River waves · building, running, surfing

Rapid Surfing: federation, German Championships, league

Surfing on standing waves has long been a competitive sport with a federation, judges, German Championships and, since 2026, a national squad. Anyone planning a river wave is therefore building not only a place for leisure but a sports venue for a discipline that has hardly any training sites in Germany. This article sets out what Rapid Surfing is and how it is organised.

What Rapid Surfing is

The German Surfing Federation defines Rapid Surfing as surfing on natural or artificial standing waves – river waves as well as wave pools. It developed out of ocean surfing and takes up elements of skateboarding and snowboarding. The decisive difference from the sea: the wave is stationary and permanent. There is no "reading" of the ocean, and manoeuvres can be repeated in quick succession – which is why standing waves are such good training sites. The term was introduced publicly in 2019 at a trade fair in Munich; the scene itself is older and goes back to the first surfers on Munich's Eisbach in 1975. → Case study Eisbach wave

How it is judged

At the German Championships, several athletes surf in one heat; each person has several runs of around 30 seconds, and judges award 0 to 10 points. The criteria are the manoeuvres, the depth and variety of the lines ridden, and the overall impression of drive, speed and stability. The Rapid Surf League works with a "cut-to-call" format: first the field is sorted by points, then the head-to-head comparison decides. Scoring is by class: Open Women and Open Men, juniors (U16, at the European Championships U18), Masters from 35 and Grandmasters from 45, plus a club ranking.

A competition on a standing wave has one advantage over the sea that the federation expressly names: the wave delivers "exactly the same conditions for all participants" – no waiting for the right set, no paddling out, "absolute equality of opportunity", as the German Surfing Federation wrote about Die Finals 2026. The element of chance that the wind brings into a round of ski jumping and the swell into a round at sea disappears on a built wave – at least within the discharge range in which the installation runs, because the amount of water is still determined by the river.

The German Surfing Federation

The German Surfing Federation (DWV), based in Cologne, has been a member of the German Olympic Sports Confederation since 1 January 2017 and is organised internationally in the International Surfing Association and the European Surfing Federation. It hosts the German Championships in Rapid Surfing, trains judges and awards DOSB licences for instructors. Eligible to compete are members of its clubs – among them the operating clubs of the Leinewelle and the Fuchslochwelle, and from Baden-Württemberg the Surfclub Leonberg. In elite sport, the DWV runs Olympic, prospect and youth squads for ocean surfing; there is no federal training centre, because Germany, in the federation's words, is an "almost waveless country". In 2026 the federation named its own Rapid Surf squad for the first time, with qualification in May in Munich.

In Baden-Württemberg there is no state association for surfing; the Württemberg State Sports Confederation lists only canoeing and sailing among water sports. That is relevant for sports-facility funding: a river wave in the state would currently have no specialist federation at state level behind it. → Costs and funding

German Championships since 2019

In 2021 the championships were cancelled. The venues show the picture of the sport in Germany: half of the title events took place at private wave pools, because there are only two river waves that can host a championship. In 2026 the German Championships were part of "Die Finals", the joint German Championships of 24 sports: the men's final was broadcast on ZDF, the women's final on ARD, and 9,000 to 10,000 spectators a day stood at the Leinewelle – according to the organisers, the attendance record for a surfing event in Germany. The field grew from 44 in the Open class in 2019 to over 70 athletes in 2025. → Case study Leinewelle

League and Europe

The Rapid Surf League was founded in Munich in 2018 and runs a tour with stops at river waves and wave pools, including Nuremberg, Hanover, Osnabrück, Berlin, Ebensee in Austria and Milan. There is no world championship in Rapid Surfing; the International Surfing Association does not hold one. What is new is the European Championships: the European Surfing Federation is holding them for the first time in September 2026 in Ebikon near Lucerne, with 32 starting places in each of the Open classes; the DWV is sending 26 athletes, including juniors (U18). The German Olympic Sports Confederation saw the first European Championships as a sign of "the steep development curve and the great potential of the still young sport"; according to the federation, the juniors "play a very special role in the development of the sport". Since 2025 the Leinewelle has held its own youth competition. What surfing can offer children and young people: → Surfing, young people and health

