River surfing

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River 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. [1]

River surfing on standing waves as been documented as far back as the mid 1970's in Munich, Germany and Jackson Hole, Wyoming.

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[edit] Germany

Munich has been the epicenter of surfboard riding on a stationary wave since the mid 1980's. Munich has produced the best surfers and was the first location that created a true surfing community around an inland river wave.

[edit] USA

Jackson Hole, Wyoming is known as the most famous river surfing community in the USA. The wave known as Lunch Counter has been surfed every summer by a small core group for over 20 years. [2]

[edit] Canada

In the past 5 years Montreal, Canada has sprung up as a hot bed of river surfing. With warm water and great waves right in the city it now looks as if Montreal will become the epicenter of river surfing in North America. Local Jean-Louis is one of locals pushing the sports performance level. Local Corran Addison is leading the local industry with a surf shop that provides lessons and gear. [3]

In the past 3 years Alberta, Canada has become our sports leader in terms of how to grow a river surfing community from a grass roots group of less than a half dozen into the Alberta River Surfing Association.

[edit] Types of river surfing

[edit] 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. A river surfer can face up-stream and catch this wave and have the feeling of traveling fast over water but not actually be moving.

Annual surfing competitions are held on standings wave in Munich, Germany [4] as well as Montreal. (In French)

[edit] Tidal bores

Tidal bores, waves created by incoming tides, are being surfed along coastal rivers such as the pororoca on the Amazon River [5] or England's River Severn. [6][7]

[edit] Severn Bore

Main article: River Severn#Severn bore

Surfing the Severn Bore has become a competitive sport with dozens of surfers vying to record the longest ride. The tidal surge also attracts canoeists and windsurfers. The present champion surfer is Dave Lawson from Hempsted, Gloucestershire, who has covered 5.7 miles on a surfboard. His record-breaking surf took more than 35 minutes and was logged by an official adjudicator from the British Surfing Association. [8] [9] [10]

[edit] Pororoca

Main article: Pororoca

The pororoca is a tidal bore, with waves up to 4 meters high that travel as much as 13 kilometers inland upstream the Amazon River.

[edit] Elijah Mack

In 2000 a single individual embarked on a journey that has redifined how river surfing was seen by the world. Elijah Mack set out to find and ride the best river waves on earth. From 2000 to 2007 he rode over 200 different stationary waves in Africa, Canada, Germany, and the states of the western United States. Some of the more famous waves were The tidal rapids at Skookumchuck Narrows, [11] Rapid # 11 in Africa, and the first ever stationary wave machine built for surfing, the Surfstream, in New Jersey. [12] [13] Hailed as the "Godfather of adventure river surfing," he is a barber by trade. He lives in Oregon and is president of the World River Surfing Association. [14]

[edit] River surfing in the media

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A film about the birth place of the sport, Munich, Germany will premiere in Berlin the fall of 2007. Keep Surfing is a film by award winning film maker Bjorn Richie Lob, that takes us into the river surfing Mecca of Munich and shows us what, where, when, and whom we have to thank for our sport as we know it today. [15]

[edit] See also

[edit] External links

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