 takes). At third place we find first-time medal winner beha with 678 242 points (3926 takes).

    Great job everyone! I can't wait to visit Karlstad in the near future to take simpson's winner zone Simpzone. Kinda wish I could bring my cat along for the ride! 


    New writers of the news letter

    First StarDust and now Maqqan, the writers of the Turf insider drops one after one for raising the next generation of Turfers. This is the reason for this rounds delay of the Turf insider. It is not decided who will take over the writing of the letter, it will probably variate from a round to another, lets see what happens. 


    Bonanza!

    Some news for this years bonanza are that both the competition classes, by foot and by bike, will have a youth class! Everyone under the age of 15 years will be competing here. Same rules, zones and arena but with separate winner ceremony. Sadly for those who has requested a team competition class we can now confirm that there will be no such competition this year. 

    For the visiting turfers we can offer two accommodations at a reduced price. No discount when using third party booking sites like booking.com, you'll have to give them a call. 

    • First Hotel Plaza, close to the zone SkrapanZone, will give a 20% discount for Bonanza participators with the booking code BONANZA18. 
    • Valsaren, close to the zone MetalZone and only 2 minutes away from Kopparlunden were the Bonanza banquet will take place, will give 100 kr discount if you tell them you're a Bonanza participator.

    By the time of writing this news letter we have 170 preregistered Turfers! 

    For more information, visit http://www.uturf.se/index.php/anmalan-bonanza-2018/.


    Events!

    If you have not planned your summer holidays yet, here are some tips where to head and when for some exciting Turf event:

    If you can't make it to any of the open events this summer, why not try organising one yourself? Start by setting up a closed event for your family and friends.It is lots of fun! If you want to create your own event, please contact events@turfgame.com



    Turfa lungt/Safe turfing!

    Munin

    ]]>
    Bad Deployment https://turfgame.com/?feedid=280 Mon, 09 Apr 2018 15:15:50 +0000 https://rss.turfgame.com/280 Approximately four hours ago we made a minor update on our servers. This unfortunately resulted in that some users became logged in as other users and could Continue reading ]]> Approximately four hours ago we made a minor update on our servers. This unfortunately resulted in that some users became logged in as other users and could use another account for a while.


    This is now resolved.


    However to make sure that no-one can log in on your account again, everyone that aren't able log in right now will have to reset the app and login again for it to work.

    - To do that on Android you can clear the Turf app data in the settings menu.

    - On iPhone you can do this in the iPhone settings->turf and check “Clear account data” and start the app again.


    Since we don’t store any personal information in the app or the web no information have been compromised by this.


    We apologise for any inconvenience this may have caused you.

    ]]>
    2.0 released! https://turfgame.com/?feedid=279 Sat, 31 Mar 2018 19:18:58 +0000 https://rss.turfgame.com/279

    Turf version 2.0 is now released on Appstore and Google play!

    This means we have finally m Continue reading ]]>

    Turf version 2.0 is now released on Appstore and Google play!

    This means we have finally made a complete visual overhaul of the entire game.

    It took almost a year "from the axe to the limp" but we are very happy with the result and really hope that you will be as well.


    Have a great easter!

    //Turf Crew

    ]]>
    This Saturday https://turfgame.com/?feedid=278 Tue, 27 Mar 2018 09:37:40 +0000 https://rss.turfgame.com/278

    We are currently finalizing all the details for the big release this saturday!

    Huge amount Continue reading ]]>

    We are currently finalizing all the details for the big release this saturday!

    Huge amount of work put in to this release! :-)

    ]]>
    Bonanza 2018 https://turfgame.com/?feedid=277 Thu, 15 Mar 2018 21:04:55 +0000 https://rss.turfgame.com/277

    May 19th this year Västerås and Turf Västmanland will host the World

    Championship i Continue reading ]]>

    May 19th this year Västerås and Turf Västmanland will host the World

    Championship in Turf, or as Turfers calls it: BONANZA

    Pre-registration is now up and running! You will be able to buy

    BonanzaBag or t-shirts.


    Go to uturf.se and sign up for a great time!

    (http://www.uturf.se/?page_id=54852) to find out more

    ]]>
    March https://turfgame.com/?feedid=275 Tue, 13 Mar 2018 21:12:29 +0000 https://rss.turfgame.com/275 Round winners 

    Here we go again. We are running out of superlatives. Király gra Continue reading ]]> Round winners 

    Here we go again. We are running out of superlatives. Király grabs his fourth gold medal within a year. How long will it take before he passes Kingenins legendary collection of six? This time it required 831 802 points by 4 233 takes. Next to him we find JENZA from Swedens royal city Stockholm who grabs his first noble medal with 718 005 points by 3 724 takes. At third place we find the ice cream loving turfer from Örebro, MiniHolger, with 553 771 points by 3 134 takes. 

    Great job everyone!


    Vasaturf

    The yearly skiing tradition of Vasaturfen has finished. This year we got to follow Harijono and Fredricks journies from Sälen to Mora and the 12 zones between. We are also happy to announce that the last stop on the race in Eldris has just recieved its own zone. So even if you have finished the race before you now have a great motivation for another try! I didn't had the courage to try on the longer race this year, I settled with the shorter version of 3 miles, starting in Oxberg. But at least I got a bonus zone in form of GirlPowerWasa. 



    Zoon time for the Bonanza!

    On May 19 this year Västerås and Turf Västmanland will host the World Championchip of Turf, or as a Turfer calls it - Bonanza!

    At 9:00, the doors will open. The Bonanza by foot class will start at 10:30 and end by 12.30 with winner ceremony at 13:00. The Bonanza by bike class (not motor driven) will start at 14:00 and end by 16:00 with winner ceremony at 16:30. Another ceremony with the bigger Prize table will be held at the Bonanza Banquet. Get in good time before each start if you want to participate in the warm up and review of game rules that will take place half an hour before start. (Exact times and schedule will be available on the event day in the starting area and on the website.) Food/snacks vendor, merchandise-shop, exhibitors and nice company will be available all day.

    The base camp is at Arosvallen in Västerås. It is located just north of Västerås city center in the area of ??Kristiansborg. Arosvallen is the outdoor facility in Västerås for athletics, football and football for boys and juniors (the seniors got a new arena 2008). The arena was built in 1932 and hosted 2 matches in the World Cup in 1958. The plant has a capacity of 1,000 seated and 9,000 standing spectators (but maybe not as many Bonanza participants if everyone has a bike with them...)

    In the evening, a dinner, Bonanza Banquet, will be held at Koppar Restaurant, located east of Central Västerås in the Kopparlunden area. The distance is about 5-7 zones from the base camp (i.e. about 1500 meters). Here you have the opportunity to hang out with other competitors and share your best memories of turf. On the menu there is a barbecue buffet, drink and dessert. The buffet is adapted to also suit those who need special food. Two additional à la carte dishes will be offered. (To participate in the banquet, you must notify and pay your food in advance.)

    The participation in the Bonanza itself is of course free of charge and everyone receives the Bonanza medal as proof of their participation, the top 3 of each class will also receive bronze, silver or gold bonanza medal. If you want to get the best bonanza experience - send in your registration as soon as possible. The invantation to the Bonanzan will open the next few days. You can also sign up to buy a Bonanza t-shirt, the Bonanza banquet ticket and a BonanzaBag in connection with your pre-registration. The bag is a little goodie bag our from sponsors and is a way for participants to help the event financially.

    We welcome all Turfers to Västerås and hope that you have a good time both before, during and after the event!



    See you in a zone!

