Thur wave padding in Europe

After leaving Bremgarten early due to high water levels we eventually found the internet in Liechtenstein and realised that rivers everywhere across Switzerland and Austria were all super high. With just the two of us we decided it was probably not the best idea to go river running at these levels so we began to search for so good high water play spots. With very few options in the surrounding area one YouTube video caught my eye – The Thur Wave. After a little more research I had found absolutely nothing. Handily though, the YouTube video stated the co-ordinates of the wave and Google Earth came into its own showing us its exact location. We had no idea if the wave was any good, whether the water levels were right or not but as it was only an hour and a half in the wrong direction we headed of anyway.

We arrived at the small town where the wave was supposed to be and after a little searching soon found it. Although it looked nothing like the video we had seen it looked good to go. The wave was river wide, very fast and at each side breaking slightly making good spots to surf. River right looked a bit surgey so I decided to go for river left.

The wave was awesome. Super fast and very bouncy offering up lots of airtime which was not always intentional. Spins, aerial blunts and backstabs were all possible and pulled at lightning speeds. After a couple of hours surfing the wave the water level had began dropping and the wave was beginning to green out even more making it more difficult to surf. The session was ended on a high with a good long run and then it was off to find somewhere to disinfect myself from the disgusting smelling water (we had passed lots of farmers spreading on their fields along the river) and some food.

The Thur wave is really good fun if you’re in the area and if it has been raining a lot I would thoroughly recommend checking it out.