Sunday 10 May 2009

Radetzky Wave on the Mur in Graz (Austria)

Two weeks ago Seppi Strohmeier, Maria and myself left for a prolonged paddle-weekend in Graz on the river Mur. The level of the Mur was quite high between 3,5 and 4m and therefore the spot under the Radetzky-Bridge worked well. A kind of slow wave with foam. Therefore basically all wave moves were possible although catching air was quite hard, i.e. Helixes rather resulted in Felixes and so on. The feature offers an eddy service on surfers left although you have to roll fast to catch it. If you can´t make it there is easy eddying out and walking back up on river left.
As on most river waves in Europe also in Graz river board surfers are enjoying themselves on the wave. But guess what, unlike in Munich all the surfers we met in Graz were all really friendly and there was no problem in taking alternate turns in the wave. There is still hope! ;-)
For more information on the playspots in Graz and the freestyle events there chech this out:
Kayak Freestyle in Graz

feature overview; eddy ends on the height of the paddler

familiar view for Munich paddlers; surfers ripping the wave

old school shudder rudder

nice angle from the bridge

first phase of the backstab

PanAm

Fisher King entry move

Fisher King from another angle

Cleaning it

Pistol Flip from the bridge

Pistol Flip from the shore

And if we got bored we played some ball


All pics by Maria Stelzig


cu on the river,
Markus