SURF BERLIN

The Quest For The Last German Wave

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Ira, seen here in 1995, around the time when he left the boogie board for the surfboard. Ten years later, and blinded by love, he would leave his coastal life in California for a new land, which, unbeknownst to him, had no ocean.

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Before Ira (pictured above) began his solo quest, no sane person, or surfer, would have guessed that a man-made wave could get this big; A true freak of [man meets] nature. However, seeing this surprisingly big ship wake, at this size, only occurred six times during Ira's six month long quest. The 144 other ship-produced waves were in the one to two foot range, rarely reaching a meter. This fact alone might explain why no previous documentation of a wave of this caliber had ever been taken at this spot, let alone surfed. Surf Berlin isn't about riding just ANY wave; it's about riding THE BEST WAVE Germany has to offer. Something for the record books. Something that sadly nobody will ever repeat.

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Originally from Santa Cruz, California, Ira moved to Berlin in 2005, never thinking he would discover a perfect wave in a country without an ocean.

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Ira's campsite beside a frozen lake, during one his surfmat trips. Read one of the latest interviews (auf Deutsch) that Ira did with the fancy people of Berlin's Mitteschön Magazine.

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The Lone German Wave, and Ira (the little black dot), as seen from his tent early one winter morning. The first trips out to the spot were done alone, with camera statically filming the scene from a tripod. Though this type of filmmaking was sticking true to Ira’s style of video art, he soon realized the importance of properly documenting the rare wave. After a bit of convincing, Ira began dragging his friends, his girlfriend, and even his own mother, up north to pan the camera through below zero temperatures, while Ira attempted the seemingly impossible.

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Staying close to the harbor entrance was key to catching the biggest wave possible.

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The hope was always that the ship wouldn't slow down, and thus produce a sizable bow wave that could be surf. Unfortunately, harbor traffic, weather, and who knows what else, prevented this from happening most of the time.

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One of the defining moments of the quest: seeing how perfect it could get.

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Unable to find someone else ready to immediately dedicate their life to catching the endangered wave in the middle of winter, Ira put it upon himself to do the job, and get the boards. (1) A hand-board carved from an old school skateboard. (2) An inflatable Surfmat his dad shipped over from California. (3) A surfboard with enough buoyancy to catch this extremely fast and very flat wave.

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The slope of the sandbar that formed the Surf Berlin wave was so gradual, for so long, that when a wave of considerable size was approaching, one could see its crest forming sometimes two minutes before it actually broke. Yet where it actually decided to eventually break was often far away from where it broke the time before. The Mystery Spot of surfing.

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The surf was always the best when the sea was completely flat. Absent of wind, it was easier to see a wake coming, and thus easier to predict where it might break. Yet, perfect weather didn’t help if the ship wasn’t driving fast enough to create a wave. Here, a frustrated Ira, knows there’s no wave coming, and thus saves himself the trouble of getting cold and wet for no reason. This scene happened unfortunately all too often.

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Unexcited, Ira takes off on a small ship wave. Not the big one he was hoping for, but at least it's a free ride back to the beach, to wait again, for his next chance.

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Ira reviewing the days footage in his Berlin atelier while his wetsuit dries by the fire and his dog travels through time.

[theburninghouse]

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While on his quest to catch the last German wave, Ira had all these things waiting and ready to be packed on his moped at a minutes notice when the slightest sign of good weather was on the horizon.

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Below zero temperatures indoors, water pipes frozen shut, in an abandoned warehouse, without electricity: This was Ira's home in the city, the in-between-days when it was too windy to surf. Wood fires kept things bearable.

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Click here to hear more music from the many Surf Berlin musicians.