Blair Conklin drops into Germany’s most famous river surfing wave. Photo: Blair Conklin // YouTube
After more than two months of closure, Munich surfers are back to surfing the city’s famous Eisbach river wave. The wave, which had been closed since the death of a surfer on April 17, was officially reopened by the city on June 27 with a new set of regulations.
The new rules, which the municipality says were crafted in coordination with a local surf group, limit the wave to experienced, physically fit surfers. Surfers must use the buddy system, always accompanied by another surfer, and can only surf between the hours of 5:30 a.m. and 10 p.m. Additionally, surfers who elect to wear a leash must use a quick-release leash in case it gets snagged.
Local surfers expressed pleasant surprise to German news outlets after the municipality had previously said that the wave wouldn’t open for a few more weeks.
The two-month closure resulted from the April 17 tragedy, where a 33-year-old female surfer was trapped underwater for a prolonged period despite attempts from her partner to save her. Rescue crews eventually extricated her from the water, but she succumbed to her injuries days later. It was the first death in more than 50 years of surfing history on the Eisbach.
The local municipality proceeded to close the wave to investigate the death, threatening anyone who attempted to surf it with a €50,000 fine. However, after lowering the river’s water level, aside from a few small metal objects, nothing was found that could have caught the surfer’s leash or surfboard. The investigation was closed without further clarification as to what trapped the surfer, and prosecutors determined that the city was not legally responsible for the death.
Quirin Rohleder, an Eisbach legend, recently posted a photo surfing the wave with the caption “We back.” In a May interview with The Inertia, Rohleder was puzzled by how such a death could occur and concluded it wouldn’t have happened if a member of the core surfing community had been present. Rohleder recalled past situations where surfers needed to be rescued from entrapments on the Eisbach, but explained that it does not take a great deal of force to snap or release a leash if the weight of another surfer grabs onto the stuck surfer.
Rohleder was among local surfers who supported a petition to reopen the wave. He cautioned against night surfing and stressed that surfers need to know their abilities before surfing the wave, especially in the dark. The April accident occurred at night, around 11:30 p.m.
