Europe's Wackiest Waves

"Monotony collapses time; novelty unfolds it.” That was the science author Joshua Foer. He may have been referring to psychological time and the perception of our lives, or maybe to a river bore he’d surfed at midnight on a full moon.

The surfing world loves rare, weird, wacky, and warped waves. Look at YouTube surfing stars Ben Gravey, Jamie O’Brien, and Dylan Graves, who have developed a cult following by surfing novelty waves. But with so many on the planet, we had to narrow it down, starting off with Europe. It’s time to get incontinent.

Gasoline – Tagus River, Lisbon

A river wave, not created not by the moon’s gravitational pull, but by a ferry wake. In Lisbon’s Tagus River, the huge boat that takes people from Berreiro to Lisbon creates a wave that has been described as “the most high-performance ferry wave in the world.” Which says everything… and nothing.

Portuguese pro Joao Kopke is one local who has ripped the wave, whose size depends on the number of commuters on the ferry. Whilst other variables include the size of the tides and the wind direction, we can’t think of any other European waves that come with their own timetable.

The Garonne, Bordeaux

Sure, the beaches of Lacanau have a certain je ne sais quoi. And down on the Cap Ferret isthmus, it’s possible to follow up a fun beachbreak surf with a glass of Chateau L'Oiseau Bordeaux Blanc at an Oyster Bar overlooking Arachon Bay. But what can’t you do, as you can in nearby Bordeaux, is ride a six-foot wave down the River Garonne for 10 minutes.

The tidal bore occurs between June and September, when an extraordinarily high sea tide rushes up the river creating five to ten waves, moving at speeds of up to 20 mp/h. Now you won’t be alone if you decide to tackle it; a range of surfers, kayakers, paddle-boarders, longboarders, canoeists, and hit the phenomenon every time it breaks. It is effectively one long drop-in. A bit like Hossegor, really.

The Port Of Amsterdam

It might be argued that the new wave pool within one of the city's canals is Amsterdam’s weirdest wave. However, there’s another manmade(ish) near the harbour that locals like to keep a “relative” secret that is just as funky..

It’s a wave that only breaks every couple of years when huge Atlantic storms provide the gale force winds and giant swells needed to breach the harbour's significant defences.

When that happens, the locals go wild for their cold, grey, wind-and-wall-lashed novelty wave. Given the other option is sitting in a warm, cozy Amsterdam cafe sipping coffee and eating tasty, high-grade weed cookies, you have to hand it to them.

Hot Pipes, Brighton UK

Hot Pipes is the favoured surf spot for the committed, hard-core gang of surfers from Brighton, on England’s Sussex Coast. Now, this isn’t palm trees and golden sands. The gas-fired Shoreham Power Station’s 100-metre-tall chimney stands sentinel over the wave, and the name comes from the pipe that takes the warmed wastewater from the plant to the cold, grey, English Channel.

The pipe is encased in a flat, six-foot-wide concrete groyne which has various steel poles protruding from its top. Most of the punters flock to the small, windswells that break on the sand and shingle on either side of the groyne. However, on the right tides, a slab left wedges off the flat, barely submerged concrete of the pipe itself. Intense two-second tubes are possible, as are impalement and concussion, with bodyboarders and talented expats usually the only takers.

The Baltic Sea

Barely even a Sea (formed a mere 10,000 years ago on a tectonic plate making it more shallow and enclosed than many other seas), waves shouldn’t really even exist here. Yet a dozen times a year, mainly around the Polish seaside town of Chałupy, surfers hit the Baltic.

Now, these aren’t long sessions; most of the wind-generated swells don’t last more than two hours. However, they are met with commitment and stoke by a hard-core bunch of locals. Autumn and spring are the best bets, with winter often providing minus 20 Celsius temperatures and zero degree water. Baltic indeed.

Tip: Our app has over 7000 surf spots, both novelty and legit, with accurate, easy to read 12-day forecasts at a glance.