“Quantum theory is not just one of many theories in physics; it is the one theory that has profoundly affected nearly every other branch of physics. There is hardly an aspect of contemporary society or of our own individual lives that has not already been fundamentally transformed by the ideas and applications of quantum physics. One third of our economy involves products based on quantum mechanics – things such as computers and the Internet, lasers, MRI’s, TV’s, DVD’s, CD’s, microwaves, electron microscopes, mobile phones, transistors, silicon chips, semiconductors, quartz and digital watches, superconductors and nuclear energy. And yet, even with the huge impact quantum physics has had on all of our lives, this effect is infinitesimally small compared with what it will be when more of us recognize and internalize the implications of what it is revealing to us about the nature of reality as well as of ourselves” – Paul Levy.

“If you only knew the magnificence of the 3, 6 and 9, then you would have a key to the universe.” – Nicola Tesla

When one does not love themselves how can they love others. In the modern world it takes work to love one’s self. My favorite teacher is Louise L. Hay who just left this earth recently but what she shared with the world will carry on for as long as humans desire to heal their hearts. The only way to break the cycle of fear is to learn to love yourself, this is not a selfish act but rather a selfless act because once you understand how to forgive, accept and love yourself only then can you be of service to others. I stand in front of the mirror everyday, I see tattoos that say things like “Revenge” “Fuck You & Die” “Pay Backs A Bitch”. These ugly messages are laced into a patchwork of skulls and demons and other images of death and destruction. I see all the scars scattered across my body. I see the misshapen body parts from broken bones that never healed properly. But when I look past those parts of me and I stare into my eyes, I see the beautiful gaze of my mother staring back at me. I see my father’s kind smile. I see all the love they felt for me and I realize I am not a demon. I am a human being. I am a child of God. I am alive so there is still hope. And I speak out loud these words. “I love you. I forgive you. I accept you.”

It’s important to see the big picture here. Everything is made from waves. You are made from waves. Would you rather be a freezing cold blown out 1ft beach break mush burger or a tropically warm 10ft glassy perfectly tubing point break? Quantum physics is proving we create our reality with our thoughts. So make sure your mind body and soul are healthy and whole.

I believe my work related to wave-pool technology to be of greater spiritual importance than the massive impact it will have on the recreational pastime of surfing, it was acutely inspired by. I do not believe it is a coincidence the Hawaiian’s created both, surfing, the sport of kings and the word, Aloha, the most expansive word in any human language expressing the infinitely describable force we call love. This spirit of love resides in all human beings, as it is fundamental to our reality but it was the Hawaiian’s connection to riding waves that gave them the ability to quantify this “Aloha” spirit with a single word.

If I told you I can build a better wave-pool than any in existence today using a donut you would say I was either delusional or high as fuck.

Almost 20 years ago I told the world that there were perfect waves in rivers all over the planet and the future of surfing would one day be on these rivers. Well, the world is still catching up to my delusional ass but if you google “river surfing” you will see that people are starting to surf on rivers all over the planet.

It’s really stupid to build a wave pool in a mall and it’s just as stupid to build a wave-park into a natural segment of a river.

I’ve always said that for river surfing to truly explode we need to build perfect river waves integrated into the world dam infrastructure. It’s really stupid to build a wave pool in a mall and it’s just as stupid to build a wave-park into a natural segment of a river.

Well over the past 6 years as I sought to heal my soul, a very odd thing happened. I was blessed with the ability to channel the world’s most advanced wave-pool technology. I wasn’t trying to figure out how to build waves, I was trying to figure out how to rebuild my life and my family. So many truths can be found in this wave function from the simple symmetry of our breath, one of our most powerful tools to calibrate our life with the universe, to understanding the karmic law that governs everything. So yeah, I am telling you I can and I still hold out with great hope that I will build the world’s best wave-pool out of a fucking donut, but more importantly, I’m telling you everything is connected and you better realize there is a God. God’s name is Love, you can’t find it in a book and you don’t spell it with letters, you spell it will numbers.

These numbers are 3-6-9.

I do not have the patience to write out all the seemly impossible coincidences that surround the development of The Fountain of Life wave-tech, as they are vast in number. I only use the word coincidence to illustrate that I do not believe in such a thing. The correct word is synchronicity, coined by Carl Yung. I believe it’s when our perspective is clear enough to sync with the fabric of the universe, we get a glimpse of the universal connection that binds everything. But because writing isn’t my strength and I have labored for far longer than I’d like share just to get out the following article, I have chosen to leave out so many of these moments of synchronicity that have shaped my life and focused on just a few that were profound to say the least. I will share an example of this phenomenon in relation to the man, who I believe to be the greatest scientific & spiritual mind of the modern world, Nicola Tesla. One of the landmark moments related to his work came just after his death, when the US supreme court reversed a patent awarded to an Italian inventor for radio transmission that was stolen from Tesla’s work and the court awarded the patent to Tesla. The number of the US supreme court decision was #369. This is just one of many numerical anomalies related to Tesla’s life. Tesla’s body of work to this day is the backbone of modern technology.

I will build the world’s best wave-pool out of a fucking donut.

It was July 16th, 2016, I was 46 years old, I had just sealed a handshake deal earlier in the day with Bob McKnight, founder of Quiksilver to design a standing wave machine for him and his business partner in a venture to bring wave machines to the non coastal areas of America. That morning I had flown into San Diego from Chicago where I was the main-stage educator at a major barbering trade show, I had been jet setting around the country for the past 2 years working as one of the most sought-after educators in the industry, dating a plethora of young beautiful hairstylists from NYC to San Francisco and all points between, I also was killing half a liter of Vodka before 10am just to keep pace with my fast and lose lifestyle.