    Maqqan

    ]]>
    Turf 2.0 https://turfgame.com/?feedid=274 Sat, 03 Mar 2018 19:39:18 +0000 https://rss.turfgame.com/274

    What does the Danish West indies, Jimi Hendrix guitar, and the Eiffel tower have in common?< Continue reading ]]>

    What does the Danish West indies, Jimi Hendrix guitar, and the Eiffel tower have in common?

    They all reveal the release date of TURF 2.0!

    ]]>
    League https://turfgame.com/?feedid=270 Sun, 28 Jan 2018 20:57:33 +0000 https://rss.turfgame.com/270 All our beloved supporters are now able to see the league on turfgame.com

    Check it out!

    (Toplists -> Leagues)

    Continue reading ]]>
    All our beloved supporters are now able to see the league on turfgame.com

    Check it out!

    (Toplists -> Leagues)

    ]]>
    January https://turfgame.com/?feedid=269 Sun, 28 Jan 2018 20:55:38 +0000 https://rss.turfgame.com/269 Winners and records

    After a round resting his legs in Spain he's right back on track as we are used to see him. The bull from Skåne Continue reading ]]> Winners and records

    After a round resting his legs in Spain he's right back on track as we are used to see him. The bull from Skåne demolishing the contenders and securing another Gold medal. Kiraly took the lead during the first week and kept it to the end. With 1 204 172 points by 5 591 takes he grabs his third gold medal. Next to him we find a new face in Superelak, sounds like a nice guy, with 1 051 361 points by 5 370 takes he reaches his first of the noble medals. Great job in the turfing pit of Umeå. At third place we find the turfer who has taken over Snusmumrikens territory, Stinabus claimed her second bronze medal with 850 643 points by 4 870 takes. 

    Congratulations everyone!


    New attribute and competition

    The attribute Train Station is live and kicking. The week before new years eve an competition was arranged in connection to the release. To participate you had to be a supporter and take one Train Station zone during December 30th. We had 315 contenders  and the winners were finnclipper, Vintentina and Knut51. The prizes was first class round-trip tickets with the Swedish train operating company SJ.



    Turf interview

    Here follows a section with content not seen previously in the newsletter. A interview with some Turfer in true Turf24-spirit. First off is one of the turfers in Holland:


    - What is your turfname and why do you use this name? Any special reasons?
    My turfname is Mamzilla, it is a nickname my sons use for me

    - How did you find out about Turf?
    In a Dutch newspaper Turf was described, test & rated.

    - Which are your personal future goals in Turf?
    I'm saving money to travel to Scandinavia again. Probably next summer. Take unique zones and experience real competition.

    - Which medals and achivements are you most proud of?
    Neutralizer and Revisit. Have you got any Idea how far I had done travel just to take the zones... And then again to revisit. We didn't have that many zones in my hometown back then.

    - How is it to be turfing in the Netherlands? Do you feel Turf is growing bigger or not?
    There is a serious lack of competition. Turf is not growing. During summer Holiday some foreign turfers came to Amsterdam. And thanks that we had some competition. Today Mieke1965 took 1 of my zones in Haarlem. Sometimes Troetje does. But that is all the competition I have.

    - What kind of development would you like to see from Turf?
    I keep hoping people in the Netherlands will pick Turf up.


    Bonanza 2018


    Date, time and place are set! Time to prepare yourself for this years biggest Turf event. The Bonanza in Västerås will have Arosvallen as gathering and starting area. The preliminary event times are 10:30-12:30 for the foot event and 14:00-16:00 for the bike event. 

    Exciting!


    See you in a zone!

    Maqqan

    ]]>
    Congratulations and Happy New Year https://turfgame.com/?feedid=265 Sun, 31 Dec 2017 20:40:23 +0000 https://rss.turfgame.com/265

    We have now drawn the winners in the Christmas competition. From the 1211 supporters, 315 joined by Continue reading ]]>

    We have now drawn the winners in the Christmas competition. From the 1211 supporters, 315 joined by taking a zone with the new train station attribute.

    The winners were randomly selected and they are:

    finnclipper, Vintentina and Knut51

    The winners will be contacted by email on how to collect their prices.

    Even if you aren’t one the winners, we still hope you enjoyed the zones you took.

    We wish you all a Happy New Year

    ]]>
    Merry xmas! https://turfgame.com/?feedid=264 Mon, 25 Dec 2017 12:56:32 +0000 https://rss.turfgame.com/264 What could be better than releasing a new feature in Christmas time!? (although a day late)

    As many of you have already noticed, some zones have change Continue reading ]]> What could be better than releasing a new feature in Christmas time!? (although a day late)

    As many of you have already noticed, some zones have changed, and new similar have been created all over the world (Ok, with focus in the Nordics, as usual...)

    Huh, still don´t know what's up?


    It's time to release a new zone attribute!

    From today, it will be possible to get on track and get all those new TRAIN STATION zones!

    Of course, you might problably have taken some or several of them already, but now you know where they are in order to be able to get them!


    As always, some of you might wonder why a zone has the attribute, and some does not have the attribute. When it comes to train stations, we have tried to follow the definition of a Train Station set up by the Swedish Transport Administration (Transportverket). This means that not ALL places where it is possible to jump on and off a train is a train station, or 'Driftplats' as defined by Transportverket. If you are not sure if a zone should be a train station zone or not, please ask the community, on social media, or file an issue in our issue system if you are really sure something is missing here!


    Anyhow, to celebrate the new attribute and the fact Santa Claus is somewhere turfing in the sky, we are happy to announce a COMPETITION with nice prices!


    In co-operation with the Swedish train operating company SJ we will give away no less than THREE FIRST CLASS ROUND-TRIP TICKETS with any of SJ's high speed trains, to be used during 2018.


    How to participate:

    This Christmas competition is for supporters only. If you are not already a supporter. Please visit turfgame.com/info -> Supporter for further reading.

    Take a train station zone during December 30th (UTC time, CET-1). It does not matter if you are first, take hundreds of them or take it just before a new day rises. Just take it whenever you like during the day, and you will get ONE lottery ticket.


    Winners will be announced on New Year's Eve.



    Happy weekend from the Turf Crew!


    (The attributes are so far only visible on turfgame.com)

    ]]>
    Just a little something https://turfgame.com/?feedid=263 Thu, 21 Dec 2017 21:06:56 +0000 https://rss.turfgame.com/263 A teaser for all you supporters out there:

    Christmas eve (24th) will bring you a little treat.

    Stay tuned!

    Continue reading ]]>
    A teaser for all you supporters out there:

    Christmas eve (24th) will bring you a little treat.

    Stay tuned!

    ]]>
    We made a difference https://turfgame.com/?feedid=261 Sat, 16 Dec 2017 12:46:30 +0000 https://rss.turfgame.com/261

    No individual can do everything, but everyone can do something! And you did!


    The l Continue reading ]]>

    No individual can do everything, but everyone can do something! And you did!


    The last donations are now coming in, and together we have donated more than 40.000 SEK!

    Thank you all for joining in and taking zones for this great cause!

    Check it out

    (http://hjältar.musikhjälpen.se/engagemang/turf/)

    ]]>
    December https://turfgame.com/?feedid=260 Sat, 16 Dec 2017 12:38:11 +0000 https://rss.turfgame.com/260 Winners and records

    During the summer of 2012, Loreen won Eurovision, Spain won the European championchip and London arranged the olym Continue reading ]]> Winners and records

    During the summer of 2012, Loreen won Eurovision, Spain won the European championchip and London arranged the olympics. Another big occasion was that the turfing queen Kingenin claimed her first gold medal, now 5 years later she has claimed her sixth. For a long time Kingenin and Mazarin were legends with their 4 gold medals each but now Kingenin is unchallenged on the throne. This time 1 067 183 points by 5 846 takes was required. But there was no easy path, just behind her we find Pumac from Göteborg who reached 1 016 130 points by 5 931 takes. Exciting! Pumac was in the lead for a time in the early weeks of this round but this time he must admit himself defeated. At third place with 739 322 points by 4 447 takes we find viðvarandi from Umeå. 

