River surfing

surfing is the sport of surfing either standing waves or tidal bores in rivers. Claims for its origins include a 1955 ride of 1.5 miles along the tidal bore of the River Severn.

River surfing on standing waves has been documented as far back as the early-1970s in Munich, Germany, today offering the world's largest urban surfing spot.

Standing waves

In this type of river surfing, the wave is stationary on the river, caused by a high volume of water constricted by flowing over a rock and creating a wave behind. It is a form of hydraulic jump. A river surfer can face up-stream and catch this wave and have the feeling of traveling fast over water while not actually moving.

Europe

Germany

Despite being many hundreds of kilometres from the nearest ocean, Munich has a reputation as a surfing hotspot, offering one of Europe's best waves. The Bavarian capital is the birthplace of river surfing. The city has been the center of surfboard riding on a stationary wave since the early-1970s. Up to 100 surfers daily hit the waves in the city's Englischer Garten, the largest urban park in the world. There, in the Eisbach river, the world’s best known river surf spot, the Eisbach wave — literally “ice brook” — the flow velocity of the icy water is about 5 meters at a rate of 20 tons per second, and the temperature never gets above 15 degrees Celsius. An annual surfing competition is held on the standing wave. Additionally, there are further stationary waves that form on the river Isar just downstream of the Wittelsbacherbrücke bridge in Isarvorstadt, as well as on the canal that joins the Isar channel with the Floßlände. Munich has produced the best river surfers and was the first location that created a true surfing community around an inland river wave. The scene has around 1,000 active surfers, while 10,000 in Munich will have tried it at some point.