I thought I was in control and the universe had other plans in store for my life.

Arriving in San Diego I rented a black Mercedes Benz and drove to my lifelong best friend Louis Hayward’s home in Carlsbad. Lou founded INT soft-boards and revolutionized the soft-top surfboard industry when he created the Blackball Beater soft-board. Lou is also one of the most respected and connected individuals in the surf industry and a close friend and confidant of Bob McKnight. Lou also has been my biggest supporter in both my river surfing and my wave design endeavors and had set up three separate meetings with Bob over the past three years, so I could present my ideas on wave design and building wave-parks into the world’s dam infrastructure. I dropped my bags off at Lou’s and set out to pick up $15,000 that was waiting for me at another friend’s home. I’ll omit why that money was waiting for me but it wasn’t related to hair or waves.

Just before driving up to meet with Bob. This photo is of Lou myself and Lou’s younger brother Daniel. Danny is possible the best surfer to ever come out of Oceanside but he could stomach the industry so he walked away from it all. Danny and Lou are my two longest standing best friends in my life. These men have stood behind me the entire way, supporting me in my darkest days.

I met Lou an hour later and we drove up for our meeting with Bob and his business partner … I forget his name and the name of the golf company he owned. The two prior meetings with Bob consisted of me scribbling shit on napkins about my wave designs, while explaining why building waves below dams was the real future of artificial waves and how it would rapidly take the sport of surfing across the landlocked portions of the globe, this meeting was only different for the fact that I didn’t scribble anything at all, I just told Bob I could easily design the type of wave-machine they were asking for, it was a very basic design, nothing like what I wanted to build but who in their right mind would say no to an opportunity like this? I looked at it like this would open the door for me to convince Bob of the bigger DAM picture.

I just told Bob I could easily design the type of wave-machine they were asking for

The drive back to Carlsbad was surreal. Here I was … this oddball outcast who had never fit into the surf industry or the greater surf culture for that matter, in-fact since my early teen years I had been very vocal about my distain for the majority of the surf culture with the exception of the Hawaiian surf culture, which is ironic because so many people have the impression that Hawaii is a heavy place where localism is out of control, which couldn’t be further from the truth, in reality Hawaii is the only place in the world that you can paddle out at the most localized breaks like Third Dip or Makaha Point on Oahu’s Westside and not be met with immediate unprovoked aggression by the locals, and if you keep your mouth shut, understand the pecking order and wait patiently in the channel, more often than not one of the locals will call you into a wave eventually … and you better make it or at least give a valiant effort or you probably won’t get another shot in that session. In Hawaii, you are always given a chance to show you can conduct yourself with respect and if you do, you will be treated with respect. The majority of the rest of the surfing world isn’t as civil as our Hawaiian counterparts.

And by the time of this third meeting with Bob I had even become an outcast in the sport of river surfing but that’s a story of it’s own to vast to touch on here.

So I was fully blown away by what had just transpired an hour earlier, I was about to reshape the wave-pool industry with Bob backing my work. I even got to meet one of my favorite surfers of all-time, Mickey Nielsen that day at the Quicksilver headquarters. I was walking on water.

Pipeline is the crown jewel of Oahu’s North Shore and Mickey Nielsen is one of the hardest charging locals ever to surf the spot. He was one of my favorite surfers when I was a youth and his casual style in big heavy surf was a huge influence on my style. So when we walked out of the meeting and Mickey came strolling down the hall and Bob introduced Lou and I, it was the icing on the cake to end our day at Quicksilver headquarters.

I was about to reshape the wave-pool industry with Bob backing my work.

That night after our meeting, I went out on the town, my hometown, Oceanside, CA. A place where I had been through all of the school district’s continuation schools, in and out of jail, homeless and very much at odds with the emerging surf industry community in Oceanside, as my hometown became a hub for board builders, clothing brands and surf magazines. I wasn’t the clean cut bubbly blonde surfer dude who said “rad” and “stoked”. I didn’t fit in with the surf culture at all. But now here I was back home wearing my proverbial glass slippers. The prodigal son had come home. I rolled out with that $15k stuffed in my pockets, flashing that cash like a trophy wife shows off her new boob job and her fat ass diamond wedding ring. I was rolling from club to club in the black Benz , bumping Sean Price full blast, I even got invited up on stage at the comedy club because the comedian was fascinated by the fact I had so much cash stuffed in my pockets which was intentionally and pridefully on full display when I’d pull it out to buy drinks. I was so fucking full of myself it seems unreal now as I look back in time. I thought I had life by the balls.

I really thought I was a rich man but in reality I was spiritually and emotionally bankrupt.

Then at 11:11pm as I was driving back to my hotel, I received a text from my ex-wife, it was a mugshot of my 19yr old son, who had never been in any trouble in his life, he had just graduated high school a few weeks earlier. At first I figured it was something petty, something minor, something stupid, something a teenager would do, drunk in public or busted with a little weed or at worst a DUI. My mind couldn’t adjust at first as my eyes focused on the three charges below his mugshot. 1. Attempted Murder- 2. First Degree Robbery – 3. First Degree Assault. My son had shot another man in a drug deal gone wrong. At that moment in time everything that had just held great value to me a few seconds prior became worthless. At that moment everything changed. I walked away from everything that night, the deal with Bob whom I still haven’t spoken with since our meeting, my career in hair and all the fame it brought me and all the money it made me. I left it all behind.

