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Surfing at the English Gardens!

In Munich I was surprised to that there's even a strong surfing community.

At the English Gardens there's a fast flowing water stream that runs under a certain bridge crossing Prinzregentinstrasse, and directly afterwards forms a standing wave due to the (modified) shape of the rivers surface.

The wave stands around 4-5 feet high and is around 5-6 meters in width. When I was there, 4 surfers took it in turns to ride the wave for about 3-4 minutes each.

The water flows quite fast so the surfers had to spend a lot of time pushing forward on their boards to prevent them from being washed over the back of the wave.

Also, since the water flows quite fast there's no paddling - the surfers jump right on to the wave from the sides of the river standing up.

The water (straight from the alps) must have been quite cold, as the guys had quite think wetsuits, booties and gloves on, although I did see one of the surfers go at it barefoot (wow!).

Well, I think if I lived in Munich I'd be keen to give it a go - the dynamics must be a bit different than surfing a real wave in the ocean, but it still must be a lot of fun, and a great way to keep in surfing form inbetween trips back to Australia!
Posted by crafterm at November 13, 2005 05:01 PM | TrackBack