Climate friendly travel
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In the nineties, the pioneer surfers at Munich's Eisbach wave were still being chased by the police. Today, Eisbach surfing is a point on every city tour and is often accompanied by a large audience. But be careful: Here really only experts should go for it
Angeblich sei der amerikanische Surf-Weltmeister Robby Naish in den neunziger Jahren mal vertrieben worden von den Münchener Locals, als er die legendäre „Eisbachwelle“ im englischen Garten reiten wollte. Die Geschichte klingt glaubwürdig, wenn man die Altvorderen fragt, die sich zu Beginn der 90er aufgemacht hatten, die weltweit konstanteste, beste Flusswelle zu einem internationalen Hot Spot zu machen. Man habe halt so gut wie möglich versucht, Ortsfremde von der Welle fern zu halten. Nicht aus Lokalpatriotismus, sondern weil sie verdammt schwer zu reiten sei – und Unfälle vor Ort dazu geführt hätten, dass das Surfen dort schnell wieder verboten worden wäre. Tatsächlich war es genau das lange Jahre. Zeitzeugen berichten von Verfolgungsjagden quer durch den englischen Garten zwischen bewaffneter Polizei und den Pionieren der Münchner Eisbach-Surfer um ihren „Hausmeister“ Walter Strasser.
Today, the spot within sight of the Haus der Kunst in the southern part of the English Garden is always surrounded by a large number of spectators who want to see daredevil young people plunge into the floods. The Eisbach is a cold body of water, it is fed by the Isar river and on its 12 meter width you have to be able to move extremely well to have a chance of holding on for a few seconds like on a rodeo horse. And even falling into the water is not without danger due to the chunky sturgeon stones just below the surface. Definitely not for beginners on the board, not even bathing and swimming is allowed at this point of the Eisbach.
Who nevertheless so slowly wants to make friends with the river surfing, better try it first at the Thalkirchen campground. There, the "Floßlände" is a much easier wave at the start, which is also feasible for surfing beginners. However, that was not enough for the long-time Bayern Munich soccer player Bixente Lizarazu. During his active time, the French world champion and exceptionally good surfer was not allowed on the Eisbach wave with his board for insurance reasons, but no sooner had his contract expired than he tried his luck. It is said that it took a whole week until even such an expert as Lizarazu had the Eisbach under control.
By the way, you can find tips on how to travel comfortably and inexpensively on long-distance and local trains with Deutsche Bahn here. Weitere spannende München-Tipps: 9 Highlights in Munich and City vacation in Bavaria.
