Next River wave session

[jaffa1949]

Check this beach out and one or two of the wave!

[dtc]

Ski and surf within 20 minutes!

[jaffa1949]

Winter ski to the surf!

[surferbee]

Where is that? Also, have you seen this vid of Dylan Graves and Tanner Gudauskas surfing the Eisbach? Fun stuff!

[jaffa1949]

This is in Austria, there are a surprising number of varied river waves throughout Europe, I’m being a little coy about them as I am doing ( for me) a major video project on them. This is a mild one. The Eisbach has been known for quite a while, and is fairly localized due to the need to prevent injuries to kook new riders. There is an overlooking of liability issues , but should there be a serious injury or death the wave could lost.

Ocean surfers need to know that much of the safety skills for the ocean would actually endanger a river surfer.
Example, leash on leg is potentially lethal board on one side of river obstacle surfer on other.... very unlikely they have enough strength to unleash.
Unlike waves river water pressure does not stop!

[jaffa1949]

The surf is extremely democratic, you wait your turn, enter the wave here by holding the edge while standing , let go and ride, until you wipe out and are flushed downstream or do a cool manouvre then ride to edge and step off, to your fellow surfers applause!

[surferbee]

Example, leash on leg is potentially lethal board on one side of river obstacle surfer on other.... very unlikely they have enough strength to unleash.

That's really interesting. So what happens to the board when you wipeout? How do you get it back?

[jaffa1949]

You can wear a leash attached to a quick release waist belt, some have their leashes attached to their upper arm, but if you are caught the the force of the river can strip muscle from bone.
Here this spot no leashes, just swim after your board going downstream catch it in about 20 yards, climb up,the safety steps!

[jaffa1949]

A couple of interesting facts
1 The mountain you see in the background is in the background of the scenes in the Sound of Music where Julie Andrews sings the
“Hills are Alive”

2 most Austrians have never seen “ The Sound of Music” although it bring 30 million tourist visits per year to Austria.

3 Mrs Jaffa who has more than just a pleasant singing voice, once sang the entire song list of the Sound of Music with a tenor from the Salzburger Folksoper for an entire train trip from Zurich to Salzburg. I hung out the window for relief, she had a very special journey!
Fellow passengers, who knows!

[billie_morini]

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The surf is extremely democratic, you wait your turn, enter the wave here by holding the edge while standing , let go and ride, until you wipe out and are flushed downstream or do a cool manouvre then ride to edge and step off, to your fellow surfers applause!

Jaffa, what is the water temperature right now in this one?

Enjoyed learning about key differences between river and ocean surfing. Would not have known.
billie

[jaffa1949]

I did a Wasserrettung course last year, they were amazed that ancient like me could , I passed!. We tried with special rope technique to see if we could release to leash from our legs, impossible! Waistbelt yes. We learnt the different current risks as much river surfing is over boulders and some threaten safety hugely.
We learnt to use eddies and reverse currents to help swim across rivers and the use of special throw ropes in a throwing sack.
But the most different thing is the water on the wave is going the opposite direction.
The wave is not moving only water is going up and over the wave.

There is only one direction the surfer is about to go!

[billie_morini]

I did a Wasserrettung course last year, they were amazed that ancient like me could , I passed!.

Wow, now that's something!

[jaffa1949]

Videoing the water activity section of the Wasserrettung ( river water rescue course) next weekend. Another segment for the video