    Nice job everyone!


    Development

    Have you noticed some zone changes lately? I believe something fuzzy is going on. If you thinking of zones near train stations I think you're something on track. Here is a nice pixelated spoiler for you:



    The new design of the app is ongoing and last time I heard something from the developers they would begin to test the new design this winter. 


    Music aid

    It is time for the yearly music aid in Sweden. This year the glass cage of celebrities has been placed in the zone Advisehouse in Umeå. Turf has their own purse this year as well. The turfers who sign up will give a certain amount of money for each take during the period 11-17 december. So if you are not signed up for the collection yet you can still contribute by taking as many zones as you can, maybe we will see Bont in the live cam taking about 400 zones/day as usual! Or why not sign up for the collection yourself? Here is the link, unfortunately all info is in Swedish: Music Aid

    This years theme is "Children are not for sale", aiming to prevent child prostitution in the world. 


    Thats the last round mail for this year, see you next year!

    Merry Christmas!

    Maqqan

    ]]>
    Musikhjälpen 2017 https://turfgame.com/?feedid=258 Thu, 30 Nov 2017 20:23:29 +0000 https://rss.turfgame.com/258

    Stöd Musikhjälpen genom att ta zoner!

    I år hjälper vi Turfare Musikhj Continue reading ]]>

    Stöd Musikhjälpen genom att ta zoner!

    I år hjälper vi Turfare Musikhjälpen med att göra världen till en bättre plats.
    Årets tema är: BARN ÄR INTE TILL SALU

    Klicka HÄR för mer information om hur DU bidrar

    turfgame.com/mh17

    ]]>
    More graphics https://turfgame.com/?feedid=257 Sun, 26 Nov 2017 15:26:20 +0000 https://rss.turfgame.com/257

    The zone type images also needed a makeover. Here is a selection from the new set.

    Continue reading ]]>

    The zone type images also needed a makeover. Here is a selection from the new set.

    ]]>
    November https://turfgame.com/?feedid=255 Tue, 14 Nov 2017 19:53:10 +0000 https://rss.turfgame.com/255 Winners and records

    As we said last time: worth noticing is that the boundarie Continue reading ]]> Winners and records

    As we said last time: worth noticing is that the boundaries for what you would think possible once again were breached! Királys take record from previous round was beaten the next round. By the man who has given the staminatrix medal a face, scoring seven of them this round if I'm correct. Bont from Umeå became the first one to pass 10 000 takes in one round, reaching no less then 10 295 to be exact. With these takes he reached 1 546 263 points and claimed his first gold medal. Very impressive! At second place we find GW007 from Kalmar adding another medal to his nice collection which now contains 3 gold medals and 2 silver medals. At third place we find Király whom with this round adds the only missing of the nobel medals to his collection, now containing 2 gold, 3 silver and 1 bronze medals. Great job everyone!

    The records split into 4 and 5 week rounds:

    • Point record, 4 week round: 1 574 870 (Király, round 87)
    • Point record, 5 week round: 1 556 355 (Király, round 82)
    • Take record, 4 week round: 9 610 (Király, round 87)
    • Take record, 5 week round: 10 298 (Bont, round 88)

    Bonanza and Event

    This winter Lusseturfen is celebrating their 5 year anniversary. This is a Turf event competing on foot in the Västerås forest, you can find more information and application on their webpage uturf.com (Swedish). 

    As you all know, the Bonanza 2018 will also be arranged in Västerås so now is a good time to prepare and investigate the terrain. Speaking of the Bonanza, the information and application form for arranging the Bonanza 2019 has just been sent out to all the known Turf association. So gather your team and claim the next big Turfing feast to your town! 


    Zone suggestions

    There are a few different way of adding zone suggestions. The easiest way is by the application but there are a lot of them so many of them are never approved. The zonemaker often ask for some more information and photos of the suggestion in the forums from the turfers. I have written about this in my blog if you want to now more. 

    For fun I asked one of our developers (SunYour) for some statics regarding the suggestions added in the application, here are the results of most suggestions added through all time: 

    Added suggestions


    And then, lets ceck who has gotten most of their suggestions approved:

    Approved suggestions


    Nice to see my own name there, a bit down but still :) Think I need to promote my suggestions more in the future to increase my number.


    See you zoon!

    Maqqan

    ]]>
    Lusseturf 2017 https://turfgame.com/?feedid=252 Tue, 07 Nov 2017 17:22:42 +0000 https://rss.turfgame.com/252

    I år är det jubileumsår och och 5:e året i rad som Lusseturf arrangeras. Den gemytlig Continue reading ]]>

    I år är det jubileumsår och och 5:e året i rad som Lusseturf arrangeras. Den gemytliga turftävlingen i Västerås skogar. I år med ny zonläggare och fler zoner än tidigare! Tävlingen pågår i två timmar. Under dessa två timmar ska du till fots ta så många av de speciella zonerna med jultema. Den som har flest poäng när klockan slår 13 blir vinnare! Alla som deltar får eventmedaljen.

    När? Söndagen den 10 december klockan 11-13

    Var? Västerås. Samling från klockan 10 vid Orientalen, Önstavägen 1 i Västerås.

    Startavgift? Gratis för alla att delta! Men till dem som betalar anmälningsavgift bjuds det på glögg, lussebullar och pepparkakor. Samt att du får vara med och dela på priser från prisbordet!

    För mer info och föranmälan besök www.uturf.se

    ]]>
    October https://turfgame.com/?feedid=249 Sun, 05 Nov 2017 18:38:57 +0000 https://rss.turfgame.com/249 First of all, sorry about the late letter. It was supposed to be Stardust writing this letter but he adds an Continue reading ]]> First of all, sorry about the late letter. It was supposed to be Stardust writing this letter but he adds an excuse in the personal paragraph below.


    Winners

    Worth noticing is that the boundaries for what you would think possible once again were breached, with great margin! Both round points and takes were pulverized, this in a four week round when most other records have been set with one more week at the competitors' disposal! Király, turfing in Malmö, managed doing so by taking an average of 343z/day... Pure madness (we salute you!). First runner up, canon, from Nyköping, also deserves a warm mentioning, keeping the yellow leadershirt on for most of the round, only to fall in the last hours, salvaging a third respectively fourth place on points and takes/round. Impressive, thank you both for great entertainment! At third place we find Pumac from Göteborg, with722 724 points he haven't even reached half the amount of point of the first runner up, talk about a crazy round. 


    Development

    The work with the new design is on-going, hopefully you have noticed the teasers on the website. You may also have noticed some down times on the issue web and the forums. This is because SunYour and HappyF have moved them to new servers. Hopefully you'll find it more stabel in the future and more secured with https. 


    Stadusts excuse

    On a personal note this past month has been very exciting. A little gem came to our world and decided that me and my wife would be great caretakers for 18 years or so. It has dramatically changed our lives and the way I turf. Recently I've found a new way to turf, the experience is well-known but it's new to me. Nowadays I am pushing around the future turfer so he learns what it's all about and he loves it! This has also been a challenging experience in speed-eating, speed-sleeping, speed-... well everything is done really fast nowadays in order to fit in the little angel who never sleeps and is always hungry. Doing things with one hand or even zero, like turning on lights with your nose or elbow is a new technique I'm working on also. In some cases things like this news letter get neglected which is terribly late and I apologise for that.


