This is now the third time Wellenwerk has hosted its own contest on the citywave, in 2023, 2024 and 2025. What makes the Berlin Surf Open special, and why it’s becoming a fixed date on the calendar.
A contest we run ourselves
Alongside the German Championship, which Wellenwerk runs together with the German Wave Surfing Association, there’s a second major competition on the calendar: the Berlin Surf Open, our own in-house contest on the citywave. Unlike the German Championship, Wellenwerk organizes this event entirely on its own, from the call for entries to the award ceremony. That means we can shape the format, side program and atmosphere exactly the way they fit our hall and our community, without having to follow a federation’s rulebook.
The Berlin Surf Open had its debut from August 18 to 20, 2023. Around 68 athletes from Germany, Croatia, Switzerland, South Africa, Peru, Costa Rica and Brazil took part, competing in the categories Open Men, Open Women, Masters (35 and up) and Freestyle. Even at this first edition, the format already included a separate junior division for athletes under 18, giving up-and-coming surfers their own stage too. The event was explicitly never meant as pure competition, but rather as a tribute to the surf lifestyle, with sporting and culinary programming built around the heats.
The fact that athletes from seven countries traveled in for the very first edition shows that the Berlin Surf Open never spoke only to the Berlin scene, it found international attention from the start, a sign of how seriously rapid surfing is now taken as a sport beyond Germany’s borders.
From debut to fixed series
What started as a first edition in 2023 went into its second round in 2024, and the Berlin Surf Open established itself as a fixed feature of Wellenwerk’s event calendar. The third edition followed in 2025. What began as a one-off pilot project has, in three years, become a series that’s now a firm part of Berlin’s rapid surfing scene, running alongside the German Championship but with its own character: smaller, more personal, and closer to the community Wellenwerk meets on the wave all year round.
From one year to the next, the team’s experience has also grown: the running order, schedule and side program get a little smoother with every edition, because the lessons from the previous year flow straight back in. For athletes who’ve taken part several times already, the Berlin Surf Open has long been more than just a single event, it’s a reunion with familiar faces from the hall.
Atmosphere right at the wave’s edge
What makes the Berlin Surf Open special is the closeness between the crowd and the athletes. Unlike at the beach, where spectators often watch the waves only from a distance, the crowd at Wellenwerk stands right at the pool edge, every air, every turn, every fall happens just a few meters away. That closeness creates a contest atmosphere that’s barely possible out on the open sea: a packed house, cheering from close range, and a wave that runs exactly the same for every competitor.
That closeness works both ways: athletes feel the crowd’s reaction directly and immediately, and spectators who’ve stood on a board themselves see up close what’s possible on the very wave where they usually practice their own first turns.
Award ceremony and trophies
Every edition wraps up with an award ceremony and trophies for the best athletes in each category, and in 2025, just as in previous years, it was a moment that showed just how much community spirit runs through this contest. Many participants know each other from training in the hall, cheer each other on, and celebrate together at the end, regardless of the result on the board.
This mix of sporting ambition and community feeling is what sets the Berlin Surf Open apart from many other contests. It’s not only about who ends up holding the trophy, it’s about celebrating your own wave together for a whole day, with everyone you normally surf alongside in training.
Looking ahead to the next edition
After three editions in a row, one thing is clear: the Berlin Surf Open is here to stay. If you want to train toward contest level yourself, the Training Sessions are the right place to start, and if you just want to try it out, the best way in is a regular Surf Session. You can read more about the sporting foundations of contests like this one in the article German Championship on the standing wave.
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