Mick Fanning may have been in Germany to down jugs of beer at Oktoberfest, but that didn’t stop him from making a quick pit stop at a world-famous surfing break.
The three-time world champion, joined by some of his Australian friends, strapped on a steamer wetsuit to surf a man-made river in freezing downtown Munich.
Fanning, 36, was spotted carving up the one-metre wave at the Eisbach – meaning ‘ice brook’ – River last week as an ambassador for Red Bull.
Mick Fanning stopped off at a man-made river wave in Munich while enjoying Oktoberfest
The three-time world champion was spotted carving up the one-metre wave, despite the freezing conditions
Fanning, 36, was in Germany with some of his Australian friends to enjoy Oktoberfest last week
‘It’s good fun. Not too cold. It’s so different to an ocean wave,’ Fanning said.
‘The boards are so much smaller than sea surfing… Your weight transition is different.’
‘With a normal wave, you have a wave pushing you, where here you sort of you’re fighting against the wave, sort of like snowboarding.’
Surfers have been enjoying Eisbach’s artificial wave since it was constructed in 1972.
Fanning is no stranger to surfing unusual destinations, in fact, he’s made somewhat of a career out of it in recent times.
Last year, Fanning surfed under the Northern Lights at Norway, dodged icebergs at a secret Arctic location and caught a five-kilometre wave known only as ‘The Snake’.
It followed a horror year in 2015 for Fanning – which saw a very public split from his wife of seven years, the death of his brother and a great white shark attack.
Fanning made global headlines after he survived an attack by a huge white pointer that seized his board during a competition at Jeffreys Bay in South Africa on July 20, 201.
Fanning was hailed as a hero after he punched the shark on the nose during the attack, which was captured in the live broadcast of the competition.
‘It’s good fun. Not too cold. It’s so different to an ocean wave,’ Fanning said
Fanning said the unique experience was more like snowboarding than surfing