    See you in a zone!

    Maqqan

    ]]>
    Teaser https://turfgame.com/?feedid=247 Sun, 01 Oct 2017 14:15:12 +0000 https://rss.turfgame.com/247

    The new top bar is one more thing that is implemented now. As you can see, the rank bar will go Continue reading ]]>

    The new top bar is one more thing that is implemented now. As you can see, the rank bar will go elsewhere...we have some ideas.

    Over all, the new design is about 50% implemented now. Looks great, but a lot of technical work pending.

    ]]>
    September https://turfgame.com/?feedid=245 Mon, 18 Sep 2017 11:56:32 +0000 https://rss.turfgame.com/245 Winners

    Turfers of the last round were definitely no couch potatoes, the top two are over a million points and third place has a h Continue reading ]]> Winners

    Turfers of the last round were definitely no couch potatoes, the top two are over a million points and third place has a hefty 780 thousand and change!
    Give it up for MasterJoda with 788 545 points, MrJokerit with 1 007 182 points and simpson, the August winner with 1 173 501 points!


    I'm back

    A lot has happened during the time I've been on vacation and busy with work and life in general. My vacation contributed with one or two unique zones and a lot of added kilometers to my Turf distance! There are many ways of playing Turf, I like to take a zone or two when traveling to increase that number in the stats, other plow through unique zones or even areas. maqqan, my right hand for the news letter enlightened me of another way of playing Turf, namely the ongoing region battle. He writes as follows:


    Region battle of 2017

    Have you noticed the ongoing battle? Between the Turfing Wolves, Västgötarna, Hunting Deers, Snapphanarna, Sthlm Slayers and Åland Region Fighters. Thats right, no less the 6 regions are participating in this years tournament. For each week during this round they will compete in the two categories; highest average point and highest average number of takes. At the end of the round the points earned each week will be summarized to crown the winning region. You can check the scores at Turfportalen.


    Website

    I'd like to remind you of the website, you can check out cool stats and other things. Also, the news feed is updated more frequently, here's some of the latest news!

    As some of you already know, the game GUI is having a makeover and the designers are tweaking them as we speak. A teaser is out right now. Sometimes there can pop up other interesting stuff, recently a photo contest took place, the winning photo is up right now, have a look.


    Forum tips

    Ever wonder why a zone might be named the way it is? Well others have too and there's a thread for it on the forum! Just follow this link and see if someone can enlighten you! The thread is in Swedish but don't hesitate to start one in English in the international part of the forum!


    Events

    If you feel like socializing with fellow turfers, going to an event is just the solution. There you can meet and compete against like-minded people from all over, some local, some not. The next event is in Örebro on the 23rd of September and the organizers boast lots of interesting places to be discovered. This competition will be a bit different from the standard events, the winner of the event is namely the one with the most unique zones! For more information in Swedish check out this site.

    The location for the next Bonanza has been decided! It will take place in Västerås on May 19th, 2018! A Bonanza is the official Turf Event, like the Olympics of Turf one could say! People from all over will definitely attend and there will most probably be a big gathering of some sort after the competitions. I will certainly keep you informed in the news letter, this is just a "save the date"!


    Until next time fellow turfers,


    StarDust

    ]]>
    Photo contest winner https://turfgame.com/?feedid=242 Sun, 03 Sep 2017 14:21:23 +0000 https://rss.turfgame.com/242

    We got more than 30 great contributions to the contest, all representing various aspects of the Continue reading ]]>

    We got more than 30 great contributions to the contest, all representing various aspects of the Turf experience.

    However the winner is SUPERIO?, whose picture captures a lovely sunset. Something we hope you all have experienced as a nice side-effect of being a turfer.

    Congratulations!

    ]]>
    Photo contest https://turfgame.com/?feedid=239 Sat, 26 Aug 2017 19:38:30 +0000 https://rss.turfgame.com/239

    Send your best turf-related photo and your turf name to Continue reading ]]>

    Send your best turf-related photo and your turf name to contact@turfgame.com

    Best photographer will be awarded some retro turf flasks, and the photo will be published here on turfgame.com

    Game on!

    (contest ends 3 September)

    ]]>
    Graphics update https://turfgame.com/?feedid=238 Fri, 25 Aug 2017 14:40:59 +0000 https://rss.turfgame.com/238

    The new usermarkers are more unique, less restroomisch, and very nice!

    Continue reading ]]>

    The new usermarkers are more unique, less restroomisch, and very nice!

    ]]>
    August https://turfgame.com/?feedid=233 Fri, 11 Aug 2017 10:02:56 +0000 https://rss.turfgame.com/233 Round winners

    It's been a while since we saw a turfer from Swedens capital Stockholm at the first place, we have to look back to 2 Continue reading ]]> Round winners

    It's been a while since we saw a turfer from Swedens capital Stockholm at the first place, we have to look back to 2012 when Zontjuven claimed it with GBG_Dude as first runner up and Thunell at third place, recognizable turfers for us expierenced turfers but not names you often see in the toplist anymore. But thanks to ~Sysifos~, winning the gold medal with 1 165 332 points, Stockholm could reclaim the title as Turf capital of Sweden in round 85. At secound place we find stinabus at 1 061 146 points. Stinabus took more zones than ~Sysifos~ but it wasn't enough this time. At third place we find ellge at 884 011 points, this turfers first top three placement. Impressing work everyone!


    Development

    Hopefully you've read the news on turfgame.com but if not, the Turf developers are working with a huge graphic update for the application. The Turf project has finally reached a point where we can afford the professional design that the game deserves! It will take quite some time to implement, but we are happy with the initial concepts and look forward to bringing it all to you.


    Day-and-night event

    During July 21-22, the first 24-hour event ever took place in Umeå. No least than 45 turf enthusiasts fought a whole day and night to conquer eventzones. Everyone who completed the event got the new unforgettable event 24 medal. Turf Crew wish to thank Umeå's turfers for the arrangement. A special thanks goes to MasterJoda and lisha63 for all their work before and during the event.

    Also a gentle remember about the closest upcoming event which is the TurfSea2017 event. This challenge takes place solely on water and you compete in teams of two in canoes! For more information in Swedish on this epic event check out this PDF-file (Swedish): http://media.kalmarturf.se/2017/06/Inbjudan_information.pdf


    Battle between regions

    With self confidence from their recent gold medal Stockholms team Sthlm slayers have invited other regions to challange them. What I know there are 4 region teams who have accepted the challange so far. Väst götarna from Västra Götaland, Snapphanarna from Skåne, Åland region fighters from Åland and Turfing wolves from my own home region Värmland. In September the battle is here and we will probably see some higher activity then usual in these regions. As RidderVanMyyl predicted, Västmanland haven't accepted the challange yet. But it's not too late yet, so maybe we will see Västmanland as well as other regions in the battle when September comes. 


    Turf gatherings

    Now when the most of us are back from this years vacation it's a good time to meet up with our fellow Turfers over a beer and barbeque. Värmland will have one at this Friday in fluffen9 and Vintentinas backyard, with a mini event before they light the grills. Myself participated in Västmanlads dito yesterday when ArneM invited the turfers to his allotment and Jimo arranged a mini event, thanks for letting me participate! 




