In just a few years, Copenhagen Surf School has become the center of surfing in Copenhagen. But the road to get there was paved with disastrous business ideas, a dilapidated circus car and a lifelong addiction to the sea. When you open this newspaper, chances are you'll find yourself lounging in the café in front of Copenhagen's first real surf school. Maybe you can see flocks of new surfers gliding across the Sound as instructors shout encouragement to them. But where do all these surfers come from? And why have they settled on the very tip of Amager Strandpark? Copenhagen Surf School rests on a foundation of equal parts madness, stubbornness and love of surfing. But most of all, it rests on the shoulders of its two founders - Ole and Rasmus.

The two childhood friends both grew up on the small island of Thurø south of Funen - and according to them, it was here, on a spring day in 2007, that the story of Copenhagen Surf School began. "We both learned to surf from my Uncle Per, who had some old equipment from the 80s lying around.
We were allowed to surf around on it while he stood on a jetty and yelled at us," Ole laughs. Even though the old board could barely float and was far too heavy for two 14-year-old boys, the hours spent on the narrow strait between Thurø and Funen were the start of a lifelong passion and a close friendship.

Since then, Ole and Rasmus have spent almost all their waking hours windsurfing together. When the two friends were not on the water, they talked about windsurfing, watched movies about windsurfing or checked the weather forecast for the right weather for windsurfing. And as the years went by, they won Danish championships and competed in some of the world's most prestigious windsurfing competitions.

By comparison, the country also has 8,750 kilometers of coastline and more than 150 windy days a year - so why weren't more people windsurfing? "Windsurfing is the perfect sport to do in Denmark, and there are so many great places to do it around Copenhagen. So we decided to do something about it!" says Rasmus.

If Copenhageners didn't want to come to windsurfing, windsurfing had to come to Copenhagen, so the two Funen residents founded their very own mobile surf school. But before they could get started, Ole and Rasmus had to find both beginner-friendly equipment for all their future students and a car to carry it all in. And on a tight SU budget, that was easier said than done. "We bought an old circus car cheaply, which was still filled with hay and dirt from all sorts of wild animals," Ole laughs.

"But we only made it 50 kilometers before it completely burned out on the highway." After an expensive mechanic bill, the fledgling surf school's last savings had suddenly gone up in smoke. So it took creativity and charm to find enough boards, sails and wetsuits. Luckily, Ole and Rasmus knew that a treasure trove of old windsurfing equipment was hiding in basements and garages across the country. 

So the pair started trading them for beer, favors and good stories. "We had to drive around the country with a car full of beer crates, but in the end we scraped together 10 boards and sails. And they were actually pretty good for learning how to windsurf," Rasmus says.

"People thought it was really cool, and that's 100 percent why we keep doing courses. We put a lot of energy into it, but we get twice as much back from the students," says Ole. At the end of 2019, the two boys from Thurø could start dreaming bigger than ever before.

From circus car to surf bar
Ever since the old circus car rumbled off to the first windsurfing courses, Amager Strandpark was Ole and Rasmus' absolute favorite place to teach. So when one of the new concrete bunkers was available for rent right there, they jumped at the chance.

"It was a quantum leap because now we also have a cozy cafe and surf bar. We can do a lot of cool events, and people can sit and relax with us after the courses, so it's much more cozy," Rasmus says.

Over the years, Copenhagen Surf School's small surf family has grown into a larger surf community consisting of 20 of Denmark's most talented instructors and 250 dedicated Master Class surfers - "we're a big family now", says Rasmus. And this has made room for much more than beginner windsurfing courses. Now the surf school also offers advanced windsurfing courses for experienced windsurfers, big events and annual surf parties, Christmas parties and, not least, surf trips to Fuerteventura.