Land Locked surfers exist in all corners of the world. Today, we wanted to showcase three unexpected surfing locations for you to add to your surfing bucket list.
The surfing community in the Zambezi is limited, as in you can count the amount of active surfers on one hand. Though the community is small, the stoke is very much alive thanks to locals like Sam Bradford of Harare, Zimbabwe. Bradford grew up kayaking the river before eventually making his way to a surf board. He describes two distinct surfable waves on the river. One small wave on rapid #2 which only works in low water from August to December and a much more intense, curling wave on rapid #11. Of course a long hold down is the least of your worries when it comes to this wave as surfers also need to be aware of strong whirlpools and crocodiles lurking beneath the surface. Safe to say that this wave begs to be properly understood and safety should be the number one priority before attempting to surf it.
Where most people see flat water, surfers see opportunity. In 2014, two “crazy” Dutch surfers had the idea of turning a section of Rotterdam’s beautiful canals into a first-of-its-kind city centre surf park. Though Rotterdam is actually home to Europe’s largest seaport and only 30km away from the best Ocean surf break in the Netherlands, locals saw that there might be a solution to the inconsistent conditions from the North Sea. So, after ten years “RiF010” (the official name of the downtown wave pool) was born. The pool produces a wave every seven seconds at a height of up to 1.5 meters and features a wave riding lane around 50 meters long. The pool is open year round for ten hours a day and you can book a session for only 35 - 60 euro, depending on wave height.
The name, the Black Sea is actually quite misleading since the Black Sea is nearly a completely land locked body of water, technically labelled as a marginal sea. Because of this, waves occur the same way they do on the Great Lakes - through prolonged periods of high winds. Unlike the Great Lakes, the Baltic Sea is a mix of fresh water and salt water. It connects to the North Sea and Atlantic Ocean through narrow channels, but has a heavy inflow of fresh water from more than 200 connected rivers and heavy rainfall. In Romania you can surf in the Black Sea year round, with Autumn bringing the best conditions of constant swell. The surfing community in Romania continues to grow every year and in February 2024 the Romanian surf team was even registered with the International Surfing Association, making them able to compete in the ISA World Surfing Games.