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

    Maqqan

    ]]>
    A long-overdue change https://turfgame.com/?feedid=231 Thu, 03 Aug 2017 10:29:50 +0000 https://rss.turfgame.com/231

    The Turf project has finally reached a point where we can afford the professional design tha Continue reading ]]>

    The Turf project has finally reached a point where we can afford the professional design that the game deserves! It will take quite some time to implement, but we are happy with the initial concepts and look forward to bringing it all to you.

    Teaser images will be released along the way!

    Key bullets

    -Turf will get a new, professional, design

    -The logo will change

    -Certain key elements will be kept

    -Turf organizations who wish to upgrade their logo will get better support for doing so

    -Individuals with the retro design tattooed will get a free addition/upgrade :-)

    ]]>
    Top rated zones https://turfgame.com/?feedid=224 Fri, 14 Jul 2017 18:37:53 +0000 https://rss.turfgame.com/224 These are the currently best rated zones according to votes on turfgame.com

    • Outlook
    • SJ201601
    • Tornet
    • Umebridge
    • Tant Continue reading ]]> These are the currently best rated zones according to votes on turfgame.com

      • Outlook
      • SJ201601
      • Tornet
      • Umebridge
      • TantoTopZone
      • LindhultZone
      • MilkMountain
      • Advisehouse
      • MidIsland
      • GötEverest

      (more than 4 votes, and 5 stars average)

      ]]>
      July https://turfgame.com/?feedid=222 Tue, 11 Jul 2017 14:06:33 +0000 https://rss.turfgame.com/222 Summer winners

      Round 84 is over and we have two new podium medalists! At third place p Continue reading ]]> Summer winners

      Round 84 is over and we have two new podium medalists! At third place peterspirea with over 700 000 points and nearly 3600 takeovers. At second place MadMajk with just short of 800 000 points who managed to to this with 4136 takeovers and at first place at just over 930 000 points and 4168 takeovers snickaren. A big round of applause to the first summer winners!


      Events

      During the June round two annual turf events took place. The Göteborg Open was also this year blessed with sunshine, and in Umeå the reports talked about a nice Midnight Classic where the sun was shining during the two event hours. This month Umeå will be the hosts for another event. Even if everyone had the chance to join it it will be a closed event. Solely due to that the city otherwise would be blocked for all other turfers during 24 hours. The new medal Event24 will be awarded to the participants. More info on the medal criteria will be published in the turf forum shortly.

      The closest upcoming open event is on August 26th, namely the TurfSea2017 event. This challenge takes place solely on water and you compete in teams of two in canoes! For more information in Swedish on this epic event check out this PDF-file: http://media.kalmarturf.se/2017/06/Inbjudan_information.pdf


      Summer

      During the summer TurfCrew like many others like to go traveling. Naturally, this does not mean that no zones will pop up, nor will issues be ignored. It may however mean that replies might be a bit slower since we are working with a reduced staff. I myself will soon be going on vacation and will hand over the writing of the next news letter to (probably) maqqan who has done a great job at writing the letter when I haven't been able to. Don't hesitate to say hi to me if you see me Turfing somewhere in Sweden :)


      Have a great summer!


      StarDust

      ]]>
      Warded gets better https://turfgame.com/?feedid=220 Wed, 05 Jul 2017 11:46:30 +0000 https://rss.turfgame.com/220 We hope you haven´t missed that warded.se/turf now updates every 15 minutes!

      (05,20,35,50)

      Continue reading ]]>
      We hope you haven´t missed that warded.se/turf now updates every 15 minutes!

      (05,20,35,50)

      ]]>
      Kulturf Örebro https://turfgame.com/?feedid=217 Mon, 26 Jun 2017 07:49:44 +0000 https://rss.turfgame.com/217

      You will find more information at https://he Continue reading ]]>

      You will find more information at https://hem.turforebro.se/event/

      ]]>
      Ratings from google play https://turfgame.com/?feedid=212 Mon, 19 Jun 2017 10:44:44 +0000 https://rss.turfgame.com/212

      We greatly appreciate these ratings and promise to give you some well deserved, professional, gr Continue reading ]]>

      We greatly appreciate these ratings and promise to give you some well deserved, professional, graphics improvements in the future!

      Stay tuned!

      ]]>
      Turf Sea Challenge 2017 https://turfgame.com/?feedid=204 Tue, 06 Jun 2017 18:48:23 +0000 https://rss.turfgame.com/204

      Read more at kalmarturf Continue reading ]]>

      Read more at kalmarturf.se

      ]]>
      Wardrobe released! https://turfgame.com/?feedid=200 Thu, 01 Jun 2017 17:22:33 +0000 https://rss.turfgame.com/200 If you’ve started the game since yesterday you might have noticed how some of the players on the map look a little bit different, why is that you may ask. Continue reading ]]> If you’ve started the game since yesterday you might have noticed how some of the players on the map look a little bit different, why is that you may ask. Well thats because we’ve just released a Wardrobe function for all the Supporters!

      Thats right, now you can change you outfit based on your own achievements. For example, if you’ve taken the Dark ninja medal you can walk around with your very own ninja sword!

      Wardrobe-promo


      Cool huh?

      Still don’t know what I’m talking about? Update the app on App store or Goole Play store check it out for yourself!


      /Turf crew

      ]]>
      Coming up: Event 24 https://turfgame.com/?feedid=199 Fri, 26 May 2017 19:31:06 +0000 https://rss.turfgame.com/199

      This medal is awarded t Continue reading ]]>

      This medal is awarded to those insane turfers who completes a 24-hour Turf event according to set rules.

      ]]>
      Regional competition (SWE) https://turfgame.com/?feedid=198 Fri, 26 May 2017 19:02:47 +0000 https://rss.turfgame.com/198 A message from Stockholm Slayers:

      Det är dags för Stockholm Slayers att utsätta mästarkronan i regionsk Continue reading ]]> A message from Stockholm Slayers:

      Det är dags för Stockholm Slayers att utsätta mästarkronan i regionskamp för prövning. Vi kastar handsken och utmanar alla regioner till regionskamp! 

      Vi ger er fram till midsommar att mobilisera regionens mod och anta utmaningen om en hejdundrandes kul Regionskamp i septemberomgången!

      Inboxa mig så fort ni vågat bestämma er!

      /Turf08 genom N@a

      ]]>
      Next Bonanza revealed! https://turfgame.com/?feedid=193 Sun, 14 May 2017 12:13:20 +0000 https://rss.turfgame.com/193

      Continue reading ]]>

      https://drive.google.com/file/d/0BxHdJCOxanGvaVdjMWw0NEJsVVhtNlFKLVNpemFrbGhVVWNZ/preview

      ]]>
      BONANZA DAY https://turfgame.com/?feedid=192 Sat, 13 May 2017 08:11:20 +0000 https://rss.turfgame.com/192 BONANZA DAY

      Read all about it at: http://jonkopings-turfsallskap.webnode.se/bo Continue reading ]]> BONANZA DAY

      Read all about it at: http://jonkopings-turfsallskap.webnode.se/bonanza-2017/

      BonanzaFoot Result at: https://turfgame.com/event_old?id=637
      BonanzaBike Result at:  https://turfgame.com/event_old?id=1139

      ]]>
      May https://turfgame.com/?feedid=191 Sat, 13 May 2017 06:54:19 +0000 https://rss.turfgame.com/191 Round winner

      April offered some very interesting weather, such as snow, hale, rain, freezing winds and the occasional sunshine. Yet a Continue reading ]]> Round winner

      April offered some very interesting weather, such as snow, hale, rain, freezing winds and the occasional sunshine. Yet a few turfers battled on for the medals and the points are pretty impressive, the top three players gathered nearly four million points which is almost as much as the next seven players total! At third place we find CykologenCOM with 1 007 854 points, at second place simpson with 1 399 134 points and at first place Király with a mind blowing 1 555 131 points! This means that the previous record was beaten by both the first and the second place players this round and the new record is more than 150 000 points over the previous record. But it doesn't stop there, the runner up simpson managed to beat the previous round takeover record, the new record now at 8085 takeovers in a single round! What extraordinary accomplishments, give them a huge round of applause!


