Germany may not be completely landlocked, but it certainly is wave-starved as a country. With two small coastlines, one facing the North Sea in between mainland Europe and the U.K., the other catching the southwest corner of the Baltic Sea, jumbled wind swell is about all you can expect unless you plan on surfing Germany’s famous Eisbach river wave in Munich, or a CityWave.
But such minimal surf prospects at home has done little to stop Germans from surfing, as anyone who has ever been to the north of Spain or Portugal can attest. And it did little to stop Leon Glatzer (although he was born on Maui while his parents were traveling and grew up in Costa Rica). He punched his ticket to the Olympics at the recent 2021 ISA World Surfing Games in El Salvador. The ISA recently released this little clip from Leon’s qualification. Olympic Surfing begins July 25.
