Please vote for Tom at: shortcircuit.movementmag.com/video/29

Hi Tom, could you introduce yourself to our readers?

Hey my name is Thomas Paterson I’ve been pushing the sport of freestyle riverboarding for 9 years. I grew up in Oakville Ontario Canada, I’m 27 years old. I now spend the majority of my time in Quebec on big volume rivers looking for giant river waves. I’m very passionate about rivers the outdoors and wildlife. A couple years ago I introduced the sport of riverboarding to my brother Jon and ever since we have been on a mission to find the biggest river waves. Bigger the waves bigger the tricks!

Would you consider yourself a pioneer in riverboarding?

My focus has always been on freestyle, I like to stack up and get airborne. I have invented a whole assortment of different tricks that are super fun to huck on big waves. Some riskier than others.

Are you the first man doing flips on a river wave?

I think I am the first person to do flips on a riverboard. The front flip is probably the hardest to land but also one of the most fun to throw. The board flip, insane flip, and board blunts are the riskier tricks because in order to complete the trick I have to release my self from the board. If I don’t reconnect with the board it generally means I have a big swim to do. Some of the easier tricks include airscrews, board whips, and spartas.

What is your relationship to river surfing?

Before I started riverboarding I bought myself a surfboard to try river surfing on the Ottawa River. It was fun on the wave but really wasn’t practical getting down the rapids though, I broke all the fins off the bottom of the board. At this time I was a raft guide at horizon x rafting on the Ottawa River. Through HX I started riverboard guiding and I instantly fell in love with the sport. I realized this was a great way to get down the river to the waves I wanted to surf.

Do you think that your sport will influence river surfing ?

Sure I think freestyle riverboarding can influence river surfing. I think more so if river surfing grows, and more people are introduced to river waves, freestyle riverboarding will grow as well.

Where do you got your inspirations from?

I have always loved adventures and the outdoors, freestyle riverboarding allows me to go places very few people go and experience nature on a different level. I’ve learned a lot from pro kayakers like Ben Marr, Nick Troutman, and Joel kowalski, by watching their videos I have adapted there techniques to riverboarding. Another one of my inspirations is Jacky Chan, I always loved his films and his stunts, and I think he has influenced a lot of what I do. But the biggest thing for me is just to get out there and figure it out; I prefer to make my own rules. By spending hours and hours and hours on the river, the water teaches me so much. I would say the river inspires more then any one person can.

How do you prepare for surfing these waves? Are you worried about dying in the water?

Riding big waves is a progression; I started on very small waves and as I’ve grown as an athlete I’ve been able to work my way up to bigger waves. Some of the river waves I’m planning on surfing this year are over 20 ft tall. A lot goes in to surfing waves this big. I do a lot of scouting, just looking at the river, climbing trees to get different perspectives. A lot depends on what’s down stream of the wave. If the wave has allot of down river consequence (holes, waterfalls, strainers…) then I will only throw tricks I’m confident I can land and keep in contact with my board. if the wave flushes into a big pool or a lake then I’m willing to go big and try tricks I know I might not land. I know there are risks to what I do but if I take my time to piece the puzzle and never jump into something I’m not confident or not comfortable doing then I’m sure I will be fine.

Where do you think will riverboarding go?

I’m not sure where the sport of freestyle riverboarding will go … all I know is my tricks are going to get bigger and more flashy … I have some new tricks I’m working on that will hopefully blow some minds. I’m just going to go with the flow and see where it takes me. I’m so passionate about the river and riverboarding that I’m just excited to see what happens.

Why don’t you stand up on your board?

I do occasionally stand up on my board. But do to the fact I use fins it makes it not very practical. Also the boards that I design don’t have fins on the bottom. Also the style of tricks I’m throwing all are initiated by starting on the kneesI think in the future I will be practising standing up more. What not! Haha!

Please vote for Tom at: shortcircuit.movementmag.com/video/29

The post Riverboarding Pioneer Needs Your Vote appeared first on Riverbreak.

Could you introduce yourself to our readers?