I embarked on an almost three-year journey to heal my family and change who I was.

This was one month prior to Chance’s crime and arrest.

The only thing more unbelievable than the fact that a high school drop out and total fuck up could be responsible for the world’s most advanced wave-pool technology, is the story behind how I acquired this technical knowledge.

It is clear now that the first spark of my vision for what would later become The Fountain of Life wave-pool was in late Sept 2000 … possibly Sept 21st, but I didn’t mark the date … in Phoenix, AZ when I experienced the epiphany that reshaped my surfing life and ignited my river surfing quest, I realized as I stared at a canal with small wave in it, that there were standing waves breaking on the rivers across the world. My second “moment of clarity” was on my first trip to Skookumchuck Narrows which occurred the moment I was sucked into a whirlpool just behind the main wave, That day, Sept 21st, 2003, was one of the most impactful of my life. When I surfaced from the hold down, I instantly knew something major had transpired and was terrified a tragedy had befallen one of my young sons. I drove all night from BC back to Eugene, too scared to call home to ask about my children’s welfare. When I arrived home, I would find out that my step-father had died the day prior and his time of death was during the time period I was sucked into the whirlpool.

On my second trip to Skookumchuck I saw the Tubesteak wave form up. I finally rode the Tubesteak wave on my fourth trip, July 5th 2005. What can I say about Skook? It’s a very special place to me. I went there a dozen times from 2003 thru 2007. It changed my life.

What made this experience so impactful was the fact that my beloved cousin Troy Mclure was killed on sept 21st 2001. Troy and my step dad were two peas in a pod, both big bears of men and both gentle giants and they were very close with each other. It was at Troy’s funeral that my step dad would challenge me to move beyond my selfish ways, resulting in a physical altercation between him and me, which compelled me to drive to Eugene, OR where I would first end up homeless and then rebuild my life, leading up to my Skookumchuck trip. As I stated at the start, there are far to many coincidences to list in this article but the date Sept 21st was one of the first to wake me up to the fact that everything is connected. I was waking up to the fact that God speaks to us through synchronicity.

Up until April 2019 I had believed my vision for wave design had spontaneously emerged just after my mother’s death in 2013, which was the pivotal event that kicked my vision into overdrive, but now I see these other experiences played major roles also.

My spatial visualization ability is the result of a rare mental disorder called Acquired Savant Syndrome which was triggered by my mother’s death. All other known cases, only about 100 worldwide, are the result of either a rare type of dementia or a traumatic brain injury, mine is the only known case triggered by a traumatic emotional experience.

My vision first presented itself on Sept 21st, 2013 … there is that date again … a few months after her death while watching the film “Thrive” when I was exposed to the great Torus. And if you are not aware of the Torus I suggest you google it right away.

My concepts would attract the attention of Ben Neilsen & Rick McGluaghlin of MWDG, they flew out to meet with me in Portland, Oregon to discuss my work in person. This meeting lead to MWDG hiring my consulting firm, fresH2O, to work on the scale modeling of the South Platte River-park project located just outside of Denver, CO. The main objective I was brought onboard for, was to create a barreling river wave. I achieved this goal. The work was covered by Riverbreak and the Portland Monthly and at the time was revolutionary in the world of river-wave engineering.

“It became very apparent that he had valid ideas granted super outside the box. Eli’s concepts are robust – they are complex and radical, but also make sense.” – Ben Nielsen

Ben had this to say about my work: “I’ve known Elijah for years. What can I say, he is an icon in river surfing. When you’ve surfed as many waves as he has it’s not surprising that he understands waves, he feels waves. Rick and I flew out and met with Elijah in Portland a few years ago and we geeked out on waves for a couple days. It became very apparent that he had valid ideas granted super outside the box. We thought, “with our expertise in waves over the past two decades combined with the creative ideas Elijah has, we just might come up with something truly special”. Sometimes you just have to follow your instincts. That’s just what we did bringing Elijah into the lab. The level of wave progression that happened over that week at CSU was amazing. My guess is there has never been a week in wave design that had moved river surfing further into the future. Elijah approaches wave design very intuitively. You can see him drawing on the hundreds of waves and thousands of rides he has had all over the world when he works in the lab. Eli’s concepts are robust – they are complex and radical, but also make sense. I think many of the concepts will take some time to dial in and get built in their purest form, but we are already integrating many aspects into current designs. Surfers are demanding newer better waves MWDG and fresH2O are going to meet and exceed these expectations. It’s an exciting time to be design surf waves.” -Ben Nielsen

After this work at CSU, I did some work developing a strategy for MWDG to market river wave-parks designed for surfers but there wasn’t much follow though from MWDG and any hopes of building perfect waves fell by the wayside.

Now fast forward to July 16th, 2017, one year after my sons’s arrest and my meeting with Bob. I am living out of my car in SF, broke, depressed, barely holding on to my touch with reality and on the verge of making a YouTube video to share my wave design concepts with the world so they didn’t vanish from the world, as I was wishing for death to end my despair at what my life and my family had become. On that day exactly one year after the meet and arrest, I received a call from Lou telling me about how he had just met a woman who was putting together a project for Lockheed Martin to be funded by their Moonshot division, a branch of the company that funds next generation technology, basically the most radical and different technologies out there. The project was to build a wave-pool on camp Pendleton military base with the purpose to provide soldiers with a surfing experience that she believed would help them heal and process the mental/emotional/physical issues(PTSD) related to their exposure to war. Ironically, Oceanside, the town I grew up in is the port city for Camp Pendleton.

