Onwards from river Surfing

[jaffa1949]

That picture gives us a better idea about the size of this project

It’s a biggie!

[jaffa1949]

Here is a drone perspective, I have find out who to thank for this.

[jaffa1949]

Next progress shot showing the blue steel wave shaping gates and a view of the head of water that will go over to make the wave.

Planned opening day May 1.

The hydraulics are working, test surfs and safety checks probably the end of March.


This coffer dam at the entrance will be removed and the settle bay at the othe end will be sculpted.
Lots of landscaping and a wait for it all to grow in spring

[wat4zz]

22 euro per day is okay price
9 month 440 euro =1,60 per day

[wat4zz]

some hey jaffa do you know a good surf river in germany? i live north germany (hamburg +/- 200 kilometers) or maybe near bielefeld or hannover (+/- 100 kilometers)?
read of lippstadt:

Lippstadt the “Venice Beach” of Germany
The Lippe River offers constant conditions and works on all tides – unfortunately, the river wave remains unridden.,

but the project doesnt started yet

munich is too far away (eisbach)
edit: found a new project in leine (germany):

but is just photo how it could look, they have just become agreement from the city

[jaffa1949]

Wat4zz, part of the river surf scene is there are so many rivers, there is also the city wave concept which tours several portable waves to cities and holds event.
Natural standing river waves are more based in the alps or nearby areas where there is a stronger river gradient to make the waves.
Hydro dams and flow control dams may also offer potential waves but severely increase the dangers and could also involve the Gemeinde .
There are no German waves near Hamburg, yet.
Some places
Fils in der Nähe von Göppingen
Mur in Graz
DiemAlm Welle in the Alm Kanal Salzburg
There waves near Bad Ischl , and The Wave which I feature here just outside Ebensee.
There are rumors of others in Austria, Tyrol, Salzburg, Styria,
The Munich waves you know of.
There is the Saalach at Bad Reichenhall
There is the Thun and Berngarten , Kempten. Plattling.
There is the Metz in France + more but I don’t know yet.

As you can see they are all in near alpine areas.

Quite a few areas are investigating Mahnmale or enhanced river waves but there are a lot of Gemeinde and government laws to follow.

So now I’m going to talk about river surfing for beginners.

It is very dangerous, the river doesn’t stop,unlike waves, things you might do in ordinary surfingput you at great risk. A leg leash is on example, on the leg it can be. A death trap , if you get caught board on one side one an obstacle and board on the other, you would be unable to release and be pulled under.
The bottom sides andlumps in the wave are always rocks, so helmet, wetsuit, flotation vest quick release safety belt for board leash to attach to.
Just as important doing a recognized Wasserrettung Kurs, to understand it all.
Then go to the city wave or Langerfeld wave, and have some beginner time ,it will cost you money but save your life.
At each wave there is a dedicated crew who will help you or ask you to leave.
Some spots are not officially allowed, and a serious injury or death could close the wave!
I am a very experienced surfer, but this was totally new and confronting to me.
So my son and I did the Ober Österreich Wasserrettung Kurs.

Long lecture but necessary.
Editing a short video of the Alm Kanal hope to post it soon.

[jaffa1949]

Just a little more in photos

This is a wave near Bad Ischl called Pipeline, one of the safer natural river waves a rocky chute focuses the wave.

This is what it looks like being ridden by Max Neuböck.

This is the Alm Kanal , a very small man made adaptation Wave on of the Alm Kanal.

You are not ready for these unless someone is coaching you!

[wat4zz]

didnt knew that it can be that dangerous, thanks4info
bad ischl looks very nice, they also got thermal water spa
you were already there?

for now i will just go normal surfing, but after that
i can use some hours mobile river waves for training in a town i know.

do people use special surfboards (bottom rocker etc.) for river surfing, what are good boards for river surfing?
how fast are the different rivers, how many different you tested already?

[jaffa1949]

Boards are very small often epoxy or Special shortboard soft or hard. Small fins, the active area on pipeline is small ride to far from the wave area the river washes you downstream, you need river awareness skills to get to the side over the boulders.
The Alm Kanal need very small boards as the wave area is quite small the down stream area here is safer an you can walk to the steps out.

The waves are intense as they are are continuous, , the crew Surfing are very democratic, each in their turn, you ride to wipeout or if you have had a longer ride or done a successful trick you let yourself wash out or on the Alm step onto the side, Next!
Yes I live in Salzkammergut, ganzen but from the East Coast of Australia , Bad Ischl is in the Next Valley from my valley!
Photographing waves is one of the things I do as I’m retired!

[wat4zz]

yeah photographing is fun
very epic stuff, from almkanal of salzburg to pipeline in bad ischl to the.wave in salzkammergut only 1 hour 50 minutes, it's a good route

https://www.google.de/maps/dir/Surf+wav ... 964751!3e0

salzkammergut has thermal waters also hmm

see you soon boi haha^^

[jaffa1949]

Now finally I have music permission to share on the video of the Almkanal near Salzburg. It is a preview of one part of a bigger work.
You get to see it first!!
Here is the Vimeolink

https://vimeo.com/398016543

All the video work is mine, the Surfers are the Alm Welle guys and girls, still rounding up their names so hopefully I will know soon.
ENJOY

[wat4zz]

nice, wave looks cool and surroundings also

[jaffa1949]

Now we go to the natural river wave on the Traun River near Bad Ischl in Upper Austria, Ober Österreich, this is my local wave 45 minutes drive away.