      Bonanza

      The next olympic games of Turf, the Bonanza, is just around the corner. In a few hours turfers from all over will gather to compete, mingle compare equipment and eat great food in Jönköping. The competition is split up into two events, one where you compete on foot and one where you compete with non-motorized equipment such as skateboards, roller-blades and a bunch of other stuff. For more detailed information go to the official site (in Swedish): http://jonkopings-turfsallskap.webnode.se/bonanza-2017/
      Also, Turf Dev just told me a little secret that they are planning on releasing a few new stuff at the next Bonanza. If you have no plans for tomorrow and want to be the first to hear about it, you better get yourself to Jönköping on May 12th!


      Revising crew documentation and new zone makers

      Turf is a dynamic project where things change all the time. Rules and regulations are created, some disappear, others evolve. Right now me and wsnurr, who's done a great job so far, are revising some internal documentation for apprenticeships, exciting stuff huh? Maybe not to everyone but it's fulfilling. We hire new crew members on a regular basis, sometimes a crew member drops out, sometimes we find that an expansion is necessary. A new apprentice will soon go through the trials and if that person passes we can welcome a new member! If you are interested in joining Turf Crew, don't hesitate to tell us at forum.turfgame.com. There's a waiting list but before you know it we might contact you!


      See you in a warmer month.


      StarDust

      ]]>
      Turf logo on the road https://turfgame.com/?feedid=189 Fri, 12 May 2017 19:42:55 +0000 https://rss.turfgame.com/189 If you visit Umeå you might have the chance to see the Turf logo on the road.

      It is the turfers powerf Continue reading ]]> If you visit Umeå you might have the chance to see the Turf logo on the road.

      It is the turfers powerfluffy, Mrs.Fluffy and Snurvelvind who has pimped their ride. Powerpluffy tells us that thanks to Turf he finds it much easier to choose the bike before the car on his way to work. Therefore he decided to spread the word. And thanks to his collegues at 4Sign Umeå they created this car sticker which, according to Turf Crew, is a real eye candy! 

      He says that some curious people outside of the stores have asked about the game, and the number of people who has seen the sign on the roads are countless.

      ]]>
      Assists skyrocketing https://turfgame.com/?feedid=148 Wed, 19 Apr 2017 13:07:17 +0000 https://rss.turfgame.com/148

      Since the release of the Assist functionality, 91 417 assists has been made!

      Great to Continue reading ]]>

      Since the release of the Assist functionality, 91 417 assists has been made!

      Great to see! This is way more than we expected!

      ]]>
      April https://turfgame.com/?feedid=114 Fri, 07 Apr 2017 20:17:38 +0000 https://rss.turfgame.com/114 Last round result
      If round 80 was a close one with just 100 000 points between first and third place, round 81 was even more exciting. At Continue reading ]]>
      Last round result
      If round 80 was a close one with just 100 000 points between first and third place, round 81 was even more exciting. At the end of the day, only 70 000 points differed between SJ who took a second gold medal and AndyChain, who reached his first of the noble medals, adding a bronze medal to the collection. Between them, as first runner-up, we find TXL. The billiard playing turf champion who adds another silver medal to his great collection. SJ took an early lead this round and was able to keep it all the way out, early in this round he was challenged by Jolly_Bob from my old home town Karlstad. But after catching a classic mancold, Jolly_Bob was unable to get back to the fight and had to settle with 5th place. Instead TXL, AndyChain and Björke joined the chase. After some time, Björke had to leave the battle for top 3 and for now settle with just 5 round medals from earlier. The battle between the silver and bronze medal went on between TXL and AndyChain for the entire round. Finally only 20 000 points differed between the two fighters. Thanks for the excitement and great work everyone!


      Ongoing
      Have you noticed some updates on warded? At least I have ... The map of unique zones, which you find by clicking on your nickname after logging in, now includes revisits. My most visited zone earlier had a nice number of 1337, a number which I intended to keep for as long as possible. For the last 3 months I even avoided to visit the zone. But now after the update, the number has increased to 1348. Bummer. 

      Within Turf Crew we are having a discussion regarding possible benefits for being a supporter now when Turf League is open for everyone. One idea of many is a possibility to customize your avatar in the game, sound like something you would like to see? Speak your mind and give us other suggestions in the forums. 


      Bonanza
      Have you registered yet? Unfortunately I will not be able to participate this year so now is your chance for victory! JkpgTurfs marketing crew with MadMajk at the wheel are doing their very best to spread the information. I'm absolutely sure that it will be a Bonanza to remember so you won't want to miss it.

      The time to order their cool T-shirts will soon be out but there is still time, 10th of April is the last day if you want to buy the exclusive T-shirt or participate in the Bonanza Banquet. You can participate in the Bonanza without registering your participation but to help the JkpgTurfs event crew a heads-up is always welcome. Check out the registration form HERE


      See you zoon!

      // Maqqan

      ]]>
      Share your blog posts to Turfgame https://turfgame.com/?feedid=67 Fri, 17 Mar 2017 15:59:51 +0000 https://rss.turfgame.com/67 Are you one of the turfers who like to write blog posts about your Turf adventures?
      Or do you like to share your daily Turf routines in your blog?
      Or a Continue reading ]]>
      Are you one of the turfers who like to write blog posts about your Turf adventures?
      Or do you like to share your daily Turf routines in your blog?
      Or anything else Turf related?

      Are you interested in having these (turf related) blog posts shared to Turfgame.com?

      Why not send a mail to contact@turfgame.com and register your blog.

      ]]>
      March https://turfgame.com/?feedid=63 Tue, 14 Mar 2017 19:02:07 +0000 https://rss.turfgame.com/63 Winners
      Last month was a winter month but although most turfers live in Sweden, not many got to experience an actual Continue reading ]]>
      Winners
      Last month was a winter month but although most turfers live in Sweden, not many got to experience an actual winter. The weather consisted mostly of dreary wet days with rain and perpetual grayness. The correlation to the points gathered and this weather is obvious since we have to back up about a year in the statistics to see all three players on the podium scoring well under 800 000 points which goes to show that this happens during the winter. But it was a close one. All three got within 100 000 points to one another which is quite unusual. At third place we find N@a with just over 620 000 points, at second place Király with almost 690 000 points and at first place, just shy of 703 000 points, stinabus. Király had the lead for most of the time of this round but then he went on a vacation to Spain at the end of the round. Stinabus saw the opportunity and with some help from her friends in Linköping she was able to reach the first place the night between Saturday and Sunday before the round end. Well done everyone and thanks for the excitement!


      Ongoing
      Cool things are happening to Turf right now. Some of you might have noticed that the webpage has received a complete makeover. It looks really cool and is mobile friendly with scaling and all that stuff. Logging in is done by receiving codes through the app, no more remembering passwords! Check it out here. One novelty on the web page which I personally like is the info page with links to the most popular third party applications, you'll find it under Info - Links.

      When it comes to the app, the supporter period for assists is over meaning anyone and everyone can from now on get assists. We want to thank you supporters for helping us out with the testing and in return you get to be the first turfers to get access to the new medals among other things! A quick mention about the actual supporter payments. They are more streamlined through the app now. Payments are now done through Google Play or the Appstore depending on what hardware you are using. Just press the Supporter button in the app menu!