The woman Lou had met is Kate McKinnon, she works with MIT and the US Navy to list just a few, she is a “solver”, which just means she is someone who figures out how to overcome really serious problems. Kate would become my greatest mentor; she didn’t offer me direct insight into designing wave-pools, but she would show me what it was that I was seeing in my head. I was seeing the same things that her life-partner, Charles Chase, head of the Revolutionary Technologies Laboratory of the Skunk Works division at Lockheed Martin, saw in his head related to his primary project, developing nuclear fusion.

LM Skunk Works Divsion. Spending a weekend with Charles Chase, head of The Revolutionary Technologies Laboratory was one of the highlights of my wave designing journey. The same patterns found in the flowing waters of the Fountain of Life have remarkable similarities to the “good wave form” patterns found in the beta plasma physics of the compact fusion generator Charles and his team are working on at LM.

My wave-pool concepts were more closely related to beta-plasma physics than anything to do with surfing, in either the oceans or rivers. I wasn’t seeing wave-pools, I was seeing wave functions in quantum realm. This was the most exciting time of my entire life. I was invited to join Kate and others from Lockheed to ride Kelly Slater’s wave-pool and the Wavegarden wave-pool in Austin Texas after our team’s meeting in early September. Kate was seeking funding for a large facility for the team to work out of in Boston. Life really was surreal. Over the next month her and my emails would open my mind beyond what I ever thought possible. Kate is a full-blown genius, the kind that when you talk to her, you have to wonder if she is talking directly to God inside her head as she is holding verbal conversation with you. I watched her type on her computer with one hand while she was texting on her phone with her other hand, while she held a conversation with one of our team’s project manager. Kate assembled a team of a dozen individuals called the “coherence” team. I was under the impression my role on the team was to be the primary wave designer. And because of “my ability to see in pictures” Kate hoped I could help her team understand the process of “creation” in a way they hadn’t grasped yet.

I wasn’t seeing wave-pools, I was seeing wave functions in quantum realm.

Kate had these things to say about my work: “I’ve been looking for the high-interval people who think in pictures.

I have been asking the Universe for you, because your mind + my mind + the minds of my team can do the “Things”. Through you, because you think in pictures, I can speak to the portion of Creation that right now is a closed door to my people. It’s all too fantastic. I think you see more than I do, actually, because yes, you saw right away how the Hypar can power the Torus. So much to say here. You also intuitively know that there is no such thing as a particle, and why. You are absolutely correct that everything scales, and everything can be represented in waves. If you see a thing that is not perfect at all levels, it is not real, it is not coherent, and if it is math then you know it needs more work. This is much like the problem in physics right now; the Standard Model needs too much tweaking; it doesn’t match what people study in the quantum world. We can help them. I think you are talking about more than just a surfing wave with the T-form, right? You are talking about Wave-In-Balance, the Coherence Wave. Is that right? The wave of creation, the waveform our mind takes when we are in the zone? You, Eli, are brilliant and yes, I am here to teach you our language, and you are here to show me your insights, and they match perfectly, and yes, we will build your wave. I promise you. Soon in fact.” – Kate McKinnon.

A selfie Kate took of her and Charles for me the day before we met in person.They changed my life and blew my mind.

The weekend of Sept 10th 2017 was when the entire team met in Carlsbad, CA. The common thread with the entire team was that everyone in some way or another was experiencing “toroidal force” in their lives. The Sunday of that weekend, I would live through the most profound spiritual experience of my life. I spent the better part of 8 hours in what can only be explained as a non-stop synchronicity. I felt like I was on the very best MDMA ever created but I was stone cold sober. This great ride would come crashing down in a matter of 24 hours. Kate’s project was scrapped for reasons still unknown. But basically, what I thought was about to be a full-time job with great pay designing wave-pools for Lockheed martin all evaporated. Kate says “I suppose I was too revolutionary for Lockheed Martin and they canceled my funding.”

And that was that. The ride closed out.

I would fall into an even greater depression than the one I was in just prior to meeting Kate, hitting one of the lowest point in my life.

Months later, a river surfer and banker, Jeff Banks, from Boise, Idaho would approach me with an offer to fund my wave tech.

Because of this offer I finally sat down to write/draw out a patent for my tech, something I had procrastinated for years. I am not a fan of keyboards or pen and paper. I was a severely dyslexic child with major learning disabilities that placed me in intensive special education throughout my entire years in school and I still find any communication other than verbal to be very strained.

And even though this banker’s support would vanish as unexpectedly … well maybe not unexpectedly, I saw the writing on the wall but I never saw it in contract form … and as bizarrely as the Lockheed Martin deal, I pushed through the process of writing my patent and this is when the biggest breakthroughs came, and the totality of the wave tech would come to light. During this time I spent many hours meditating and fasting, both self-imposed and imposed by my financial situation. I was broke and living in my car but made sure I came up with the 1,500$ to pay for the provisional patent. That was May 11th, 2018.

