Leon Glatzer is always looking for new angles. Photo: Red Bull
Leon Glatzer is a globetrotter of sorts. Born in Hawaii, raised in Costa Rica, and an Olympic surfer for Germany. But it was the wave at Pavones that shaped the surfer we see today, “Growing up in Pavones was something very special. I had the most freedom a child could ever have. At the age of four to about eight — going fishing, playing in the jungle, going surfing, playing soccer from sunup to sundown — being free was something that I’ll never forget for the rest of my life,” says Glatzer, who spent his early days next to the legendary point break.
Pavones is a user-friendly wave that stretches nearly a kilometer long. And it is accessible. “The wave can be surfed at all sizes,” says Glatzer. “Even when it’s big, it has a very light lip, which means you can attack the wave without feeling overpowered. And it also barrels so that’s a plus.”
But it also made some bad habits. “Yeah, I didn’t want to go right because I lived at a left-hand point break,” says Glatzer. “At some point, someone came up to me and said, ‘If you want to be a professional surfer, you have to learn how to go right.’ That made it obvious. So they sent me to South Africa — and that’s where things changed.”
Still, Pavones is a high performance wave that created a high performance, Olympic-caliber surfer. “The Olympics changed my surfing career completely. I went from hustling just to get money to surf, kind of with no direction,” says Glatzer. “I was doing the QS but didn’t make it onto the Championship Tour, and I was doing lots of projects, but never enough to really live from surfing. Once I qualified for the Olympics, everything changed. It felt like I became a rock star overnight and was financially solid.”
It’s only fitting that his home country gave him the boost to sustain his dreams. “Representing Germany was very special for me because my whole family is from Germany. It was the first country I ever represented at the ISA World Surfing Games at the age of 13. Since then, I’ve been surfing for the German team,” says Glatzer.
That’s why it hit home when Munich lost its standing wave on the Eisbach. “Losing the standing wave was somehow strange. Especially for my friends. I surfed it many times, but I was always traveling, so I didn’t have the same deep connection as my friends,” says Glatzer. “My friends and the Munich surfing community were very affected. That wave is what kept them sane. It gave them peace of mind through all the craziness of life, just being able to go for a little surf and now it’s gone.”
Some doors close, and others open in the Munich surf community, and Glatzer was able to make a magic moment while surfing at Surftown Germany, Munich’s wave pool. He did a frontside double-grab punt over five belly riders on softtops, and it was a crazy stunt. “We came up with the idea of something like ‘traffic in Munich’ or ‘traffic at the surf pool.’ I challenged myself to see how many people I could jump over,” says Glatzer. Content like this is a part of Glatzer’s larger surfing philosophy of taking new approaches in ways that people haven’t seen before.
Without any dreams to make the World Tour, Glatzer has plenty of time to focus on freesurfing. He recently released the film Against Gravity with Red Bull. “[The movie] is about sending a message that everything is possible,” says Glatzer. “I wanted to show that limits are mostly in our heads. Making the film was very personal for me. It allowed me to relive parts of my past and see how those moments shaped who I am today. It was emotional but beautiful.”
One of his favorite parts of the filming process was dealing with challenging wave conditions and finding the right moment. “Surfing teaches patience and humility, and when everything finally comes together, it’s magic,” he says. “I love making films because it lets me express myself beyond competition and share that feeling with the world.”
As for what’s next, Glatzer is focused on the LA Olympics. “Knowing the location for the next Olympics is a huge advantage,” says Glatzer. “It allows me to train specifically for those conditions and prepare with purpose.”
That, and a super secret project with Red Bull that he can’t talk much about yet. But he did say that it will shock people through its creativity, not just in his performance, but in how he approaches waves differently. “I just want people to see something they’ve never seen before.”