What’s up everyone! My name is Ben Gravy, I am a novelty surfer on a mission to surf in all 50 US states & any waves that are weird & quirky!

Why did you start Vlogging?

I started filming my life when I was 8 years old. I used to film onto VHS tapes & edit surf videos with 2 VCR’s stacked on top of each other, but I started making YouTube videos documenting my life & surfing online in 2006. Then in January 2016 I started my official Ben Gravy VLOG channel.

Why did you choose the name “Nubnation” for your fan base ?

When I was a kid my best friend Mike Nesspor and I started a skate & surf magazine called NUB. NUB was an acronym for “nobody’s unliked buddy”, which meant we were going to feature unknown skaters & surfers in the magazine, instead of big name pros. The idea of accepting and promoting everyone no matter of their “status” has been a steady ideal in my life. Mike happened to pass away from a motorcycle accident in 2013 and I keep the NUB nation alive in his honour.

Tell us a bit about your story, how did you get into river surfing?

After I had realised that I surfed in 14 US states and that maybe 50 states was possible I started investigating ways to surf in landlocked states. When I found out about river surfing in Colorado on a road trip out to California, the game changed.

What were the biggest changes in your VLOG in the last years?

Since the beginning of my VLOG I wanted to create a series of videos that was honest and empowering. Sharing the ups & downs as I go. Some of the biggest changes has been the fact that I now bleep out the curse words haha.

What’s your view about the current North American river surfing movement?

River surfing in North America has blown up in the past three years! I know people have been doing it forever, but since social media made it a more noticeable and discoverable sport it’s really taken off.

When will it be possible for professional river surfers in North America to make a living from the sport?

With the way social media works in this day and age it’s possible to make money as a professional river surfer now! Start promoting what you do and make a splash!

A really fundamental question Ben: In your opinion, should river surfing seek to become a professional sport like ocean surfing?

Yes, why not? It’s fundamentally a different sport so the events and characters would be completely different and I think it can be it’s own awesome sport!

There are famous snowboarders in America who are river surfing. Bryan Iguchi and Travis Rice are filming surf videos in their hometown Jackson Hole. What’s your opinion on this? Good for the sport in general or only good for the sponsors of Bryan and Travis?

As long as it’s promoting the sport I think it’s rad!

Even ocean surfers like you, Dylan Graves and Jamie O’Brien star in river surfing clips. Why did it take so long until famous ocean surfers start promoting river surfing?

Whenever I mention river surfing to people they usually think I’m joking or that I’m riding down the river through rapids and trying to stand on my surfboard. It’s a hard thing to comprehend until you can relate to it. I think because we’ve taken our boards that we use in the ocean and shown that they can be used on the river it helps people understand that it’s realistic to try it!

Two Canadian men are showing insane action on big river waves … speaking about the bodyboarders Tom Peterson and his brother. What is their impact on river surfing?

I haven’t seen any of their footage, but I’ve seen some pretty gnarly stuff go down on bodyboards in the river. Definitely using the wave to do new and crazy stuff.

What will the future in contest river surfing bring?

Competitive river surfing will push the athletes to get more creative and innovative!

Where do you prefer landlocked contests? In rivers or wave pools?

A natural river wave event would be SICK! Maybe Montana!

Today, river surfing contests are at a stage where ocean surfing was 20 years ago. What can river surfing learn from the mistakes that happened in ocean surfing?

I think the river surfing community should just focus on what river surfing is and not worry about comparing anything to ocean surfing. We have a very unique and cool thing here!

Are we going to see you participating in river surfing comps in the future?

I’m so in there big dog!

What are your personal goals in river surfing? Which tricks do you want to get dialed in the future?

My goals right now are to find a wave in Missouri and Nebraska! Kick flips are an ultimate goal!

Which other river waves would you love to ride one day?

That big dog monster wave up in Canada!

Are you involved in any wave building projects? Which waves do you see coming in the future?

I’m seeing Nebraska coming on the scene HEAVY! It’s NEVER been surfed…

How do you want American river surfing develop in the future?