And so here we are now, May 15th 2019. My material existence has been stripped to the bone, literally, just after I published my provisional patent I had my car broken into and every possession I had left to my name stolen, with the exception of my briefcase that held my computer and all my wave design work. I was so grateful my briefcase was still in the car that I wasn’t really that upset. I also know this process I’m going through is part of the healing I need to achieve. I believe these difficult times will last in so form or another until my son is released from prison. We are both in our own prisons and they are tied together on the quantum level. I’m working in the local 261 laborers union, busting my ass digging ditches, living in shared room in a flop-house apartment in the worst district of San Francisco but I’m working for one of my best friends for a good wage and I’m still strong enough to do the work, I have little barbershop I just opened in Eugene, OR … it’s still costing more to run than it’s bringing money in, and I’m the closest I’ve ever been with my family. I am sober, celibate, focused and full of faith, hope, and love. So even though I’m nowhere near the level of success I was almost 3 years ago, I’m pretty sure I now have a better vision for what success really is and I don’t mind doing what it takes to get there. The key, I believe, is that I understand I created everything I’m experiencing and that I’m now facing my karma and I need to respond to these difficult times with compassion and gratitude. I must do this WORK if I ever want to be a truly positive influence on my family. So …

“It’s not like we grew up in some crazy environment, my dad was the chess club mentor, he didnt smoke weed around us and I’ve seen him get drunk twice in my life, he worked hard and taught us to think for ourselves, he was dedicated. But my dad grew up hard and he had lots of emotional issues. He was super depressed a lot and would get mad easy. But after my brother was aressted he made it his life’s purpose to change who he was, I was with him for the start in SF and I saw what he went through. I admire my dad. It’s a big thing to rewrite who you are.” – Hurricane Mentawai

I am publishing my work and the provisional patent in the public domain with the intention of preventing any individual or company from ownership of this tech. Now …

This tech is the result of faith, hope and love.

This tech is a gift from God inspired by tragedies in my life caused by my neglect and reckless behavior towards life itself and the people I love most. It has been and still is my intention to change myself, to become the change I want to see in the world. This is an ongoing pursuit. This tech is the result of faith, hope and love. This tech is my gift to the world in hopes it will inspire faith, hope and love.

The reason my tech is so unique compared to all other wave tech is because my understanding of fluid dynamics is rooted not in my love of surfing, it is rooted in my desire to shed the ego and align my spirit with God.

I am offering this tech, hoping it will spark a truly open source approach to building waves.

And because this is the superlative wave tech it won’t be long before the world realizes how simple it is to create perfect surf from these basics blueprints I’m offering and that no individual or company should stifle this tech. So hopefully anyone will be able to build it and anyone will be able to profit from it, if they desire, but no one will be able to stop others from using it.

Figure 5 A and B from the provisional patent (PDF).

The Fountain of Life wave generator tech is inspired by many things that have nothing to do with surfing.

While everyone has been drooling over KSWC, the new Waco wave-pool or the new wave garden Cove tech or the plunger wave-pool in Australia, I’ve been banging my head against the wall wondering why I couldn’t even give this tech away. Well the answer is karma. It’s my karmic path to dig ditches while Kelly Slater builds waves. This is no slight to Kelly, when I was getting drunk and running in the streets, he was living a clean focused purpose driven life. So I salute and honor his karmic path and I salute and honor the hard work he has put into developing his wave-pool. But now as I reassert myself into the flow of life as a changed man, I salute and honor my karmic path and my wave pool tech, which will forever change how waves are built and it will reshape every existing wave-pool tech on the market to date.

The Fountain of Life wave generator tech is inspired by many things that have nothing to do with surfing, the I Ching, electro-magnetism, acoustics, karma & the atom to name just a few. The Fountain of Life is more closely related to the “good wave-form” of plasma physics than it is any standard wave-pool tech. I see this flow everywhere and in everything. Open your heart, close your eyes, calm your mind and I promise you will see it too.

The Fountain of Life wave generator is based on the complete mathematical structure of the ‘universal’ wave-form. All other ‘fractional’ wave-forms are derivatives of the universal wave-worm. The blue print for the perfect wave. The ability to start with the whole is the key as the one makes the many in its likeness, if there is any imbalance in the one the imbalance will be magnified in the many and the wave-form cycle will not be “perfect” for surfing or for life.

Sketch of the wave control tech, detailed in the provisional patent (PDF)

The Fountain of Life wave generator forms H2O using a mathematical code, similar to how a musical instrument plays sheet music. The music of divine proportion. Balance. Control. Control of the whole provides the ability to utilize every H2O molecule, which provides optimal energy transference & wave-form structural stability. The ability to create an almost limitless array of waves in real time using a control board or a pre-programed code.

I made this from bike tire inntubes, a toilet plunger, a yoga mat and a fish tank water pump. It was made to offer a visual representation the basic design of the FOL. It wasn’t to scale and wasnt built with the intention of making a proper functioning representation of the FOL three different wave types.

Here is the deal. I am showing the world how to build perfect waves. I am telling the world that there are one million dams across the globe and integrating wave machine into this infrastructure is how we build the brave new surf world. No pumps. No diesel engines. No lawsuits. No bullshit. Just build the best waves possible. And love each other, just be kind, love each other and everything else will fall into place. It’s a simple blueprint.

No pumps. No diesel engines. No lawsuits. No bullshit. Just build the best waves possible.

Please watch these short videos explaining the basic mechanisms behind the Fountain of Life to understand how this tech works and then I hope you give it a shot and start building your own version of this tech. There are so many iterations that can be created from this tech. It is almost limitless.

Please review the provisional patent (PDF) for a more in-depth explanation of the tech.

The Fountain of Life is Flow & Spin. To strip it to its core the science of waves is Flow & Spin. The Fountain of Life is simple, it is the convergence of opposing fluid forces, H2O, in a pool with real time complete telemetry manipulation.

