SURFEST RUSSIA: surfing within the Moscow Ring Road. Overview of the festival venues

Is there surfing in Russia? And if so, what is its taste and color? These were the questions that occupied us most of all before visiting the All-Russian festival dedicated to surfing culture, SURFEST RUSSIA. It turned out that surfing in Russia is at least harsh, because the weather at any moment can play a cruel joke on you and give you an unexpected temperature minimum for the beginning of June. But if you have a few boards and hundreds of people, with the ocean raging and the bright sun shining inside, you won’t get bored!

The surfing festival was held on the territory of the Royal Bar beach club at the Vodny Stadion. This event is not the first year, and its main goal is to popularize surfing as a movement in Russia, and most importantly – to explain to everyone that you can surf not only in sunny Bali or in distant Portugal, but also without leaving the Moscow Ring Road. This year the organizers have included master classes, contests and test drives in the festival program, so that everyone could see for himself that water sports are great. A little bit about SURFEST sites in our selection of activities.

Such different boards: SUP, MOTOSURFING and WINDSURFING

SUP zone: SUP movement is rapidly gaining momentum among lovers of beauty, harmony and water sports. Functional training on boards will appeal to many who want to develop coordination and balance in addition to physical exercise. An alternative to SUP in its classic form is AquaFlat training in a fitness club, although in summer most SUP enthusiasts prefer to train in open water. Just imagine: you, the board, the pleasant changing scenery… Each training session is not just a sporting activity, it’s a real adventure. Ideally, your first SUP experience should take place at the sea, but if your vacation is not yet soon, and the desire to spend a cool weekend is great, go for a new experience with the guys from the team of sup-club.ru.

MOTOSURFING: on this zone we made sure that we know not so much about boards and their varieties. In addition to SUP boards, which were mentioned earlier, “Championship” tested electric boards with a motor. The festival really allowed to open the world of surfing from the most unusual angles, one of the brightest examples of this is the culture of motorized surfing. At first glance it may seem that the built-in motor significantly reduces the load on the body. But that’s not the case at all, it becomes even more difficult to stay afloat and catch that perfect point where you find yourself in balance. Immediately recommend all thrill-seekers to open the summer season with their first experience in motorized surfing.

WINDSURFING. Going out to sea under sail sounds like a dream. But what if it is not the sea? In the windsurfing zone everyone could try their hand at a special simulator and test a board with a freely rotating mast for sails. The simulator itself was installed on the sand, but especially brave participants of the festival managed to go out on the water together with the team “School of Wind”.

FOR SPIRIT AND BODY: yoga, stretching and handmade boards.

STRECHING. It is important to pay proper attention to stretching the whole body after open water activities. The fact is that the load on our muscles during wakeboarding, windsurfing, motosurfing and even SUP boards is very high. The next day after the training will be painful, not even so: it will be very painful. That’s why every self-respecting surfer knows about stretching, if not everything, then perhaps the most basic. In the yoga and stretching zone everyone could become a participant of trainings from the studio “Breathe” and the school of stretching and fitness “Nefrit”. Training cycles were aimed at developing flexibility, inner balance, sense of equilibrium, as well as strength and endurance.

SHAPER HOUSE. Did you know how real surfboards are made? In our minds, they had to be made by a hot guy somewhere on the ocean in his home workshop. But even in the harsh weather realities of Russia you can make a real board out of a piece of wood, at one look at which you will want to pack a suitcase and leave for a surf tour. “Arctic Craft Surf” is the first workshop in Moscow, where professional surfboards are produced. In the zone presented at the festival, anyone could take part in the manufacturing process and learn all the intricacies from professionals.

MIND. In the area of the big tent throughout the day there was a lecture hall where lectures and movie screenings were held. The lecturers were professionals in the world of surfing and avid travelers, who shared their personal experience and told the festival participants about the vast and not yet much explored geography of surfing in Russia. In parallel with the lecture everyone could visit the photo exhibition of exclusive shots collected especially for SURFFEST.

For many people surfing is an attempt to escape from the whole world, to live somewhere on an island and ride a bike to the ocean every day. For most of us surfing is something so detached from reality that we can’t even imagine where we can learn this sport in our country. But if you think about it, being a surfer in Russia is cool, it’s a huge challenge to yourself, perhaps the same as holding the Winter Olympics in Sochi. The second All-Russian festival dedicated to surfing culture turned out to be informative and ambitious. And the main thing is that we have a whole summer ahead of us to choose our perfect board and learn something new!