I’d like to see a lot more young people trying it out and enjoying that fun it has to offer!

Some last words?

Whatever you want in life, go for it 100% do it for the DREAM!

What is the claim for your future?

I’m claiming that it’s nuking boys!

The post Ben Gravy – On a Mission to Surf in Every State appeared first on Riverbreak.

Silvia, are you already planning to participate in the Olympics in six years?

Wait a sec? China winter Olympics is in 4 years! Or … are you really asking me about in 6 years? You mean … SUMMER Olympics? Holy shit!! What an epic thought. To be honest it hasn’t crossed my mind but the thought is so wild and beautiful that I’ll keep it in my head to cheer me up through this current Olympic’s knee injury recovery period.

Let’s imagine, for a moment, river surfing is an official discipline at the Paris 2024 Summer Olympics. Would you swap your snowboard against a surfboard?

As I said before, I haven´t dared to think these kind of thoughts before, my surfing skills would definitely need a big upgrade to keep up with the amazing ladies river surfing already has in store. On the other hand, I´ve always loved a big challenge and a big dream. Those things are what makes life exciting. Especially right now while facing 5 more weeks of wounded warrior life before I can even just walk normal again… I´m down with a new and additional dream, and even the thought of trying this, no matter how far I could get with it, makes me stoked already. Thanks for brightening up my day with new dreams!

Tell us a bit about your story … how did you get into river surfing?

That was quite some years ago on the most chill one of our three Munich river waves, the “Flosslände”. I had tried my luck with real ocean surfing several times before, but only got rare chances when I was snowboarding in California already anyways and managed to do a quick additional stopover with friends on the beach or did the classic German camping& surfing vaca in France for a week. Great experiences but I never got enough of it and the only realistic way to get more surfing into my fulltime snowboarder life was to get on our Munich river waves. So I started on the Flosslände many years ago. Great times while the Flosslände ran, but then it shut off for a bit so I tried to transition straight to the Eisbach but I was quite scared of the rocks behind the wave, really couldn´t afford to hurt myself in the river and that way be out of the snowboarding. Also I didn´t know any of the Eisbach crew at that stage and it’s intimidating if you´re just a scared kook Eisbach beginner with no connections.

There are people on our river doing turns in ways I could probably try all my life and never be able to do it like that.

I felt I had no business being there so I went to the second Eisbach wave instead. It´s a smaller, weaker wave and kind of tricky if you aren´t very light weight, but it worked for me. I spent as much time there between my snowboard trips as I could and once that wave stopped running well I finally went to the classic first Eisbach wave. Got to know lots of people over the course of time, got over my fear of the rocks and kind of figured out how it works there after all. From a technical surfing point, I have lots of room to grow, but just being able to enjoy the surfing there makes me so happy, and in the end that’s what it’s all about – to feel good and comfortable with the wave and people and the huge amounts of watching tourists, to spend your time there with a constant smile adding your own little share of happy vibes to the accumulated good energies of Munich city.

Photo: Zach Faulkner

What would you say if future Olympic surf comps would be carried out on river waves, in cities far from the ocean?

Obviously the real surfing belongs into the ocean. But that makes it exclusive, only a certain amount of people have the luck to naturally have access to a surf spot, it´s quite comparable to good snowboarding locations and the reason why I have moved a lot of my life to the USA throughout my snowboard career. River waves and wave pools are an opportunity for many people to experience the joy of (that other kind of) surfing without living on or moving to the beach or being limited to your vacation time. I think there is no question about it that the primary Olympic surf event will always belong to the ocean, but adding a second surf discipline in the river or wave pool could be a sweet addition. Not only as something for the landlocked surf community to connect to, but also as a chance for technical trick surfing to improve in an additional direction. Especially if the wave pools or river wave constructions improve to new heights as well. Hate it or love it, it can definitely broaden the whole big picture of what surfing is and can be.

It’s up to yourself to figure out what exactly makes your heart scream from joy.