The Fountain of Life is born of the atom not the sea. Flowing. Spinning. Perfectly.

Aloha
Elijah Mack

The Provisional patent: The Fountain of Life

Videos about The Fountain of Life

The post The Perfect Path – The Quest for the Fountain of Life appeared first on Riverbreak.

Rolling the dice is a gamble in Reno, but when it comes to surfing Reno-Tahoe’s Truckee River, you’re guaranteed to win – as there are no flat days. Beginning as the only outlet of the majestic & famous Lake Tahoe, the Truckee River winds its way down through the Sierra Nevada Mountains, into ‘The Biggest Little City In The World’, Reno, Nevada; and eventually ends up in Nevada’s mysterious Pyramid Lake, in the high desert. Along its way, ‘the Truckee’ has a few surf-able standing waves – both natural & human-made – that can provide stoke 365 days a year, and Reno-Tahoe’s river surfers are riding them – adults & grommets alike.

To see surf culture developing in Reno – so far from an ocean or sea – is quite special for me.

The two main standing waves on the Truckee are located in two riverside parks, one in Reno, and one in Sparks. The Reno wave, known as ‘Hole Three’ as well as ‘The Third Hole’, is at Wingfield Park in downtown Reno near the 24/7 glitz & glam of the casinos. Its significant other is at Rock Park. Both parks attract families, kayakers and of course, river surfers. The quality & size of these river waves varies depending on flow. For example, the wave at Rock Park can be a surf-able ankle slapper during the end of summer when the river is at 300 CFS, or it can be waist-high in the winter & spring when the Truckee’s water flow is raging at 2,000+ CFS.

The cultural & commercial aspects of the burgeoning river surfing scene in Reno are beginning to rear their beautiful noggins as well, with the October 6th, 2018 grand opening of Reno’s first business serving the needs of the Reno-Tahoe surf scene: Ruach Surf Shop, on 400 Mill Street in downtown Reno. Those interested in river surfing in Reno can get expert advice on Truckee River surfing conditions from the good folks at Ruach Surf. They also have used surfboards for sale that are specifically chosen for river surfing, and they do ding repairs for both surfboards & SUP.

River Surf Shop in Reno

Dedicated commercial entrepreneurships like Reno’s Ruach Surf Shop help to strengthen & promote river surfing as a sport and lifestyle. I was born and raised in Reno, and I’m a surfer who did a fair amount of business creating products for some of the biggest names in the global surfing industry. So, to see surf culture developing in Reno – so far from an ocean or sea – is quite special for me. I can easily imagine that ten years from now, there will be more than one surf shop in Reno; and the big players like Billabong, O’Neill, Rip Curl, Quiksilver & Volcom will be among them – catering to Reno’s river surfers, snowboarders and skateboarders. This is really exciting stuff because the future of river surfing is wide open.

Across the world, river surfing is bringing the surf culture & lifestyle inland, to places that we never would have imagined to have a surf culture.

Owing to the creative surfers that first pioneered river surfing, these days you don’t have to live by – or go to an ocean to be able to surf. Take Gerry Lopez for example, a master of Pipeline on Oahu’s north shore. These days, in the lovely inland city of Bend, Oregon, you might spot Gerry enjoying & shredding Bend’s popular river wave. Across the world, river surfing is bringing the surf culture & lifestyle inland, to places that we never would have imagined to have a surf culture; and Reno, Nevada is one of them. Just think of that: surfing in the high desert at 4,506 feet/1,373 meters above sea level. River surfing is redefining the parameters of what we call ‘surfing’.

Rock Park Wave (left) and Hole 3 Wave (right) in Reno, Nevada

The future of river surfing is wide open.

When you’ve had enough Truckee River wave time for the day (or night), and need to fuel up, the biggest little city in the world has a variety of great dining options, bars & craft breweries that you can hit. The Third Hole wave is, in fact, located right next to the Sierra Tap House craft beer brewery. If you want to surf another wave in the area, driving southwest two hours from Reno will take river surfing enthusiasts to ‘Barking Dog’ on the American River. So there are other waves for landlocked surfers to surf in the region. All up, the odds are that river surfing in Reno will continue to flourish and provide stoke for future generations. See you at the river!

The post Reno River Surfing – High Desert Sessions appeared first on Riverbreak.

Why hasn’t any river surfers been recognized by mainstream surf companies? River surfing opens the sport up to so many more people. There are definitely more people who live next to rivers than the coast. Yet there is no validation given to any of the river surfers by mainstream surf companies.

I don’t understand. Surfers dream of discovering new waves and surfing an uncrowned lineup. With river surfing you can discover or build new waves. You can almost always find an uncrowned wave to rip on. Take my video for example. The wave isn’t the best but there is no one else in the line up

What do you think?

• Will river surfing ever be accepted by mainstream surfing?
• Do you even want it to?
• Why do you think it hasn’t been accepted?

Comment below and share your thoughts!

The post River Surfing – Going Mainstream? appeared first on Riverbreak.

Beaver Wave is right on the edge of downtown. It is the epitome of urban surfing. The sound of cars humming by on the highway is a soundtrack for your surf session. The water is warm and nasty. I only wear neoprene to protect myself from the shallow rocks and the trash floating around in the eddylines.

Beaver Wave is the epitome of urban surfing

You would think a species who depends on clean water for survival would be a little bit more interested in preserving our waterways. It is clear to me from the riverbed that if it is out of sight, it is out of mind. Not only do we depend on the waterways for clean drinking water but farmers downriver use this same water for crops that we eat. Personally I wouldn’t want my food watered with this sludge. I barely want to surf in it!