The Olympics – what is true and what is not

Surfing has been an Olympic sport since Tokyo 2021; at Paris 2024 the surfing took place in Tahiti, and for Los Angeles 2028 Trestles in California has been confirmed. What is Olympic is ocean surfing; the International Surfing Association expressly speaks of a future on "iconic ocean waves". Rapid Surfing is not Olympic, and there is no documented initiative to change that. So the only correct statement is: surfing is an Olympic sport, its federation is in the DOSB, and standing waves are the training sites this sport has inland – just as canoe slalom courses are for canoeing. It would be wrong to say that a river wave is an Olympic sports venue or that Winterbach could become a training centre.

What this means for the Remswelle

A river wave in the Stuttgart region would be the second in Baden-Württemberg and the first located in a metropolitan area. For the sport, that would mean: a training site for a young competitive sport in a region of 2.8 million inhabitants, a possible venue for league competitions, and a home club that would be eligible to compete in the DWV. One detail comes on top: where an adjustable ramp creates the head itself, the wave can be set within the surfable discharge range independently of the weather and the day's water level – and thus kept the same over an entire round of competition. That is not a unique selling point, Nuremberg and Hanover offer it too, but it is an argument that a Remswelle can be planned to be fit for competition. For the case to be made to the municipality and the state, that is the core of the sports-policy argument – factual, without Olympic exaggeration. → Questions and objections

Frequently asked questions

Is Rapid Surfing Olympic?

No. Ocean surfing is Olympic (since Tokyo 2021). Rapid Surfing on standing waves has German Championships, since 2026 a European Championships and a German squad, but no Olympic discipline and no world championship.

Who hosts the German Championships in Rapid Surfing?

The German Surfing Federation, a member of the DOSB since 2017. Members of its clubs are eligible to compete.

Where is Rapid Surfing trained in Germany?

On the river waves in Nuremberg, Hanover, Pforzheim, Augsburg and Munich, and at private wave pools such as those in Langenfeld, Berlin, Düsseldorf, Freiburg and Munich. There is no federal training centre.

Is there a surfing federation in Baden-Württemberg?

No. The DWV has no state associations, and surfing is not represented in the Württemberg State Sports Confederation; from Baden-Württemberg, the Surfclub Leonberg is a member of the DWV.

Sources: Deutscher Wellenreitverband, "Sportarten", "Rapid Surfing", "Verband", "Mitgliedsvereine", "Leistungssport", "Rapid-Surf-Kader 2026", "DM Rapid Surfing 2024", European Championships nomination 2026 (wellenreitverband.de) · DWV, statement to the Deutscher Bundestag, 11.01.2023 · Rapid Surf League, Judging Rule Book (rapidsurfleague.com) · kaltwasser-surfing.com, 20.05.2019 · windsurfers.de, 21.09.2020 and 24.04.2026 · Surfers Mag, 19.04.2022 and 29.09.2025 · dailydose.de, 30.04.2023 · surf-magazin.de, 29.09.2025 · presseportal.de, 26.07.2026 (German Championships 2026) and DWV press release on Die Finals 2026 (July 2026) · ZDF heute, FAQ Die Finals 2026 · hannover-entdecken.de, 27.07.2026 · Swiss Surfing Association, 15.11.2025 (European Championships 2026) · International Surfing Association, isasurf.org (LA 2028) · Württembergischer Landessportbund, specialist federations · Wikipedia, "Rapid Surfing" · DOSB, „Eine Sportart auf Erfolgswelle“, 22.09.2026 · Leinewelle e.V., „Jugend“ (enercity-leinewelle.de)

Last updated: 15 October 2026 · Initiative Remswelle