Here is the link https://Vimeo.com/399497689

This one is the easiest of the waves on the Traun and is called Pipeline because two pipelines run on the road embankment beside the wave.
Music by a surfing friend in Merimbula Tony Haid, He wrote the song for a 50th Anniversary of the Bronte Surf Riders.

Enjoy

Corrected the link!

[wat4zz]

allready finished the trip?

i was travelling at a river too (holiday, not river surfing) and searched if there might be fast enough water spots

you think it would be possible to build a ramp out of stones on a full enough river (large stones followed by smaller and smaller and smaller stones, everything covered by a strong canvas cover net, so that the stones cant get flushed away?)

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look, the stones (many many many of them under a strong cover that is again covered by some heavier stones, so that the cover doesnt disappear, should work

even better if it would be a huge solid net in which one could just drop the stones or even sand.
maybe mixing stones with sand would get a good more smooth canvas (dont know if the water flow would get faster this way)
dont know how that would affect the fish lifes,
but i think when the river gets faster it might be better if there is sand also in the nets, because they would hit the more smooth sand canvas

but if the net would get thrown into the water, it would of course gets ballooned up by the water, so there might need to be some holes in it.
huge solid sandbags in different height should work as well, but could tend to get holes
maybe there might be super solid sandbags, but if they are made out of dangerous plastics/material could also be problematic
nets should be smaller on the front and bigger on the back and maybe have an additional chamber on top where sand could get in
or just a net with stones and on top some sandbags

river should ideally have many stones allready by the river, so that they could get taken and put in the nets

many ramps after each other would make the flow even faster right?

if allowed, in this way there could be made river waves everywhere, but i think the different ramp river spots should be huge distances away from each other, so that the rhythms of the rivers doesnt get affected too much

what i know is that water retaining dams are a reason for the disappearance of beaches and even islands, because the water flow is blocked so that sand cant get washed back to the beaches (watched that on a documentary)
also oftentimes companies are harvesting huge amounts of sand near the islands and that can affect also the flows

[wat4zz]

the pipeline water looks deep, how deep is the water there, does it come froum the mountains?

[jaffa1949]

Pipeline is not deep, it can at times of low flow be too small and too many rocks exposed to surf at all.
In Frühling melt too much water can come down the Traun and Ischl rivers and drown the Wave .
Big flood actually move huge boulders and the stream bed shape changes, even a normal flow produces and places nice small gravel into the spaces between the bigger rocks, at times there are passing trees to be aware of!

The rivers here have a catchment of over 1000 square kilometers and are glacial and snowfield fed as well as local rain.

About a canvas cover i would not want to be in the water with something like that , washed inmagainst the force of the water which doesn’t stop, it would be a death trap!
The best example of how different a river wave is to ocean waves, is shown in protective gear, a helmet, wetsuit often a personal flotation vest and instead of a leg leash the safest is a leash attached to a quick release waistbelt.
Why , leg leash you go one side of an obstacle and your board the other, you will not have enough strength to release yourself against the current, quite a few drownings.
The leash on the arm somewhat better, and easier to undo but people have had their arm muscle stripped before they could release-
Waist belt safest, and easy to learn release..

The Wave has had its hydraulic tests and is now undergoing further testing. Corona virus will not allow any open operation yet!

[jaffa1949]

Here is The Wave in action,

Pity no one is there to add scale.

Here is the blue wave maker which might give you an idea

This is looking downstream.

You might also like to consider that whole volume of water is passing through Pipeline further upstream in a much less controlled manner..

Yes wea are all very excited about this

[wat4zz]

nice.
yeah the traun seems to be a monster river, googeled it a bit more.

regarding my 'idea':
so when a bag with little stones would open, you could get buried under them?

what about making ramps with only big fat stones on a not so fast river?
then maybe the stones couldnt get washed away?
would that be a possibility to generate at least a surfable wave like the one in the alm kanal?

man the.wave looks crazy, you know how many people are allowed to ride it at the same time?
how deep is the water between cement and air?
pipeline looks deeper the water but dont know
often looks very flat on sand made river waves also

[wat4zz]

is the water flow very even from every angle of the ramp @the-wave?
how high you think you could pump upwards the wave?
you think riversurfing or surfskating up high elevations are some of the greatest ideas
for improving pumping speed and cardio in a specific movement?
btw. what fins u use while river surfing?

[jaffa1949]

First the Traun and Pipeline is a small river Wave, there are no sand based river waves , the sand washes away.
The flow is even across the entire wave on The Wave.
The shape of the wave is designed and engineered.
Get fit off the wave and ramp then you have fitness to enhance your skills.

Don’t quite Know-how The Wave will operate but usually one at a time others by rider‘s invitation.
It is very democratic you can read a magazine article I wrote about Riversurfermagazine on line.

I am jumping all over for your questions .
Again fitness ,paddling does more for your fitness for cardio, flexibility comes from other activities, skateboarding only helps acquaint you with balance 90% of surfing is paddling..
Speed of water determines rideability of any wave river or ocean.