A Buster of a Munich River Surfing open

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 River Surfer magazine

 Photos courtesy of  :

Flo Hagena and Buster surfboards

A German lesson  with Munich and river surfing

I wanted to get a different perspective of the Munich river surfing scene from some of those who are behind the scenes of this great yearly event.Thanks to some Munich locals who where kind enough to share some photos and words to give us eyes into this event .

In short interview's by RSM  answered by Nico co founder of world class Buster surfboards one of the main sponsors of the event. Also Flo Hagen a local active sports photographer who was hired to snap the photos thank you both for the info and view of Germany ,also much respect to the Munich river surfing community & the Grossandate surf site 2000/2010

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RSM:

Nico greets ,thanks a lot for sharing your photos and your time ,

much respect to your company Buster surfboards you are legends in the river,surfing community here in the USA .

 RSM:1.How long has Buster surfboards been in operation ?can you give us a little history of how the company started?

Nico: We had our 10th year annual this year.Our roots are at the Munich river surf wave “Flosslände” which is the second frequently running wave in Munich.There we (Guido and me were the founders, see attached picture) decided to build river surf boards and surfboards for German offshore surfer, which spend less then 6 weeks per year at the ocean.

                                                                                                            Photo courtesy of: Nico of Buster surfboards

RSM:Happy 10th and to many more to come .

 RSM:2. You have been one of the main sponsors of the Munich river surfing open for many years,what changes have you seen in the progression of river surfing competitively and recreational surfing in Munich?

Nico:The technical level has increased so much during the last years. There are new tricks which are difficult to name. I´ve attached a little shot to show you an example of one of the very hard tricks. Also the surfboard material has changes. Most of the competition surfers riding special spot boards now.

                                                                                                                               Photo courtesy of :Nico Buster surfboards

RSM:,Great shot of the move thanks and a Buster surfboard in action .

 RSM:3. Your river surf boards look way sick,do you think you have found the perfect combination between fin and shape for river surfing? or are you still experimenting with that? .To me speed seems to always be a key to high performance surfing in oceans and rivers these days.

Nico :We are always experimenting with board shapes. At the moment it seems to be that we have found the perfect shape and shape/fin combination for our spots. But we are always in contact with our team and maybe some time they will also improve our current reference shape.

RSM:4.How many surfers do you sponsor? the Buster team is always on the podium in the MSO that says a lot about your surfboards. Gerry is truly one of the best in the world as are all Munich surfers in our opinion. Do you personally test your boards?if so what are some of your favorite places to surf and shapes to shred on?

Photo courtesy of :FloHagena.com and Buster

Nico:We have 5 Surfers in our team, 3 of them are in our junior team. Gerry is our most successful team rider with 8 titles in River surfing competition and 2 titles in open water competitions. I test all boards by myself before we shape them in bulk production. My office is only 5 minutes from the River surf Spot “Floßlände”, so I try to surf as often I can. At the weekend I often surf the “Eisbach”, mostly in the morning to avoid crowds. Other favorite places to surf are the Canaries, Portugal and Morocco.

RSM:5.Do you see river surfing going main stream as a world wide sport someday like it has in Munich for many years? and do you think it will bring many of the same problems like surfing wave ownership and trouble into the soul of just surfing to surf. There are some tensions all ready around the river surf world I think that makes for great competition in a way and a bummer too a double edge sword so to speak, what is your opinion                                                                                                       Photo courtesy of :FloHagena.com and Buster

Nico:I don´t think that it really will get mainstream, because the spots are limited and artificial waves are expensive to run.

Nico:But at the moment the scene is growing more and more and for sure that will cause problems like crowds and local ism, I think the future of River surfing is also a little bit in the Hand of the surfing industry, If they like to push that sport in Media it will get more coverage. It´s easy to organize and promote river surf contests the waves are consistent, the surfers are not isolated somewhere in the ocean and it is easy to get there, specially in Munich. We already had a professional tour, I think it was 2006, with price money and tour stops in Germany, Austria and France. But the main Sponsors Salomon S-Core and Brown just did it for one year.