A contentious debate over the future of surfing in Munich’s iconic English Garden escalated on Sunday, after city workers removed a beam covertly installed over Christmas to restore a popular wave in the park’s river.
The Eisbach river, which flows through the garden, has long been a magnet for surfers and spectators alike, famed for its meter-high (three-foot) wave generated by a powerful current. This natural phenomenon, however, vanished in October when municipal workers cleared accumulated sediment, gravel, and debris from the riverbed. Its disappearance has since prompted ongoing discussions between city officials and the surfing community regarding its potential restoration.
The authorities were apparently not moving fast enough to suit at least some of the the surfers, who enjoyed several days of holiday surfing in wetsuits after unknown individuals deployed the beam across the river bed on Christmas Day. A banner on the adjacent bridge declared in English, “Just Watch. Merry Christmas!”
The surfers may have been stoked, but the city was not. The fire department moved in early Sunday morning, and the improvised structure and the wave were gone, the dpa news agency reported.
The city has urged patience and asked an engineering professor from the Munich University of Applied Sciences to advise on possible solutions.
Safety concerns became more prominent in May, when a 33-year-old surfer died after her board was caught underwater and she couldn’t free herself from the attached leash.
A Munich surfing association complained on Thursday on its website that city authorities were imposing too many conditions on efforts to restore the wave and that the process has “stalled.”