      Bonanza
      It's that time of the year again, details of the largest annual Turf event are finally revealed! Registrations for the Bonanza 2017 on May 13th in Jönköping are up and running! The crew of JkpgTurf are working on making it a great weekend so be sure to join. The event starts on Friday with a get together for the adults and a small event for the younger turfers followed by the main competitions and banquet on Saturday.

      Meet up with your old and new turf friends on Sunday and be the first to hear some great news which will be revealed then.

      Be sure to register for the Bonanza before April 10th if you want to buy the exclusive T-shirt or participate in the Bonanza Banquet, seats are limited. For more information about this year's Bonanza, check out this webpage. Jkpg Crew is looking forward to see you all in Jönköping!


      StarDust

      ]]>
      Turf together https://turfgame.com/?feedid=56 Sun, 05 Mar 2017 11:02:17 +0000 https://rss.turfgame.com/56

      ASSIST is now officially released in Turf!
      The brand new gameplay allows Continue reading ]]>

      ASSIST is now officially released in Turf!
      The brand new gameplay allows an infinite number of players to take zones at the same time.

      It works like this:
      All players must stand inside the zone during the takeover. (before the takeover finish)
      The first player to take the zone will get it, just as a normal takeover.
      HOWEVER, all other players will get the same take points AND gets the zone as a unique zone, medals etc.

      To celebrate this new feature, we have released two different series of medals.


      ASSIST
      These medals are awarded as you make assists, ranging from 5 to 10000 assists.


      CROWDY
      These medals are handed out as you do the takeover together with a lot of players.

      Thanks to all supporters who have helped us beta test the assist functionality.


      ]]>
      Bonanza 2017 - Open for registration https://turfgame.com/?feedid=58 Thu, 02 Mar 2017 14:05:01 +0000 https://rss.turfgame.com/58


      Time to sign up for Bonanza 2017 in Jönköping. More info Continue reading ]]>


      Time to sign up for Bonanza 2017 in Jönköping. More information and registration on bonanza.jkpgturf.se

      ]]>
      Supporter info https://turfgame.com/?feedid=53 Wed, 22 Feb 2017 20:26:23 +0000 https://rss.turfgame.com/53

      You may have noticed some changes in how you can become a supporter!

      Becoming Continue reading ]]>

      You may have noticed some changes in how you can become a supporter!

      Becoming a supporter is now only possible via the apps
      In-app purchases is currently the standard when buying in-app content. (plus also a requirement for iOS)
      However, the change mainly removes administrative time from us developers which makes turf progress quicker!
      Another advantage is that the handling of your credentials should be safer with the app standard than third-party implementations.

      Giving supporter days to friends/family is now easier
      You can now find the function "Transfer supporter days" by clicking the settings icon  on turfgame.com

      You can not buy supporter time until it has run out
      This is a known issue and will be fixed in future versions.

      ]]>
      New RSS feed https://turfgame.com/?feedid=51 Tue, 21 Feb 2017 11:46:23 +0000 https://rss.turfgame.com/51

      For your newsreader cravings, we now supply a brand new RSS feed.

      Find it at Continue reading ]]>

      For your newsreader cravings, we now supply a brand new RSS feed.

      Find it at rss.turfgame.com

      ]]>
      New Turfgame.com https://turfgame.com/?feedid=50 Mon, 20 Feb 2017 09:25:06 +0000 https://rss.turfgame.com/50

      Welcome to the brand new turfgame.com

      This version has been in the making for al Continue reading ]]>

      Welcome to the brand new turfgame.com

      This version has been in the making for almost 2 years, starting with the events page that has been live for quite a while now.

      The basic need for a new page comes from different directions, but the need of an mobile page and complete refactoring are the main ones.

      (Try to resize the browser window to see the new responsive design)

      We also have a some structural design changes that you will notice:

      -The front page has a richer and more integrated news/blog feed
      -Zone info and user info are now better integrated into the map
      -The toplist has better loading
      -Slide in menu on smaller devices
      -more...

      ]]>
      BONANZAAAA (13/5 2017) https://turfgame.com/?feedid=47 Fri, 17 Feb 2017 20:49:40 +0000 https://rss.turfgame.com/47

      Read more at Continue reading ]]>

      Read more at jkpgturf.se

      ]]>
      New Turf Android and iOS version https://turfgame.com/?feedid=43 Fri, 17 Feb 2017 20:29:38 +0000 https://rss.turfgame.com/43 The Turf iOS version 1.6.0 and Android 1.2.0 are now live.

      Continue reading ]]> The Turf iOS version 1.6.0 and Android 1.2.0 are now live.

      icon

      A major update today, as mentioned before this version will include a whole new gameplay, Assist.

      Now what is Assist? Assist is a way for two (or more) players to take one zone at a time. This is done by the players by just trying to take the zone by standing in it at the same time. The player who take the zone is the one who will own it but the other player who stood in it, but did not do the take it, will get “Assst” instead. Assist will give the other player the same take points, unique zone, possibility for medal, but NOT the PPH.

      With this we also have two new challenging medals, one which requires as many as 21 players to be assisters in ONE zone!

      Assist is still in beta so its only possible for supporters to do it now, but we plan to release it to everyone soon.

      Changelog:

      – New gameplay! “Assist”
      – Two Assist medals!
      – New takeover dialogs
      + Bugfixes


      ]]>
      February https://turfgame.com/?feedid=36 Wed, 08 Feb 2017 19:47:32 +0000 https://rss.turfgame.com/36 The winners
      The first month of the year flew by and we're already well into February. Naturally, that means that another round of Turf ha Continue reading ]]>
      The winners
      The first month of the year flew by and we're already well into February. Naturally, that means that another round of Turf has ended and a new one begun. During January the fight was on and two pro turfers snatched medals, but we have a newcomer! Well, at least when it comes to being top three, Bont is a machine and has the medal to prove it. He has taken 666 zones in 24 hours and is the current leader of most zones in 24 hours. According to sources, "taking" the Staminatrix medal is something he does easily and often if one could take it more than once. The final scores of the last round are found just above.

      It's getting crowded
      Hardcore turfer GW007 picks up a third gold medal and TXL a third bronze medal adding to the already impressive collections of medals. Another interesting medal in the all the winners' collections are the new Crowdy medals which are obtained by several turfers being in the zone at the same time. This is part of the new group turfing project that has been released to Supporters and will in the future be available for everyone. GW007 among other people have managed to get the Crowdy 13 medal already but yours truly was on location when the highest (so far?) medal Crowdy 21 was taken in my hometown of Uppsala on Monday.

      As usual some day during the first week of the month a bunch of Uppsalaturfers meet up and have dinner at a restaurant, this time before meeting at the restaurant we gathered at Lutpark and then at Stabby. The plan was to get the prestigious medal Crowdy 21, the so far highest achievable medal where you take a zone together with many others. At 18:00 the first people began cycling and walking into the park, eagerly trying to avoid the zone as not to take it before everyone was ready. A few minutes after the hour the first attempt to take the medal began and some seemed to have gotten it, however some chinks in the programming had to be fixed since the medal which was received was none other than the no longer obtainable Donation Hero medal, funny enough one of few medals which is not achieved by actually taking a zone. We were quite optimistic though that those who received that medal would eventually get the correct one later and that is the case.

      Uppsalaturfers take Crowdy 21



      Those who weren't able to get the zone in time (me among others) and the one who had do the actual takeover had a second chance in the zone Stabby a few blocks away. We cycled and walked over there like the biggest Turf-lemming train ever observed and prepared for a second try. This time me and a few others managed to get the Donation Hero, I mean Crowdy 21 medal! All in all we were 26 to get the medal!

