Riversurf Jam 2018 at the Flosslände in Munich – Recap

We live in crazy times; surfing is going to be Olympic. The contest will be held in Japan, but NOT in the ocean. Instead, a surf pool will be build to host the games. Odd developments everywhere: River surfing is rebranded as rapid surfing; real rivers are not required anymore; surf competitions are hosted on Citywaves and floating wave pools.

And there is one thing that river surfing and ocean sufing have in common: There are strong forces in the surf industry striving to relocate surf competitions to artifical waves. This is little surprising, given that such events draw considerable attention to commercial surf pools, thereby attracting more customers. It’s all about the profit.

The idea of this year’s River Surf Jam was to offer an alternative to this development by setting a non-commercial example. One goal was to host this event without any sponsors. Why? Because contrary to a conventional contest, the organisers didn’t want to determine a winner. Instead, the event was built on the spirit to give something back to the community.

The contest was not about who is the best, but about fun and pushing each other to the best.

Participants were asked to donate for a wave project in a neighbouring city where a new river wave should be built in the next couple of years, provided that an agreement about the funding can be reached. In no time, the Flosslände crew collected more than 100 € from the surfers and managed to make a symbolic contribution to the wave project.

Despite the bad weather, the Riversurf Jam has attracted a record number of participants and spectators, with about 40 surfers competing in the Jam and the same number of people watching the event from the bridge or riverbank.

The riders Rufus and Patrick stroke me particularly. Rufus managed to launch huge air reverses on a small wave, Patrick’s drops are just radical: 5 meter approach, 2 meter drop, landing, deep bottom-turn followed by massive spray! With her clean 360s, Jasmin stood out from the other women, 11 year old Noah was the youngest participant.

It was not about who is the best, but about fun and pushing each other to the best. A big thank you to everyone who helped making this contest a success and the entire Flosslände family!

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Simon Simon is the "Youngest Veteran". He has been chasing river waves since almost 20 years, starting on a wave in the south of Munich, one of the birth places of our sport. Simon loves high water surfing and river surf comps and dreams about barrelling river waves, since he was lucky enough to surf one during his many trips.