Standing River Waves - Zigzag’s Substitute Surfing series:
26/10/09 - 10:46:25AM ~ By Miles Masterson ~
Nowadays surfing in rivers is practiced the world over. Unlike last week's feature river bores, which only break during tidal flows, decent standing river waves are far more consistent and break 24/7 wherever there is enough water flowing over a suitably shaped river rapid, often pretty far from the sea.
If you read Zigzag you've probably heard of the standing river wave at Rapid 11 on the Zambezi river. This is reputed to be one of the best standing river waves in the world and the only one that actually barrels. According to Tom Varley of Shearwater Adventures, the best time to surf there is during the rainy season in January and February, on a dropping river. "Guys only come here once every three or four years," says Tom. "The river is unpredictable and only breaks two three weeks a year, but when it does it is phenomenal."
A while back some American pros including world skimboarding champ and flowboarding freak Bill "Beaker" Bryan surfed it, check out their trip if you haven't yet...
Elsewhere in the world, this surfing offshoot has evolved into a full on little global sub-culture of its own with full time adherents, contests, board makers, websites, shops etc, much more so than river bores, which usually also require a lot of skill to ride and some sort of large budget for boats/jetskis and flights to exotic locations like Borneo or the Amazon.
Gooi a Google and you'll come across forums such as the Alberta River Surfing Association in the US (www.riversurfing.ca) who, among other things, espouse a list of kookified rules and ettiquette in river surfing (such as "The Person Upstream Has The Right of Way") and such. Kind of lame but worth a squizz for a laugh:
Further north, in Canada, the city of Montreal is the self-proclaimed capital of world river surfing. In fact, a South African, Corran Addison, a former world champion and Olympic kayaker and long time surfer pioneered surfing on the various river waves in the area. "I wake up in the morning and I don't have to think about ocean tides, storms, the weather... if I feel like surfing, I go surfing... the wave is always there," said the 40-year-old emigrant recently in an online reporter:
Addison also makes his own boards for river surfing and has a river surfing school, check it out at www.2imagine.net
Predictably there are heaps of YouTube clips online from Montreal but check this one out; hope the guy has strong legs!
Like North America, Europe has a strong river surfing scene, arguably none more so than the river wave at Eisbach in Munich, Germany. First surfed in 2000, since then a whole culture has developed around the "wave". A couple of years ago, due to some drownings of swimmers in the river, the Munich authorities tried to ban surfing but the local surfers banded together to save their spot and now surfing is legal here and swimming banned. Check out some of the first footage from back in the day:
Former top South African pro surfer Clyde Martin has surfed the Eisbach wave, and he says, it wasn't easy to dial. "Having never surfed one before, its harder than you would expect," he says. "The standing river wave is water flowing over an underwater object that forms a wave and you have to use a completely different concept, no rails flat bottom of the board only and small fins for sliding flicky turns."
Accordingly, says Clyde, a small fish-type stick is best for river surfing. A wetsuit and booties etc is also maybe not a bad idea. "I lasted about five sec first wave then nearly drowned when I hit the water as it was freezing coming straight of the defrosting Alps," he laughs.
Check out this recent footage of a grom ripping the river and busting little alley oops and some other locals carving:
Fellow Zag scribe Andy Davis has also surfed a standing wave, in Zurich, Switzerland. "I was chilling with my brother in law Stu in Zurich and totally bored and he said, 'come let's go surf the river'." Tells Andy. "I didn't know what to expect." As in Germany, there are contests at the wave and a full on surf vibe around it. "They have a little surf shop and some hippy bums living in campervans and kombis like this is the Endless Summer, chilling smoking weed in the forest," says Andy.
Like Clyde, Andy found the wave pretty tricky at first. "It was fun but pretty kak in terms of the surfing, he explains. "Just a 1-2 foot surge you had to keep pumping and turning against.... it was more like flow-riding on that learner jet at the Gateway." Surfing a river wave, he adds, is quite technical. "You have to watch for the undulations of the river flow to try and predict where the wave is going to jack. And you sometimes lose sight of what you're surfing - because it doesn't look like any wave I've surfed, just a wobbling surge thing. So sometimes you turn left instead of right and get shot out and down the river."
Here's some more half-decent river surfing at a "secret spot" in Switzerland:
Like all spots at the coast, describe Andy and Clyde, at most river waves there are the established locals who rip and an established hierarchy all the way down to the total kooks. Like Flowriders, surfers usually go one at a time, and no matter how skilled you are though, there is a limit to how long you can ride. "Everyone stands on the river edge waiting their turn; if you surf for more than 2 minutes the Booing starts," explains Clyde.
"The guys all stand in a line and wait for the dude to fall off and then the line moves up," confirms Andy. "Most of the Swiss ous were pretty kak, so the line moved quickly. But there were a couple of dudes who could really hit it. I could only get two or three little turns in before I bogged a rail and got spun down the river at pace. That was pretty fun though. Probably the most fun of the whole experience was wiping out."
Surfing river waves isn't without its hazards though. "Rock bottom, lots of broken boards as if you nose dive the board gets snapped by the force of the flowing water and the nose against the bottom, coming up after falling off downstream in a lake full of ducks," quips Clyde.
"The rush of bailing into that cold bloody river and getting swept away with real force. I wasn't expecting that and it was totally cool. Just the unexpected acceleration," describes Andy. "Totally unlike wiping out on an ocean wave.
"The hazards are things like rocks, submerged fences, steel poles, whirlpools, hypothermia etc. That kind of stuff," continues Andy. "And if the snow melts or it rains heavy, that stuff just gets more and more dangerous. The Zurich wave can hold bigger (up to 3-4 foot) and then the river just flows over the island and destroys the whole thing."
Ja, so it seems fresh water surfing has come a long and is a big part of global surf culture, blowing up at locations all around the world, some ous even taking to it in straps and busting large airs, like this guy in France:
Like river bore surfing, I reckon it would be kind of cool to ride at least one before you depart this mortal coil. And what's more, no sharks, except maybe in the Zambezi.
