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WHO IS SEBASTIAN STEUDTNER?
Catching up with XXL-Award-winning German tow-surfer
By:
Mike Cianciulli
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April 26, 2010
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Outside of a river, and some random windswell on the North Sea, there is no surfing in Germany.
But there are surfers. (Former WT'er Marlon Lipke was the first famous German surfer.)
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HOW DID YOU START SURFING? I boogieboarded in France on a family vacation when I was nine years old and I never forgot that. When I was thirteen, I picked up a surf magazine and made my decision that was the sport I wanted to pursue. At the time I was windsurfing, and when I was sixteen I came to Hawaii and turned professional after two years. Then I met the Armitage family who were more surfers than windsurfers. I was into windsurfing and snowboarding so that fit into tow-surfing perfectly. WHAT MADE YOU GO TO HAWAII? I only went there for two to four months every winter. Germany is landlocked and it's six hours to the nearest ocean. In order to do anything in surfing, you have to get out of there and I knew Hawaii was the place to do anything if I wanted to surf. WHEN DID YOU FIRST BEGIN TOW-SURFING? In December 2003, Nelson Armitage's son, Nelson Junior, took me out to an outer reef and it was 15- to 20-feet. The first time I ever stood up on a tow-board with straps I got that same feeling as snowboarding and windsurfing except you were able to do that on a wave without the sail. I knew that was what I wanted to do. DID YOU GO STRAIGHT INTO TOW-SURFING OR DID YOU PADDLE FIRST? I started towing first and then I started paddle surfing after. I never got good at paddle surfing in small waves. I can paddle into any size wave people paddle into but I never got into the high-performance surfing. WHAT'S THE WEIRDEST REACTION ANYONE'S HAD IN THE LINEUP WHEN THEY FIND OUT YOU'RE GERMAN? Of course there's always the haters, but I never really got too many weird reactions -- probably because my partners were always Hawaiian. "The first time I ever stood up on a tow-board with straps I got that same feeling as snowboarding and windsurfing. I knew that was what I wanted to do."
-- Sebastian Steudtner
WAS AN XXL AWARD SOMETHING YOU WERE TRYING TO WIN? It actually just happened. It wasn't a plan of mine. I never got invited to any of the big-wave contests. That wave just came through and people started talking about it and then Billabong accepted it and I'm very grateful. HOW DID YOU FEEL WHEN YOU HEARD THE FLETCHER'S REMARKS? I actually didn't hear it because it was so loud where I was at the time. To me, it doesn't even matter. It doesn't faze me. WHAT DO YOU THINK THE BIGGEST DIFFERENCE BETWEEN PADDLE AND TOW-SURFING IS? Paddle surfing you use slower speed whereas tow-surfing you use higher speed. So what you use, athletically, is different. Plus, tow-surfing is a team sport while paddle surfing is alone. To me, it's two different sports. A lot of athletes from other sports are good at tow-surfing. WHAT'S THE LARGEST WAVE YOU'VE EVER PADDLED INTO? I've paddled into a 20-footer on an Outer Reef. I just drop in and go straight, though. [Laughs.] WHAT IS THE MOST DIFFICULT THING ABOUT TOW-SURFING? To have the right partner and to establish a relationship to where you can trust each other enough to be confident in each other's performances. You need that partnership to know what each other are doing and to be mentally prepared to ride big waves. WHAT IS THE MOST REWARDING THING ABOUT TOW SURFING? I think it's a big challenge and if you successfully ride a big wave it gives you a good sense of accomplishment. WHAT DO YOU THINK THE FUTURE OF BIG-WAVE SURFING WILL BE LIKE? If you look at the paddle surfer and also the tow-surfers in the last two years, how hard they've pushed it - it can only grow. There will be better performances in bigger waves. Not only ride them, but also perform on them. MORE SURF NEWS SURFLINE HOME PAGE |