I can only compare it to the snowboard world, where backcountry never made it to the Olympics (I don’t think it should – snow gets tracked out, water stays the same), but slopestyle did in 2014 and then they added Big Air in 2018, also on those in-city-ramps that take snowboarding to downtown cities where it otherwise could never be. No, that´s not “real” snowboarding to me, but yes, big air was amazing to have in the Olympics this year and it does add a big slice of new excitement to the aging Olympic vampire as well. Generally I believe it´s good to be open to new additional directions and not only limit yourself to what you have known so far and cling on to the size of box you have packaged your passion into so far.

What would a river wave need to qualify as “Olympic”? What would the river wave of your dreams look like?

Wow, I only know my three home waves here in Munich so far. The main Eisbach wave is for sure the best one of those, it´s the tallest and has the most pressure and people are doing amazing things on it. So that´s the best I know, but I don’t feel I have enough experience with different waves to really say what should be different to make it the best it could be. You’ve got to ask those boys and girls with the big bag of tricks and many years of Eisbach experience, I´m not one of those, at least not at this stage.

Photo: Julian Dörr – kn12.de

Today, river surfing contests are at a stage where snowboarding was 20 years ago. What can river surfing learn from the mistakes that happened in snowboarding?

Wow. This interview is definitely one of a kind. I´m really enjoying all this crossing over between snowboarding and surfing, it´s broadening my own horizon of imagination and understanding along the way. Thanks guys!

Generally I don´t believe much in mistakes.

Generally I don´t believe much in mistakes, everything that happens is a chance to learn from it and evolve. So in my eyes, it’s not so much the things that happen themselves, it’s more our perception and judgement of them, our ability to let things happen with an open, fearless mind and soul. The only constant in life is change, and no matter how much you love something at a certain stage, time will go on. So in the context of boardsports and Olympics, Terje Haakonsen definitely comes to my mind, with his strong anti-olympic attitude back in the day. Olympics are clearly not 100% of what snowboarding is, there are many more perceptions and ways of living snowboarding, but the Olympics have clearly broadened the horizon of what snowboarding can be. It´s still up to the individual to only care about pow, to be a part of producing core snowboard movies, to compete in alternative events or chase an Olympic dream. It´s up to the individual to be on the mountain 2 or 200 days a year, on a freestyle-, race- or pow-board and it’s up to yourself to figure out what exactly makes your heart scream from joy.

So I´d say the important thing for the future of river surfing (as well as lots of other things in life) is to stay open and fearless and give things a try in order to figure out how to do them better. Resistance against change and growth is usually a waste of energy as long as the change and growth don’t destroy nature or hurt living beings.

A really fundamental question Silvia: In your opinion, should river surfing seek to become a professional sport like snowboarding?

I don´t think this is a question of “should” or “shouldn’t”. It kinda of goes back to the question with the mistakes in a way. No matter what happens, the individual will always have the choice to perceive riversurfing in whatever way makes them the happiest. If stationary wave surfing turned into an olympic discipline in 2024, whoever would like to spend time hating on that could save that energy and just keep surfing the same way they always have, not watch any of the events or care about it. I think the question is not to judge if it’s good or bad if stationary wave surfing became “official”, it’s more the question if it will happen or not.

I´d say the important thing for the future of river surfing is to stay open and fearless.

I do think there is a future of more river waves, city waves and wave pools because people enjoy using them. Consumers create the market, market creates chance of making money, chance to make money with something sweet as surfing creates people who will want to take advantage of that. So yes, I do think there will be a growth in that kind of surfing. More people doing it creates events, and the question is how popular and official those will get, and if the Olympic vampire will get hungry for more fresh blood as well. So bottom line – no resistance against whatever the future brings, just curiosity for what’s to come!

Who should be in charge of carrying out the qualifications for the Olympics? Do you think this should be left in the hands of national (ocean) surf associations or should river surfers have their own associations?