We need to have a positive impact on the environment to preserve the earth for future generations to enjoy. I want my kids to be able to enjoy surfing clean water no matter where they chose to catch waves (river or ocean). Just remember to try and leave a zero carbon footprint at your surf spots. Pack in what you pack out! If you have time pick up some trash at whatever location you surf. Leave your local surf spot cleaner than when you arrived.

Surf and take care of the earth.

The post River Surfing Beaver Wave appeared first on Riverbreak.

The post Montana Surf Trip – Springdale Wave appeared first on Riverbreak.

Florence has been a go to spot for most the front range locals in Colorado. The drive is really simple and the wave is easy to find. The wave can be surfed as low as 400 CFS. The prime flow for shortboarding is 1,000-1,200 CFS. It is in the Desert so the weather is typically pretty warm. The water temp is cool but feels perfect with the warm air temps.

Staircase wave is Buena Vista is an iconic wave in the SUP surfing world. This wave is pretty soft on a shortboard so it is going to require a board with some volume even at the higher flows. I had a lot of luck on it with my inflatable surfboard. Prime surfing flow on this wave is anything above 1,400 CFS. The altitude is 9,000 FT above sea level so be prepared to suck wind in between every ride.

One thing that I am lucky to have for the lower flows is my inflatable surfboard. The thing surfs rail to rail amazing and has a ton of volume so it can pretty much surf anything! Look for my next vlog I will be surfing my inflatable surfboard in Golden Colorado!

The post River Surfing Buena Vista and Florence appeared first on Riverbreak.

The last time I choose to storm like this was a year ago. It was a snowstorm early season. It was a really good session till my last ride. On the backside cut back my real cut the water funky. As I fell my board bounced up and hit me in the chin so hard that I needed stitches. When I got to the side of the river, I actually spit out pieces my tooth. I also had to go to Dennis and get a cap.

My phone was blowing up with river surfers wondering if I was going to go surf today.

My phone was blowing up with river surfers wondering if I was going to go surf today. I knew I had to get out pretty soon to beat the crowd. I got to the river with just a couple people there and had a really good session with my buddy Jason.

Storm river surfing

The water was disgusting. I surfed really conservatively to make sure I didn’t get too much water on my face. Because this is the first rain storm of the season it’s flushing all the nasty stuff into the water and I didn’t want to take any chances.

Tips on Surfing Dirty Water

A few tips for anyone looking to surf rain runoff or really dirty water … Wear a nose plug, ear plugs and keep your mouth closed when you swim. This will help minimize how much nasty water you get in your body. If you have a drysuit wear it! A dry suit will keep the water off and out of your body. Limit your exposure to the crap that is in the water as much as possible!

It was an awesome first session of the season my new board was amazing! It was really cold but the surf warms my soul. Best part of all is I ended the session injury free! Thanks for watching and stay tuned for next weeks vlog!

The post River Surfing – A Spring Storm appeared first on Riverbreak.

A guy who is running a surf business in Munich mentioned that it depends on the industry if our sport will grow or decline. I was surprised by his honesty, claiming that the future of river surfing lies in the hands of the industry, rather than in the hands of the surfers. I got mad about this statement and thought about what has been happening in the last couple of years: “Where was the surf industry when we needed a sponsor to build Tube6 (a barrelling river wave in the inner city of Munich)? Why was the spoiler in the Eisbach wave not being payed by a nearby surf shop? Where was the industry when we would have needed their support?”

And what do we surfers really want? Ingo has stopped surfing a decade ago because he didn’t want to wait in line with five other surfers. Things have changed. Today, five surfers is not even considered a queue. The only time when I would just meet five surfers at the wave is probably at midnight during winter. The last straw was when a group of Eisbach surfers wanted to provide river surfing lessons for beginners. At a closer look it turned out that these courses were meant to be for young people who are socially disadvantaged, however, they were supposed to pay 50 Euros per day for these lessons. One of the local surf shops were already ready to promote this idea.

A 360 doesn’t impress anyone anymore.

How did this come about? In a city known for one of the most committed and tightly-knit river surfing communities in the world? A decade ago, journalists would have been expelled from the wave. What has happened to all the pioneers who only surfed for the sole joy of surfing, not for looking good in the media or attracting sponsors? Did these pioneers resign quietly, accepting that our sport has been flooded with surf contests and media productions?

Throwback: A weekend in July, 2009. In one week, the annual river surfing competition will be held at the Floßlände Wave in Munich. Crowded, about 50 river surfers are already in the line-up. Everyone’s waiting about 15 minutes for their turn. This isn’t very exciting for beginners with their six seconds rides before they fall and need to queue for another 15 minutes to get their next chance. I bump into a comp veteran, he doesn’t even bother to queue on such a crowded day. He stopped bringing his surfboard on the weekends and he didn’t sign up for any competition in the past three years. He can’t be bothered to wait in such a crowded line-up, it’s just not fun anymore! He loves to think back to the good old days, when comp riders dressed up in a costume and being able to stick a 360 was all you needed to qualify for the finals.

Photo: Selena Fletscher

What has happened to all the pioneers who only surfed for the sole joy of surfing?

Today, the organisers are still trying hard to sell the comp as a fun event, but a 360 doesn’t impress anyone anymore. The level of tricks has increased enormously in the last couple of years. However, I’m pretty surprised about the current hype for tricks, considering that river surfers are far behind of the tricks skateboarders can pull off! Essentially, there are only two river surfers who have been able to really raise the bar in the last five years in Munich. If you see these two guys surfing, you don’t need to see anyone else surfing. All of us are basically just reproducing their tricks.

