Surfing with two degrees and snow on the beach

Article from the Stuttgarter Zeitung of 11.30.2010
Water Klitmøller comes to life: In the scene called the Danish fishing village of Cold Hawaii. Hannes Gamillscheg
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Squalls promises the weather forecast, wind gusts up to hurricane strength. Great, let's do it! A bad weather, perfect for lounging by the fireplace? Not in Klitmøller. Carsten Reck take the surfboard out of the car campers, brushing the wet suit and dives into the waves. But he is up north Friesland to the Danish North West coast, for 31 years, he surfs, he has long been coming here twice a year, at least. "The look is fantastic," he says, "you can sit in the car and see how the waves roll in.." Since the bay, the two bends, as is the undersea reef, 100 meters long and 100 wide, which "is always a wave, you can ride down the" se. Carsten meet her paddle, sits up, rises high and can be worn. "For that I am alive."

In Klitmøller, the locals say, 200 days a year the wind blows, and if he is not blowing, he stormed. " Them live the place. Early eighties was a German surfer on the way to Norway, as heavy storms crippled vessel traffic. He traveled while waiting along the coast and came to Klitmøller Bay. He saw the foaming waves, and knew that he had discovered something special. He took the board and was the first slipped into the water at the site, which insiders call "The Reef" and as Europe's best spots for wind and kite surfers praise.

"In the beginning was not even Klitmøller be found on the tourist map," says Ole Riis, tourism chief of the municipality Thisted. Last held the surfers from here even their World Cup. "Cold Hawaii" they call it paradise. Cold Hawaii: the old fisherman in Klitmøller could ever have imagined that their village times would get a nickname. This used to put on their boats, they auctioned off their catch at the quayside. Then shifted the business to Hanstholm, which was to Northern Europe's largest consumer fishing port. "From one day to the next left the fishermen Klitmøller" recalls Peter Mortensen, who was born here, "and we were left with an empty village and concerns over heels. Fishing was all we had." The boys moved away and did not return. 600 people were left,

And then came the surfers. Quite disorganized at first, and very unpopular. They parked where they wanted, they steal water and electricity, they were noisy and celebrated, and what they needed to live, had brought with them. "Either they disappear or we go," growled the locals. Until they slowly realized the opportunities that arose from the attractiveness of their pen. Since there were well-educated young people who were willing to move to the desert, because they live for their hobby. In Klitmøller IT companies and remote workstations have emerged from those places can only dream of comparable size. There was the hospital in Thisted, the earlier, as had all provincial hospitals, the greatest difficulties in attracting young doctors. Now pull the doctors about here to make an internship in their spare time they want the ocean.

There are the old, the buzz that the new claimed too much space. "But if go then surf own grandson, the grandfather will be soft," says Rasmus Fejerskov, who leads the surfers on the beach boutique west wind. He is ten years ago moved to Klitmøller, because of surfing. "I lived in Aarhus. Since it took two hours to come here. But in two hours, the perfect wave is gone." Now he has a house with a lake view from the bedroom window. "I look out in the morning and know what that is for another day."

938 inhabitants of the village now, about 100 permanent residents are from the surfing environment, about a third of them from abroad, they brought with them 40 children. Klitmøller lives again. Tourism also witnessed a boom. "It may be that the first surfers lived here for free, but when they get older, they rent a summer house and bring the family," says Fejerskov.

was "very excellent" since the coexistence of old and new residents, says Tage Grønkjúr, who returned as a pensioner in his home town and now in sport fishing club is in charge. "It's awesome, if it storms, the surfer on the sea and we do not at home when it blows, they are inside, and we go out.." Cod it catches in the spring, lobsters and crabs in the summer, herring in the fall. 58 boats and the club has 300 members, and once a month we meet to pea soup and boiled cod. Wilder will not Klitmøller. The days when surfing was a hippie sport with hash and wild parties are over.

"To see the athletes that come tomorrow the big waves, then you do not drink and go to bed early," said Eric Campbell of South Africa, he also an immigrant Surf. He is from Durban, and his seven-year-old Noah surfs already. Eric married a Danish woman, but she lived too far away from the water. Now all live in Klitmøller, and she takes the long way to the university to be. "Their hours there she knows in advance," he says with a grin, "when the wave comes, you never know."

"Long as a wall" is to be the perfect wave, says Rasmus Fejerskov, in addition to his business he has also got a surf school. The distance of wave crest must be as large as possible to crest: "12 seconds, 14, 16, the longer the better." This is the wave ride, which triggers a feeling of happiness that makes you forget all the annoyances. The Cold Weather of Hawaii, for example. "It was very strange to go with hat and gloves on the water," said Campbell, who surfed in his native South Africa in Bermuda shorts. But with the right equipment is everything. "Last winter there was snow on the beach and the water temperature was two degrees. No problem," he says. If it gets too cold, not the sea is to blame, but the wind. "It takes half an hour to come out of the water out of the gap and back into the warmth. Since you have to be careful that you do not hypothermic." Last year was a farmer on his tractor just in time for a surfer who had fainted because of the cold.

Surfer and "natives" have it all together themselves. You have rules found for their cooperation: no wild park, not sleeping in a car outside the campsite. This is the welcome surfers as athletes. And both groups recognize how much they have in common. "We share the respect from the sea and nature," says Campbell, "we want a clean environment and clean beaches." And as the local authority wanted to close the small local school in Klitmøller from savings reasons, led the newcomers to the protest. As a private school they should be continued, with increased involvement of parents. "The work is" is, Campbell believes, "now all see that we pull together."