Surfing in Copenhagen - Can you really do that?
July 2022: Director Portrait of Anni Schöen, surf instructor at Copenhagen Surf School.
Written by Steffen Neupert, Journalist and Surf Instructor.
I just throw my wetsuit in the cargo bike and ride to Amager - and I'm ready to surf!
Anni moved from Kiel to Copenhagen to combine windsurfing with her career. Here, she is just a bike ride away from the perfect windsurfing spots. It's no secret that Copenhagen's modern city life attracts people from all over the world. But few people know that there are many surfers among them. One of them is Copenhagen Surf School instructor Anni Schoen, who grew up in the northern German city of Kiel. For many years, she lived and breathed windsurfing, traveling to the Caribbean and Hawaii in search of the perfect conditions. But in 2019, she moved to Copenhagen to study. And it was here that she discovered how easy it is to balance a normal day-to-day life with surfing in Denmark's capital city.
"It's really easy to get out and surf in Copenhagen. For me, it's actually the easiest of all the places I've lived, because there are so many great spots just around the corner."
Can you really surf in Copenhagen?
Normally, most people in Copenhagen open their eyes when Anni tells them she surfs. "Almost every single time, people say: 'Oh! Can you do that in Copenhagen?'. But then I have to explain to them that you can windsurf on Amager, and it's only a bike ride away!" If you ask Anni, it's probably because most Copenhageners stay far away from the beach when it's really windy. But it's also on the stormy days that the surfers really come out. In fact, Copenhagen is a great city for windsurfing and stand up paddle boarding - which is why more and more people are trying out a surfboard under their feet. Amager Strandpark is actually a brilliant windsurfing spot that is both easily accessible and a super fun place to surf no matter which way the wind blows.
Here, Anni keeps her equipment in a permanent place at the Helgoland Surfers club - right next to the Copenhagen Surf School - which makes it much easier to get on the water without having to worry about parking lots and rush hour traffic. "I just throw my wetsuit in my cargo bike and drive to Amager. It doesn't even take half an hour, so even if I have a car, I still cycle because it's much easier in Copenhagen".
Most surfers have regular jobs
Perhaps there is another reason why many people are surprised that Anni windsurf several times a week. Because you can't always see it on her face. Working as a process manager in a clinical trials company, she spends at least as much time in a blazer as she does in her wetsuit. "It's a bit of a stereotype that as a surfer you have to be extremely flexible and always just sit on the beach and wait for the wind. But not many people do that," laughs Anni. When the wind blows, Anni brings her wetsuit to the office so she can bike straight to the ocean after work - much like many people do with soccer or weight training. In fact, she brings her gear to work so often that her colleagues have started to recognize the bag. "LMost surfers have regular full-time jobs, and then they go out on weekends or in the afternoon. You might not get the perfect wind every time, but you'll still get plenty of time on the water," says Anni. Fortunately, most of the time her colleagues think it's cool and exciting that she surfs. But sometimes they shake their heads at her - especially when the temperature is approaching freezing.
Any weather is good weather for a surfer
One of the coolest things about being a windsurfer is that you never really get tired of the weather, says Anni: "I really enjoy good weather, but I definitely enjoy bad weather even more, because that's when it's windy." Of course, nothing beats those days of the year when the Danish summer weather is both hot and windy. But like many other experienced surfers, Anni throws her wetsuit in the cargo bike whether it's raining or snowing. "People are shocked when I tell them that I surf in the winter. But in reality, it's not as bad as people think, because I'm nice and warm in my thick wetsuit," she says. In fact, Anni gets colder on her bike ride to the beach than she does in her wetsuit. And if you ask her what her most fun ride on the water has been, the answer might be a little surprising. It was last winter, when half of the lagoon in Amager Strandpark was covered in a thin layer of ice. "There were actually quite a few of us, and you could just feel that everyone was really excited, so it was a damn good atmosphere. Even though the water froze on my sail, making it really heavy, it was a fantastic day."
Surfing is more fun when you're together
Luckily, the good surfer vibe has also become easier to find in Copenhagen. In recent years, more and more surfers like Anni have come to the city, and at the same time, more and more Copenhageners have started surfing themselves. "The atmosphere on the water is just something completely different if there are a lot of people. You motivate and encourage each other to try new things, and it's much nicer on the beach when you have more people to talk to," says Anni. In most other places Anni has lived, the vast majority of the surfers were older than her. But in Copenhagen, the surfing community is getting bigger every year - and here it's especially the young people who are the driving force. "There's a good vibe and you don't get stuck in the old illusion that everyone has to be "cool surfer dudes". It's a really young and fresh environment with all kinds of different people," says Anni. Anni didn't live in Copenhagen for very long before she became part of the instructor team at Copenhagen Surf School. And even though she has plenty of Danish friends outside of the surf school community, it has become one of the focal points of her life. "When I came to Copenhagen, I didn't speak much Danish, so it was quite difficult to find a group I could belong to. But I really feel that surf school is what has made me feel at home here.
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