Another aspect that had a massive impact on surfing is social media. Cameras and phones have become indispensable to capture that perfect surf moment. This amazing trip, that stunning trick – there is this strong desire to capture and share these moments with the world. A tip for all beginners who are lucky enough to discover a river wave: “Found an association or a crew and publish a website. Upload the best photos and videos from yourself and the wave. It won’t be long and you’re famous, become a sponsored surfer and have the same fun as we’re having here in Munich!” These days there are online surf websites that focus exclusively on river surfing. The interest around river surfing has grown so much that its sister sport ocean surfing does not seem to be exciting enough anymore. I am curious about the day when the first print river surf mag will come out.

We have reached the point where industry needs to invest in surfable waves from which both surfers and the industry benefit long-term.

Overall, Munich reminds me of the crowded surf spots in California, known from the classic surf movie Crystal Voyager. Maybe I should do what the main character in this movie did: Build a boat and hit the ocean in the search for new spots. Rather than in the ocean however, I would head the Isar river downstream until the Danube, chasing the rain and the snow run-offs. Maybe my ship will head towards Switzerland, who knows! Recently, Claudio and his friends achieved something ground breaking in Switzerland. They threw a spoiler into their local river to create a DIY river wave. And in fact, it worked and a clean river wave started to form just behind the spoiler. Check this video on YouTube for the evidence! Of course, the wave wasn’t as big and fast as the Eisbach Wave, but our friends from Switzerland demonstrated that their self-made wave is surfable!

Developments like this one should be supported by the industry if they are to truly push our sport rather than exploiting it. Supporting contests and projects that directly benefit the industry is not enough. We have reached the point where industry needs to invest in surfable waves from which both surfers and the industry benefit long-term. But what can we as surfers contribute? We should not sell out ourselves and our sport. If I would organise a river surfing contest, I would at least want to see 5.000 EUR from the sponsors. This money should be invested in a river surfing fund to help financing new wave projects. Also, I’d love to see the industry depositing money in this fund as an appreciation for the Eisbach movie. But what’s even more important is that we as surfers should start taking responsibility and act in the interest of our sport, nothing is lost yet! Of course, we cannot fully stay out of (social) media, but we should ask ourselves the question: Who will benefit most from what we do? And this answer to this question should always guide our actions.

The post A Throwback to the Golden Days: Munich 2000–2010 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.

Yes, River Surfing is still in its infancy and although I still get puzzled looks when I explain to people that I surf in the river, it is definitely growing in popularity. I grew up surfing on the Central Coast of California. After moving to Denver, Colorado and discovering that there was a park built specifically for surfing in the river, it didn’t take long for me to get out there and give it a shot. Immediately after arriving to River Run Park in Denver, I realized that river surfing had a completely different culture than ocean surfing. Instead of the localism that often comes with certain breaks on the coast, at the river it was nothing but good vibes. When I started river surfing there was a small tribe of mostly ocean surfers that had transplanted to Denver. When they noticed a new face they welcomed me in, shared tips and even loaned me a spare board to spend my first couple hours face planting on.

The crowd is usually just as stoked as you are.

River surfing definitely has similarities to ocean surfing but it also has distinct differences. I have to admit being an ocean surfer, I thought I would just hop right on the river wave and start doing cutbacks. I quickly realized it was going to take some time to get the hang of. For starters on the Benihana’s wave, you enter by jumping into the wave and landing on your board. This is by far the hardest part of learning to surf the wave. Another major difference is that in river surfing, the wave is stationary and the water is coming at you, this takes some getting used to as well. The best part of river surfing is once you are on the wave, you have it all to yourself for as long as you can keep your balance, something that rarely happens in the ocean. The crowd is usually just as stoked as you are and will often be there hooting, hollering and slapping their boards to acknowledge a good ride.

River Run Park: Benihana’s Wave

A Vibrant Mix From All Different Backgrounds

In Colorado, there is a lot of excitement for the young sport of river surfing and I’d say it’s off to a great start. The sport is growing rapidly as cities are putting money towards revitalizing their rivers and providing recreational opportunities for its residents. As the sport grows in popularity, I just hope it can remember it’s roots and keep the positive vibe alive. The Denver river surfing crew is a mix of guys and girls from all different backgrounds. The backgrounds range from snowboarding, stand up paddling, wake boarding, skateboarding, kayaking and ocean surfing, with each bringing their own style to this awesome new sport we are all figuring out as we go. I think the diversity represented in the sport makes river surfing special as it borrows a little something from each.

I think the diversity represented in the sport makes river surfing special as it borrows a little something from each.

For me personally, coming from an ocean background, I knew very little about river etiquette and safety so that’s where those with a whitewater SUP or kayaking background have really contributed to river surfing. Those with skateboarding, snowboarding and wake boarding have helped push the sport towards more progressive moves. Despite all the different recreational backgrounds represented in Denver’s river surfing community, one thing is consistent and that is a shared passion for riding waves. Once you’ve felt the stoke of being able to surf in the river, it’s much like riding your first wave in the ocean and it’s highly addicting. If you ever find yourself in the  Denver area and want to give river surfing a shot, shoot a message on the Colorado River Surfers page on Facebook.  There will be plenty of people willing to introduce you to our little home break on the South Platte river.

The post What Separates River Surfing from Ocean Surfing? appeared first on Riverbreak.