Protecting River Waves in Graz

Because of a planned hydro power plant near the city of Graz the main wave “Radetzky” and possibly also the “Hauptbrücke” and “Bowl” waves may disappear after the year 2015. Murbreak is in negotiation with the local energy company in order to get a replacement wave if the power station will be built. Whether it will be built or not is a steady debate here in the city of Graz and will be decided soon.

Murbreak’s Objectives

1. Maintaining surfable waves in Graz.
2. Point of contact for people interested in surfing the river.
3. Events, gatherings and contests.

The Board as of 2013

• Paul Sorger
• Wolfgang Taucher
• Peter Bartl

Get in Touch

Website: murbreak.at

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Order your murtreiben DVD at: murtreiben.at

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Find out more and get involved at: rettetdiemur.at

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This spring a bunch of interested people joined together to measure the bed of the river Mur in Graz, Austria. Surfers, kayakers and wave engineers teamed up with city officials to think about how to manoeuver a small, unmanned and unmotorized scientific plastic trimaran sideways across a river.

The first attempt was to simply attach a rope (approximately 14 meters long) to the boat and guide it from one side of the river to the other while walking on a bridge. But according to the plan developed by Michael Strömer, a wave engineer from Graz, we needed more of these “lines” of measurement. But how do you move a floating device straight across a 40 meter river bed?

After exchanging some thoughts and ideas we finally sticked to this one: First different lengths of ropes (used for rock climbing) were tied together and laid down on the bridge. Then one person held the end of the rope standing on the bridge while the first team went down to the shore with the other end of the rope, attaching it to a tree trunk. As soon as that end of the rope was fixed, the person on the bridge attached a second auxiliary rope to the bridge to hold the middle of the (main) rope firmly attached to the bridge.

The question was, how do you move the boat from one side to the other?

Then the second team moved down to the shore at the other side with the untied end of the main rope. Because it would otherwise consume too much of the rope the second team always pulled the rope slightly down to the shore while the person in the middle of the bridge gently loosened the auxiliary rope until running out of rope. As a (calculated) result the main rope fell into the river and was quickly pulled out with several moves by the second team which fixed the tightened rope to another tree.

Now we had constructed a long rope across the river where the boat could be attached via a return pulley, but how do you move the boat from one side to the other? We needed another (steering) rope! I will spare the details on how we got this one across the river…

Finally to move the boat across the river each of the teams standing on the river shores pulled the steering rope. The desired result was a (surprisingly easy to understand) graphical profile showing a) the depth profile of the river bed and b) the water flow rate at any given point.

Three spots have been measured using this method: The Radetzky spot, the Hauptbrücke spot and the (soon-to-come) “Edegger” spot near the Murinsel in Graz. Totally exhausted I went home only to realize I’d got my first sunburn this year. For what it’s worth.

Measuring river waves photo gallery

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The post It’s on! High Water Surf Session at Radetzky in Graz (Austria) appeared first on Riverbreak.

In spite of the late announcement (water level forecast is only possible for a few days) there were 28 surfers. Very good weather condition, too. There were a lot of arials, three-sixties, one-eighties, ollies and other tricks. Finally Flo Wagner beat last contest’s winner Stefan Schafgassner. Third and fourth place went to Wolfgang Taucher and Michael Reitmann. Two girls also took part in the contest. Chrissi Rieger reached place 9 and Lisa “Dr. Lisa” Veith place 16.

Final results Murbreak Surf Contest 2012:

Judges: Alban, Christoph & Migl.
Sponsors: Blue Tomato, Surf Service Graz & The Chillhouse Bali Surfcamp.

Murbreak 2012 Gallery

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Spot Details

Country: Austria
Nearest town/city: Graz, Austria
River: Mur

Address

• Erzherzog-Johann-Brücke, 8010 Graz, Austria

Directions

• Spot is located under the bridge on the eastern river bank – just walk down the stairs.

Nearest Surfshops

• Surf Service Graz | Blue Tomato

GPS Coords

• Latitude: 47.0707207
• Longitude: 15.4350109

Spot Location

Back to River Surf Map

Wave Details

Characteristics

• Good wave for beginners and intermediate surfers.
  Entry without rope difficult, but not impossible.

Conditions

• Surfable water levels 340-360cm.

Dangers

• The rope. The rope. The rope.
  The rocks in the middle of the river.

Tips

• Ask locals how to surf the wave and to learn about safety issues.
  Best surfed with fat shortboards or Mini-Malibus up to 6’8.
  If this is your first try on the Mur, enter the river well above the spot.

River Gauge

Detailed Flow Data

Hauptbrücke Graz Photos

Weather in Graz, Austria

Today 09/02 High 19° / Low 14°

Tomorrow 09/03 High 21° / Low 13°

Tuesday 09/04 High 23° / Low 13°

Hauptbrücke Graz Videos

More on Hauptbrücke Graz

Alternatives

Hauptbrücke is a nice spot for summer sessions, but flat in winter. At high tide go to Radetzky wave, which is a much more powerful, faster and bigger wave — located just two bridges further downstream (5 minutes walk along the river bank).

Spot Credits

Spot shared by: Thomas Muster
Spot details consolidated by: Max Muster

Thanks for your effort putting together this spot detail page!

 

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The Radetzky Wave seated underneath the Radetzky bridge in Graz, Austria, is probably the best river surf spot on the river Mur. It is also the oldest spot in Austria — surfed by Austrian river surfing pioneers like Peter Bartl, Reini Urban and others since 1999.

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