River surfing is not going to stop growing. It may not be expanding at the rate of the beach-going variety, fueled by real estate sales and expensive boat trips, but it ain’t going anywhere. And as more river waves are discovered, the quality of surfing just seems to get better. And the camera people following these adventurous wave riders isn’t bad either. These four clips released this spring and early summer caught our eye.
Lone Waters with Strong Water’s Kevin Benhart Brown
Let’s just call him KB like everyone else does. Because KB is a true OG on the river surf scene and even does his own line of boards. He hooked up with Shaun Daley to shoot this beautiful, albeit short, piece around the Missoula, Montana area (above).
Speaking of Missoula, this is Brent Palen surfing the middle channel at Brennan’s Wave in ‘Zoo Town.’ There’s nothing better than Missoula in the summer. Check out more of filmer JedZilla’s Instagram handle as he’s shot a lot of surfing in the Big Sky Country.
This is J-Ailes de Lasalles, surfing on a river in France. Notice the running step off to make the wave. Aside from its beautiful coast and the WSL event held at Hossegor, France is loaded with river waves thanks to the water spilling out of the Alps.
How can we not include a clip from Eastern Canada? The Ottawa River has many waves, big and small, none as poorly named as the ‘Sewer Wave,’ a moniker that conjures images of giardia. Here, Tristan Lafontaine makes easy work of this dirty little secret.
