It was getting warmer in Munich,  we had sun and almost 15° Celsius in Munich, so Petra (sup-guide.de), Etienne (munichstanduppaddling.com) and Carsten (imaginesurfboards.com) decided to head for a sunset paddle and BBQ on yet another Bavarian mountain lake.

As we had already explored Eibsee on a SUP when Annabel was here, we decided to go to Staffelsee this time. It is about 70km south-east of Munich.

We agreed to meet at parking lot Seestrasse, were greeted by a gorgeous sunset and a frozen-over Lake, well no surprise really, considering the temperatures at night have been still well below freeze in the last couple of weeks.

Now that we had driven so far, we were keen to nevertheless get some time in the water. Thankfully Carsten knows the area really well and he lead us to another entry point. Still a lot of ice in the water, but we found a small path that could somehow be paddled. We explored different techniques: Navigating around the sheets of ice, moving the sheet of ice away with the paddle or crushing them with the board nose and fin. All this was tinted in wonderful orange light from the setting sun.

Here’s a short video of how that went:

The original plan had been to BBQ on one of the islands in Staffelsee, but we simply could not get that far, besides it was getting really cold.

So in a change of plan we warmed ourselves at a gas-operated grill connected to the gas-tank of Petra’s campervan. Thanks to Carsten for figuring out how to connect it to the gas tank and cooking delicious steaks, thanks to Etienne for finally figuring out how to disconnect it, in my mind I was already driving back dragging the grill alongside the campervan on the highway…

Staffelsee is an amazing place to paddle and we will for sure be back when there is less ice.

Equipment used:

Boards

  • Imagine Carbon Sprinter (12’6” x 27” x 8”)
  • Imagine Trainer (12’6” x 29” x 7 5/8”)
  • Coreban Limited Edition Wood Cruiser 11’6″

Petra and Carsten tried out the new Imagine Carbon Sprinter and Trainer. The new nose shape, which is designed to seamlessly cut through the water was actually quite good for ice-breaking too. Etienne was paddling on his beloved Coreban Wood Cruiser

Paddles

  • Imagine Carbon Paddle
  • Coreban Carbon Paddle

Clothes

  • Etienne and Petra were wearing 3/2 mm long wetsuits
  • Etienne was wearing a windbreaker, Petra a snowboarding jacket.
  • They were both wearing cycling gloves
  • Petra was wearing 3/2 booties (non-split toe)
  • Etienne was wearing this split toe booties in which he notoriously gets cold feet.
  • Carsten was paddling in snowboarding gear which is only advised for very experienced paddlers – falling in can be life-threatening as its almost impossible to swim in such an outfit.

Here are the photos:

{becssg}staffelsee{/becssg}

 

Tour Details

We entered the water here:


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This is a very convenient location as you can also camp there and stay over night.