Wow this thought goes far into the future! Different federations and organisations have been a big magnet for wasting energy with fighting in snowboarding, but after many years, everybody has somewhat found together and two different tours have been united in a combined ranking list and a quite respectful co-existence. Coming from that experience, we know how important it is to include everybody involved and have vivid communication to create things together. So ocean surfing and stationary surfing would need to work together with respect in the shared goal to do what’s best for surfing overall. Ideally money and sponsor interests are secondary behind the interest of the sport and it won’t be a fight over who owns what but more joining forced to take it all onto a higher level together. This might sound rather dreamy-naive, but the more everybody involved can see the biggest picture, the better it will be. But obviously with human´s monetary system we also need budget to make things happen.

Photo: Zach Faulkner

What are your personal goals in river surfing? Which tricks do you want to learn in the future?

Surfing has mostly been a treat for me, a change of scenery, a chance to have a good time with lower expectations than those I have on the mountain. In snowboarding I´ve gone through all emotions of the pain and pleasure of trying and learning tricks, of scaring and pushing yourself, succeeding and failing with consequences. I haven´t gotten to a stage of putting any pressure on myself for surfing, I just go with it and am happy cruising no matter what. In that one summer on the little second Eisbach wave I sometimes got to a stage of being so comfortable I wanted more, so I started with little ollies and got alright at surfing switch (might help that I skateboard regular all my life, and I´ve been skateboarding longer than snowboarding actually) but once I transitioned to the bigger wave I was just stoked to feel comfortable cruising there. It would be sick to learn some 3s eventually, to pop above the water and see if the switch surfing also works there, but first I need this knee to heal again, keep up with snowboard life, and then I´ll possibly ask some of the good guys and girls for trick advice this summer, once the time has come.

Which other river waves would you love to ride one day?

In terms of river waves I´m lucky to come from Munich! We have some of the best, most consistent river surfing there is. So far if I travel somewhere to surf, it would be to be in the ocean and not in another river. But if there´s a river along my journeys, I surely love to try it out. This summer, when we were snowboarding in New Zealand, I was really hoping to join my Kiwi friends on their local (Hawea) wave, but while I was there that wave never ended up being surfable. That made me realize how lucky we are in Munich. Eisbach always runs except those 2 weeks a year when they clear out the river. I also have a friend who surfs in the great lakes in the USA which would be a sick experience if it worked out along the way – and we had the luck to get waves.

If there´s a river along my journeys, I surely love to try it out.

My next “new” stationary wave experience will be our 4th Munich wave – the indoor wave at the Jochen Schweizer arena. I’ve been wanting to try it ever since it opened, but in the summer the Eisbach was too fun and I didn´t want to go indoors, then I was in AUS/NZ for snowboarding, then ended up crashing so hard on snow that I had brain bleeding and wasn´t allowed to do sports for six weeks, then the snowboard season and Olympic qualifying kept going, taking me to Olympics eventually – where I hurt my knee. So it´s going be a little while until I can surf again, but once that time comes around I´m really excited to try that clean indoor wave and compare it to what I know so far.

Are we going to see you participating in river surfing comps in the future?

Coming back to the beginning of this interview – I haven’t really thought of it yet since I don´t think my skills are quite there yet. But who knows – if my body stays healthy and I have enough surf time this year and get lucky with some Eisbach crew advice on learning stuff – never say never. :) I´ve always loved a challenge and honestly I´ve thought about it how sweet it would be to learn surf tricks. It must help to have board feeling from doing tricks on a snowboard and skateboard? So far I just never really knew where to start so I just kept cruising. And actually just that is an eternal task in itself. There are people on our river doing turns in ways I could probably try all my life and never be able to do it like that. And in the very end, what matters is that it feels good and makes your happy. No matter if it’s a contest day or any given day. It´s just like snowboarding.

What can popular athletes like you do to help build more river waves?

I don´t really know. But if you can tell me, please tell me how, and I´m happy to help. If there was a smooth way to add waves to existing rivers without fucking with mother nature too much that would be huge! I´d love to support it in whatever way I can.

Thank you for your time Silvia and we wish you a speedy recovery!

The post Silvia Mittermüller – River Surfing from a Pro-Snowboarder’s Perspective appeared first on Riverbreak.