Wednesday 1 February 2012

Hi Friends,

as some of you already know Maria and me left for a one-year-trip around the Americas in April 2012.
To keep you updated about our "adventures" and our integrated charity-project we´ve set up a website: time4charity.com

You can also follow us on facebooktwitter or google+.

If you like our charity-project, do good without money and subscribe our newsletter for free!

Please "Like" our facebook-page and share it with your friends on facebook and/or pass on the link to our newsletter-sign-up website to your friends.


Thanks for your support!

Cheers,
Maria & Markus

Saturday 15 January 2011

Reichenbach-Wave update

The city of Munich is working hard on the river banks of the last Isar stretches in Munich around the Reichenbach-Bridge in the city center. Yesterday we had a peak of the river level as it rained and it was really warm so all the snow melted as well. Therefore we had the chance to see how the work on the river-banks so far has influenced the wave. The good news, there still is a wave/hole. The bad news it is not so good anymore. It is less steep and the green is less smooth, coming in with many bubbles. In the last two days we had a level between 2m and 1,6m and you can see the according wave and the construction work on the following pics (the "panoramic" pics at the higher level and the surf pics from today at the lower level).


And we still need all your online-signatures here! www.rettet-die-reichenbachwelle.de

Thanks for your support!
Markus

Friday 7 January 2011

Season 2010 closing at La Malate and Hawaii Sur Rhone

In the middle of Dezember the temperature suddenly rose in France and a lot of snow in the mountains melted. In addition it rained and the water-levels of the Doubs and the Rhone shot through the roof. Hence we adhoc took two days off work and did our season 2010 closing 4 days paddling-trip to France. Well first we had to wait in Munich for our friend Toby Hüther who had quite an odysse with the ICE (fast train in Germany) through Germany and therefore we started our trip a little late around 4 o`clock in the morning instead of in the evening the day before. And as you can see in the picture it was cold in Munich.

Our first destination was the La Malate wave on the Doubs. Unfortunately we missed the perfect level for the La Scie wave by one day. But when La Scie goes down La Malate starts to kick in and La Malate is the sicker wave anyway. Just the small hole next to the shoulder gives your head some kind of tense feeling when throwing some moves ;-)
We met at the wave with "local" Stephane "Stefun" Pion. The hole looked too intimidating for Maria and Toby, so they left for the Deluz-Wave which is situated around 30 Minutes upstream. The wave is really nice and smooth, easy to throw moves and land them in the foam. On top the feature provides a nice eddy service. They both got company from two Munich board surfers who also had made a short trip to the waves. Check out the pics from the Deluz-Wave:




So Stefun and myself were left by ourselfes to surf the La Malate Wave alone. I have to say, really nice without queing but although quite physically and mentally challenging to shred that wave without long breaks. See here some pics from the session:



On the second day the water had dropped some more and the wave had gotten much smaller and the whole as well. At this lower level one can enter the wave through the hole and therefore an eddy-service is possible. Now also Maria and Toby joined in and Maria had her first La Malate session. Wicked!


After the session we decided we would leave for Lyon for the next two days as the level should be good there. Stefun lives just between La Malate and Lyon and he invited us over to stay at his place the night. What a lovely place he has built himself and his family I have to say! Thanks again for the hospitality of the whole family! The next morning we left for Lyon straight after we`ve played a football match in his garden. And the picture gives a false impression, we
did not all play against his small daughter, I was in her team ;-)

In Lyon we teamed up with David Arnaud and I got to paddle his carbon Nemesis M. What an awesome boat, so light, stiff and fast. I had so much fun although the wave was really difficult. The middle part with the foam was really trashy and it was hard to do moves on the shoulder as the green was quite flat. As well it was really hard to get on Wall B.

After the session we were invited over by Sonja Jankowfsky and Vincent Mercier, big thanks as well! The next day after another session it was unfortunately already time to hit the road again and head back home.

Goodbye France, cu again in 2011!

All pics by Maria Stelzig and Stefun Pion

Power on,
Markus

Tuesday 9 November 2010

One battle lost but still fighting!

Again with some time lag I finally had the time to cut the footage of our Reichenbachwave-Sessions on the Isar-River in Munich this summer. Probably it was the last season that paddlers and surfers could enjoy this awesome wave like you see it in this video. The excavators are already working and most likely the wave will never be as big again or even more likely will be totally gone when they are finished with it! But as we are still fighting for other surf-spots on the Isar-River please keep on signing this online-petition, if you haven´t already and keep spreading the word, link or youtube-video as every signature helps us!
Thanks for your support!

