Islas Canarias River Jam

Rvier surfing on the Eisbach in Munich exists since 30 years. And since almost the same time
it´s illegal, semi legal or half tolerated to surf in the icy river just besides the
P1 – Munich’s most known discotheque also exists since decades what probably
tells you something about the city.

The fact that over all these years it was impossible to hinder people
from surfing this place says a lot about the quality of this
standing wave.

Generations of surfers from Munich have learned to surf here and later on have riddles to European lineups . For a long time nobody understood why those Bavarian inlanders didn´t know how to paddle into a wave but once they incidentally got one, they surfed it amazingly well.

Nowadays the standing wave is known even in Australia and many solid ocean surfers visiting the Oktoberfest were wondering again. This time about the irritating fact, that despite their ocean surfing skills, they felt like bloody beginners on the river wave. Almost two years ago some exciting photos from Flo Hagena appeared, showing hefty airs and other wild moves on the river. It was about the same time when Munich surfers like Gerry Schlegel and Flo Kummer got attention beyond the Munich surf scene. In Early 2009 Seis from La Santa Surf on Lanzarote (organizer of the La Santa Pro, a 6 star WQS event) contacted me and asked if we could organize something together with the Munich river surfers. At the end we had the La Santa River Jam running in June 2009. We asked chief organizer Boris Schmelz what all this is about.

Blue: Since when exists the River Jam and how did it start?

Boris: In May 2007, Florian and me had more or less at the same time the idea about an event at the Eisbach. At that time I was staying at a surf camp in Peniche / Portugal and got inspired by sun, beach and sea….
Back in Munich I talked to Flo about doing something at the Eisbach. A classic contest never stood to debate ´cause what we wanted was to spend a nice evening with the boys and get some good action shots to market the thing. But in June we weren´t too sure anymore if a sponsored session (which meant dealing with a advertising ban and the localism of “The Old Guys”) would be makeable. Summer was almost over when Flo called me one evening  – it must have been the end of August – and said: don´t give a shit Boris, we´re gonna do it now! About four weeks later, at 15.09.2007, to FUS Jam ran for the first time.
In 2008 we wanted to do the Jam again, but like with so many events, that claim to be special and progressive, it seemed to be the better decision not to run it that year because we didn´t feel properly prepared.
But in June 2009 it will run again and the FUS crew persents in cooperation with
.blue and La Santa the Islas Canarias Surf Jam.

next page >>>