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
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.
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.
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!"
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 :)
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.
UPDATE: Entry form is found here:
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
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
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
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?
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.
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.
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 :)
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.
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:
From your experience of the Bonanza, what was the most memorable?
What zone in Umeå did you enjoy the most?
What would be your best advice for someone considering taking part in a Bonanza for the first time?
Raudonvirsis:
The nice weather, the fantastic atmosphere and generally pleasant conversations. It was such a nice community!
I thought the zone at the giant clothespin was nice. Fun monument and nice surroundings.
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:
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.
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.
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.