Sign the online-petiton here: Save waves on the Isar-River



Power on!
Markus

Monday 26 July 2010

Help save the Reichenbach-Wave in Munich (Germany)

During the kayak freestyle world cup tour this summer the Reichenbach-Wave was already working and showed its potential. Paddlers like James Bebbington aka Pringle stated that it was one of the best waves they`ve ever surfed. The last weekend we had the pleasure again to surf it as the water was high enough. Many surfers and paddlers shared the wave and the bridge was packed with spectators the whole day. Now that the Eisbach-Wave is saved, we got the next destruction of one of the best inner-city-waves worldwide approaching. The city plans to destroy this awesome Reichenbach-Wave this autumn as they alread have renaturated most of the river-banks which where channeled before. I.e. the river got more wide and the features changed totally or rather mostly disappeared. And exactly this widening is planned for this autumn for the area around the Reichenbach-Wave. Generally we also support the renaturation, but we would prefer it, if it would be done with the consideration of the sport culture and tourist attraction element for the inhabitants and visitors of Munich. Therefore when the work at the ground sill is done it should be tried to preserve the wave or rather change the sill so the wave could run the whole year and not just when the river is flooded. As exactly the renaturation would be the perfect time to do this with a minimal effort. Please help to prevent this and sign this online-petition! Forward this link to your friends and everybody you know!

Sign the online-petiton here: Save the Reichenbach-Wave

Here some impressions from the past weekend:

all pics by Maria Stelzig

Thanks!
Markus


Wednesday 26 May 2010

Trenčín aka the wave hunt on the river Váh in Slovakia

After we´ve seen Peter Csonkas video last week from their sessions on the Trenčín wave our misson was clear. Skip the Soca testival for another year and pray that the waterlevel stays up enough on the Vah. We had three days holiday last weekend and after around 7 hours drive we arrived in Trenčín. But unfortunately the water has gone down around 1m during the last few hours before we got there and we just missed the perfect level of one of the waves. The only thing that calmed me down was that apparently the level was just perfect for maybe 15 minutes. So when we got there the level was around 400 cubics, i.e. the just mentioned wave is not any more in as it gets too hole-like and trashy (you can check out that wave below on the pics with the entry moves). So we waited a few hours the level fell another 10 cm or so, as the margin there is really small and then a smaller wave with a nice foam pile on the other side of the river kicked in . Besides the wave you see a really large hole in the middle which covers nearly half of the river but does not quite invite to get a beating in it and at the other end of the hole you find the "entry move-wave/hole".


During the next two days the level rose and fell again between those 10 centimeters and we had a lot of time for talking shop with our local guide Miloš Trnka ;-)

Well as said before the trashy wave was ideal for doing high out entry moves. Here a sequence.

On Monday our third and last day, suddenly the water rose and the wave started to open up and it really got superb. So I sticked this nice clean helix and it was generally nice and smooth to launch nice wave moves. But unfortunately the wave was in for maybe 2 Minutes, no kidding. As I walked up (oh yeah, all waves have to be catched on the fly) the wave was totally gone.

Just one minute ago there was a huge hole/wave at this spot! So now a really crazy thing happened and it was the first time for me to experience something like that. I.e. the weir-gates were opened up totally, the water rose around 1,5 meter in just a few minutes and we experienced all the different waves which are at offer. And I have to say those few minutes were worth it and I want to be back, when they are in for longer! After those few minutes the gates were closed again and the water dropped even further than before (i.e. below 300 cubics, which is too low to have decent waves) but it didn´t matter for us cause it was already time to head back home again. Check out the pics below and mind that nice castle in the background of the first pic. Trencin is a nice town with an old inner city and the Palatschinken are just delicious!

Here still with closed gates

You see the two middle gates are opened up and the water starts floating in

Even nice waves before the main hole/wave row come in so you have two sets of waves behind each other.

And this is the formerly small but wide hole. Now the hole rather resembles La Malate and the shoulder is an equivalent to the Wittelsbacher wave in Munich in the good old times at its best level.

All pics by Maria Stelzig

Power on!
Markus