There are currently, 10 guest(s) and 0 river ripper(s) online.
ripper
Guy Trudeau
location
St. Laurence River
www.river-rippers.net the global network for river windsurfers
Not everyone lives near an ocean or a lake, so why not going for Windsurfing on a nearby river?
There are maybe hundreds of rivers worldwide, a few of them have already been discovered by windsurfers and are offering perfect conditions.
Depending on the wind force and the rivers characteristics, you will find everything from flat-water, to bump & jump and wavelike sailing conditions.
The current is part of what makes Windsurfing on a river so great. With the current driving you down the river and the wind pushing you up the river, you can sail downwind all the time.
Especially for freestyle windsurfers, rivers are a perfect playground to improve their skills!
We are always on the lookout for great shots, cool stories and good people, so let's make this site a reality...
Tricktionary 2 book
- the ultimate windsurfing bible A comprehensive windsurfing training book of 292 pages devided into 9 chapters, which show beginners how to start, intermediates how to improve and experts what to train.Choose the tricktionary in English, German or French (1st. edition). tricktionary online review
2. place
2 GB Surfboard USB Stick
a fancy gadget to carry your data
Short Board Design
w/ Rubberized texture
Neck strap attachment on USB Drive
USB 2.0 High Speed Interface (USB 1.1 Compatible)
3. place
The Windsurfing Movie
One of the best windsurfing action movies ever!
DVD (62 Minutes)
Award winning sound track
Format: NTSC
Languages: English
official rules
Entrants may enter the contest by submitting one picture until
Dec. 31. 2008 .
From January 1. until January 31. 2009 the river-rippers community will vote for the best three shots.
Each voter may cast only one vote for one photo.
Entrants of the three most voted photos will receive prices.
Winners will be announced on February 1st. 2009
Copyright of the image remains the property of the contestant.
By entering this contest, entrants are giving permission for their photographs to be displayed on river-rippers.net for the purposes of online voting related to the submissions and/or for display of winning entries, promotion and/or reporting of the contest. Additional permission will be sought from entrant before their images would be used in any medium other than river-rippers.net
Entrant acknowledges that they have sufficient permission of any recognizable persons appearing in the photograph to be able to grant to river-rippers.net the right to publish their photographic submission online, and hereby grant to river rippers Network such right.
Entrant assure they are amateur photographers.
how to participate
Submit your shot online into the gallery until December 31. 2008
by using our photo submission form here
the bridge
October 30th 2008. My class and I spent our first lesson outdoors when a strong wind began to emerge. What a strange feeling, the kids were almost blown away and I started realizing that this might become an epic windsurfing day. Only a few more hours at school and I would be off to rip the Danube River at Donauinsel, the urban windsurfing site in Vienna/Austria.
I sent a short text message to my brother Felix and I got a reply only a minute later “I’m on!”.
Time is passing slowly at school and during my first break I quickly went into the staff room to check the forecast online…strong SouthSoutheast with gusts up to 110km/h…sweet!
I just had to finish my last lesson and then I could hurry back home and pack my stuff.
Felix was already back home after finsihing his Math lecture and ready to leave when I got home. I quickly ate and hurried up to join him. Our parents decided to accompany us and take some shots from our upcoming session. It took us 10 minutes on the express highway to get to the Donau Insel.
Once we arrived we were really dissapointed by the crappy wind that was far from what was forecast.
Felix decided to rig his Force 5.3 and I went for the Force 5.7
The wind was coming too far from the South and really gusty so conditions were far from optimal but good enough to train some freestyle moves.
I was practicing my eSliders and Felix almost did an airjibe.
When conitions got worse we decided to quit our session at Donau Insel and give our secret spot a try, “the bridge”.
Derig, drive 5 minutes and rig again weren’t an option. So we decided to go for a downwinder, heading down to our next playground. We started off in light wind conditions while our arms began to grow longer and longer from all the pumping.  Suddenly we got back into the wind window and started planning quickly. I went switchstance in the straps and my eSlider attempt ended in a switch stance airjibe. Felix performed a nice body drag.
A few people ashore noticed our action and started yelling after each move – the atmosphere was sensational and we were only halfway to the bridge.
We went from one shore to the other, duck jibes, air jibes, semi eSliders, body drags. We passed a few fisherman that couldn’t believe their eyes as we quickly jibed past them and splashed water right into their path.
The bridge came quickly into sight and we spotted another sailor in the distance.
A few minutes later we arrived underneath the bridge and spotted local Tom Galla.
Tom is an exceptional sailor, showing some clean spocks, onehanded grubbies, flakas and loops. I was totally impressed and spent more time watching him instead of concentrating on my own moves.
Time went by quickly and we had to end our session at nightfall. With some nice shots on my Dad’s camera we were totally exhausted we packed our car and looked forward to our next epic session “under the bridge”.
"the bridge" is located in downtown Vienna somewhere here:
All shots copyright (C) by Ewald Hauft
Thanks to Clemens Hauft for providing this story!
Don't forget to check
out Clemens website www.hauft.at
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September 30, 2008
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Ripper of the month - September 08
From Portland / Oregon we are stoked to introduce Jill as our latest ripper of the month.
Jill is a passioned windsurfer who enjoys the Gorge very much:
"The Columbia River Gorge is ideal not only for windsurfing, but for mountain biking and whitewater kayaking. If I have to wait for wind, I know I can jump on my bike before driving over to the Hatchery or Dougs. After fifteen years in the gorge, I have made a number of friends who love to windsurf as much or more than I do. We continue to push each other to learn to s-turn in the waves, launch higher jumps, or do freestyle moves..."
In our interview she tells us about her life and passion for river windsurfing.
www.river-rippers.net 
River Rippers network - photo contest 2008
the bridge 
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