      Afterwards we celebrated at the local restaurant and had our usual Turf gathering. I must say that making the game a group game has really taken this to a new level, it was invigorating to see so many turfers playing at once even though no event was taking place!


      Events
      Speaking of events, don't miss the big Winter Classic event in Umeå taking place on Saturday! This recurring event is one of few events taking place in the more northern parts of Sweden so if you happen to live there, why not meet up with fellow turfers from your region?

      There's an entry fee of 20 SEK but if you're under 18 it's free! The event starts at 12:15 with a walkthrough of the event. At 12:30 people are welcome to take the Crowdy 21, which I recommend you take, it's not often you can gather a bunch of turfers since our lizard brain has taught us this is a solo game. Hopefully this will change in the future. The actual competition starts at 12:30. For more information in Swedish check out the forum here!



      We're churning through the coldest months of the year but at least it's getting brighter and speaking of brightness and shortcomings, on the proverbial bright side this is the shortest month of the year so you can expect another letter in just a few weeks!

      StarDust

      ]]>
      Assist beta for supporters https://turfgame.com/?feedid=44 Thu, 02 Feb 2017 20:31:10 +0000 https://rss.turfgame.com/44 Continue reading ]]> supporterbanner

      This Sunday (5/2) we will roll out the BETA assist functionality to supporters.
      The only thing you need to do as a supporter to test it is:
      1. Download the new app on sunday
      2. Stand inside a zone when someone else takes it.
      (enter the zone after the other person to ensure that they fill their takeover-meter just before you)

      ]]>
      January https://turfgame.com/?feedid=35 Wed, 18 Jan 2017 21:11:33 +0000 https://rss.turfgame.com/35 Happy new year

      2016 is over and it has been an interesting year indeed. Thanks to a rival game (it's pretty obvious which one I'm ta Continue reading ]]> Happy new year

      2016 is over and it has been an interesting year indeed. Thanks to a rival game (it's pretty obvious which one I'm talking about) a lot of people have been introduced to augmented reality games, something that turfers have been doing since 2010. Even though we are a small group compared to other games, we are steadily growing every month, we just passed 30 million takeovers, ten million were taken during 2016! Naturally, when winter is knocking on the door, we see that some turfers tend to enter a state of hibernation and return somewhere around April or May. If you're feeling lucky, have a lot of free time ahead of you and want a shiny medal, I suggest trying to get one now. The competition during the winter is still high but somewhat lower than other months during the year.


      So, who were the persistent turfers who turfed through Christmas and got the last rounds medal? Well, let me put it like this, these guys are pretty much professional turfers with loads of medals weighing down their sports t-shirts. MadMajk takes home the bronze medal with 766 470 points, and at second place we find Király with 832 485 points. Finally, the gold medal goes to Jomii who did this by gathering 937 784 points!


      Király could be considered a lightweight turfer compared to the other two on the podium but this is the second silver medal snatched by this turfer, and I think there could very well be a gold medal with the name Király stamped on the back just waiting to be grabbed in the future! In any case, give a round of applause to the turfers who won the last round of Turf in 2016!


      Past and present

      Last year boasted of many new features, behind the scenes improvements, loads of new medals and a bunch of other stuff. Check out turfgame.com for some more items to that list!


      This year we have a new surprise. TurfDev has listened to you guys, you have for a long time wanted to see the ability to turf with a friend, perhaps when you're abroad and the both of you want to take that zone in New York. Either you would have to wait, return to the zone or just let one of you take the zone. Well, no more! TurfDev is developing the ability to take a zone with other turfers, this new feature will be called "assist" and will let you tick off the unique zone on your list. It will also give you takepoints, at the moment I am unclear of exactly how this will work but it's on it's way. Soon!


      Upcoming events

      The annual winter event in Umeå, the Winter Classic, is about to take place. It kicks off on February 11th and the fee is a modest 20 SEK, if you're under 18 it's free! The people responsible for this event could also need some help, so if you feel like you want to help out, don't hesitate to get in touch with them.

      There are three classes:

      Bike (skis, kickbike etc)

      On foot (as well as wheelchair, rollerblades and other slower means of transportation)

      Under 18 (and means of transportation)

      If you're interested and want to know more, check out this forum link (in Swedish)!


      Naturally, there will be a Bonanza this year as well! This time we will see it in the city of TOJ, namely Jönköping. It will take place on May 15th and have a bike class and on foot class. At the moment there is not much more information to give but they will probably post more info on this site (in Swedish)!


      Winter tips

      In the warmer parts of Sweden and northern continental Europe, the weather can't quite decide if it's still a very cold autumn or if it's ready for winter. This means that it is slippery as heck out there. I recommend getting winter tires for your bike, if you want to save some money you could buy just one tire and put it on the front wheel. It may sound strange, but the thing is, when you brake you mostly do it with your rear wheel and you just slide. However, if you lose steering which you do with the front, that's not so good. If you do a lot of walking, get some ice cleats (grippers) for your shoes, they do wonders, just don't forget to take them off when walking on your hardwood floor.


      See you in February!



      StarDust

      ]]>
      30 million zones taken!!! https://turfgame.com/?feedid=46 Mon, 02 Jan 2017 20:34:52 +0000 https://rss.turfgame.com/46 Zontjuven made the 30 millionth takeover when he took ChildZone from DaHunter at 2016-12-13 18:00:01

      Congratulations!

      Continue reading ]]>
      Zontjuven made the 30 millionth takeover when he took ChildZone from DaHunter at 2016-12-13 18:00:01

      Congratulations!

      ]]>
      Happy New Turf Year https://turfgame.com/?feedid=45 Sun, 01 Jan 2017 20:33:03 +0000 https://rss.turfgame.com/45 Continue reading ]]> Untitled-1

      What a year!

      • -A bonanza with 237 participants!
      • -565 events!!
      • -A new events page.
      • -A brand new League system! (with some initial problems…)
      • -RIP donation medals.
      • -Fancy rank and medal dialogues!
      • -HUGE performance fixes in the apps!
      • -Lowered takeover times for all of you!
      • -Revised block times.
      • -21 new medals!!
      • -7 new zone types!
      • -6922 new zones. (22712 event zones)
      • -10 million zones taken!!! (A record, 1/3 of total amount in Turf history)
      • -45.000 zones taken on a single day! (Record as well)
      • And much more, plus endless invisible improvements behind the scene by our development-team!!!

      AND a very near future holds ”Assists” when taking zones. Our beloved Supporters will be able to help us beta test the new functionality first.

      Support Turf! Lets make 2017 another great year of Outdoor Addiction!

      ]]>
      Soon 30 miliion https://turfgame.com/?feedid=49 Tue, 20 Dec 2016 20:54:28 +0000 https://rss.turfgame.com/49 Continue reading ]]> title798386171

      The one who takes zone no. 30 million will get a nice little prize!
      Keep track of the current number on the footer at turfgame.com

      ]]>
      New version released https://turfgame.com/?feedid=48 Sat, 17 Dec 2016 20:51:55 +0000 https://rss.turfgame.com/48 Continue reading ]]> Untitled-1

      -17 new medals! (As requested)

      - 5 new zone-types

      - Lowered takeover time

      - Revised block time

      - Minor rank levels update

      - New “New medal” dialog

      - Better medal graphics

      - Fix: user markers won’t loose hats or supporter S when taking zones.

      - Fix: Compass not lagging anymore

      + Many Optimizations and bugfixes

      ]]>